Bournemouth 0-3 Saints - Match Thread

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, hasper57saint said:

I thought this thread was Bompey v Saints but it seems that many of the posters prefer to discuss our relegation  prospects. Well, for one I don't subscribe to all the negativity that is currently at the fore.  I am not pessimistic in  that I can only see the demise. Being a Saint for as long as I have its all down to life's rich tapestry of disappointment and pleasure and, above all, optimism. Let's look at the Cup match on Saturday as a 'day out' and irrespective of the score, endeavor to enjoy being a Saint. Cheer up! Its far easier to smile than frown.

If it was a "day out" we'd all have a different attitude I think. Oh for the days of a sell out FA cup tie with a while end allocated to away fans.

[Sinned]

3 hours ago, captainchris said:

Laughable the way people think we have a chance in hell of winning the FA  Cup.....

When we did win it we had some very very good players and a Manager who was on an entirely different planet to one we have now.

We are literally miles away from Leicester, the Manc teams and indeed Chelsea now... 

If you like lower league football that much there is lots to chose from

locally. Some of us want to see Saints playing at the highest level possible and aspiring to the highest level.

Eastleigh would welcome you with open arms, actually some have made a choice to go there and respect to them for that but that level is not good enough for Southampton or any owner who you think we deserve more than Gao.

No one would buy a football with low aspirations in fact. 
 

Aspire to play at the highest level or plan to fail and expect that ambition to be a catastrophic success....

Do you know —- that’s exactly what a lot of fans were saying in ‘76

[Chocolate Box]

7 minutes ago, Sinned said:

Do you know —- that’s exactly what a lot of fans were saying in ‘76

I did I did

[SFC Forever]

The longest 7 minutes of my life after Stokes scored.

[The Cat]

Catching up on this thread has made me laugh out loud a good few times. Some absolute crackers on here. 

Almost like nothing counts unless it happens in the Premier League.

I was there for Mane's hat trick but I was also there when we beat Brighton at the Withdean and I got a lot more pleasure out of Fonte's header in a meaningful League 1 game than I did from Mane scoring quickly against a poor Villa in a dead match. 

Same as Derby away in the playoffs. That away end was rocking harder than the whole of St Mary's when Rasiak scored. I guess he shouldn't have bothered though because it was in the wrong league. 

[Noodles34]

21 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Catching up on this thread has made me laugh out loud a good few times. Some absolute crackers on here. 

Almost like nothing counts unless it happens in the Premier League.

I was there for Mane's hat trick but I was also there when we beat Brighton at the Withdean and I got a lot more pleasure out of Fonte's header in a meaningful League 1 game than I did from Mane scoring quickly against a poor Villa in a dead match. 

Same as Derby away in the playoffs. That away end was rocking harder than the whole of St Mary's when Rasiak scored. I guess he shouldn't have bothered though because it was in the wrong league. 

Yes, i remember being at Plymouth and thinking, "this is shit, wish i was at the Emirates watching us lose 6-1 and finishing the season 14th"

[Sunglasses Ron]

30 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Catching up on this thread has made me laugh out loud a good few times. Some absolute crackers on here. 

Almost like nothing counts unless it happens in the Premier League.

I was there for Mane's hat trick but I was also there when we beat Brighton at the Withdean and I got a lot more pleasure out of Fonte's header in a meaningful League 1 game than I did from Mane scoring quickly against a poor Villa in a dead match. 

Same as Derby away in the playoffs. That away end was rocking harder than the whole of St Mary's when Rasiak scored. I guess he shouldn't have bothered though because it was in the wrong league. 

I think this one is mainly aimed at me.

Just to be clear again, I’m not saying that life doesn’t exist outside the Premier League. I massively enjoyed our time in the lower leagues, but we are a club setup for the top flight (more so now than ever) and relegation would, in my opinion, be disastrous especially at this difficult time. We nearly folded last time round so I’d hate to see that risk resurface.

So to reiterate, if someone offered me an FA Cup win and relegation it would be a 100% no, but I obviously really hope that we have a strong end to the season, stay up AND pull off another shock win after all these years.

I just think we need to reflect on a successful history of being a top flight club more. Sure, we may have no trophy to show for it, but it’s provided us with some celebrated moments over the years that I for one am very proud of it.

Edited 18 March, 2021 by Sunglasses Ron

[The Cat]

44 minutes ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

I think this one is mainly aimed at me.

Just to be clear again, I’m not saying that life doesn’t exist outside the Premier League. I massively enjoyed our time in the lower leagues, but we are a club setup for the top flight (more so now than ever) and relegation would, in my opinion, be disastrous especially at this difficult time. We nearly folded last time round so I’d hate to see that risk resurface.

So to reiterate, if someone offered me an FA Cup win and relegation it would be a 100% no, but I obviously really hope that we have a strong end to the season, stay up AND pull off another shock win after all these years.

I just think we need to reflect on a successful history of being a top flight club more. Sure, we may have no trophy to show for it, but it’s provided us with some celebrated moments over the years that I for one am very proud of it.

It has, but ultimately none of those moments mean much because they didn't result in us winning anything. 

As much as we all hate Pompey at least they won something when they were in the Premier League. Yes they are floundering around aimlessly in League 1 right now but they are doing it with a trophy in the cabinet.

(Awaiting trousers input now to tell me that was a different club because of bankruptcy)

[Sunglasses Ron]

6 minutes ago, The Cat said:

It has, but ultimately none of those moments mean much because they didn't result in us winning anything. 

As much as we all hate Pompey at least they won something when they were in the Premier League. Yes they are floundering around aimlessly in League 1 right now but they are doing it with a trophy in the cabinet.

(Awaiting trousers input now to tell me that was a different club because of bankruptcy)

I hear you, I really do.

I guess I’m just trying to take small positives in the absence of any tangible success.

You live in hope that will change in the near future.

[Turkish]

We have to be the biggest underachievers for a club of our size. One FA cup, runners up in 5 major cup finals, Loads of runners up in every promotion except one 3rd division title 60 years ago. Surely can’t be many clubs of a similar size who’ve won less, even a championship league title would be welcome but We even managed to screw up winning the division in both our back to back promotion Seasons under Adkins. Still for some none of that matters as long as the bank balance is healthy.

[Kenilworthy]

17 minutes ago, Turkish said:

We have to be the biggest underachievers for a club of our size. One FA cup, runners up in 5 major cup finals, Loads of runners up in every promotion except one 3rd division title 60 years ago. Surely can’t be many clubs of a similar size who’ve won less, even a championship league title would be welcome but We even managed to screw up winning the division in both our back to back promotion Seasons under Adkins. Still for some none of that matters as long as the bank balance is healthy.

I don't worry about not winning the title in league one or the championship. The trophy didn't do Reading much good and the only thing that mattered was promotion. It is the lack of trophies that rankles when you consider what Leicester have won. We couldn't even win the cup in 83/84 when we were the best team in the league.

[Hodgey]

I still don’t get the 100pc certainty we cant win it. If we beat Bompey, we could easily have a semi vs Everton or Leicester neither of which are forgone conclusions. Then yes we’d probably face a Chelsea or City - but then it’s a two horse race in a one off game and our form could have changed by then. I don’t remember being played off the park by Arsenal or Utd in the last two finals.

if this isn’t a decent chance then I’m not sure when will be, are we going to get a year where we outspend everyone, or the top 6 suddenly become really weak ? Good luck waiting for that.

I’m not expecting to win it, of course not, but we’ve got a good chance here of getting to the final and should be all out going for it. I mean resting those players against City didn’t really pan out did it ?

[The Cat]

33 minutes ago, Turkish said:

We have to be the biggest underachievers for a club of our size. One FA cup, runners up in 5 major cup finals, Loads of runners up in every promotion except one 3rd division title 60 years ago. Surely can’t be many clubs of a similar size who’ve won less, even a championship league title would be welcome but We even managed to screw up winning the division in both our back to back promotion Seasons under Adkins. Still for some none of that matters as long as the bank balance is healthy.

Palace? I'm pretty sure they've never won anything and are in the same size as us. Brighton probably like to think they are now and their trophy cabinet is as barren as they come although they obviously beat us to the League 1 title. 

[Turkish]

18 minutes ago, Kenilworthy said:

I don't worry about not winning the title in league one or the championship. The trophy didn't do Reading much good and the only thing that mattered was promotion. It is the lack of trophies that rankles when you consider what Leicester have won. We couldn't even win the cup in 83/84 when we were the best team in the league.

Did it bollox. I wanted to go up as champions, so did all the lads I go with. I don’t care what good it did reading, just because they didn’t survive it doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have. We were 5 points clear with only a few games to go ending up limping over the finishing line don’t forget. The JPT final was great, I was even buzzing for days when our kids won the U21 cup a few years ago. To see saints win something that matters would be unbelievable. The amount of all that matters is staying in the premier league nonsense shows how dead the game is now. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

48 minutes ago, Turkish said:

We have to be the biggest underachievers for a club of our size. One FA cup, runners up in 5 major cup finals, Loads of runners up in every promotion except one 3rd division title 60 years ago. Surely can’t be many clubs of a similar size who’ve won less, even a championship league title would be welcome but We even managed to screw up winning the division in both our back to back promotion Seasons under Adkins. Still for some none of that matters as long as the bank balance is healthy.

We were close to winning the  2020 calendar year championship  though....

Edited 18 March, 2021 by Lord Duckhunter

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Palace? I'm pretty sure they've never won anything and are in the same size as us. Brighton probably like to think they are now and their trophy cabinet is as barren as they come although they obviously beat us to the League 1 title. 

No major trophy’s. Couple of 2nd tier titles one fairly recently. Cup runners up twice. A full members cup in 91 to rival our JPT victory 👍

 

[Chapel End]

Some on here seem to dislike the club the actually support.... strange 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

We were close to winning the  2020 calendar year championship  though....

Sticking that one alongside the fastest hatrick and fastest goal trophies 🙄

[Turkish]

Just now, Chapel End said:

Some on here seem to dislike the club the actually support.... strange 

Agreed. Who would support and team and not want it to be successful, instead hoping they can stay in a league so they watch the opposition 

[SKD]

57 minutes ago, Turkish said:

We have to be the biggest underachievers for a club of our size. One FA cup, runners up in 5 major cup finals, Loads of runners up in every promotion except one 3rd division title 60 years ago. Surely can’t be many clubs of a similar size who’ve won less, even a championship league title would be welcome but We even managed to screw up winning the division in both our back to back promotion Seasons under Adkins. Still for some none of that matters as long as the bank balance is healthy.

Agreed. Even if it was only won because of overspending which led to their eventual demise, it’s the only thing I’m envious of the skate for. 
 

For a team like us to only have won the FA cup once in their history is pathetic. It’s a once in a life time thing for us, which makes worrying about staying in the PL as a result even weirder. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

14 minutes ago, SKD said:

 

For a team like us to only have won the FA cup once in their history is pathetic. It’s a once in a life time thing for us, which makes worrying about staying in the PL as a result even weirder. 

Exactly. 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Exactly. 

How do we stack up for cup games in a Calendar year?

[Lord Duckhunter]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

How do we stack up for cup games in a Calendar year?

I think we won a cup for beating Shrewsbury. One thing for sure, it was a better win than Puels at Anfield, we scored double the amount of goals. 

[captainchris]

4 hours ago, Sinned said:

Do you know —- that’s exactly what a lot of fans were saying in ‘76

No it’s not actually ... That’s not true. We were not favourites that is true yes but we were viable ......

We are not this year! 
The point is also that it is not as important to remain in the FA Cup as maintaining our Premier League status at this time.

There is a massive difference in importance to being in the Premier League now compared to Div 1 status in 76.... 

There was also no talk of priority in 76 either ...

We have to stay in the Premier League end of ... 

 

Edited 18 March, 2021 by captainchris

[Whitey Grandad]

We’ve more chance of winning the FA Cup than we have of winning the league title. And we have less chance of being relegated than we have of winning the Cup.

[woodsaint1]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Did it bollox. I wanted to go up as champions, so did all the lads I go with. I don’t care what good it did reading, just because they didn’t survive it doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have. We were 5 points clear with only a few games to go ending up limping over the finishing line don’t forget. The JPT final was great, I was even buzzing for days when our kids won the U21 cup a few years ago. To see saints win something that matters would be unbelievable. The amount of all that matters is staying in the premier league nonsense shows how dead the game is now. 

The only trophies which matter and which we have any realistic chance of winning are the FA Cup and the League Cup. Get relegated from the PL and you can say goodbye to any small chances of either happening while we're in a lower league. Therefore staying in the PL is pretty important for genuine cup success.

That being said, if you offered me an FA Cup win this season at the expense of our PL status and a few years back in the Championship, I'd take it. But then getting back to the PL would become our aim and the manner in which that happens would be irrelevant.

The JPT win was a great time and mattered alot to the fans after years of heartache. It would have been good to have won the Championship and League One when we got promoted, but it all honesty who actually cares now. I couldnt tell you who won the Championship two years or three years ago, nevermind it was nearly a decade ago for us. Whenever the fans invaded the pitch home to Coventry and Walsall, were you sulking in the stand that we werent getting our name engraved on a trophy that mattered little in the grand scheme of things?

 

[CB Fry]

26 minutes ago, captainchris said:

No it’s not actually ... That’s not true. We were not favourites that is true yes but we were viable ......

We are not this year! 
The point is also that it is not as important to remain in the FA Cup as maintaining our Premier League status at this time.

There is a massive difference in importance to being in the Premier League now compared to Div 1 status in 76.... 

There was also no talk of priority in 76 either ...

We have to stay in the Premier League end of ... 

 

So, we need to get relegated to the second tier to become a more viable winner of the FA Cup?

Seems to me you're just saying any old shit and you don't even know what point you're making. Do that stuff about supporting Eastleigh again.

Lastly, and this is worth repeating, we are seven points clear of relegation with 9 games to play. We are not going to be relegated.

[LVSaint]

26 minutes ago, captainchris said:

No it’s not actually ... That’s not true. We were not favourites that is true yes but we were viable ......

We are not this year! 
The point is also that it is not as important to remain in the FA Cup as maintaining our Premier League status at this time.

There is a massive difference in importance to being in the Premier League now compared to Div 1 status in 76.... 

There was also no talk of priority in 76 either ...

We have to stay in the Premier League end of ... 

 

If we beat Bournemouth, there'll be four teams left and 180 minutes away from lifting a cup, of course it's 'viable'.

[Saint Fan CaM]

Us win a game of football? A game of significance? Nah, our form is abysmal and there’s is pretty ok. We’ll lose this one.

[austsaint]

15 hours ago, CB Fry said:

And? They're fucking Wigan. 

If you think Saints are never ever going to be relegated ever again you've got a shock coming. Us getting knocked out of the cups at the earliest opportunity like some twats on here want us to do does not create immunity to relegation either.

 

What exactly is my belief that Wigan fans would not be happy with the prospect of never seeing their side in the Prem again, even with a Cup on the shelf, got to do with believing Saints are never going to be relegated again?    It's not an either/or.    Any Saint's fan in their right mind wants to win the Cup.  Of course there's no immunity to relegation - but there are better ways of increasing the chances of staying up than we've seen on show this season, and probably the next, by virtue of lead footed ownership, poor squad quality and sub-par management/coaching set ups.  Nothing to do with wanting to be knocked out of the Cup to stave off unlikely relegation fears.

 

 

 

 

 

[Far que]

No excuses lose this and Ralph can far cough

[CB Fry]

4 hours ago, austsaint said:

 

What exactly is my belief that Wigan fans would not be happy with the prospect of never seeing their side in the Prem again, even with a Cup on the shelf, got to do with believing Saints are never going to be relegated again?    It's not an either/or.    Any Saint's fan in their right mind wants to win the Cup.  Of course there's no immunity to relegation - but there are better ways of increasing the chances of staying up than we've seen on show this season, and probably the next, by virtue of lead footed ownership, poor squad quality and sub-par management/coaching set ups.  Nothing to do with wanting to be knocked out of the Cup to stave off unlikely relegation fears.

 

 

 

 

 

What's your point, then? Wigan fans are delighted they won the cup.

The immediate first season in the Championship after their cup win they finished a respectable fifth.

In the year they did win the cup they were in the relegation zone throughout. 

On every metric there is no correlation between their predicament and their cup win. And they'd take the cup win again.

You the one goading that they might not be in the top flight for a while - my point is so fucking what? Loads of clubs in League One won't be.

 

[austsaint]

1 hour ago, CB Fry said:

What's your point, then? Wigan fans are delighted they won the cup.

The immediate first season in the Championship after their cup win they finished a respectable fifth.

In the year they did win the cup they were in the relegation zone throughout. 

On every metric there is no correlation between their predicament and their cup win. And they'd take the cup win again.

You the one goading that they might not be in the top flight for a while - my point is so fucking what? Loads of clubs in League One won't be.

 

 

Those "F' words of yours are pretty damn scary...but I'll press on.    What's my point?     What's yours?

It seemed to be that Wigan fans were so delighted with the silverware of 2013 they weren't so bothered with relegation.  My point is, they might love having a Cup but they aren't so delighted with being in a wasteland of lower Leagues, probably never to have another look at the Prem they were in for 8 seasons.    Without an extended Cup run they might have survived.     Why don't you scale down your tough guy, argumentative bluster.  It's not that clever - and very predictable.     Failing that , come and work on my building site with four other bricklayers....you can mount your arguments to us face to face....complete with your insults and F words.

[JustinSFC]

7 minutes ago, austsaint said:

 

Those "F' words of yours are pretty damn scary...but I'll press on.    What's my point?     What's yours?

It seemed to be that Wigan fans were so delighted with the silverware of 2013 they weren't so bothered with relegation.  My point is, they might love having a Cup but they aren't so delighted with being in a wasteland of lower Leagues, probably never to have another look at the Prem they were in for 8 seasons.    Without an extended Cup run they might have survived.     Why don't you scale down your tough guy, argumentative bluster.  It's not that clever - and very predictable.     Failing that , come and work on my building site with four other bricklayers....you can mount your arguments to us face to face....complete with your insults and F words.

He is a hard nut.

[Toadhall Saint]

9 hours ago, LVSaint said:

If we beat Bournemouth, there'll be four teams left and 180 minutes away from lifting a cup, of course it's 'viable'.

And if I’m not wrong we have beaten them all in recent(Ish) times. Our form is atrocious at the mo but we have proved we can beat the best over 90 mins. If you have done something once there’s a good chance you can do it again.

[Turkish]

3 hours ago, CB Fry said:

What's your point, then? Wigan fans are delighted they won the cup.

The immediate first season in the Championship after their cup win they finished a respectable fifth.

In the year they did win the cup they were in the relegation zone throughout. 

On every metric there is no correlation between their predicament and their cup win. And they'd take the cup win again.

You the one goading that they might not be in the top flight for a while - my point is so fucking what? Loads of clubs in League One won't be.

 

In 2005 we got knocked out of the FA cup at the quarter final stage and still went down. Not winning the FA Cup didn't save us that season, i'm shocked that we didn't go on an unstoppable run the safety after our FA cup exit like wigan would have done if they'd got knocked out earlier.

[LuckyNumber7]

The way some one here are talking, we may as well do away with the league system as it's completely irrelevant and just play in the cups!

Like it or not, staying in the Premier League IS a measure of success and the fact that Southampton is one of only a handful of cities in the country that hosts a Premier League club is something to be proud of. And as mentioned, we stand a far better chance of winning a cup by being a PL team rather than languishing in the Championship or L1.

I'm sure every Saints fan would love to win the cup, but being realistic even if we were to beat Bournemouth, our chances of winning it are very small. Plus there's the fact most of us wouldn't even be able to go if we got to the final which takes the shine off it for me.

Of course winning the cup/staying up aren't mutually exclusive but if offered one or the other I would choose survival as it is crucial to the long term health of the club.

For the record I do think we will survive and also fancy us to just scrape past Boscombe, but then lose in the semis.

[Sunglasses Ron]

28 minutes ago, LuckyNumber7 said:

The way some one here are talking, we may as well do away with the league system as it's completely irrelevant and just play in the cups!

Like it or not, staying in the Premier League IS a measure of success and the fact that Southampton is one of only a handful of cities in the country that hosts a Premier League club is something to be proud of. And as mentioned, we stand a far better chance of winning a cup by being a PL team rather than languishing in the Championship or L1.

I'm sure every Saints fan would love to win the cup, but being realistic even if we were to beat Bournemouth, our chances of winning it are very small. Plus there's the fact most of us wouldn't even be able to go if we got to the final which takes the shine off it for me.

Of course winning the cup/staying up aren't mutually exclusive but if offered one or the other I would choose survival as it is crucial to the long term health of the club.

For the record I do think we will survive and also fancy us to just scrape past Boscombe, but then lose in the semis.

This is pretty much what I've been trying to say (but you've done a slightly better job).

We are all Saints fans at the end of the day, and we all would LOVE to win the cup, but some of us value being a long-standing Premier League club as a form of success in itself (which it really is).

Here's hoping we pop the cherries tomorrow 😃

[simo]

I'd take a cup win and relegation every day of the week , no one remembers the team who finish 14th but everyone remembers the fa cup winners !

[Sunglasses Ron]

8 minutes ago, simo said:

I'd take a cup win and relegation every day of the week , no one remembers the team who finish 14th but everyone remembers the fa cup winners !

Positions no, but everyone knows that we're a Premier League club and that Wigan and the fish are in League 1 😉

Actually - Lots of fans across the world know who we are, but probably haven't a clue about Wigan or Portsmouth.

Edited 19 March, 2021 by Sunglasses Ron

[Saint_lambden]

14 minutes ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

Positions no, but everyone knows that we're a Premier League club and that Wigan and the fish are in League 1 😉

Actually - Lots of fans across the world know who we are, but probably haven't a clue about Wigan or Portsmouth.

But I guarantee if you asked all Wigan fans to take away that moment - Ben Watson scoring a last minute winner in an FA Cup final right in front of their fans - to swap it to still be in the Premier League now just fighting to stay in it every year, at least 95% of them would say no. 

[CB Fry]

2 hours ago, austsaint said:

 

Those "F' words of yours are pretty damn scary...but I'll press on.    What's my point?     What's yours?

It seemed to be that Wigan fans were so delighted with the silverware of 2013 they weren't so bothered with relegation.  My point is, they might love having a Cup but they aren't so delighted with being in a wasteland of lower Leagues, probably never to have another look at the Prem they were in for 8 seasons.    Without an extended Cup run they might have survived.     Why don't you scale down your tough guy, argumentative bluster.  It's not that clever - and very predictable.     Failing that , come and work on my building site with four other bricklayers....you can mount your arguments to us face to face....complete with your insults and F words.

Why would a load of bricklayers who are offended by the F word want to have a discussion about Wigan fans being pleased they won the cup and wouldn't change it for the world?

I've never at any point said they "weren't bothered" with relegation. I've said the cup had nothing to do with it, or the fact they are now in League One.

Have a nice day and sorry you don't like swearing.

[Smirking_Saint]

I don't really understand some of the bluster on here to prioritise the league, we are still effectively a 40-1 shot, I'm not entirely sure our premier league survival is going to pivot on how we do against Championship opposition leading into an international break

Frankly, if we fail to survive, it won't come down to the squad we put out tomorrow, it will because we were not able to overcome our general malaise over the last  and next month

Survival is still VERY MUCH in our hands, and we could, quite conceivably already be safe. But in all likely hood another 3-6 points will see us secure the chance to wallow around premier league mid table next year.

We have every chance of getting to another semi final, which would at the very least give the fan base and squad something to motivate them and lift morale. I for one will be hugely dissapointed if Ralph decides to field an under strengthed or under motivated team for this

[Sunglasses Ron]

50 minutes ago, Saint_lambden said:

But I guarantee if you asked all Wigan fans to take away that moment - Ben Watson scoring a last minute winner in an FA Cup final right in front of their fans - to swap it to still be in the Premier League now just fighting to stay in it every year, at least 95% of them would say no. 

You may be right but 95% seems a bit high.  Seems a bit like paying for a massive party on a credit card and then spending 10 years paying it off, but then if it's your wedding then maybe it's worth it?

Still wouldn't take relegation and a cup win if offered now, but absolutely want to go all guns blazing for whatever ties we have left!

[LuckyNumber7]

59 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

We have every chance of getting to another semi final, which would at the very least give the fan base and squad something to motivate them and lift morale. I for one will be hugely dissapointed if Ralph decides to field an under strengthed or under motivated team for this

I don't think you will be disappointed...

"I think for us, for the players, for the staff, the fans and for everyone in the club, maybe, this is the most important game of the year."

Ralph taking it very seriously 😇

https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/ralph-hasenhuttl-southampton-serious-bournemouth-5200583

[Toussaint]

Lets hope we blow them away tomorrow, could be just the thing to get us going. FA cup win, finish 12th, job done.

[derry]

Personally I'd love us to win the cup. Secondly not if we were relegated. With the ownership we have, to be relegated could be terminal. There is a suspicion from me that the assets would be stripped and the relegation payments used to assist the owners to balance the falling value of the club. If we want to be in a position to even compete in cup competitions we need to have a competitive team in the Premier League together with the income it generates. Falling out of the league could open a trap door. I'm working on the premise "Be careful what you wish for".

[Toadhall Saint]

Just out of interest when was the last time a team from the championship win the FA cup?

[notnowcato]

Winning the FA cup has no relevance to whether we stay up or not.  We are much more likely to stay up than win the FA Cup so we may as well have a right old go at winning the cup.

A limp performance tomorrow would be unacceptable.

[kwsaint]

3 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Just out of interest when was the last time a team from the championship win the FA cup?

West Ham in 1980