Rut

Archer's wanky, pisspot one today takes some beating. I can't think of a worse one. All things considered like where the game stood at the time. Has there ever been one that sucked more? The rebound tame header straight back to the keeper just added to how shit it was.

No need for an 'Oops' - just wondered where the hell you found it. Should have known that the obvious answer was that you remembered it from a match thread from over 10 years ago. Fair play. Poor Iain Dowie... A couple of years back I used to hear him quite often as a co-commentator. Was brilliant. He'd try and speak as fast as he could think. Slow down mate! Take a breath. You're not making any sense! Was still way better than most of them though.

Hang on a minute here - she had a cat whose arse looked like Kenny Dalglish but you didn't instantly become a Lpool fan? What was wrong with you? It gave you a perfectly acceptable reason to support the team who won the most. Nobody could have called you a glory supporter. When Saints win the league next season I hope you are all prepared for all the Southampton based Lpool/Man Utd etc fans all claiming that 'they've always supported Saints as well'. Have you fuck... That really happened in Leicester in 2016.

Where the hell did you find this picture? I only ask because I took it. It's from just over 10 years ago. Palace v Saints March 2014. Final score was 1-0 to Saints. As for glory supporters? I don't care if your gran's cat had an arse that looked like Kenny Dalglish. I ain't talking to you about football.

Wasn't too sure what teams were seen as good/bad so took a grab of the best odds around at the start of the season to get a better idea. Bookies weren't far off - Ipswich to be promoted at 11/2 was the longest winning odds. You can get 200/1 on Saints to finish top 4 next season. Back to reality... *** Winner 4/1 Leicester 7/1 Leeds 8/1 Saints 10/1 Middlesbrough 16/1 Norwich 18/1 Ipswich 20/1 Watford / West Brom / Sunderland 25/1 Stoke 28/1 Coventry 33/1 Millwall 40/1 Blackburn / Swansea 50/ Bristol City 66/1 Sheffield Wednesday / Hull / Cardiff / Preston / Birmingham 80/1 QPR / Huddersfield 125/1 Plymouth Argyle 200/ Rotherham *** To be promoted (1st/2nd/Play-off winner) 13/8 Leicester 12/5 Leeds 5/2 Saints 4/1 Middlesbrough 5/1 Norwich 11/2 Ipswich / West Brom 6/1 Watford 7/1 Stoke 8/1 Sunderland / Coventry 9/1 Millwall 11/1 Swansea 12/1 Blackburn 14/1 Bristol City 16/1 Hull / Preston 18/1 Birmingham / Sheffield Wednesday 22/1 Cardiff 28/1 Huddersfield / QPR 40/1 Rotherham / Plymouth Argyle *** Relegation 15/8 Rotherham 5/2 Plymouth Argyle 3/1 QPR 10/3 Cardiff 7/2 Huddersfield / Sheffield Wednesday 9/2 Birmingham 5/1 Preston 11/2 Hull 13/2 Bristol City 8/1 Swansea / Blackburn 12/1 Millwall / Coventry 14/1 West Brom / Sunderland 16/1 Watford / Stoke 20/1 Ipswich 25/1 Norwich 33/1 Middlesbrough 40/1 Leeds 50/1 Saints 66/1 Leicester

I like these optimistic threads but... Not wanting to piss on your bonfire but a lot of bookies have these games priced up already. A Saints/Draw/Saints treble pays about 8/1. That's a long enough shot - let alone the umpteen games after that... Can't wait for when the BBC puts up their 'who's gonna win the league/get relegated' predictor page. You know - the thing where people spend 10 mins filling out the scores of 100-odd games and then solemnly declare that xxx team will stay up by 1 point. Interestingly the bookies have Leeds as favs to beat Leicester. I think there's def some value in the Leicester price. I'd have it as more of a coin-flip game. Especially after Leicester bottled it today. Can't see them losing 2 in a row after the season they've had so far. We shall see... https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/leeds-v-leicester/winner

Away from football - has anyone ever met someone who has answered 'West Bromwich' when asked where they are from? I don't think I ever have. Easy Saints win tonight. Bring it on.

How much are you putting on? I'm guessing at least a couple of grand? Can't believe the bookies are letting people bet on something that is 'obvious'. They are literally giving money away!

I bet you think Pompey are gonna win the league as well don't you? Ages to go before things are nailed on - in any league.

They're gonna refund. Wonder if they actually tested it before putting it live? https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/refunds-to-be-issued-for-norwich-streaming-passes

Yep it's a rip-off. Paid up for the video and it doesn't work. Sums the club up. What a joke.

If Pompey had been taken over by billionaires and offered him big wages then it would be 'I've always wanted to play for my home town club'. As it is West Ham have offered him the highest salary so it'll be something like 'It's important that I play in the Prem League to increase my chances of playing for England and I've always thought West Ham fans are some of the best around.' (or whatever...). Out of interest - are we getting any quotes from the players who are going to Saudi? Have any of them tried to bullshit at all about it NOT being for the money? I don't blame the players for blindly moving for more money. Just don't expect me wish any of them 'good luck'. Hopefully West Ham play him as a defensive midfielder and his first few free kicks are bad ones. Not that he'll care that much really...

Thanks. Works fine after having to register. Better than nothing!

Love the team - looks quality. Saints to win easily. It's guaranteed mush I tell ya. Top of the league tonight.

I reckon they'll be about 30 games out of the 46 that ain't on ESPN+ so it works out about $7 a game for USA based fans. Would have bitten your arm off for that a few years back. Seems expensive now because we've been spoiled with the cheap Prem TV coverage of recent years. Will give it a go. Would rather pay a bit extra to watch Saints than some Prem game that I don't really care about.

You can subscribe to ESPN+ (ESPN+ is different than plain ESPN. ESPN+ is online - not a TV channel) for $9.99 a month (https://plus.espn.com/). Sorry - no idea if you have to have a USA address though. If you can subscribe you'd def get the Sheff Weds game. Or get a VPN for your phone and watch it through your Sky account. If not then just check on the main board nearer the time. Might be some links to watch it. Should have come over last season - would have been a lot easier! Have a good holiday.

20 points clear by xmas I reckon! Well maybe 10. Praps 5.

Current best available odds taken from oddschecker.com Mon 31 Jul 2023. Season starts Fri 4 Aug (5 days time). Some team here is well under priced. But who? Stoke at 16/1 to be relegated? Sunderland at 8/1 to be promoted? I'm just gonna bet on Saints to get promoted. You've got to ain't ya? If they did actually win the league then you're a little bit gutted but not that much. You've won your bet and umm, Saints have won the league! Enjoy the season everyone. May all your bets be winners. Winner 4/1 Leicester 7/1 Leeds 8/1 Saints 10/1 Middlesbrough 16/1 Norwich 18/1 Ipswich 20/1 Watford / West Brom / Sunderland 25/1 Stoke 28/1 Coventry 33/1 Millwall 40/1 Blackburn / Swansea 50/ Bristol City 66/1 Sheffield Wednesday / Hull / Cardiff / Preston / Birmingham 80/1 QPR / Huddersfield 125/1 Plymouth Argyle 200/ Rotherham To be promoted (1st/2nd/Play-off winner) 13/8 Leicester 12/5 Leeds 5/2 Saints 4/1 Middlesbrough 5/1 Norwich 11/2 Ipswich / West Brom 6/1 Watford 7/1 Stoke 8/1 Sunderland / Coventry 9/1 Millwall 11/1 Swansea 12/1 Blackburn 14/1 Bristol City 16/1 Hull / Preston 18/1 Birmingham / Sheffield Wednesday 22/1 Cardiff 28/1 Huddersfield / QPR 40/1 Rotherham / Plymouth Argyle Relegation 15/8 Rotherham 5/2 Plymouth Argyle 3/1 QPR 10/3 Cardiff 7/2 Sheffield Wednesday / Huddersfield 9/2 Birmingham 5/1 Preston 11/2 Hull 13/2 Bristol City 8/1 Swansea / Blackburn 12/1 Millwall / Coventry 14/1 West Brom / Sunderland 16/1 Watford / Stoke 20/1 Ipswich 25/1 Norwich 33/1 Middlesbrough 40/1 Leeds 50/1 Saints 66/1 Leicester

Saints are going to piss this league. Well finish top anyway. Norwich go up in 2nd. Millwall to win the play-offs. Preston (and a couple of others) to get relegated.

Pretty sure they get the replays up pretty quickly - seem to remember having to avoid/watch later for a League Cup game sometime. Will know for sure on Friday - we'll see how long it takes to get the Sheff Weds game replay available... You not up for getting up at 4.30am for the Plymouth game then? Plastic supporter!

It worked! I put this post up and the next day Championship game are now listed on ESPN+. Of course... Fri Aug 4 3pm ET - Sheff Weds A - yes, it's on ESPN+ Tue Aug 8 2.45pm ET - Gillingham A(LC) - no Sat Aug 12 3pm ET - Norwich H - no Sat Aug 19 7.30am ET - Plymouth A - yes That's about as far the listing currently goes. Cool that it appears that all UK Championship TV games will be shown - plus it has some Sat 3pm UK non-TV ones as well (no Saints ones yet). Still TBC about whether we can see the rest of them somehow. Roll on next week. We're gonna piss this league!

Any vibe on what the deal is going to be with watching Saints in the Championship this year? I watched quite a few Championship games on ESPN+ last season. Currently there aren't any Championship games showing up on their upcoming game schedule: https://www.espn.com/watch/schedule?categoryId=119cfa41-71d4-39bf-a790-6273a52b0259&channel=ESPN_PLUS&om-navmethod=eplusnav&type=upcoming Plus on their main soccer schedule (https://www.espn.com/soccer/schedule/_/date/20230804) there's nothing under 'TV' for our game @ Sheff Weds on Aug 4 (9 days time). Hopefully this will change soon. If ESPN+ does show all the UK TV games (and a few others) then hopefully Saints will have some sort of iFollow type streaming subscription to watch the rest of them. We shall see 'ey?

Can't be many? I just know of this one. On about 1.30 he sings 'Head to St. Marys - see the best team on earth. Southampton FC - been a fan since birth.' Anyone know RapperNED? He nails a few things about Southampton pretty well in this song!

Beattie's opening goal that night is one of my all-time favs. Had to check this and yep - we hadn't scored a goal for the previous 4 games. 1 Nov 2003. Man City H L 0-2 8 Nov 2003. Bolton A D 0-0 22 Nov 2003. Chelsea H L 0-1 29 Nov 2003. Villa A L 0-1 2 Dec 2003. Pompey H W 2-0 I went to all those games (t-shirt not a medal please) and it had been a bit depressing. Talk in the pub pre-game was positive though. We've been saving our goals for tonight. Hadn't we. Drank in the King Alf from early afternoon. Usual talk of Pompey in town and then about 5pm-ish someone heard that Pompey had just attacked the Joiners. The Joiners? That ain't even open on match day... Well it was that day if you knew the right people. The sort of people who invited Pompey to come and say 'hello'. 2nd hand it was that a mob of Pompey were strangely allowed to roam unopposed (by SFC or police) through town to the Joiners to 'do the scummers' - unaware that every nutter from Southampton was waiting for them. The pub emptied - Pompey didn't like what they saw and most of them legged-it. A few stayed and Saints just laughed at them and told them to fuck off. Nobody got badly hurt. Rumours that Southampton old bill knew who were in the Joiners so were happy to let Pompey go there (they stopped them going elsewhere quite easily). Was def suspicious that they let them get all the way down there... 20 years on - any good first hand stories from this incident? What really happened? Did anyone actually get nicked? As the evening drew in more match goers stream past the Alf - including tons of Pompey. Lots of bravado from both sides. Alf ended up closing the curtains (it was that bad man!). Police everywhere. Atmosphere was proper old-school. Block 42 was given to Pompey that night. My season tickets were in 41 on the aisle of 42 - didn't get moved so ended up right next to them. Hostile was an understatement. I swear some of them were foaming at the mouth as they stood there offering out any 'scummer cunt' who wants it (behind a thick line of police and stewards of course). Praps these tough guys should have been at the Joiners earlier on... When Westwood made an appearance from up the back somewhere he was greeted with a raucous 'you can stick your fuckin' bell up your arse'. Of course this just made him rattle it even more. Great to have a cartoon character to give abuse to - but I bet he secretly loves it when everyone is chanting 'Westwood is a wanker' at him. Craved attention. Got attention. Total genuine (not like the 'for the camera' shit of today) mayhem when Beattie scored right in front of us. I think everyone ended up about 20 seats from where they were before the goal. Don't remember there being too many incidents after the game. A great night.

Thought this thread was about Southampton - not dirty northern shitholes like Winchester. Shame it ain't the Southampton King Alf - that was always a handy pub for games & used to put gigs on during the week as well.