At last a player (DC) has come out and said, what we all thought, that pre-season last year was too tough and caused injuries. Said they are in safe hands with NA. Also added that he is now fully fit and ready to go if picked. Hope so..class player.
Yes, OS. Didn't mean to make it sound like I was in the know. Just don't want another start to the season like last year..wouldn't mind the same end to the season though.
We might win our first game of the season! When was the last time that happened? Seriously, I don't know
I can't remember the game, but I think it's only happened once in last fifteen years. I'm sure someone must have the stats.
I don't know the stats, but it would definetly make a welcome change to win the opening game for once. I remember that awful opening game against Palace at home, i think it was the 07/08 season. Lost 1-4, was more of an annihilation really, defence was shocking!....Luckily all things saintly are on the up these days and despite the odds, i would even consider betting that saints win the first game this coming season, says it all about the feel good factor really.
I am the man with stats and i can say that the last time we won on the first day of the season was in 1999 when saints beat coventry 1-0 at coventry.
It's quite depressing that. I'm pretty sure Egil got the goal. The only time that we have ever won on the opening day whilst I've been following Saints.
We all knew this, so lets not not dwell on the past, and look onto next season with the right men in charge
We've had various changes on the board over the years, but really it was all the same. Until relegation happened, we knew we would be in bottom half of Premiership, probably close to the relegation zone. You're right, this is a new beginning. This time we don't know where we're going to end up..there is a great feeling of hope. Our Chairman has huge ambitions for us and our Manager is positivity personified. Good times.
I can recall saints tonking QPR 5-1 when we played QPR on the first day of the season back in 86/87. Colin Clarke scored a hatrick.
We will be going for a club record seven successive league wins in our opening fixture so hopefully we can produce the goods for once straight from the off.
Less to do with the board and more to do with management style. Funny how (perceived) good managers will disagree on routines. You will recall that Strachan always insisted that we were not fit enough until we could swim loch lomond and run up ben nevis whereas Ballie would make sure the lads got a good table at Simon's wine bar. I can recall (back in the day) that Peter Osgood regularly used to thumb a lift up/down Hill Lane rather than enteraining the jog. Hope NA gets the balance just right.
NA, as a physio, knows a lot about getting and keeping players fit. Last season it was noticeable that the players were fit to the end of the match or 97 min (as NA called it).