Kenilworthy

And we could have afforded him a couple of seasons back

What I have an issue with is that time and again there are similar challenges on our players that sometimes don't even result in yellow cards. If we accept that this is a red card then it just has to be a red card every time a player does the same thing

Yes its not Smallbone that was at fault on Saturday, it was the manager.

Isn't the yo-yo higher risk? Especially if you fail to go back up in two years.

So far we haven't mentioned David Elleray, Harrow housemaster and self-styled "best referee in England". My heart sank whenever I saw he was in charge. A classic display was home against Arsenal in August 97. Bergkamp elbowed David Hughes so hard he was lifted off his feet. Mr Elleray saw nothing. Bergkamp stayed on to score two goals.

One of Mr Dean's lesser known transgressions. In the away match at Watford in 2018/19 - the Shane Long goal game. At 1-0 Long was brought down in the penalty area - no pen. After the late equaliser and in time added on, Redmond was set to burst through on the wing and was pulled down by a defender. Dean had the whistle to his lips ready to blow for the foul. Then he realised it would be a second yellow and red card for Watford. So he then just waved play on.

The one thing about the Anderlecht game that was not iffy was Van Der Elst's goal. It was a mistake by Steele, although this video is so murky you can hardly make it out.

Glockner was clearly bent. Disallowed a perfectly good goal by Channon in the first leg in Belgium that would have been a vital away goal. In the home leg just would not give us a decision at the Dell. Somehow we overcame that to level the tie at 2-0. Steele was not sent off though. He made the mistake that resulted in Anderlecht's late winner. Glockner had form, he had shown clear bias a year earlier when refereeing Wales v Yugoslavia in the Euros.

He was fit for the City game Southampton v Manchester City, 05 October 2002 - 11v11 match report

2002

For older fans let's not overlook George Courtney. In a game at Villa in 83 he allowed Allan Evans to take three consecutive swipes at Frank Worthington unpunished. Finally Frank reacted and got a red card. He also gave Jimmy Case a "last defender" red card for a foul on Robson when standing on the halfway line at Old Trafford. His maliciousness against us even extended to the Atari Super Six tournament at the NEC, when again he sent Frank off in the final.

I don't think it could have been a red for Ayew as it wasn't denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. But it was certainly a penalty and yellow card. Even Dermott on the sky app today says so.

Lee Mason again. When we won 2-1 at Stoke in 2016. He sent off Mane for an elbow he imagined - it was overturned after the game

I kind of thought in that game that the penalties given that weren't were compensation for the blatant penalties he didn't give

Matt Messias - home against Manchester City in October 2022. Pahars was brutalized but ended up getting sent off. Amazingly we won 2-0.

1-0 defeat at home to Villa in Jan 2021 - Lee Mason on the pitch, Mike Dean on VAR. At least 5 scandalous decisions.

What hasn't been mentioned, maybe because it was just a small part of the overall cluelessness - what was going on with Ramsdale and goalkicks? He kept going wide right of the penalty area to receive the ball, sometimes coming out of it, leaving the goal completely unguarded should he fail to find a Saints player, which he often did.

Didn't have the best of days yesterday, despite a couple of brilliant touches. He didn't seem fully fit and I would have taken him off at halftime

Rob Edwards, the current Luton manager, made a better fist of having at go at the Premier League with worse players than we have. And he pays attention to defence.

There was a dreadful challenge just before our first goal that was a clear yellow card. Ok we took it quick and scored but the referee was still able to show a card - had he wanted to. What is the view on Vardy's assault on Saga? In real time I thought it was a red but haven't seen it back, and conveniently it was not shown on MOTD.

If you are in the Premier League you do have a small chance of winning the FA Cup or League Cup. Outside it that chance vanishes - the last team outside the top division to win either was Sheffield Wednesday in 1991. We ourselves have shown that teams outside the top six can reach finals and in recent years we have seen the FA Cup won by Leicester, Wigan and Portsmouth. The League Cup has been won by Swansea, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Blackburn, Leicester and even Spurs. That small chance of winning a trophy is why I want to cling on to the top division.

My main issue with the Championship is that there are far too many games. When you go home and away it really is a demanding weekend/midweek/weekend schedule that is unrelenting. With 20 teams it would be so much better

When did the fans turn on Cortese?

I said caretaker. That means someone to take us through a couple of games while we make a considered choice of the permanent manager. And I base the idea on the clear impact he has on players when he is on the pitch.

We could do a lot worse than having Lallana as caretaker player manager