Nordic Saint

No.

Attendance today: 31,286. That means we finish the season with the 2nd highest average home gate in the Club's history. Our 4th consecutive and 13th top 8 finish is another cause for celebration. We just need to send Les Reed away on a well-deserved holiday for the entire summer, so he doesn't have to bother himself with any involvement in choosing the next manager or selling and buying players, and we can look forward to next season.

It seems fairly obvious Les Reed has already decided to get rid of Puel as the stream of negative 'leaks' to the press about him being disliked by the players have already started. We got the same thing when he fell out with Koeman, Fonte and various others.

Looking at the availability on the official site's seating plan, it seems at least 25% of season ticket holders haven't renewed. This comes at the end of a season when we have had the 2nd biggest average home gate in our entire history, largely as a result of the feelgood factor a year ago. A big win today would make a difference.

Considering the weakened squad Puel was left with after Reed sold our 2 top goal scorers, Mane and Pelle as well as our enforcer, one of the best defensive midfielders in football, Wanyama, he has done very well to get us to 8th place. Les Reed is the one who should retire. The ideal replacement would be Paul Black Box Mitchell, the real man behind our success in the transfer market, as we've seen since he went to Spurs, although Man United are rumoured to be interested in him. I'd expect Puel to get even better results next season with Mitchell's help and without Reed's interference.

In fact, you can see loads of people on the steps walking back to their seats. PS That's the sort of photo that usually does the rounds on the Pompey messageboards.

From my postion in the Kingsland the stadium looked full. I certainy didn't see all those empty seats in the Itchen so I guess that picture was taken just after half-time, when people hadn't returned to their seats. The attendance was 31,425 and the Club will certainly be happy with that many tickets sold. Our average home gate this season will be around 31,000, our highest for many years.In fact, one of the highest in our entire history.

Booing when a favourite player is subbed is a bit of a trend at matches this season, not just ours. The only booing I heard last night was from Ward-Prowse fans when he was subbed. I didn't hear any at the end. In fact, for the first time this season, the home crowd at St Mary's won our team an iffy penalty so credit to them for that. Usually, it's only the away fans who mange to do that. There are people who will criticize anything. There's even some idiot on another messageboard criticising the size of the crowd, which at 31,425 must be one of the top ten home crowds we've ever had v Man United. I reiterate, it was a good performance from our team and only some outstanding saves from Romero, including one from a penalty which would have beaten most goalies, stopped us winning. Looking froward to us beating Stoke and securing our 4th consecutive top 8 finish.

I enjoyed the game. It was much better than our 0-0 draw with Hull and a draw against Man United is always a good result. Our younger players, especially Stephens and Targett did well, and only a brilliant goalkeeping performance from Romero stopped us winning. It would have been good to see Austin playing today but maybe he's being saved for the Stoke game. Draws with Liverpool and Man United show we're no longer the pushovers for the top 6 teams that we were earlier in the season. I'm looking forward to the Stoke game. A win would clinch 8th place and we should all be satisfied with a 4th consecutive top 8 finish.

We just need Man City to beat West Brom by 2 goals tonight to take 8th place. Then 3 points from our last 2 games could be enough to stay there. 4 points would just about make sure if Leicester don't beat Spurs. It would be our 13th top 8 finish, and 4 consecutive top 8 finishes would be a new club record although we finished in the top 8 in 5 seasons out of 6 in the 80s.

How on earth does he keep his job as a TV pundit? He is scruffy, unpleasant and his biased predictions are totally ridiculous. Based on his predictions for all Saints games this season, we'd have finished below Sunderland on 28 points, while Liverpool, of course, would have won the league easily. http://www.givemesport.com/1054136-the-table-based-on-mark-lawrensons-predictions-is-actually-ridiculous?autoplay=on&amp%3Butm_source=Facebook&amp%3Butm_medium=Paid-Social&amp%3Butm_campaign=1054136

I really haven't noticed Long winning anything in the air this season and there have been loads of high crosses raining in to the opposition box. Austin and Pelle would have got on the end of some of them. What I have noticed from Long is the awful end product, fluffing chances and often setting up opposition attacks, including the one that led to an Arsenal goal in our last home game.

An away win is always a good result. It's been a very inconsistent season, in which we've found it hard to string 2 or 3 good performances together. But let's hope we can now, as 4 points from our final 2 home games should see us finish 8th and we'll all be happy with that.

Long. Our tactics, which are basically every attack try to lob high crosses in, don't suit him. The tall central defenders and goalkeepers deal with them easily. All the high crosses should suit Austin better. Also, I think we've seen the best of him. His finishing nowadays is terrible. I'm looking forward to seeing Austin next season. He's a goal scorer. It would also be great to see Rodriguez back to his best.

There are none so blind as those who will not see. Koeman, Lee, Fonte, Dodd, Williams, Rogers etc etc.

But Les is the one who they all seem to fall out with. Nearly all of our best staff, both on and off the pitch, managers, coaches, players, backroom staff alike, have left the Club or been sold now.

The problem is that Reed won't and who's he going to bring in next? If the last year is anything to go by, they won't be very good.

A rot seems to have set in and without major changes at the top, it's hard to see anything but a dour relegation struggle next season.

What a difference a year has made to our Club. Consistently poor decsions from the top have resulted in a surprisingly rapid decline. I remember the feeling of absolute elation in May last year and couldn't wait for this season to begin. Then Les Reed got to work, alienating staff both on and off the pitch, getting rid of the best ones and wasting the money on poor replacements.

He certainly has: from one of the best teams in the country, capable of beating any other team in the Premier League, which finished 6th and was only 3 points of a Champions League place, to this. Why shouldn't he retire like everyone else? His poor decsion making over the last year show he is well past his prime. Are we supposed to pay him until he's70?

Charlie's thread is worth an end of season review.

Andrea Ranocchia, although he was only on loan at Hull. We were rumoured to be interested in him before. Ben Gibson would be great but I think he'll only leave Middlesbrough for one of the big clubs, like Man United. On the evidence of how he played against us, Jan Kirchoff would be an ideal replacement for Wanyama. Unfortunately, he always seems to be injured.

I agree with Milton: 14th with 43 points. I was just looking at last season's league table again. Not only did we finish 6th with 63 points but we were 16 points and 5 places ahead of Everton and only 3 points behind Man City in 4th place. What has gone wrong since? For starters, most of the personnel changes, both on and off the pitch, seem to have been for the worse.

Life of Les?

If people like Always and Duckhunter had prevailed in the Stone Age, we'd still be living in caves and they'd be sitting around moaning about some ungrateful bastard trying to invent the wheel.