bpsaint

This game goes back to a conversation on another thread somewhere - why is the point of teams like San Marino even being in this stage of the competition. Get all the dross like them, Andorra, Gibraltar together and then either make them compete for a place in the qualifiers, or put them in their own group so one of them actually has the chance to go to the tournament. I actually feel bad for San Marino, representing your nation and getting smashed every match with zero hope of qualifying for a major tournament.

What a way to cap a hat trick!

I’ve been critical of him in the past but you’ve gotta laugh, last season Ralph was fairly getting pelters for not being quick enough to make subs or change formation when the tide was starting to turn, then last night he does exactly like that by bringing on Lyanco and apparently it’s a negative substitution and the wrong decision. Poor guy can’t win.

Over the moon with the win of course, and again it’s a better result than the corresponding fixture last season so another step in the right direction. in all seriousness though that second half performance needs analysing and fixing. We were lucky Villa we’re pretty toothless but better sides would have put us to the sword.

Fair play to Ralph for actually trying to change the swing of the game.

How did we dodge a VAR check there? 2 decent chances from El Ghazi and the fucker shouldn’t even be on the pitch

Refs a cunt. Bottled it

We do it all the time, it’s a fucking joke. Must be the most welcoming away day for any set of supporters.

Can’t see anything of note, other than possibly Nelly Gao sat next to Martin Semmens?

Ahh yes, the Ted Bates “trust” they were called, yet not one of them could be trusted to ask the sculptor what the actual fuck he was doing. The original thread on here at the time was comedy gold, some posters were aggressively defending the original statue and shouting down anyone that dare criticise the sculptor, before it descended into a Saintsweb classic thread. Has to be said that the replacement genuinely is an incredible work of art.

This statue will never not be funny. God even the plinth was worse than I remember 🤣🤣

Bit unfair to attack Saints on this one, pretty much any event in the entire world will have a fee added on per ticket or transaction, it’s just the nature of the beast.

Can’t recall any “absolutely outstanding” saves from McCarthy tbf, certainly not any that resemble the top corner stops Forster made tonight. I have no faith in the guy. I believe Fraser has a bigger presence in the side, and a much better control of his defence.

Thanks everyone for confirming I wasn’t going mad and the article did say October before the club did a sneaky. I even checked it just before I posted last night. Suck on that MLG.

One minor wobble from Fraser but quality aside from that. Pulled off a couple of worldies which I’ve got 100% confidence AM wouldn’t have got anywhere close to. Ralph will continue to pick McCarthy and Walcott though as he’s blind to their shortcomings.

Looked decent tonight. Bring in Tino at RB and I’d keep the rest of the back line the same for Watford.

Proud of the boys tonight - they proper went for it especially towards the end. Feel for Smallbone, he shouldn’t have been taking one there’s far more experience in that side that should have stepped up. Walcott though, just fuck off.

Wonder what happened to those jumbo screens that were meant to be installed this month 🤔

That has to be a red based on JWPs as comparison

This is brilliant. Fucking hate the dippers but as it’s United on the other end of a beating bring it on.

I’d have rather have seen Djenepo come on late today and try unlocking a stubborn Burnley defence than Adam Armstrong which was as pointless a sub as the Che Adams one. Don't understand why we bothered giving Theo a proper contract. The stupidest waste of money since we gave Shane Long an extension.

On the subject of average midfielders returning this can’t be true surely… https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/19667660.reports-italy-link-filip-djuricic-saints-return/#comments-anchor

Not sure it was that at all - genuinely thought the fact that he didn’t feature in any of the European games whatsoever was some sort of punishment from higher up for him wanting to leave that summer whilst his stock was so high post Euros. This quote from Alpine was pretty nail on the head though "We have blown this bigtime Puel was an awful choice and Uncle Les lost the plot this summer" Its nice watching that highlights video further up the thread, don’t remember it being such a one sided match. Can’t say I remember much of the game at all after that day by the canal to be fair.

Bloke is an absolute legend - I’d love to meet him and thank him for helping create some of my greatest memories of watching Saints in recent years. He got us out of League 1 automatically without a full season in charge, and we got out of the Championship at the first attempt without dropping out of the top 2 for an entire season. The 5 year plan was completed in 3 season. Yes he may have had some decent players at his disposal but that doesn’t guarantee success, look at what Tuchel achieved with Lampards squad for example. Sometimes the right manager joins the right team at the right time and it works perfectly. It’s a shame for Nigel it’s not worked out since.

I guess the issue with this would be finding the time to schedule the qualifying qualifiers and then the countries that do get through would still end up being cannon fodder anyway. Maybe another idea keeping with your theme is to group the sort of crap teams together, with 2 spots available for the group winners in the finals tournament. It’d give the likes of Andorra, San Marino etc a realistic chance to feature in a major competition.