Saints vs Stoke - Saturday 3pm

[markr27]

I wonder if the Stoke chairman/owner will fly in to see the game in his chopper?

 

[SNSUN]

Ah Stoke, famous for, erm, Pot. And being close to Alton Towers, where incidentally I shall be spending the next few days with my daughter for my sins, so I'll probably be able to smell them. Or they'll be able to smell me, one or the other. 

Stoke City were formed a long amount of years ago, and previously played at the Victoria Ground, a ground that was so old the fans had to hold pieces of it together during games. Nick Hancock, Stoke's most famous son, once presented a footballing nightmares video outside the ground, which I had on VHS and watched incessantly, mainly because he had a funny voice. Seriously, watch Mr Bean and you'll understand. Or They Think It's All Over.

They now play at the bet365, which is similar in size to St Mary's but not as good, and which was formerly named the Brittannia, which is ironic because Stoke rarely Ruled it. Other famous sons of Stoke include Tony Pulis (local sales of caps plummeted when he was in charge), Bruno Brookes and some local bloke called Stanley Matthew, who, in 1848 was known to move from side to side a lot in the local public house. The road their ground is on is named after this chap, Stanley Matthew Sway. Incidentally the sunny, Saturday afternoon in Southampton counter balances their cold rainy Tuesday night in Stoke mantra, as they'll discover this weekend. Hopefully.

My mate Jonno went to Stoke on a rainy Tuesday night and said the girls were all high as kites and scary, but that didn't deter him from getting stink finger in the bogs with one of them. He gets about does Jonno and he loves the stink finger.

TLDR summery: Potheads, Alton Towers, Nick Hancock, Local swaying bloke and  scary/high lasses.

Thats my completely unresearched, unverified and probably fake Stoke facts done for the week.

On to the never reliable prediction wheel. One right prediction so far, and two wrong. 

 

So there you are, Stoke two goal victory and much work to be done in the transfer market. 

 

[skintsaint]

20 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

 

 

 

 

Pretty sure some ex-managers here used this same method when picking a team.

[trousers]

1 hour ago, markr27 said:

I wonder if the Stoke chairman/owner will fly in to see the game in his chopper?

 

 

[Willo of Whiteley]

3 hours ago, suewhistle said:

Did I help?😇

I said we’d pop to West Quay beforehand, knowing full will it’ll be mega busy and she doesn’t like crowds shopping 🤣

[Saint Fan CaM]

Think this could be our first home defeat of the season. Stoke may well have only played lesser teams but they’ve still got to do the business…be well drilled etc. Their GD after 2 games shows they know where the net is.

Going with 0-1 or possibly 1-3 if the wheels really come off.

If we end up with 3 points I’ll start to believe Still is the real deal because this match would previously have been a big banana skin.

[andrew7610]

We certainly give plenty of chances up - Wrexham could have been 4 up by half time with more clinical finishing - but I'm not sure Stoke are the team to expose our defensive frailty/naivety, and Bazunu is in fine form right now.

We'll huff and puff as usual up top, its got 0-0 all over it for me, Clive.

[rallyboy]

We've still got enough quality for this level - Saints win.

 

[trousers]

12 minutes ago, rallyboy said:

We've still got enough quality for this level - Saints win.

 

Yep, we're streets ahead of them....

[skintsaint]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

Yep, we're streets ahead of them....

Don't be blinded by the lights.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, andrew7610 said:

We certainly give plenty of chances up - Wrexham could have been 4 up by half time with more clinical finishing - but I'm not sure Stoke are the team to expose our defensive frailty/naivety, and Bazunu is in fine form right now.

We'll huff and puff as usual up top, its got 0-0 all over it for me, Clive.

I'm assuming you think we had zero chances of scoring in the first half. That's not what I saw.

[S-Clarke]

3 hours ago, andrew7610 said:

We certainly give plenty of chances up - Wrexham could have been 4 up by half time with more clinical finishing - but I'm not sure Stoke are the team to expose our defensive frailty/naivety, and Bazunu is in fine form right now.

We'll huff and puff as usual up top, its got 0-0 all over it for me, Clive.

It's probably more fair to say 4-4 at HT. I think we both had chances, we had a couple cleared off the line ourselves if my memory serves. 

It wasn't a perfect game by any means, lots to improve on after that, but I don't think it's fair to say we could have been thumped as we also gave our fair share.

2 pen shouts too, at least 1 was a certain.

[suewhistle]

3 hours ago, trousers said:

Yep, we're streets ahead of them....

Let's hope we come out smelling of roses..

[suewhistle]

18 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

I said we’d pop to West Quay beforehand, knowing full will it’ll be mega busy and she doesn’t like crowds shopping 🤣

Take her to The Standing Order pub, that'll be empty too..

[Ken Tone]

Anyone know if either Stewart or Downs are fit/well? 

[Dr Who?]

When I got my tickets for this, I thought it would be pretty much as much of a home banker you could wish for. Stoke City in on a downward spiral and us being one of the favourites for the title. Now I’m not so sure. We seem a bit disjointed and Stoke are top of the league and their confidence will be sky high. 

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

16 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

When I got my tickets for this, I thought it would be pretty much as much of a home banker you could wish for. Stoke City in on a downward spiral and us being one of the favourites for the title. Now I’m not so sure. We seem a bit disjointed and Stoke are top of the league and their confidence will be sky high. 

Their fans certainly are looking on the link someone stuck up earlier. They're top of the table and a popular feeling on there is the 3 teams that come down are pretty much shite and there for the taking. Still struggling to sell their tickets though, looks like they've sold around 1800,

[saintant]

41 minutes ago, Ken Tone said:

Anyone know if either Stewart or Downs are fit/well? 

Stewart, fit or well 🙂

[sfc4prem]

25 minutes ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

Their fans certainly are looking on the link someone stuck up earlier. They're top of the table and a popular feeling on there is the 3 teams that come down are pretty much shite and there for the taking. Still struggling to sell their tickets though, looks like they've sold around 1800,

Top of the table? Stop the count! 

 

But in all seriousness, their confidence is misplaced. They've not come up against a decent team yet and will be quaking in their boots when eye-to-eye with our lads.

3-1 to Saints 

[Football Special]

3 hours ago, Ken Tone said:

Anyone know if either Stewart or Downs are fit/well? 

Stewart was so shocked being named in the starting line up at Northampton he ran straight to the bogs to throw up 

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, sfc4prem said:

Top of the table? Stop the count! 

 

But in all seriousness, their confidence is misplaced. They've not come up against a decent team yet and will be quaking in their boots when eye-to-eye with our lads.

3-1 to Saints 

Weren't they beaten 4-0 away at a L1 Club in the cup or something?

Edited 15 hours ago by S-Clarke

[ErwinK1961]

3 hours ago, Dr Who? said:

When I got my tickets for this, I thought it would be pretty much as much of a home banker you could wish for. Stoke City in on a downward spiral and us being one of the favourites for the title. Now I’m not so sure. We seem a bit disjointed and Stoke are top of the league and their confidence will be sky high. 

I had this ear marked as one of the easier early fixtures… but hadn’t realised Mark Robins was in charge until recently. Very good manager.

[saintant]

12 minutes ago, ErwinK1961 said:

I had this ear marked as one of the easier early fixtures… but hadn’t realised Mark Robins was in charge until recently. Very good manager.

This will be far from easy unless we suddenly click into gear which seems unlikely. I'm expecting us to play 5 at the back meaning another tight game. Take some of the chances that come our way and we should earn a narrow win.

[Willo of Whiteley]

8 hours ago, suewhistle said:

Take her to The Standing Order pub, that'll be empty too..

Dancing Man used to be good but all the hipsters go there nowadays. I’m not down with the kids anymore.

[Appy]

We never beat Stoke at home do we? 
 

Can only really remember the game where Mane scored in 2014. 
 

Mario Licka scoring the winner rings a bell too. 

[Wade Garrett]

The only time anyone liked Stoke City was over 50 years ago when they had Geoff Hurst and Gordon Banks playing for them.  Fucking load of cloggers since then.

Fucking horrible people.  Probably lots of mum and dads that are closely related judging by the total fuckwits that support them.  
As Ian Botham once said about Pakistan, I wouldn’t even send my mother-in-law there.

2-1 win.  Will Still starting to get his methods over to the team.  Their Stone Island wannabes will be foaming all over their velour tracksuits.  Wankers.

[St. Ciervo]

3-1 Saints. Dibling and Fernandes score in their final game for the saints (profit of 100+ after incentives).

Edited 8 hours ago by St. Ciervo

[trousers]

 

 

[Smirking_Saint]

I think some bits will begin to click this weekend and we’ll run out 3-1 winners

Dibling with a goal that will sign him off as far as his ‘career’ here is concerned 

We’ll concede a sloppy goal as 3 atb causes too many issues

[Midfield_General]

12 hours ago, Appy said:

We never beat Stoke at home do we? 
 

Can only really remember the game where Mane scored in 2014. 
 

Mario Licka scoring the winner rings a bell too. 

We beat them 3-2 at home in the league cup last year. THB, A Armstrong and Bree scored. We went 2-0 up then somehow let them get back to 2-2, before we won it in the 89th minute. 

Looking back at the stats, we had 78% possession and had over 800 passes to their 230. They had 22% possession and only 2 shots on goal, and scored from both of them. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Midfield_General

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

We beat them 3-2 at home in the league cup last year. THB, A Armstrong and Bree scored. We went 2-0 up then somehow let them get back to 2-2, before we won it in the 89th minute. 

Looking back at the stats, we had 78% possession and had over 800 passes to their 230. They had 22% possession and only 2 shots on goal, and scored from both of them. 

If a game ever demonstrated Russ-Ball, that was it.

- Keep the ball and have more possession - Tick

- Have in excess of 500 passes - Tick

- Concede rubbish goals and scrape through - Tick

- Be brave - Tick