John Boy Saint

Probably a very nice team to play against after having to play in the Champions League midweek

No score yet - but Villa in the Champions League are once again very easy on the eye.

I’m amazed Mark Clattenburg hasn’t been mentioned - he had the persona of an arrogant whatsit most of the time. One thing that sticks that he did against us versus Liverpool at SMS feeding the big club bias. One of ours upended one of theirs just outside their box, Clattenburg went for the whistle, then stopped and played the advantage, Liverpool were off down the pitch like Hares, ball into Mané and he misses, poking it out play, our goal kick. Whistle goes and Clattenburg is pulling the game back to where the offence took place and advantage signalled “to give them another go”! Those paying attention in the crowd weren’t happy.

My first noted experience of watching dodgy Mike “old mother” Riley was at the Dell v Derby, weirdly on a few corners he stood just off the pitch at the goal line, which at the Dell put him pretty close to the crowd - guess that was part of his arrogance. Second half Benali is brought on - as we know Frannie rarely took prisoners - within minutes wipes one of theirs out: yellow card. Game rolls on. Derby had I think Dean Sturridge playing for them, who was a proper handful, yet again he’s scampering to our box and Frannie carts him up into the air, oh dear Mike Riley wants a word, as he beckons Francis towards him he is walking backwards away from the crime towards the East Stand, stops 15 feet away in front of the Derby fans and presents the Red card sending them wild: Sturrdge was still in bits on the pitch 30 yards away!! He certainly didn’t take up his weird position on corners in front of the Milton after that. When he took up the position of head of the PGMOL, you thought that says it all.

Andy D’Urso just popped into my head v Blackburn 1st home game of the season before Luggy got binned off - booked a Blackburn player twice without sending him off - never saw a Premier League game again.

On the flip side for us, Peter Walton v Brighton when Jose Fonte was taken out somewhere near The Bargate and he pointed to the spot! Most of us in the Chapel instead of cheering, just looked at each other in total amazement and Brighton players went into meltdown resulting in one of them getting a red. bizarre.

Turning the clock back further there was a link to something towards the end of the season when we dropped to the Championship, it was mentioned that Solaks people were alarmed that Saints in particular were burning through Dragans money at an alarming rate. SR might have voiced that plan only to find “Daddy” had restricted their pocket money.

You’re not far off the mark - you don’t become a billionaire by luck (whilst being painted as an “enemy of the state”) - nor do you tolerate f**knuts and c*ckwombles with their fingers in your wallet….………unless you have a very cunning plan.

And Martial telling the twisted knob “it’s not a penalty he didn’t touch me” yet he still gave Janny B first dibs on the hot water in the showers.

There we go

Did you cut and paste that from a past match thread?

Ooops

Ingerland looking a bit shonky v Greece Pickford nearly making this Christmas’s Goalkeepers bloopers video.

I mentioned the fitness issue last season - I think it might have been v Coventry at home, 2-0 at half time and Coventry scored to make it interesting for them. At the final whistle most of our players were very noticeably sat or laying on the pitch with the body language of marathon runners having set a good time - Coventry players who had spent 20 odd minutes throwing kitchen sinks at us, looked notably much more fresher. In football if you are super fit like WGS, even Poch, had them, your footballing brain works far more effectively for the full 90 minutes. Changing subject slightly, on Monday night driving home Radio 5 had a snippet of RMs press conference that made me scratch my head. He was uttering that he had a team of good players who haven’t yet been given a chance, and he feels he has to give them a chance (pretty sure Manning was one name mentioned) - so no surprise at the team line up later. But driving along, quite surprised at this comment, thinking you see them everyday surely there is reason why they haven’t had a chance because if they were truly up to scratch they would have been in mix already. Half thought - have you made them all your mates, so now you feel obliged? Ranieri when he pulled off the football coup of the century, from recall he did that pretty much (and luckily) with the same starting 11 for the whole season - there must have been back up players at Leicester deserving of a similar chance but never got given it just because they were there. Ah well time will tell on this.

That was a pulse racer at the end - well done Villa.

The taters said Bayern keeper play most of their games 40yards out - I uttered to Mrs JBS “just win it and ping it” Exactly what Duran did - just a bit closer great goal

Drop an email to Sir Keir - he has a couple of spares these days and won’t cost a bean these days - they will just have to sit on their hands! 😁😜🤪

Fat chance

Where’s the yellow for that pull back?

Thick fuck

Blimey - leave him up front

Bournemouth 3 - Dustbins on the training ground 0 fuck me

Friend of mine got made redundant at Saints only this summer - she was one of the ones who helped keep the “lights on” when the abyss was looming large on the horizon.

Ooooo that sounds like fun - what time slot should I book for the best experience?

FFS!