Kingsland Red

That's the third dire season thanks to the management recruitment after Koeman left us, hard to stay interested to travel and watch a lot of the dross,last week at West Ham and today being typical of the season. We need a leader in defence and a goal scorer and no more "water carriers". Now we have Ralph on board we are due a decent season next time around. Unlike the previous three incumbents , I think we can put our trust in the manager and his efforts over the summer recruiting / shipping out and a strong hard working pre season.

Any rumours on who the main shirt sponsor may be ?

Exactly this. One assumes Ralph is aware of the prize money structure. We need every penny we can get to fund his summer rebuild.

I prefer the ‘human wind sock’ analogy

At Waterloo Station. That was a waste of an afternoon. We could have told Ralph how Forster and Ely would play. Why weaken a weakened team ?

Ah yes, from memory the cheapest Rolling Stones tickets at St Marys were £80, a great live show and without the angst of late goals by the opposition.

Unbelievable challenge and looking on his website still well short of the target of £1m. Come on Saints fans ....

Ings is probably a good example of our change after RH - he arrived from Liverpool match fit after a pre season there, and started the season looking very sharp. The Hughes lethargy in training kicked in mid season, and he got the injury. Now he is getting back to his best.

No dithering this year, have renewed already and look forward to a season with Ralph running the show

Looking forward to it - Always enjoy our trip to the East End, although Westfield is not the same as the walk through the street vendors' stalls etc from the Upton park tube station to the old ground.

.... and at St Marys, when we handed them another 3 points

Just back. Assume Yoshi was ill as not in the match day squad. RH mentioned on the radio we were 5 points below Cardiff after we lost there, we are now 7 above them. With an RH pre season and a few new players hopefully we can leave all these mistakes behind and have a mid table season with a cup run, just like before Puel arrived and killed the spirit.

I've not been convinced by Ings this season, maybe due to him never reaching full fitness (?). Both him and Austin are not really suited to Ralph's pressing style. I would hope the club review the entire attacking area of the team, we seem very wasteful in front of goal and generally (except Redmond and Sims) lack pace and are easy for defenders to read.

Same old - A lot of dribbling with little end product.

Watford may be best off accepting it, so he doesn't risk losing the appeal, get anything longer and miss the cup final....

Sims is an ideal Ralph / Poch type young player, who Ralph can teach what he expects him to do , and mould him into a decent player. Mo is an established player with too many bad habits, set in his ways. Since Poch we have lacked a football coach with the ability to teach and improve young players in what has become known as The Southampton Way.

If it is about £2M for every league place, I would hope it is in Ralph's interest to get as high as possible to enhance the monies available for "another CB, midfielder and fit striker", rather than " put out some U23s for the rest of the games".

I anticipated that being the case

Anybody else watching Lille v PSG ? Very impressed with Pepe and Bamba up front ( with Ruis Fonte !) tonight ,as Jose Fonte scored the 5th goal in Lille's 5-1 win ? Probably being touted all over Europe , but both are very fast, direct and skilful young players.

The subs were spot on - Ings looked leggy and was chasing down shadows up top with little service; Sims had run his game; and Romeu certainly was required down the middle. Long's goal was well deserved for the way he never let the defenders relax but from where we sit looked off-side (?)

I have no idea what the impact of this is will be , but as stability has not been Saints best mate for many years , probably absolutely nothing.

Henderson provided an excellent lesson in man management when he came on - immediately getting in the referees ear and putting doubt in his mind. It all went Pete Tong for Saints thereafter. Of course it will all end in a great story - like when Mane was chopped down when clean through at Leicester and the resultant blatant penalty and sending off never happened.

Far to many away fans in the Kingsland these days. Now the PA is sorted, this and the lack of wifi will be on my summer season ticket questionnaire return.

Burnley must beat Cardiff, as thereafter their fixtures are a nightmare.

Great to see Lee Wort back at the club, but so sad he never made it to, say the National League, other than a spell at Gosport in Nat League South. A very strong player at youth levels