Saint86

Not sure why we switched Sulemana over earlier, he was having a field day prior to that. Unusually bad kick by Baz there.

Thank god there is no VAR in this game! 🤣 I'm sure the puritans amongst the stoke fans must be loving it!

It should have been a free kick and final warning as a minimum! How on earth did the referee think the ball went backwards 😕

Stick him in the number 8 shirt and write Stuart - Armstrong on the back... will be like he never left as far as tv camera views are concerned... Was a sublime free kick - fair play to him.

That was a second foul on sulemana by the booked Hoover just before half time. Ref bottled that big time.

Stoke fans calling "Wanker" for possibly the most blatant yellow (shirt pull on sulemana) you'll see in the efl tonight... 🤣

Feels like stoke will score if we carry on like this. We don't look like scoring and its only a matter of time before we gift them a goal.

Gone back to the same shit as before. Also, some of our passing back to the defence is exactly what was punished by teams like Ipswich and Leicester, too slow and predictable and easy to close down in the final 3rd - thankfully stoke have so far shown no real inclination or ability to press us when we're doing our "candy from a baby" football at the back.

Baz goes a bit longer and we get a good chance... on the back of Martin implying pre match that the players ignored his instructions to do that vs leeds 😕

Well played KWP - recovery wise anyway.

Sulemana's tracking at left back is non existent. Not a great combo with manning defensively!!

"Manning tracked the run"... by playing him onside the entire way. Good job its a midtable championship striker for pace, movement, and skill 🤣

Are stoke booing smallbone? That's classy...

Congratulations. I developed a superstition that we never lost or let a goal in with my firstborn in the room when he was in a baby... i made sure he stayed firmly on my lap for the entire Swansea away win in the prem... woke him up when gabbi scored 🤣

Yeah, maybe just a weird comment / mistake in what he was trying to say? Looks like we've basically gone with the same setup as last time out - so maybe he's learning / prepared to adapt? But then that comment fills me with dread over another 90min of suicide football

The question is, is he going to show he's learnt from the first half vs Leeds, or will we go straight back to ideological suicide?

Martin had his arms round sulemana's shoulder/neck and the two of them were laughing/smiling as they chatted on the pitch. But i did think it was weird he didn't come out to collect his MoM award. Can't think of any other instances where that has/hasn't happened. Maybe he doesn't speak good english or something?

I also missed the game - opted to take the wrong kids birthday party duties because i got the kick offs wrong...Bit of a fail to say the least !!! Pleasantly surprised with the result though so i'll take missing it! Going to be a few Southampton MUSE fans at the O2 tomorrow night then 🤘

I don't know, but their new 3rd kit is tasty!!

Better than any manager SR have so far appointed, and by some distance 😄

Unfortunatley, we're got a comparable expected goals against ("allowed") to the mighty Plymouth and Rotherham (excludes penalties). Shockingly we're also the worst side for errors leading to an opponent's shot...

I think we can already see potential warning signs around Wilcox. Martin is his man - and i think everyone can see the stark limitations to his game having only watched 8 competitive matches. For us to have hired him, the people who made that decision (Wilcox primarily) should have been fully versed in his games for the past couple of seasons. Very worrying. JWP sale for £27M was laughable. ABK loan was beyond stupid - especially given he is exactly the kind of player we need and given we're playing specifically the type of football Wilcox wants - shows a real lack of tactical knowledge at recruitment level. Holgate... just poor. Bree and Manning as 2nd and 3rd best fullbacks for the season... this simply isn't good enough for a promotion team... Only 1 CDM to speak off, and that is a 19year old who is talented but inconsistent - and who is also our only major addition to the playing squad despite raking in well over a hundred million. We seem intent on managing academy players like Ballard out of the club. We've got 3 loan players in and around the starting 11 that know they won't have to be here next year if it gets tough this season. This summer was our point of peak attractiveness in the 2nd tier to recruit long term. As it is we will have another 5 first team players out the door as soon as the season ends ~(TBH, KWP, Fraser, Che, Holgate), another grouping of other players (such as stu) will be entering their final year, and best not to even mention Alcaraz and Sulemana who will certainly not be sticking around for another year of this. So we will have to rebuild again next summer from a far weaker position re our reduced stature / attractiveness. I would imagine that by then, there will also be a good chance we'll be viewed as a basket case club - one that players should avoid for the good of their careers as well.

If we don't somehow get promoted this season (or make a very good stab at it) its basically over. That is the reality. SR have fucked the club. Eventually we'll slip into financial trouble, get relegated, and they'll sell up. Only then can we properly rebuild - in a world without SR. What scares me is how much damage they'll do between then and now. Edit - the way its going, i can see the players on short contracts being scooped up in January if promotion is gone - wouldn't surprise me at all if we're sat in the lower half of the championship and accept nominal offers for che and kwp.

TBF, with his wife's millions and inheritance, that could actually happen one day... just need to suffer for a circa 10years whilst SR destroy the club and we sink to league 1 and administration.

Well he isn't "pony". So given the choices you've offered, i guess that makes him "the unluckiest keeper to ever play the game"... On reflection, he does have the misfortune to have signed a long contract that obliges him to play in a Russell martin defence where the defenders pass the ball to the opposition, without warning, multiple times per match... and often with a free run at goal... So maybe there is something in that.