OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

That's Man U. Take a point there. Don't get the AA is good at pressing stuff quoted on this thread. He strolls then runs the last 3 yards and when he's on the ball, he craps himself. Useless. Moi is also a waste of a shirt. That said, we've done the double against Chelsea and Leicester and the hope is back.

Ultimately, so many players look like they don't really give a shit whether they win or lose and there's no understanding what our club means to us. But I've just accepted that is the way it is nowadays. The day is no longer about the football, more the day out. Sadly, we indoctrinated our sons in to the Saints way, but to be fair to my brother and myself, we have taken our teenage boys to Leicester, C.Palace and Chelsea this season, so it's not all been doom and gloom.

Blimey, if that's the case, the squad will go from 30 to 15! There's so much mediocrity. I haven't lost faith in RS yet. Surely he can make some changes and make us more direct. Then the post Chelsea lovefest with him may return.

People may ask if the sky is blue on the planet I live on, but I think we'll win too. Leicester are crap and while I don't dispute we're crap too, it's fine margins at this level. Think DCC may have blown his chance but the defence is ok and as long as AA is nowhere near the lineup, Sulemana or Tall Paul must be able to conjure up something between them. The fat lady is still gargling her mouthwash and not singing just yet 🤞

It's up to FIFA/refs to sort this out. Time management/running down the clock which seems to be condoned by commentators is endemic. I quite liked the 10 minutes extra time at the World Cup. It's simple. Book a player and send him off if he continues to waste time. It'll soon stop this nonsense. But that really is the least of our issues at the moment...

1974 I saw my first Saints game. Saints 5 -0 Derby in the League Cup. Bit like gambling. Start with a big win and you're addicted. Seen quite a few lows since then and some of those League 1 games were dire but I honestly think this is a new low. Truly truly embarrassing.

Maybe that's where they're going wrong. 1-0 down already tonight 😀

I agree but that ain't going to happen. The only good news is that he will rotate Bednerek and hopefully Ely and maybe realise that they both shouldn't be in the 1st team starting line-up. And steady JRM. That's a fair few coming down but I'd never even 'almost' want them to win. I want us to win 5-0 and wave them goodbye!

DCC is in the middle of the Saints webpage so imagine he will start, especially with Salisu still injured. Chance for him to show that Bednerek really is a waste of space in central defence.

Bournemouth, Leeds & Leicester. We'll beat them on Saturday to start their freefall.

So how does this £126m spend stand us in line with the Fair Play rules? The League's Fair Play Rules Book is 514 pages so can't be bothered to plough through that though aren't clubs meant to balance their books with a tolerance level of a £5m deficit? Relegation, Fines, Owners walk away...future looks rosy 😒. C'mon Lavia, Tall Paul. Get us out of this mess!

Totally agree. There's a lot of crap at the bottom of the league and this team has the set up to score goals. Sulemana needs to learn how to run off Tall Paul because against Chelsea he held up the ball and laid off better than I've seen Che ever do. Tell me I'm being thick but why, when we've got arguably the best dead ball specialist in the league, don't we have people running at the defence drawing free kicks? Only KWP when he cuts inside seems to do this. Can't they practice this? Like one poster once said, do they take a football to training?

Must admit, the games I've seen us play this season against lower league opposition (Sheff Wed & Blackpool), we've really struggled, and that's with more or less our first team. I lost faith in Poch after he put our B team out to play Sunderland. I hope Ruben doesn't do the same.

I agree with this. Apart from Perraud and Stu A. who would probably struggle to play Wednesday and then Saturday, the rest should be up for it and get a team together that knows each other's games and strengths (😏). Surely they can practice through balls, running in to space, one-twos and just creating openings/scoring opportunities.

Was there some kind of training ground bust up this week? AMN, Perraud, ABK all came out wearing bandages. I know we're a bunch of crock but they looked dressed for a rugby union match... Genuinely don't believe this crop of players have it in them to keep us up. Lavia is the class act and he can spot a pass but there's no-one up front who seems to find that yard of space. And I get Tall Paul and Stu A. coming off but why is Sulemana also always knackered? Not giving up yet. Mara is looking better each game but have to say Leicester is big. Ironic that I was talking to some Leicester fans leaving the ground earlier in the season and they were saying what a crap manager they had and how lucky we are. Hmmnn...

Win, draw or lose today, the next League game will still be 'massive'. Also, hope Selles focuses on both League and the Cup because if we beat Grimsby, we're only one match away from a Wembley visit.

Have to agree with you. Add the Perraud clearance off the line and to an extent, it was our day. But similarly, if AA had shown a bit more confidence/commitment, we could have had two. Even when they put up 12mins added time, our area all thought we'd hold firm. I genuinely think the players wanted to play for NJ. The problem was they didn't know what he wanted them to do. The were running around like headless chickens from his first game. Everything was so muddled. Now it seems the players know their role. And RS has done that in a week.

With our new additions of Tall Paul and Sulemana and a fit Lavia bossing midfield, we are a solid mid table team. The hope has been restored. Barring possibly Brighton, we can beat any of those teams not zeroed. Tall Paul's hold up and laying off play is promising and we have better attacking options now.

Totally agree. Players manipulate stats with their plinky-plonky sideways 'successful' passes. The quick five yard pass sideways free kicks when we're in the opposition half are particularly irritating. When a fit Stuey plays, we often win and that is a much more meaningful stat.

How does this work? We've taken an allocation of just over 3,000 for Man U and that's all sold out. By the time Leeds tickets went on sale to non season ticket holders, the tickets available were restricted view. Surely we can ask for a larger allocation - like you say, a positive atmosphere helps the team.

Fraser Forster also had a good game today. I've forgotten why we let him go and kept McCarthy but relying on Baz as our first choice keeper has been one of the main mistakes in our team recruitment programme this year.

That was a good game and the only one I've been to at Old Trafford when we've got something. Left feeling good. Today left the ground feeling even better. Hope has been resumed. Just looking to see what other six games we can win....Leicester, Brentford, Palace, Bournemouth, Forest & Fulham...or is that a bit too obvious?

People were singing it on the concourse before the game. Don't know where it came from or who thought of it, but really is very catchy and when a couple of thousand sing it, it's so much better than the anti-pompey songs. Think Selles also appreciated it when he came over to us after the game.

Don't need him now. Wow, what a difference. Last week, we literally had players running into each other. Today, the same players and everyone knew their place; they were well drilled and when Selles made his triple substitution of Mara, AA & Theo, there were a few in the crowd looking bemused, but they all did a job. Great atmosphere, could see how much it meant to the players when they came over to us at the end of the match - and not once did I hear about Pompey getting battered 4-0 at home. Bring on Leeds.

There must be something else. Perhaps he wanted Selles out and his coaching team in. Don't feel we've dodged a bullet, but don't go after Gerrard, Rooney etc. That would be a disaster.