trousers

I've always thought that Ballard and Dibling were of a similar standard historically, so slightly surprised not to see Ballard in the frame for some first team experience for the remainder of the season, on a "nothing to lose" basis, given we're down and that he surely can't be any worse than our senior striker options.... That said, I can also see the pros of maximising his game time in a lower league, especially if he starting to fall behind Dibling's development curve...

Greeting from St.Mary's. My first match of the Juric era. Not a great performance but at least it feels like I'm watching a game of football compared to a game of chess under the previous regime. Big Les and Fernandes the standout players for us. Newcastle far more threatening in the final third than us (#statingtheobvious) but the ref is giving us absolutely nothing. Their defenders are consistently fouling Tall Paul but not a jot from the referee. Indeed, I think their second goal emanated from such an incident if I remember correctly (?) And as for the VAR decision, I'm right behind the goal where it happened and didn't look like a penalty in real to me. Once again, how can it take them so long to overturn the original decision given it must have been a "clear and obvious error"...? The ensuing Northam chant of "Premier League, corrupt as f***" was spot on. Still think we could sneak a result here but probably wishful thinking!

Might explain why he hasn't posted on here for a while...?

Hailing a taxi, ergo not a nazi

I've always said there's a very fine line between hailing a taxi and being a nazi.... (not mutually exclusive activities, of course)

Is there an echo in here...?

Juric: "Dibling's injury isn't as bad as we first thought. Will re-assess next week"

There's only a debate because some people are insistent that it was a nazi salute and others are insistent it wasn't. If everyone was as pragmatic, balanced and non-judgemental as myself, and not obsessed with being on one side or the other, then the debate wouldn't exist, as per your desire...

Thanks for clarifying. Yet another field of expertise that I've not much knowledge in compared to everyone else on the interweb...

Might this have something to do with it? https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-how-being-autistic-may-make-him-think-differently-194228 #benefitofthedoubt

Permission to sit on the fence given I don't know one way or the other and feel it would be ilogical to make an aribtrary guess just to please the internet football forum fraternity....

I'm not normally one to judge players straight off the bat, but this fella does seem to tick all the usual Sport Republic boxes... i.e. might turn out to be a golden nugget but more probable than not he'll turn out to be another low budget flop. If there's any room in the Saintsweb "Happy to be proven wrong" club, then save me a place

Anyone worked out the connection to an Austin Allegro yet?

Oops.... sorry sir.... will this make amends...?

Maybe I'm not a staunch enough fan (?), or simply just too long in the tooth to care (!), but I'm not one to feel humiliation or embarrassment about a football team I happen to support. I actually quite enjoy my friends' attempts to wind me up about it... Just seems like good old fashioned banter to me. Much more important things in life to worry about at the end of the day, Brian

It's almost as if this game they call soccerball isn't rocket science after all....

So, not one of the top 4 teams then...?

I've no idea. Not my area of expertise I'm afraid...

Fair point!

Well, exactly, that's the point being made isn't it? He might only have been up to playing, say, 30 minutes of high intensity premier league football today, hence not being chosen for the starting 11?