Ted Bates Statue

Well done saints, almost thought we might win there but you managed to get the joke done in the end.

We went up to the premier league on Nigel Adkin's magic bus, so I'm all about getting on board Russell Martin's rocket ship to get us over the line. Unfortunately it's April Fool's day and experience tells me that our team will once again generate the punchlines. Good luck to all of you travelling today.

Thanks for that. I never saw any of his playing career but it brought a smile to my face knowing that this genius played for us. He should stick to football, it's what he was good at, after all. I've never seen before the clip of the cheeky chip over the keeper at 21s - if that's not peak outrageousness, then I don't know what is.

but their support is amazing and they have won so many trophies, as some of our own supporters remind us with great enthusiasm

Playoff finals are typically considered to be poor entertainment due to the extremely high stakes nature, aren't they? If we end up in the playoffs again it would be a case of having failed to achieve promotion in 2 years. I'd rather not think about it right now, thanks.

Couple of wins and we would be three points off top. We have an inferior GD, but winning a couple of our six-pointers would take care of that issue. It's possible, but realistically most don't expect us to even achieve the two wins we need to get within touching distance of the leaders. Fingers crossed I'll be proved otherwise.

no worries, it's not your fault someone sat on the keyboard when they were filling out the lad's birth certificate. His surname is literally a countdown conundrum

I understand they wanted to leave and we wouldn't stand in their way, but I do wonder how we would be doing if we had kept JWP and Tella. Given our September slump after their departures, it's not outrageous to say we would have taken a few more wins. ah well, our fate is still in our hands (to throw it all away in the next ten games)

I clicked just to check whether Mordaunt would be at the top of the list and was relieved to see she is. Even if they get wiped out at the election, the tories need at minimum a safe pair of hands in the medium-term and I think she will be one of the more sensible ones left. I imagine Ben Wallace would have been up there too, had he shown an interest in staying on. I wonder what his plans are. Both parties seem hell-bent on demonstrating that their members are incapable of seeing the wood for the trees. You still get large numbers of labour voters who think Corbyn was a winner, and the tories spent ages mucking about with Hague and IDS when Hague should have held back from the leadership for about a decade.

Seeing as we now have no games for ages, felt it would be a good time to check in on Minsk's old thread, with a brief comparison to see how we are shaping up against the promotion league table of 2011-12. Back then with ten games to go, we just beat Barnsley 2-0 having drawn 1-1 with Ipswich in the previous game. With 20 wins, 9 draws and 7 defeats that leaves us with 69 points at the same stage we are now. Having won 22, drawn 7 and lost 7 this season on 73 points, we are 4 points better off today, but we are in 4th place as opposed to being the division leaders, which maybe explains why it felt a bit more enjoyable back then. I'm reasonably certain there was less moaning on the forum. Back in 2012 we had Millwall up next with Rickie Lambert snatching two late goals in London. I would settle for getting our next 3 points done and dusted a bit earlier in our next game against Boro, and hopefully we can keep the pressure on the division leaders.

Sholing have won loads in the last ten years, but it doesn't mean people are going to get envious over their trophy cabinet.

for those of you gullible enough to check, they haven't really

Any excuse to post this again. Sorry for the facebook link but the other media available seem to either be sullied by a shit soundtrack or the picture quality similar to that of a potato. https://www.facebook.com/southamptonfc/videos/osvaldo-nets-a-stunner-against-man-city/1529447253735156/

WTF does the city of Southampton have to do with all this?!

Given the amount of people on here who seem to regard it as a chore to watch Saints, we should be more grateful to be given three weeks' respite. I wish we could have international friendlies all the time. The icing on the cake is that Saints often make the most of these quiet periods. Think of the glorious metamorphosis we all got to enjoy as the side transformed from Ralph's lowly caterpillars to become butterflies soaring up the table under Nathan Jones. There was some kickabout in Qatar but the real excitement was taking place at Staplewood, and I'm sure something similar will be afoot right now.

Bournemouth have just taken the lead after being 3-0 down to Luton. Brings back traumatic memories of the last days of Redknapp for me.

For those who are interested, there is also an explanation of the methodology behind it. Personally I think these things are a long-winded way of repackaging the latest league table. I wonder at what point would they have started to predict Reading to win the 2011-12 Championship.

Yeah we're probably going for the playoffs now. I know it's fun to look at, but these kind of predictions never seem brave enough to suggest the team in 2nd or 3rd is likely to pip the team in 1st place. Invariably they seem heavily based on whatever the league table looks like at the present time. Leicester are having a pretty big wobble but they seem happy to have written off Ipswich for auto promotion, in favour of the top spot incumbents. I bet you this time last year, they would have predicted Arsenal to go all the way in the premier league. So my analysis is that this is all too close to call, and the Opta Supercomputer is just re-hashing the current league table. I would have been interested to see their predictions going back to Xmas, but they seem not to have deemed them worthy of inclusion. Make of that what you will.

Surman would have been my first choice as it felt like he was a natural for the role, but Jo Tessem has grown on me too. Yes he has a funny voice but he has been developing a lot and getting good rapport with Adam Blackmore who is consistently excellent (I don't recall any instances when he's missed out on goals while going off-topic, @david in sweden maybe he's sharpened up in recent years since the club have tended to use Solent for post-match highlights). @NewYorkSaint I liked Dave Merrington too, but I bet you he would have been spitting feathers at some of our performances. I can just imagine the rant already, "What you don't want to do is concede so soon into the second half!" Where Tessem has won me over is that I occasionally watch footage with Solent in the background and frequently hear him making an interesting observation well before Sky/iFollow do, or if they notice at all. If you're going to rely on radio commentary then you need someone like that. A word on the iFollow coverage. I think Ian Wilding does a pretty decent job, but as @bpsaint has already said, it feels like Dean Hammond still thinks he's working for Saints and is delusionally positive. Must be a symptom of having worked under Nigel Adkins... Sometimes I don't mind him when we're really shit, but deep down I know he's talking bullshit! Tessem isn't afraid to speak his mind, and that is particularly necessary when Blackmore seems to feel the need to tread more carefully and avoid Russell Martin getting stroppy after the match.

Sunderland diving about everywhere and the ref's just buying it in bulk

banter football

Hello, sorry to disrupt the music banter but some of us are seeking info about whether the game will actually go ahead...

In terms of re-arrangement, the Echo advises that the available fixture slots midweeks of the weeks commencing March 11, April 15, April 22 and April 29. I would prefer we go for next week, April is already pretty full-on and we need to brace ourselves for the play-offs too.