Saints 2-1 Arsenal - Match Thread

[LGTL]

I’d be the first to call out a bad atmosphere but last night was top class. One of the best St Mary’s has ever seen. The 8pm Saturday night helped as everyone was well up for it even before it started. 

On a slightly different note, and obviously not relevant for here, but I thought Dowman was extremely good for 16 years old. He is going to be some player. 

[East Kent Saint]

Excellent coverage by the BBC , plenty of noise on my TV , plus plenty of shots of miserable looking Arsenal fans 😄

I really enjoyed this match , slight wobble when they equalised , but a very good match to watch from a Saints POV . Fellows looked good , could practice finishing , Scienza was Motm but needs to improve the final pass / shot Peretz was world class compared with Baz , Larin has a poor first touch from any part of his body but could improve and was involved with the second goal . Overall a fantastic Saints win and so pleased to see all the fans celebrating after the lean years .

Edited 7 hours ago by East Kent Saint

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

Fellows had probably his best game for the club. Just wish he would get his head up. He is always looking down at the ball

[davefizzy14]

Absolutely incredible last night from us 😊 everyone was outstanding yet again. Leo my MOTM 😊 was simply phenomenal and so unlucky with the shot off the bar. Two great goals from Shea and Ross 😊 we thoroughly deserved to win and get through to the semi finals! Wembley here we come! 😊

[lambtiss]

4 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

It didn't properly pick up till after the 2nd but to be fair to the fans I think it might have just been a case of thinking "ok cool, but we all know what's going to happen here". After the 2nd the atmosphere changed completely and there was actual belief about the place.

I can't agree. Even the legend, Steve Williams, at halftime said that the whole Stadium was rocking.

[lambtiss]

51 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Feel free to watch back the full BBC broadcast and see the long periods of absolute silence for yourself. As I said in another post maybe the mic positions didn't pick it up properly but the fact that it did come across loud and clear after the 2nd says that it wasn't quite as loud before that as people are thinking. 

Must have been different if you were actually there then

[Saint_clark]

37 minutes ago, Dr Who? said:

Funny you should say this, but they do engineer the microphones for the drama in a game. I’m sure they were fully up to build the excitement at the end. It does not reflect the noise in the ground, the can muffle sound and even block it out in the case of swearing in sounds. 

So you never get the proper atmosphere on the tv ever. I had a friend who worked in this area I think for the BBC. 

Yeah fair enough I did say this was a possibility, just reporting how it came through on the TV, but if that's the case then...

19 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

Even the commentators were praising the atmosphere long before the second goal. 

It makes their own commentators look stupid because other than after the 2nd goal, the atmosphere sounded really poor on BBC. 

[Saint_clark]

3 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

Must have been different if you were actually there then

Yeah, absolutely. Sadly personal circumstances restrict my ability to attend as much as I wish I could. Long gone are the days of season tickets every year and majority of away games for me. 

 

I'm about to rewatch the whole thing on iPlayer so i'll see if I was just judging unfairly but during the game on here I wasn't the only one saying the crowd sounded quiet, so chances are it was just poorly reflected by the broadcast. 

[RedArmy]

Thought the crowd sounded good on the tv except for the period between 20 minutes and 30/35 minutes where Arsenal were well on top and we could barely get a kick of the ball. 

[davefizzy14]

I thought Manning even on a yellow card stuck to his job defensively so well 😊  

[trousers]

The atmosphere definitely sounded 'flat' on the TV coverage for about 25 mins in the first half. My son was in the stadium and I messaged him to ask him about it at half time. His reply was: "First 10 mins was buzzing, and then it died down until the goal", which pretty much matches how it came across on the BBC coverage. 

Anyway, the atmosphere definitely ended up sounding as good as the best I've heard on TV coverage of Saints games before, so all's well that ends well 👍🏻🙂

 

[Toadhall Saint]

1 minute ago, davefizzy14 said:

I thought Manning even on a yellow card stuck to his job defensively so well 😊  

Yep I’m the first to criticise his defensive abilities but he did well least night.

[Verbal]

30 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

Easter weekend, Jesus versus Wood, only one winner.

Nailed on

[Gerrys Dark Forest]

Happy easter everyone! Just waiting for the lamb to be ready to carve and nursing a very sore throat. Was up there last night with the Milan and WBA games for me...my first proper atmosphere in the mortham since I relocated from the old family section with the nipper since he grew into an adult and we got booted out ! Thought the whole team played well but just wanted to shout out Wood in the second half ..been critical of him but thought he was great covering Manning when it was getting nervy..also thought Jander put in a shift but still worry as he has the odd brain fart in him...now let's fo the Hollywood darlings and cement our PO place...

Edited 7 hours ago by Gerrys Dark Forest

[Totton Saint]

6 minutes ago, trousers said:

The atmosphere definitely sounded 'flat' on the TV coverage for about 25 mins in the first half. My son was in the stadium and I messaged him to ask him about it at half time. His reply was: "First 10 mins was buzzing, and then it died down until the goal", which pretty much matches how it came across on the BBC coverage. 

Anyway, the atmosphere definitely ended up sounding as good as the best I've heard on TV coverage of Saints games before, so all's well that ends well 👍🏻🙂

 

The TNT broadcast picked up the atmosphere very well .  Unusually one could hear all the commentators very well. Alan Sheara was very fulsome in his praise for SAINTS.

 

[BARCELONASAINT]

Arsenal fans reaction, this is priceless!

 

[Totton Saint]

3 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Still can't believe what I watched last night. Saints defending very well against the best the premier League has to offer, every player understanding their role, team spirit, cohesion, clinical finishing, ...

Compare that to the start of the season.

Hats off to Tonda. He's certainly the real deal and my god has he got these players playing - every single one of them were brilliant!

So pleased to see Fellows back to his best and Jander looks like he's getting his mojo back too. Special mention also for Manning who was fantastic defensively despite picking up that yellow card.

Good post, especially re fellows and manning

[trousers]

12 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

The TNT broadcast picked up the atmosphere very well .  Unusually one could hear all the commentators very well. Alan Sheara was very fulsome in his praise for SAINTS.

 

Yeah, I think we're all agreed the atmosphere was fantastic for most of the match, just a bit of a lull in the first half, which is no big deal. 

Edited 6 hours ago by trousers

[coalman]

Dumb question, now the dust has mostly settled. Why did Martinelli only get a yellow card for shoving the referee? I thought that was about as straight a red card as you can get.

[Colinjb]

24 minutes ago, Totton Saint said:

The TNT broadcast picked up the atmosphere very well .  Unusually one could hear all the commentators very well. Alan Sheara was very fulsome in his praise for SAINTS.

 

Some quote from the commentator along the lines of "They go on about the atmosphere in the north east Alan but isn't this quite something?"

That had me grinning wildly. So amazing to see St Mary's rocking. Wish I could have been there.

[John Boy Saint]

1 hour ago, Dr Who? said:

The first derby match v the skates in the league cup was one of the best atmospheres at SMS. The pure hate and the number of years we had not played them helped. I remember it being loud all the way through. 

You could have just held a light bulb in you hand that night and it would have lit up - the atmosphere that night was crackling - well the PA certainly was as crackly they kept turning it up the drown out the “f**k of p*mpey-p*mpey f**k off” reposte from 3 sides of the ground.

[Midfield_General]

10 minutes ago, coalman said:

Dumb question, now the dust has mostly settled. Why did Martinelli only get a yellow card for shoving the referee? I thought that was about as straight a red card as you can get.

Yeah Di Canio got a straight red and an 11 match ban, and as far as I can see the only difference was that last night the ref stayed on his feet.

Retrospectively he surely has to face more than a yellow card? 

Edited 6 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Saint_clark]

4 minutes ago, John Boy Saint said:

You could have just held a light bulb in you hand that night and it would have lit up - the atmosphere that night was crackling - well the PA certainly was as crackly they kept turning it up the drown out the “f**k of p*mpey-p*mpey f**k off” reposte from 3 sides of the ground.

MK Dons in the JPT is still the loudest I've ever heard St Mary's by virtue of us having almost all of the ground bar 300 seats in the corner.

[trousers]

2 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Yeah Di Canio got a straight red and an 11 match ban, and as far as I can see the only difference was that last night the ref stayed on his feet.

Retrospectively he surely has to face more than a yellow card? 

Bizarre that VAR didn't intervene, when the ref quite clearly gave the wrong card...

[Sheaf Saint]

10 minutes ago, coalman said:

Dumb question, now the dust has mostly settled. Why did Martinelli only get a yellow card for shoving the referee? I thought that was about as straight a red card as you can get.

 

1 minute ago, Midfield_General said:

Yeah Di Canio got an 11 match ban, and as far as I can see the only difference was that last night the ref stayed on his feet.

Retrospectively he surely has to face more than a yellow card? 

It's only a straight red if it is deemed to be violent conduct. Otherwise only a yellow.

He wasn't angry or arguing with the ref, he just wanted him to get out of the way so he could take a quick free kick. If course the fact that the ref was standing over the ball should have been a clue that he wasn't going to allow that anyway, so it was a bit dumb but it certainly wasn't violent.

[Sheaf Saint]

1 minute ago, trousers said:

Bizarre that VAR didn't intervene, when the ref quite clearly gave the wrong card...

Nope. It was the right call.

[East Kent Saint]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

Yeah fair enough I did say this was a possibility, just reporting how it came through on the TV, but if that's the case then...

It makes their own commentators look stupid because other than after the 2nd goal, the atmosphere sounded really poor on BBC. 

Perhaps it's your TV set up , you can select 5 different sound options on mine . Problem is do you keep switching from movie to speech or surround etc ?

[coalman]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

It's only a straight red if it is deemed to be violent conduct. Otherwise only a yellow.

He wasn't angry or arguing with the ref, he just wanted him to get out of the way so he could take a quick free kick. If course the fact that the ref was standing over the ball should have been a clue that he wasn't going to allow that anyway, so it was a bit dumb but it certainly wasn't violent.

I don't think there's any excuse when you lay hands on one of the officials. That's just inviting more abuse of referees at all levels of the game.

[trousers]

4 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

 

It's only a straight red if it is deemed to be violent conduct. Otherwise only a yellow.

He wasn't angry or arguing with the ref, he just wanted him to get out of the way so he could take a quick free kick. If course the fact that the ref was standing over the ball should have been a clue that he wasn't going to allow that anyway, so it was a bit dumb but it certainly wasn't violent.

Was it more or less "violent" than briefly pulling someone's hair...?

[Saint_clark]

3 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Nope. It was the right call.

Really wasn't, any force used against referees is considered excessive as there is no justifiable reason to use it. 

Just now, East Kent Saint said:

Perhaps it's your TV set up , you can select 5 different sound options on mine . Problem is do you keep switching from movie to speech or surround etc ?

Maybe, I generally have it set to voice/speech.

[trousers]

5 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Nope. It was the right call.

The rules need changing IMO if that's the case. Too subjective otherwise. Should be black and white: if you purposely push the ref then you're off. Keep it simple. 

[Willo of Whiteley]

BBC coverage was excellent, Alan Sherear on co-comm with very vocal in his praise: “This may be an upset on paper, but make no mistake this is no upset, only one team wanted this”.

There were no poor performances last night, there are things that could be better - Scienza not overdoing it and shooting earlier, Fellows learning to shoot lower and look up - we were excellent.

The only threat Arsenal had was a kid, Max Dowman, I’m sure he’ll be at Man City in no time. 😉

[Lord Duckhunter]

Fucking sending off 😂😂😂 People need to give their head a wobble….

[lambtiss]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

Yeah, absolutely. Sadly personal circumstances restrict my ability to attend as much as I wish I could. Long gone are the days of season tickets every year and majority of away games for me. 

 

I'm about to rewatch the whole thing on iPlayer so i'll see if I was just judging unfairly but during the game on here I wasn't the only one saying the crowd sounded quiet, so chances are it was just poorly reflected by the broadcast. 

Sorry to hear that you can't attend as much as you'd like.

[VectisSaint]

1 hour ago, Totton Saint said:

The TNT broadcast picked up the atmosphere very well .  Unusually one could hear all the commentators very well. Alan Sheara was very fulsome in his praise for SAINTS.

 

Pretty sure that the TNT and BBC coverage are from the same feed for the FA Cup, agreement started this year. Would be odd for Shearer to have been commenting on both independently.

[AlexLaw76]

Dowman is going to be some player, assuming he continues his progress and not do a Deli Alli

 

[Patches O Houlihan]

2 hours ago, tdmickey3 said:

Just watched it all because missed it yesterday.

 Not much to add that hasn’t been said in this thread.

Well done lads👏

Will you be interested in watching the semi do you think? Or does that depend on who we play?

...even though of course we are guaranteed to lose no matter which team we draw. 😉

 

 

On 31/03/2026 at 12:02, tdmickey3 said:

Indeed, they will get the game won (3 up) and then sub players and manage the game.

We really need to prioritise the Wrexham game, the game we can actually win

[CSA96]

 

[Sheaf Saint]

[Saint NL]

So the draw for the next round is after the Leeds/West Ham game, so should be around 6:30 is there aren't ET and penalties.

West Ham please.

[sfc4prem]

3 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Yeah, absolutely. Sadly personal circumstances restrict my ability to attend as much as I wish I could. Long gone are the days of season tickets every year and majority of away games for me. 

 

I'm about to rewatch the whole thing on iPlayer so i'll see if I was just judging unfairly but during the game on here I wasn't the only one saying the crowd sounded quiet, so chances are it was just poorly reflected by the broadcast. 

I was with you during the game, made similar comments to you. Reckon it was BBC broadcasting. Interestingly, their commentary particularly first half felt rather one sided to the away team and fans, so I do wonder if their microphones were carefully placed near to the away support rather than the Northam Kop.

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, Saint NL said:

So the draw for the next round is after the Leeds/West Ham game, so should be around 6:30 is there aren't ET and penalties.

West Ham please.

Makes me laugh on the radio going on about what a semi final would mean to the fans, Leeds not been in a fa cup semi for 38 years, West Ham not for 20 years, we've had a few in that time! 

[Badger]

1 minute ago, Football Special said:

Makes me laugh on the radio going on about what a semi final would mean to the fans, Leeds not been in a fa cup semi for 38 years, West Ham not for 20 years, we've had a few in that time! 

Yeh, but the media love a “proper working class football club”.

Or at least they do when they’re not salivating and arselicking those owned by oligarchs, US billionaires,and oil states finding ways to skirt round the financial rules that apply to everyone else. 

[Challenger]

Honestly, on our day neither WH or Leeds wouldn't be anything to shit ourselves over, but we're not going to draw either are we.

[Badger]

9 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Honestly, on our day neither WH or Leeds wouldn't be anything to shit ourselves over, but we're not going to draw either are we.

Inclined to agree. Chelsea blow hot and cold, despite the multibillion squad at their disposal. (But on balance, sensibly, we’d be out of our depth playing them. Just as we were Arsenal of course ! ).

City … would like to avoid. 

[SNSUN]

10 hours ago, Plastic said:

Manning did a great job of neutralising Madueke when he came on, stopping him from cutting inside and keeping him wide. Thought he played well.

Manning had his knockers and yes he has his flaws but in Welington's absence he's been very good. And he was good yesterday for the most part against tricky opposition. You feel he still has a big mistake in him but he's a good experienced Championship pro. 

Huge credit to Wood too who was excellent. Fellows improved as the match went on too from the bits I saw. 

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Football Special said:

Makes me laugh on the radio going on about what a semi final would mean to the fans, Leeds not been in a fa cup semi for 38 years, West Ham not for 20 years, we've had a few in that time! 

That was v Coventry at Hillsborough IIRC, 2-0 down, back to 2-2 and late winner for Cov (Dave Bennett?). Season Cov won it. West Ham would have been under Pardew when they got to the final and nearly beat Liverpool.