VectisSaint

A Hornby Doublo sinks Saints.

Would have to beat WBA or Hull (or Coventry or Norwich first).

Think you're struggling with your own argument 🤣

Very sad, wonderful to read about his heroics, not something I was really aware of previously. Is it too much to ask what name he posted on here as, maybe obvious to some.

It is interesting to see Man City u21 in 24th place, considering they have won PL2 for the past 3 seasons (if the information I have read is correct). They have been the most successful club at this level for some time, what has happened to them? Perhaps it has something to do with them selling or loaning so many young players to us, or perhaps the departure of Jason Wilcox. Not sure I'm surprised at any of the other Bottom 6 dwellers, Newcastle have been notorious for years at youth level, and clearly the dirty Saudi money has not yet filtered through. Everton and Derby are recently at least basket case clubs.

They would have played as Guests during the War, but by the time the Football League resumed in 1946 the players would have all been registered with Pompey, not as Guests. Some of the players were indeed recruited from the Navy though.

So how come we won every League game that followed an FA Cup game this season?

Didn't we? How do you know that we wouldn't have won more than we did, or scored more goals if Stephens had been available. You don't, nor do I. But there were a lot of people on here moaning (unrealistically imho) that we drew too many during the 25 game run. Having Stephens as an option during the run may well have helped, we will never know, but having to rely on two CBs and with only Holgate as backup was a big risk, fortunately we got through it.

BC wasn't after a cup game, it was after the Huddersfield debacle. 4 changes, 2 for injury was not really that radical after that display, especially considering that 2 changes were to bring in attacking players who had dug us out of that hole as substitutes. If Martin hadn't changed the team after the Huddersfield display there would have been hell to pay.

Right. That's cleared that up then. 🤔

11, and we conceded 7 in those games (Stephens played 90 minutes in half of them, 3 of those were against Liverpool). We started conceding goals in the last 8 games when Stephens did not play (with the exception of Liverpool), those are facts/stats. Stephens is not the problem. The problems started against Huddersfield, yet the back 4 that day was KWP, THB, Bednarek, Manning with Downes DM. Bristol City, same back 4, but Downes injured replaced by Charles. West Brom (won 2-0) Stephens replaces Manning. Hull, the "first choice" Back 4 again but no Downes or Charles. Millwall tinkered with Manning out, KWP on left and THB on right, no Downes. Birmingham, no KWP, Downes back but we did win. Sunderland still no KWP but again we did win. Fact is that it is not Stephens causing the issues with goals conceded but a combination of injuries to key players (KWP, Downes, Bree), and having to tinker to cover for these. Martin has to take some "credit" for these issues, by playing people in the wrong positions, THB especially is better in the centre than on the right, but there is also a confidence factor, once teams worked out how to score against us (started with Huddersfield) our defence has lost confidence and often now seem to panic, including the usually unflappable THB, not really sure for the reason. Seriously hope that we settle on a back 4 of KWP, THB, Bednarek and Bree with Downes in front for the run-in, but suspect RM will prefer Manning, who I see as the weak link.

Your opinion and many others.

Yes. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, the league operates under the so-called 'Swiss Model' where the 26 teams will be seeded into five pots based on their historical performance in the competition over the preceding three years, meaning each team will play 20 matches in the regular season. A 21-game week scenario will see teams playing each club in their own pot plus four or five teams in all other pots, either home or away. After this, the combined table will determine play-off positions, with the top 16 teams qualifying for the knockout format.

The issue here though is not Stephens, if everyone is fully fit it will be KWP, THB, JB and bloody Ryan Manning.

That report was 2 months ago, in it Martin says he will be off his crutches pretty soon, I would think 'pretty soon' would be less than 2 months, so unless there has been a setback (possible) he probably should be back in light training pretty soon if not already.

Last update was "probably" won't see him again this season, but suggested he might be ready for last 3 or 4 weeks, but that we probably wouldn't risk him unless it is desparate, rather give him a full pre-season. So we're not too far off last 3 or 4 weeks so would be of some interest to know if he is progressing.

If KWP and Bree are fit I would agree with you, but they haven't been. Bree came back against Liverpool and he clearly wasn't 100% from the way he was blowing out of his arse when he was subbed. Also agree that playing THB on the right wasn't a good idea, Taylor is normally calm and totally reliable but he had his worst game for us, lost his head against Sunderland, I still can't figure out what the mad 15 minutes was all about, why did everyone go into panic mode? By the way it was Huddersfield that first showed how to attack us not Brizzle, remember they were 2-0 and 3-1 up before we pulled back to win 5-3, this from a team we expected to beat easily. I don't see how you can say Stephens didn't contribute much to the 7 games after his return, 232 minutes is roughly 35% (2.5 full games). Much bigger problem to me is Manning, would play Bree over him every time, or even Meghoma for that matter (I see Juan Larios is not far off returning, another opportunity to leave Manning on the bench, but I suspect it won't happen.

Read second sentence again.

I:m slightly bemused where this sudden love in for NT has come from. Don't get me wrong, I really rated the guy and wish him all the success he deserves. But the facts are that so far for Leverkusen he has started 4 League matches (stats actually say 3 but that looks wrong), has played 90 minutes once only in the League and has 2 assists in all competitions. I get that he has scored 4 in the Bundesliga, but to be frank he has hardly broken through as yet, and he will do well to do so with Frimpong ahead of him. It is great that he will likely pick up a Bundesliga winners medal, but the hype seems a bit over the top at the moment. Just an observation.

Probably something to do with the fact they were the inconvenienced team having already travelled down to Southampton last week, then being asked to travel down again "today" and then to Plymouth on Saturday. I know we didn't start the fire on purpose (well I assume), it would have been pretty rough on PNE, not to mention their supporters. Its a long way from Preston to Southampton (twice) and Plymouth.

This is simply.and demonstrably not true. He came into the team just before Xmas and we won 5 and drew 2 (not all starts), 3.goals.conceded in that run. Then he was out for Rotherham, Huddersfield and Bristol City, we conceded 6 in those latter 2 games, that's when the problems started. Came back in and we won 2-0 (WBA). The defensive issues have started when teams decided to attack us and showed up defensive frailities that were hidden before, as well as injuries to Manning, Bree, KWP and Downes (protection for the defence). By the way I don't think Bree is fully fit yet.

You missed Sulemana running back to his own goal having picked it up from Manning's give away and then giving it away to the scorer, that was actually the costliest error in a catalogue of errors, Bednarek's initial clearance also pathetic (doesn't show up on the highlights). Big problem was though not the particular errors that ended up with the 1st goal, but that the whole back 5 went into panic mode and continued for about 10 minutes, they all lost their head, THB in particular went from his usual super cool, calm and efficient to headless chicken, I don't really know why they do this.

It wasn't, he was clearly trying to get out of the way of the shot and didn't turn his back, he was side on, not trying to block it at all. Gav probably had it covered, unfortunately the slight nick off Stephens deflected it in. The goal was primarily the fault of Manning initially, losing the ball and Sulemana running back toward goal and then giving it away. The finish from the Sunderland player was actually a decent strike. Manning was crap again yesterday, not just for their first goal, but also for the earlier chance where he set up Ba, who fluffed his lines. Still he did win the penalty so something good came from him being on the pitch (but nothing defensively).

He was studying for his Law degree in 2014 way before he joined us, he was doing it through the Open University and expected to complete in 6 years (he was already doing his 2nd year), so probably completed a few years ago now, unless of course he found he had less spare time when he joined Celtic and then Saints. Report here from 2014: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dundee-uniteds-stuart-armstrong-reveals-3338131. Looks like he graduated by 2020.

Based on current positions and how we have fared against the other teams it would probably make more sense to finish 4th and play West Brom than finish 3rd and play Hull.