mrfahaji

Same for me, although without a season ticket it can be pretty tricky getting tickets for the smaller grounds in London. That's what makes Fulham's "neutral end" so useful! Would find it funny if Newcastle failed to get promotion. I also think about competitors for Saints - Newcastle and Leeds could eventually establish themselves as top-half sides, which isn't great for us. Reading & Huddersfield are much more likely to be strugglers.

The article is a bit vague, it says "watch the footie tonight", so does that mean that 45% of Saints fans would rather spend Valentines Day with their partner rather than watch a Champions League game on TV? If so, I'm surprised it's not higher! That's quite different from saying you'd miss a live game you had a ticket for if it fell on Feb 14.

That is a great example of a dire game that we won, however people don't seem to be quite so forthcoming about the games we played ok in and lost.

Can't believe I've spent the last half an hour reading that... however it was quite amusing. Amazing how their opinions, much like those on here I suspect, change so much through the course of the game. "Gibson looks nails", "Januzaj has really turned up today!", "N'Dong bossing it" after 20 minutes; By the end - "Forgot Gibson was even playing", "God Januzaj has been poor today" and "N'Dong is soft as fk, gives the ball away and falls over".

Agree that the big list of songs can help generate ideas, even if some of the ones in that list wouldn't work. And yes, as much as multiple verses on here can be amusing, there's next to no chance of them realistically turning into a crowd favourite. It's also key that a chant doesn't try to cram lots of syllables into the line even if it appears to work literally when written down, and also the specific words help rather than hinder the line scan. Anything which requires fans to sing something quickly to get the words in will fall flat on its face. It's why I've suggested the 'Radio Ga Ga' one above, it's by no means a clever or inventive chant but the word "Gabbiadini" is easy to sing in that rhythm!

It's a shame Manolo is one syllable short of Graziano - in light of Saturday's performance we could have used the "Ho ho ho it's Magic" song. Perhaps an extra word could be found from somewhere? Failing that, 'Radio Ga Ga' has a very easy rhythm and syllable pattern: Our Manolo Gabbiadini Gabbiadini Gabbiadini Manolo what's new? Manolo, score and we'll love you (not sure about the last two lines)

First major cup final at Wembley in my lifetime (2003 at Cardiff; JPT & ZDS don't count), looking forward to it immensely. Going on holiday for a week and due back on the Saturday - it was the Sunday until I changed my flights! As much as I will try to enjoy the holiday, I'm already feeling anxious about something going wrong with the flights and somehow not making it back..

Funny how as a kid growing up in the 90s they were my most hated team, pretty much because they won everything, and at that stage I'd never experienced having our true rivals anywhere near the top table. However, they are now one of my 'favourite', though I use that term loosely, of the top sides, because a) they're not Liverpool or Tottenham, b) maybe the nostalgia in me now misses Man Utd not challenging for the title, c) at least they are a genuinely big club and haven't rocketed up the standings purely on the back of an owner prepared to give them unlimited money (yes I know they spend as much as the others now, but they didn't use the money to go from nobodies to title challengers). The manager of a side usually influences how much I like a team in a temporary period, and undoubtedly Mourinho makes me like them less, but I think the previous factors still play more of a part.

It's a shame he could only be bothered to try for some of our games rather than all of them, we might have got a bit more cash for him (we probably ought to have done anyway). I had reservations about whether he'd be consistent enough but is showing that he's capable of pulling it out every week for Liverpool. Much to my chagrin!

I do wish every result wasn't followed by a whopping amount of "I told you so" posts and threads, whichever way it may be. There's no denying Les Reed has put a lot of good things in place, deserves recognition for our recent continued success, and yes, has put a system in place that has allowed us to unearth some great players. However, if he misses an opportunity in one area (e.g. centre back) but delivers in another, it doesn't render any criticism of the former suddenly incoherent or incorrect.

It just happened to be your post that I picked on for this, but you are doing sterling work spreading the word, good job Good result and good performance! Lots of positives.

FINALLY back to what we're used to seeing, Sunderland scoring own goals against us.

Hope that's not the reason...!

Poor defending, but from our perspective, brilliant goal. Sublime from Tadic, fantastic from Gabbiadini. HOUSTON, WE HAVE... A STRIKER

One plus point about our style is that we are very good at playing our way out from the back. Lots of neat triangles when we are under pressure rather than hoofing it clear. I realise that we may get caught out at some point doing this though... At his best I think Tadic is best wide, but he's playing a lot better today than in recent matches, it's good having someone orchestrating things a bit further forward who can pick out good passes.

Bertrand has looked good so far today, no surprise that the goal came from him. Please can we not call him Barry, it's a dreadful nickname for a dreadful reason!

Decent play (got a bit lucky with the ricochet) from Yoshida, Tadic & Gabbiadini. Woeful finish from Cedric, a professional footballer should be able to keep their composure and hit a decent striker in that position. Not saying he should score, but must do better.

Redmond has decent pace but he is always so slow to get off his mark!

Should do much better than that, Gabbiadini. We were a bit lucky to get that chance though, Redmond having failed to find Tadic with a simple ball moments earlier.

We're being cut through like a hot knife through butter. I guess when you're up against the attacking force of Sunderland you have to ride your luck a bit.

It's one of the most frustrating pieces of our regular play. Player doesn't want to take a chance by hitting a risky/hopeful ball forward, so plays it safe. Not necessarily anything wrong with that, but when a few passes later Forster lumps it forward with an even more risky/hopeful ball with the outcome of a successful ball being worse than the original scenario, you have to wonder...!

Correct. It should be KA-ser-ez, with the emphasis on the first syllable. The other difference is that in Argentina/Uruguay (in addition to the s/th difference in all Latin America) they pronounce a double L as a 'zh'/'jh' instead of a Y as they do in Spain, Peru, Mexico etc. Which is why everyone calls the Leicester striker Leo Uzjhoa. But obviously that's not relevant for Caceres...

There's no denying that our record from attack is poor, but to exclude Austin's goals and include Gabbiadini's "paltry one goal" skews the truth a little more than necessary!

Thought this was about current favourite rather than all time, but as most seem to be adding that to their list... Obviously Le Tiss would be top, probably ahead of Benali, Marsden, Pahars and Lambert. Not sure what order though!

Aguero and Sanchez are, in my opinion of course, the closest to that level in the Premier League. Hazard perhaps worth a mention. Never thought I'd come round to this point of view, but I'd sooner have Kane than Lukaku, even if Lukaku has a higher potential ceiling. Kane has a better all round game (despite strangely not being obviously good at one thing) and is more consistent in finding the net. Still maintain that Pochettino got lucky with his emergence though.