Saint Samuel

I sit at in the back row of block 42, hope we're not all being tarred with the same brish brush here! Before Saturday's game I was expecting block 43 to get some "plastic fans" abuse, but wasn't expecting it too go on for the whole game, got very boring, would rather have directed chants at the opposition fans than our own. I have to agree that we can be too negative at times, I remember someone telling me a a while back that a survey found Southampton fans to be the most pessimistic of all 92 league clubs, thought that sounds about right. My Dad isn't a Saints fan, when I made him sit through a televised game a few years ago (think we lost 1-0 at home to Blackpool) the one thing he commented on was how he could hear the crowd get on the player's back whenever a pass was misplaced or a mistake was made. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be a Saints fan, we've been great in the past couple of weekends against United and Peterborough (wasn't at the Posh game, but we sounded good on TV and was told it was a cracking atmosphere there), I just wish we could be a bit more positive at times.

Bedfords every pre match drink for us, usually a good atmosphere in there when a big game is on, was there earlier in the season for Arsenal/Spurs, was quite interesting.

Employing someone just to proof read is a real luxury with the state the industry is currently in.

Its a bit nit picky, having edited a student newspaper I can tell you its pretty hard to get every single thing right, the other day I was looking back at a 12 page newspaper I edited last year and spotted a few minor errors, always hard when you're up against a deadline to read every single word. It could've been a lot worse, my local paper today had a match report of Reading's defeat to QPR last Friday, under the strapline "Doncaster 0-3 Reading", mistakes will be made, better to make a minor one than a major one as Alain Perrin has pointed out above.

Good post, its great to see the club ran in a business like manner, its what was needed after years of mismanagement. None of us like to see Cortese falling out with a few club legends, but if achieves the goal of making Southampton a top flight club whilst remaining debt free then I hope they can see past his "control freak" way of doing things.

Its great to have such a prolific penalty taker, was watching the game on Saturday with non Saints fans when Rickie stepped up I could confidently say he would score. I did also say before that Kelvin would save both though, so was only half right.

Good point, Man United are on at the same time, guess it depends if there are more Man United or Southampton fans in the bar. My mate works there, will ask him and let you know. When I used to be a regular at the Royal Oak they had about six TVs and sometimes showed two games at the same time on Champions League nights, haven't been there in a couple of years though, so not sure whats changed. I'm fortunate, my local in Hungerford doesn't have ESPN, so will have to show the Saints game instead of Wolves/Man United.

Good effort, its about time we had a Cortese song.

Last time I watched Saints on TV was last year when we beat MK Dons in the first leg of JPT southern final, watched it in Varsity, good atmosphere and loads of Saints fans. Was quite a big game though, so don't know if it will be as packed on Saturday.

I feel sorry for Ryan Giggs, 20 loyal and great years for the club, comes on and changes the game for the second time in a week for them, yet the fans still sing about a player who put in a transfer request and left nearly two years ago now. At least when we sing about ex players its paying tribute to loyal servants like Le Tiss, Pahars etc. Hopefully now we've heard United sing Viva Ronaldo it will get us going with Viva Lallana, like with "Citys/Pompeys going down with the billion/no money in the bank" a couple of years ago.

That Viva Ronaldo song got annoying at the end, couldn't get it out of my head on the drive home.

I imagine he would've mentioned Le Tiss if he was sold for a massive profit. I suppose a lot of non Saints forget MLT was a product of our excellent youth academy because he went on play for us for many years, so they remember him when he was a bit older. Nice words from Sir Alex though, a great example of how a manager should show respect to his opponents.

I'm relieved, we've dodged a bullet there.

Theres a different rumour about him going around Hungerford pubs every week.

True, I just have particular reservations about this one.

That sounds exactly like the Charlie Austin I went to school with for five years, big gamble signing him, I can tell you now he won't like sitting on the bench.

Been talking to some more friends of Austin recently, apparently 6 clubs have a good chance of signing him, but we're not one of them. This weeks Hungerford rumour is Burnley, as apparently he is pally with Eddie Howe.

I may have been the other lad, was in the back row in block 42, at start of second half.

Can't see him surviving up North, will be too far away from his family.

Hope we play them in the Championship next season, will be good to tease Mr Holloway.

I remember Le Tiss saying in his book that Alex Ferguson owes him because he helped give Atkinson the sack, which led to Ferguson getting the job.

At least we would pick up a few Saints fans in Hungerford if he did sign, the last Saints game I watched in the pub here (Plymouth, first game of the season) the only person in the whole place was me and a mate I dragged along to watch it with me.

He was a Liverpool fan at school if I remember rightly, used to support Reading as well until he got dropped by their academy, close friends of his tell me he would never sign for them "after the way they treated him". I travel down from Hungeford for every game, can be be done in under an hour on a good day, though I'm not gonna count on getting a lift down with him if he does sign.

From what I've heard in the pubs in Hungerford Austin has his sights set on Championship (definitely not Reading though, apparently they treated him badly when he was in their academy). A close friend of his told me he probably wouldn't sign for a club in the same division as Swindon. When I spoke to this bloke just before Christmas he seemed to think Celtic were the most likely destination.

Spoke to a good friend of Austins in the pub last night, apparently he wouldn't sign for a club in the same division as Swindon, but I'm sure he can be tempted by a wage increase.