Tony F

you mean text...?

Wiki says: "1945–46 was the first peacetime football season since the 1939–40 season was cut short due to World War II. On 7 May (as the war was ending), it was announced that the FA Cup would be resumed, and that the 44 clubs in the top two divisions of the 1938–39 season would play in the Football League North and Football League South[1] without promotion and relegation from the previous peacetime season." So, due to geography, Southampton and Sheffield would have been in different Leagues. HTH

Another great read sir, realistic and balanced, with the odd slice of wit as always.

Where I sit in Itchen/Chapel corner there are a couple of people whose sole agenda for the entire match seems to be to slag off Redmond; its almost an obsession. I am not sure what drives such vindictive, relentless negativity. We've all got the message .....but they drone on and on. Meanwhile on the pitch, taking Saturday as an example, it was galling to see Redmond waste the few chances he had, also the number of times he got the ball, and could have set up a quick, penetrative attack but, no, he passed back inside. By failing to make an impact on the match he is feeding the terrace trolls. Where do we go from here? That Right Mid spot seems to be a problem. Clearly Walcott can play there....but I think we desperately need S Armstrong back

I'm pretty sure that "casual walk ups" are no longer welcome. By my understanding, for right or wrong, it's because the club cannot assure home/away segregation if they allow walk-ups from persons not members or on the buyer database.

"Physio Room" or whatever it is called these days shows no date for Phillips to return. So probably not for our match. Of Saints' injured players, Armstrong is showing as 50/50 for Tuesday, all other players "no date"

I think the OP meant that there's a risk Valery could be sent off if he went up against Grealish, not the other way round. It's happened in the past with Valery.

See, that wasn't so bad, was it?

and......relax.... all that uncertainty is gently flowing away

The bookies (who generally have a firm hand on such things) are presently offering between 125-1 and 400-1 on a Saints relegation

Obafemi??

Could be worse..... "Ajax set new Eredivise record with 13-0 victory" (yesterday). Poor old VVV Venlo are gonna have that hanging over them for ages, as they'll discover....

Its happened. BBC just posted a piece entitled "Southampton's 9-0 defeat 'felt like relegation'- Bertrand"......... I really can't bring myself to add the link here......

Odds according to Skybet.

Fulham 1/3 West Brom 8/13 Burnley 11/8 Sheffield Utd 11/8 Newcastle 9/4 Crystal Palace 7/2 Brighton 9/2 West Ham 13/2 Leeds 12/1 Southampton 14/1 Aston Villa 22/1

Wouldn't disagree but he's now proved what a reckless clown he is, which is a tad worrying. Our front two need to keep an eye on him if he starts tearing around the penalty area. He needs stopping......

Me too. Happy to use a ST match rebate for this one....

Does explain a bit why Brighton were WHINGING so much about the "rules and regs" of Project Restart, having a Net spend of almost £200M over the last 5 years.... and

Does explain a bit why Brighton were WHINGING so much about the "rules and regs" of Project Restart, having a Net spend of almost £200M over the last 5 years....

"Never in doubt"? A two goal lead is never never in doubt (excellent double negative there!) No need to cite Saints as the only example. What happened to Everton last night? Being 2 up at 90+4 mins, a win would surely be "not in doubt"...? Nope!!

I thought it might be worth revisiting this question now we are (one game under) half way through the season and back at one-point-per game which is typical squeaky bum "might stay up" bang average. We need Norwich and Watford to keep up their "form" - plus I guess we need one from Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton or maybe even Everton to have a stinker of a second half of the season. Can Ralph keep Saints'nose over the parapet for another butt-clenching season of Premier league survival? How much longer can we keep playing this tempt-the-devil "flirting game" with relegation? I want to be positive ...... but the days when I would go to a match and look forward to entertaining, flowing football, three points and some goals to celebrate seems so long ago now!!

So...... we are 7/38 (or 18%) of the way through the season and have the "traditional" measly haul of one point per game in the bag, which, we all know, once again puts us in the "looking down the table, not up" mindset. It is helpful if we can have confidence that there are three teams that we can rely on to be worse than us for the remaining 31 games. Pessimism? Yes, but its the hope that kills you ....... and we've been seen this cycle repeat itself over too many seasons now. Buying a season ticket seems to be buying a whole load of stress you really don't need! After missing our chance to look up the table and not down (I'm referring to the Bournemouth game which we really shouldn't have given away as softly as we did) its starting to look like another "same old, same old" season...... Can Watford, Newcastle and Villa continue as they have so far and give us some breathing space? Or will Saints continue to demonstrate innovative ways to invade the bottom three spots?

Who Dat Austin bloke??

We have nobody that can reliably turn an opportunity into a goal. In the post we had Le Tis, Beattie, Lambert. Ings seems to squander far too many. So far Che is the same. Mr Long doesn't even know where the goal is. Even Yoshi has that excellent Saints knack of hitting the goalie when it would seem easier to miss (the goalie) and score....

Yes the stadium has many plus points. But - looking at the wider picture - its bit like considering house buying.....location, location, location. On the face of it, building a stadium near major road intersection looks a great idea, but in reality there is no generally available (ie for average punters) parking anywhere near the ground. The park and ride options are limited in number and the scrum for the buses after the final whistle can be horrendous - especially when its dark, teeming with rain etc. Public transport is pretty much the teeny trains running at 150% capacity. Yes you can walk (hike??) from town but in winter weather that might not be so attractive. And whats at/around the ground? Nothing apart from the stadium...... I would be interested to know how your arrival and departure went. My Uncle is a ST holder at AMEX and he really grinds his teeth at park and ride. Has to park up by about 2 hours before kick-off to get a space. And the scum to get back I've already described. At least in Southampton, most people walk no more than 20 mins to get to the ground be it from town, major train station, across the Itchen, street parking options etc. There is never a real problem getting to or from in good time. And you can easily visit a pub or eatery as part of your day out...... I think that a really smart (usable) location has more advantages