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That Young free kick was also seconds before Danso’s red card, so had we got that free kick it would never have come to Danso hacking down McTominay as they broke. Another absolute **** show from a highly paid referee.

The corner he gave in the first half when Rashford had so clearly kicked it out, to the extent that Cedric walked alongside the ball as it went out, was a decision worth demoting to the lower divisions alone.

a CB at full back a long throw expert, Ralph's been watching Pulis

Important to point out that Boufal was up against Wan Bissaka too, for me the best defence full back in the league. Really wished he'd been switched out to the right hand side to face Young. Thought he did well, worked hard, they were definitely worried about him as he always seemed to have 3 players in front of him.

I like Adams, he’s strong and holds it up quite nicely, he just needs a goal for his confidence. His first two games he was getting into good positions, narrowly missing chance against both Burnley and Liverpool. Since then, he’s getting less chances and being quieter in games. To me that suggests a confidence issue. For me, as mentioned above, Ings’ ineffectiveness is much of a worry. Che will come good.

Yeah forgot to mention Romeu. What a performance, Hoj didn’t turn up at all so he basically ran CM on his own.

Silly from Danso but I really like him so far, will be great at CB I think. Very pleased for Vest, been criticised by all, including me, and I always say he should be more dangerous from set pieces. Well today he was a monster, and got an important goal too, great stuff.

Should’ve been our free kick for obstruction before the red card

Feel for Adams having to adjust to the Premier League whilst playing alongside Ings. Hoj absolutely stinking the place out as usual. Please get Boufal over to Young’s side, turn him inside out. Get Armstrong on for Ings.

Not his biggest fan but glad we’ll have Hojbjerg for a game like this. At least he gives a **** so will hopefully get into a few of our lot to tell them how important this is. If you saw their game against Sunderland in the play-off second leg last year, they came purely to fight and completely forgot they were there to play football, if they try and do that to us we’ll absolutely destroy them.

He did really well last night, and just think how much better he would’ve done had he not been scythed down by Fulham players at every opportunity. That tackle from Johanssen when Boufal was through on goal was an absolute shocker, should’ve gone for that I think.

Thank god we’ve got Ings to hit everything straight at the keeper instead

I had Redmond, but annoyingly had Che as my first sub coming in for Bertrand, with Cantwell the second On a separate note, I think that Locadia chance would've been ruled out for offside by VAR if it had gone it. However, Goals on Sunday have showed the handball shout against Bednarek, which MOTD didn't. I'd be very disappointed to not get that if I was a Brighton fan.

His instagram story yesterday showed him watching our game with caption something like 'come on boys' - I don't think he's played his last game in a Saints shirt, I think he'll be reintegrated into the team personally, and we could probably do with it. Lemina at 100% is a great asset to a team of our ability, just that we haven't seen it enough.

Really liked Adams' performance. Romeu's ridiculous yellow completely stifled his game. A great first half, out of it completely second half but finished bright. But we've been here many times before, Brighton is the acid test.

Think Djenepo could be a lot of fun

Of all the terrible signings we've made, and the money we've wasted, Danny Ings surely well up there, mainly for the fact that we had him for a season to see what he could do but then HAD to buy him whether he was good or not. Insane.

Yeah probably made up that his old man died as well, Nice will love that, will give him that burning desire inside to make him proud! ****

Was reported the other day that his father had passed away, so more likely to be that tbf - even more so considering Ralph said he made a positive impact v Burnley..

I agree we need/have needed an upgrade on Long for a while. But the alternative is Ings, and I genuinely don't see much between the two, and if anything I think Long had a much bigger impact at the tailend of last season and still provides 'something different', whilst Ings is a bit meh in all departments really. For me, Long is still going to be a useful asset this season.

I’m fully aware of the terminology, rules and laws in a sporting sense to me essentially are the same thing so I don’t tend to focus on remembering they’re labelled ‘laws’ and that people love to remind others of that when they have nothing valuable to contribute to the discussion.

Talking of super-pedants...

But, and i’ll say again, as it stands, that is how the ‘law’ is written in football. Would you be happy with an official looking at the video replay and saying ‘yeah I mean his foot is ahead of the last defender, but it’s only a little bit, let it go’? What if the next referee thinks a whole leg is ‘only a little bit’, and the next one thinks half the body is ‘only a little bit’. VAR is supposed to limit the inaccuracy and inconsistency of refereeing, offside is one current law where that can actually be done, given that it is so binary. If the law as it currently is written is not fit for purpose then it shouldn’t be down to the VAR system to start deciding that on an incident by incident process, it’s merely enforcing the laws.

You’re both echoing what i’m saying - ‘it may be stupid, but it’s the rule’. VAR is highlighting some rules may need changing, but VAR is not the issue, it is merely implementing what is supposed to be by the referees.

The amount of whining that’s happening over rules being correctly applied just shows how accustomed most have become to the rules of football simply not being applied. Declan Rice encroaching is against the rules, the penalty should be retaken, the fact it doesn’t normally happen is testament to the **** standard of refereeing in this country. Offside is so clear cut its painful to see so much debate.. IF ANY PART OF YOUR BODY THAT YOU CAN PLAY THE BALL WITH IS BEYOND THE LAST DEFENDER THEN YOU ARE OFFSIDE. The rule may be excessive, it may be stupid, but it’s the ****ing rule. In time, VAR may cause the tidying up of some of the laws of the game, but until now it’s just ensuring the current ones are correctly applied.