Beckenham Saint

Haha oh god, I'm being taken there on the night before the Liverpool game - will make sure I pick up a pair!

I've heard this is the kind of place that you ought to have on a pair of shoes that you don't mind getting ruined if you're going!

Can't believe that is a 'Spoons! Was down a few weeks ago and saw it, thought it was the most ridiculous name for a pub I had ever seen and found myself taking a picture of the sign. Would never have guessed it was a Weatherspoons!

That's funny, I remember watching it thinking it was one of his better games!

Think it might depend on their position on the pitch. Gardos came straight off after his yellow against Arsenal at our place.

There's something in Gomis' contract, apparently, that if they sell him before his contract runs out they would have to pay up all the remaining bonuses and clauses to him, which I think IIRC amounts to about £6m at the minute as he only recently signed. Can't see them wanting to pay that when they need to keep hold of him now Bony is gone. I'm taking my friend to her first Saints game for this one, so hopefully we can beat a weakened Swansea team as it's always nice to see a win at your first game! No Sigurdsson or Bony does make them significantly weaker, but I imagine after two bad losses in a row they won't want to make it three and still have a fairly decent team and are capable of giving us a really good game! Would like to see Reed start, as he seems to get everywhere and would really break up their passing play. Hoping this one goes similar to the Everton game when we were in a similar position with injurys!

Why are posters on here so quick to speak for everyone? I personally thought Bertrand was a very tidy acquisition (and said so at the time!) He is a champions league winner (played in the final and my Chelsea mates say he was the best player on the pitch for a lot of the game), has more experience than Shaw and was understudy to the best player in his position in Ashley Cole for years. I wouldn't say his half season at Villa was awful, they stayed up, didn't they?

Elia is 27, 28 next month and Osvaldo is 29. It's not the year that's different between them, it's their mentality. Osvaldo seems to reckon that he's a rockstar and that he is above us, or at least, that's the impression I got. He is arrogant in the extreme, whereas Elia seems to know that he has made mistakes and seems humble and ready to prove his worth. I got the impression that Osvaldo thought he'd proved his worth already and could get by on having had a few good spells in the Italian and Spanish leagues. I would be surprised if the club haven't said to Elia that any altercations off the pitch will jeopardize his chances of being signed permanently, and he seems to have a good work ethic, so hopefully would look to avoid any such incidents. Still, as others have said, it's only been a couple of weeks.

Despite not having ever spent any great deal of time in Southampton, and never having lived there, both my Nan and Grandad are from down there originally and so are both fans. I've always been into football and used to go to Sellhurst park (for a fiver a ticket through an initiative with my primary school at the time) but when my Grandad took me to my first game at St Mary's when I was 7 or 8 (Vs. Birmingham in 2002) I knew there wasn't any other team in the world worth supporting and have been a fan ever since! Still, living around London and supporting Southampton, many now might think I'm a bit of a glory hunter at the minute!

I think not giving Palace the whole of the Northam should help with that!

Talk about contradiction! If we look a weaker team without him, then he must be doing something right, eh?

That isn't true, Davis is better at winning the ball back and retaining possesion in our half as well as moving forward quickly. Ward Prowse has been better at threading the final ball through and set pieces this year, but Davis is pivotal to us doing well. Ridiculously under rated by some...

Don't worry, I've found one - http://livefootballvideo.com/fullmatch/england/premier-league/newcastle-united-vs-southampton-3 here, if anyone is interested in watching again!

Is there anywhere I can watch todays match back in full? Was out all day and so is the first game all season that I haven't either been at or watched from home, feeling major withdrawals!

But the way we were selling made it obvious that it wasn't as bad as everyone made out. We only sold if our valuations were met. We made £90m + on 5 players this summer! We received our highest ever transfer fees for players. It was very obvious we were doing good business. We had hired Ronald Koeman, a manager who came in with a better CV than any manager we had previously hired. If we were in the midst of an asset strip and the board didn't know what they were doing, they would never have been able to convince Koeman to come in and we would have hired someone far less qualified and less competent. Also, just because players like Pelle, Tadic and Alderweireld were unknown qualities to some that doesn't that mean that they were unknown to the club? It's well documented that our scouting policies are very thorough. Just because Dusan Tadic wasn't a household name in England like Adam Lallana doesn't mean he was an unknown quality, he was just unknown to the average UK football fan. Very different. Looking at the summers events as they unfolded from a completely rational point of view, it was so obvious we were going to be fine. We were doing things behind the scenes to expand the staff, the squad, the reputation and the finances of the club, all of which Reed and Krueger kept reiterating. Just because people on here didn't believe them at the time it didn't mean they weren't happening.

Harrison Reed should have been in with a shout. Was very tidy, energetic throughout. Constantly closing their players down, winning it back and keeping it pretty well. It annoyed me when the commentator said "This is a big night for young Harry Reed" at the start of the game - surely not bigger than his first PL start (and 90 mins) vs Everton, the Hour he got at Arsenal or the 20 minutes at Old Trafford just this Sunday...!

Not from a fan, but Ian Holloway when we beat then in the cup. Wasn't our best performance but we were much better than them that night and the 0-2 scoreline wasn't an unfair reflection - if Pelle had taken all the chances provided to him then it would have been 5 or 6, and he came out after and said we looked nothing like a Premier League team and that we would be struggling in the league. Was chuffed we beat them then and even more pleased to see how poorly he is doing with them in his own League.

This is hysterical! Of course all that mattered was the victory and three points, just like that was all that mattered every time we have won this season!!

Isn't he the highest scoring defender of all time? With those stats it's hardly surprising...

Interesting to see the contrast between the fans forums, some of you guys are so pessimistic in your selections that you have chosen extra players, while over on the united forums they're so confident they're picking only 10 to start!

Pastor Patron is a typical 11 year old, he knows everything and no need to doubt him, he's always been right before.

Not to kick my kid when we lose

Most teams will only have one song if you take away player songs, of which we have quite a few. OWTS is our one staple, but then our fans seem to be quite good at getting stuff going on the day - "Still be last on Match of the Day", "Who needs Rodriguez, we've got your back four!", and the infamous Jason Puncheon song! "The Saints are staying up" has become quite a regular this year, as well as the Leibheirr Wonderland (One Markus Leibheirr sounds way too similar to One Pochetinno!). At times this year I have thought our fans have been incredible. The singing vs QPR was impressively energetic and boisterous (Esp. "Harry Give us a Twitch") and Jon Moss even managed to bring everyone together in a rain of boos and "you don't know what your doing" chants - I'd never heard SMS sound so hostile before, but when the volume goes up we do sound good!

I wish we'd go in for Shaqiri!