bpsaint

I'm still of the hope that the whole thing is a smokescreen, and the club secretly drove VVD to Liverpool rather than publicly put him on the flight . It's the hope that kills you though I suppose.

Exactly what would happen if we introduced a winter break over here, the top 6 would be off to Asia for a money making bunch of friendlies. Makes a mockery of the whole 'break' idea.

He'll gain a lot of confidence from ensuring we kept a clean sheet, but the truth is he didn't have a great deal to do as Leicester offered little. His introduction coincided with a shaky 10 minutes for the whole team, but we came through it unscathed.

Said in the build up thread I'd hope we'd smash them and get the feel good factor back and that's exactly what we got. Fair play to JWP today, took his goal very well, likewise with J-Rod. Fair play to Tadic showing us that perhaps he does know how to take a penalty! Hopefully VVD is ok, the fact that he tried to carry on suggests it may not be too serious. Maybe it will convince us to spend that Fonte money instead of chancing it. Only downside for me was not football related, but the low sun and mist meant I couldn't really see what was happening at the Chapel end from the Northam.

Butthurt fans pretending they're not upset/annoyed. The footballing equivalent of "I broke up with her not the other way round"

Reed was talking in his interview the other week that whilst we're comfortable this year Leicester are in a relegation battle, ironically they could go above us with a win on Sunday and he'll have egg on his face once again. Given up trying to predict our scores so will just say I hope we smash them on Sunday and get the feel good factor back again, its been a chore going to watch us recently.

No, HT was weird, no clapping or booing from the Saints fans, just silence. That was proper **** though, completely disjointed performance with very little quality on display. I only cheered the goal as it meant I'd be able to go home.

I remember everyone talking about how good David Prutton was for the England U21's, he turned out to be a pretty crap Premier League player too. I'd obviously like JWP to do well for us, but the fact is he is average at best, and if people genuinely believe he is going to be a future Saints captain and a midfield maestro for us, I can only assume that means we won't be in the Prem for much longer. I'm sure he's an honest likeable bloke, but a club aiming to be amongst the best should be looking at a higher calibre of player. Theres no way he'd have made over 150 appearances for us if he hadn't come through our academy.

The difference being that Virgil is the only one that plays the full 90 minutes each time. Any idea of total appearances including cups and whether Romeu and Redmond have started or been subbed off?

This. We managed two successive promotions playing as close to the same 11 as possible, and would often have 3 games a week due to cups and a 46 match league. This rotation malarky is ********, our players especially the strikers need to build a run of form and it's not happened. Virgil Van Dijk is the only player to have featured in nearly every game and is consistently one of the best performers, I don't think that's a coincidence.

This post lost all credibility when you called Forster an excellent keeper. Hugo Lloris is an excellent keeper, Petr Cech is an excellent keeper, Asmir Begovic is an excellent keeper. Fraser is average at best, even Tom Heaton is a better keeper.

Usual service resumes, all fart and no **** once again. We need a striker in asap to convert the chances we create, 19 goals from 21 games is embarrassing.

Shlong has spent most of this season at the Brett Ormerod school of running around not doing much, therefore i'd say J-Rod. If Long were the player he was last season i'd start him every game.

If Fonte is indeed being a **** behind the scenes, and doesn't end up getting the transfer to a big club that he thinks he deserves then I hope if we do get to Wembley he has to watch from the stands as VVD leads the team out when it should have been him.

Indeed, 1-0 is the only result for them that will take it to pens after 120 mins. 2-1 or 3-2 take it to ET but no shootout after 120 mins. Shame away goals don't just count like they normally do in Europe for example.

A loss by not more than one goal is fine if it's 2-1 or 3-2, if they win 1-0 though it goes to ET and Pens and I'd rather avoid that!

Proud of that display from us tonight, were the better team for the final 70 minutes, and it really should be at least 3-0 which wouldn't have flattered us in the slightest. Only negatives were the chances we missed, and the referee. Once again we are treated to one of the most inept displays of refereeing at St Mary's this season. Are these clueless ****s accountable to anyone? Even Liverpool fans admit how biased he was. As long as we don't go to Anfield intending to protect the 1-0 lead we could really do this. Be nice to have another striker in the team by the time we head up there. How vital that away goal could be for us!

Yeah the 15% rule, although safety and segregation can reduce this I believe. Until we gave Chelsea the whole of the Northam in our first season back I never had to give up my seat, number 1047 in the Block 41.

Hopefully if we beat Norwich the club do the sensible thing and don't give Arsenal the entire Northam.

How did this big nosed skate ever end up married to Natalie Sawyer. At least she saw sense eventually and got rid.

Away to Norwich would have been a tough tie no matter what sort of season we were having so not going to get too naffed off about it. Hopefully Norwich aren't as greedy over ticket prices for the replay and we get a decent crowd.

As most are aware Blackmore is the Saints commentator for BBC Solent, and crucially this feed is also used when listening to the game through the Official Saints website. I'd imagine it would put him in an awkward position or worse if he were to criticise the club or fuel speculation regarding staff matters..

I would give it to VVD for the remainder of the season, but like 99.9% of people I don't expect him to be here next season so perhaps it'll go to a player we are yet to sign, a senior player likely to be starting week in week out which I can't see from our current squad. Giving it to JWP would mean he starts every game, and nobody wants that. Steven Davis perhaps? One of the senior heads and likely to be here next season? Wouldn't give it to a keeper, I like to see a captain issuing orders and leading out on the field.

Despite the rumours and people's beliefs I'm pretty sure Beattie was wrongly labelled the ringleader against Sturrock, quite certain Luggy said as much himself. I thought it was mentioned somewhere that Jason Dodd was the guilty party.

Perhaps Puel could pull a master stroke and switch to 5-3-2 like Koeman did at this point last season which led to an upturn in form. Going to need something special at the back today to keep Lukaku quiet, VVD had him in his pocket a few weeks ago.