NewYorkSaint

Robbed.

If Bolton escape with a point or more, will be pretty outrageous. the Football gods can be mean as hell. aided by a really annoying ref

Keep the faith. If we get the first goal, more will follow. My main delight this first half was seeing how crucial a role JWP is playing. The midfield combo of him, Jander, Bragg and Downes is what will get us promoted.

I think keep the current line-up through 60 mins... then bring on Jander or Matsuki for Scienza. Azaz and Larin give us enough fire power.

No, he didn't 'decide' to do it. Pure instinct. I hate red cards. Almost always, the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

FA has been dreadful through this process. It can't be in anyone's interest to take this long. But it HAS to be coming to an end now. Pretty sure we'll know by the end of the week. Oh, and the immortal Bob Marley has a prediction for us all...

Ah, football. You're a cruel roller of the dice some days....

Count me in as pro Blackmore. He makes lots of mistakes but he's entertaining, knows how to read the mood. For me, Tessem overly snippety about Larin today. One reason he's scored so many this year is that he takes risks (as does Azaz). Most risks won't come off, but it doesn't mean it was wrong to try them.

Keep calm and carry on. We're much the better team. It does enrage me how teams target Leo for aggressive tackles and get away w it. I predict 1-2 Saints...

Sensational clearance by schlott

We've had super defensive starts to several games this season. Eckert has sometimes implied it's a plan to bring them forward, tire them out. We'll see

We'll get two more second half... Larin and JWP

We're back. What a day! Azaz, Scienza, Larin declaring their premier league quality.

There is so much luck in football. Their opening goal: a lucky deflection. Ryan Manning hits the post... unlucky miss. Their open goal miss... unlucky... 3 inches left and that is in. Score could easily be 2-2... or 3-0 Saints. But for me the bigger takeaway from the half was this: we're up against the current best team in the championship and are DAZZLING them. Some of our football in the last 25 mins... better than anything I've seen of any championship team. Zing-zing-zing kapow! Feels like the season is starting today. This has been thrilling. All we need is JWP to come in with a free-kick in the 80th minute...

During the last match there was a lot of moaning that the team lacked energy. This is one piece that JWP will bring us in spades. On many stats he's pretty much the most fit player in English football. It must have been pretty crushing for him to see his post-Saints career work out so poorly, but I could see him doubling down on determination to have a glowing chapter two at Saints. Possibly more should be made of the fact that he equalled Beckham's free kicks record while he was here. That, right there, speaks to stupendous talent. We now have a highly technical manager who may be able to unlock a couple of missing pieces to his game. James also, at least in my mind, represents the ethos of the club in a powerful way. Personally, I'll be among those celebrating if and when he returns.