SaintAndy14

Battle of the fittest now...

Shows how quick people are to judge when his name repeatedly came up in the worst Saints CBs of all time thread a month or so ago! Well done JV.

This.

The positive with this news is that we don't have to see him with the Captain's armband for a while. Personally, I think I could inspire the team more than him if I were hungover and suffering with the flu.

Think we need to get Stephens on at RB for Valery at HT - he's a foul away from a second yellow.

Think that's a little harsh on him tonight! The way we were set up, there were big gaps in midfield when they countered/flooded forward in the 1st half and our defenders were often running back towards their own goal whilst looking over their shoulders.

Not overly encouraged by that starting 11 - I think Spurs will beat us for both pace and power. Shame they aren't resting more first-teamers. We have to give it 100%, fight for every ball and hope that Spurs have a bit of a lackluster/complacent performance.

'Super Kelvin Davis' chant on repeat throughout the match?!

Haven't managed to get to SMS for quite a while now, so looking forward to this one, purely due to being back at a match again. Is the atmosphere likely to be pretty flat, or will the reputation of the opposition raise the noise level a bit? Agree that Hoedt should NOT be starting - even a place on the bench is questionable. Austin should be nowhere near the team, either. The side played pretty well last night, so a similar line-up would be encouraging. Hopefully Ings might return, though?

Anyone got any inside info/idea on why Romeu doesn't get a look-in in the 1st team now? Has he had a falling out with Hughes or something? Same as why Yoshi doesn't get the Captain's armband anymore, when not so long ago he was VC to Davis. Must be pretty demoralising for these experienced players to fall down the pecking order, often without any obvious reason as to why.

Surprisingly for us, excellent defensively so far. I thought Hoedt had a very good 1st half, and didn't expect to be writing that! Why we are starting with Austin, though, I have no idea. But the fact that even he's managed to get in behind Bompey's defense for a 1:1 surely means that Gabbi with his movement, or Long with his pace, are better options.

Geez, PMA, dude! There's some garbage in the League this season - worse than us. And although performances have been generally frustrating, particularly the going ahead and sitting back with shocking sub/tactical decisions, I think they've been better and slightly more encouraging than the bore-fest of last season.

Davis is 34 in Jan. There's something in that, though. Our squad is crying out for leadership/experience as we have few leaders in the squad. Look at how we go to pieces whenever we go in front, or lose our nerve towards the end of a match. When Bertrand is Captain material, it's clear that leadership options are lacking. Many players get better with age and don't peak until 30+. Somebody like Murray at Brighton, for example. Or Deeney, who has now got himself into shape and is leading his Watford side well.

Ironic that the pic above has "sporting heroes" written next to one of our many poor pieces of transfer business from around this period. Also ironic that Bennett received his only 2 full ROI caps in '07 when he was all over the show. If he did indeed get better, going on to represent Wycombe Wanderers and Cheltenham Town amongst others, then the ROI had clearly seen enough.

Just looked up Alan Bennett to see how his career turned out - 2 caps for ROI, both in 2007, and played in the Europa League for Cork City a couple of seasons ago! Was woeful when he played for us.

Spot on.

Certainly, there are many things 'wrong' with modern football, money making the Prem world go round being at the forefront, but I don't think it's a case of the 'good old days' when football grass was always greener. Rewind barely a generation, and you had players getting drunk the night before a match, even playing hungover in many cases, and certainly not putting in the effort that you see today in training/gym work and in terms of looking after themselves with diet and lifestyle choices etc. Even our legend MLT admitted to betting on a Saints match and whacking a ball out of play on purpose at one point. If one of our players did that today for personal gain, 99% of us would say he should never play for Saints again. Not disagreeing with the OP, as there are plenty of negative things about football today, but there were plenty of things wrong with it in the past, too. This is just the next generation of wrong.

The female pundit on SSN said that Targett had had a quiet night when he stepped up to take his pen!

This.

Richarlison's pen must go down as one of the worst in recent years! Runs up in a straight line, stops, jogs to the left to make an angle, jogs up, stops...then smacks it way over! And Walcott missing - superb! We deserve something to cheer about!

Exactly. Is he blind to these terrible decisions he's constantly making during matches, or just too stubborn to admit that his subs/tactical alterations in 2nd halves are shocking?

Completely agree.

Common sense decision is to keep him in the starting 11 on Sunday if playing fantastically. RB certainly hasn't played fantastically so far this season. Also means that Yoshi can be Captain again! Anyone other than RB...

Should have gone at this game as a 'free hit' and played all our players who aren't getting in the League starting 11 - JWP, Romeu, Gallagher etc. And say to them, "If you put in 100% and impress, you'll be starting against Chelsea on Sunday." As our current starters, minus a couple, aren't delivering. Keep things simple - those who train the best, have the best attitude and take their chance get selected in the next match. Get in there Ings!

True. All this 'I'd happily take a defeat in this one' or even 'accept' a defeat prior to a ball being kicked is crazy - yes, we are poor and dull at the moment, but we can still beat anyone. The convo above re preferring to go down and watch some more entertaining matches, more goals and points etc. I can understand a little more, as the feel-good factor of L1 and Champ days were pretty awesome, but in the last 2 seasons we have reached Wembley in both Cup competitions and somehow managed to stay up last season despite being dire - that Swansea game made up for much of the garbage, in my opinion. Went to click on the Everton build-up thread before and saw the opening comment mentioning do we even want to win, do we care? Seriously?! We nearly won a major competition 2 seasons ago and got close last season with very average squads, so this could be the season we win something. I get all the negativity around the place at the moment, and I don't think MH is going to lead us to any 'glory days', but let's get a bit of positivity back and try to make the most of what we have at the moment! Giving in prior to matches being played is a poor show.