SaintAndy14

Persistent 'Maya Yoshida' chants at the next home match? At least to show Hughes/board that the fans can see the obvious - that he's a better option than Hoedt. And I'm sure would improve us with the Captain's armband, too. Bertrand is not Captain material!

Set-piece ability aside, I do agree that he offers very little. Hasn't progressed as we thought/hoped when bursting onto the scene at 17/18. I suppose quite similar to Redmond in that respect, although he is currently showing more than JWP.

My thoughts exactly. As soon as we shifted to Austin up top alone, you just knew that we would be on the defensive. Austin is far too static to play on his own, no pace nor a target man. As much as Long gets slated by many, he's the best option alongside Ings as he makes things happen and Ings will benefit from that. I should be being more positive as it was a great win! With some very good performances. Plus, we fortunately had the useless Benteke up top for them!

Standard response of 99% of footballers when asked about a potential transfer, though.

Thank you, Mark Hughes! What a great job you have done. Please now stay on and build on this next season. He already knows the squad, staff, way the club operates and who he wants to keep/ship out.

Thanks for nothing, City. Also means they have to win their last 2 to reach the 100 point mark, so they'll probably want to smash it when they come to us.

This is getting very worrying...What are City doing?? Mike Dean halfheartedly telling Pritchard to walk off quicker and then laughing about it again - what a disgraceful ref.

What a day that was! I remember returning to Winchester afterwards as was at uni there at the time and walking home and nearly every car was beeping its horn as it drove past us in our Saints shirts and cheering out the window! That last 5-10mins, though, after Stern got sent off and we were bombarded with long balls into our box...geez!

Awful, but Brighton won't go down. Still good to keep them in the discussion for relegation though, as the more teams still not completely safe the better to keep the element of doubt about.

How do you think we will set up? Will Long start to try to stretch their fairly slow defence? Out of the 11 that started last week, it was only Redmond who didn't have a good game in my opinion (except for his contribution to starting the counter-attack for Tadic's first goal). Everton are quite a slow team overall, so pace could be an advantage. Sims to have an impact?

Think I've finally stopped shaking after that 2nd half! What a huge win - we really are on a constant roller coaster supporting Saints, season after season! Brilliant to see all the players giving 100% and their reactions after the final whistle. Just hope it's not too little, too late.

When was the last time we had a convincing win - Everton at home? I've forgotten the feeling! Imagine if we had a big win today...we can dream!

Come on mate, we lost a Cup Final in February, were mid-table and had nothing to play for, no threat of relegation - most teams would have petered out in those closing matches. Absolutely nothing to play for and the players were probably still flat from losing a Cup Final that we could have won.

Low expectations and people giving/given up hope perhaps = a win at last! That would put the pressure on Swansea to get something against Chelsea in the late game, knowing we were currently only a point behind them...

Hope they've checked to avoid the Marathon route!

3mins added on, the ref wastes at least 30secs walking over to check the ball was in the area for the corner (which it was), there's then 1min lost for a Brighton player down with a head injury from the corner, yet he blows on 93mins and 7secs!

At that stage, Cork was playing well, was extremely consistent and Wanyama was up and down, including regularly giving the ball away in dangerous areas in central midfield. Why are those people 'right weirdos'? By the way, 'right weirdos' doesn't need the apostrophe unless they're possessing anything.

What can you do when there's such a poor standard of refereeing? Dean, in pretty much any other job, would be disciplined for poor performance and would be fired by now, looking back at past shockers that he hasn't had to answer to. How has he not been demoted and lower-league refs given an opportunity in his place? I may have this wrong, but I think he was 4th Official in the Man U v WBA game - when Rondon was subbed off, you could see him say "Hurry up, Sol!" Or something very similar. A second or two later, he then started laughing (Rondon must have said something back or made a facial expression, as his back was to the camera) and Dean didn't bother trying to hurry him up anymore. What kind of officiating is that?! Showing no discipline or air of authority whatsoever. Did anyone else see that?

It's the hope that kills you! After yesterday's defeat and results that followed, I've spent the last 24hrs convincing myself that dropping to the Champ wouldn't be so bad - overhaul of the squad, cheaper tickets again and (hopefully) a lot more victories. Now, after reading this thread, I can see a way out should we beat Leicester! Never a dull season with Saints.

As Batman says above. Can you see him giving his all for 46 games in the Champ?

Absolutely. How much of that will we recover, should we go down? FF might stay, but only if he's going to be Number 1. We might get close to £10m for him due to past form/reputation and the fact he's reaching his goalkeeping prime age. Gabbi we might get £10-15m for, again based on his previous reputation and international caps. Carrillo, God knows what will happen there. Lemina we may even make a profit on. Boufal, I doubt we will get close to the money we paid for him, but looking forward to seeing him leave anyway. Redmond I feel will still be with us in the Champ, should we go down. Clasie I thought we paid a lot more than £6m for? Was it not £11m or something like that? He will go fairly cheaply, anyway. Gardos, contract expiry.

Yes, I think it would be good for both Saints and Hughes. For us, Hughes will have had time here to work out who he wants to keep and who he wants to sell (nothing like a relegation battle to show players' true characters) and there won't be that 'bedding in' period where he needs to start changing tactics/philosophies etc. As for Hughes, he will want to prove (after many successful years in the Prem) that he really is a good manager and can take us straight back up. I can't see him getting another Prem job next season, unless it's a struggling side looking to appoint to stay up like we did, so it would be a good move for him, too.

Long dropped? Have I missed something and he's injured? (Have been traveling since yesterday lunchtime so this is possible) I thought Long was brilliant v both Arsenal and Chelsea, constantly running and harassing their defence and creating chances for us going forward. We need players like him in a relegation battle if we are to stand a chance - players who play with passion, determination and give 100%. Where Gabbi and Austin are more intelligent players and better finishers, Long will help to create more opportunities for us and the other two just don't run or work as hard.

I can't really fault or criticise him for yesterday's performance, I thought he looked more like the Bertrand of old with lots of energetic runs to the byline. Shows how the tactics under MP restricted him. What I would criticise more is the Club's decision to make him captain in the absence of Davis - Bertrand's clearly not captain material! He's not vocal nor a leader on the pitch (I can't imagine he is off it, either). He's got the armband purely because he's been with us for years and is very experienced. Yoshida should have been captain and should be for the remaining fixtures, should Davis not return.

Geez, someone hide the knives...