Glad the BBC commentary noted how much more sense it makes us singing it than when other teams substitute their name and hijack the song.
One very minor niggle last night was the Northam car park being closed without a message on the big screens. We walked round because we knew the away fans were being kept back and there had been no announcement (although if there had we wouldn't have heard it on our poor system) and they always put a message up on the screen to tell you if it is closed. I hope it wasn't a stupid edict from Europa that insisted their adverts stayed on the big screens. We then get to the last section of that car park to find it blocked off. That's a bit of a pain in the arse when you want to get yourself off home on a school night. Perhaps the club want me to leave early like the thousands of others that did!!
BBC World News on their Sports News mentioned Utd losing; Zenit coming back from 0-3 and Inter losing 0-2 and... you guessed it... no mention of Saints
What annoyed me was that tosspot Jenas in a BT kept saying we sell our best players and lose our mangers and was surprised VVD signed a new deal instead of going to a "big" club......and how long can we keep that going? Do not other clubs sell players then? We only sold three of which if Pelle had stayed would have on the bench. Covkwomble...:
Exactly what i did! Didn't fancy Athletics after such a great win and turned on TalkSport. All United. We got one mention and that was when they were talking about United beating us in the league....
He generally is. People seem to think of his handful of performances at RB when they should try to remember how good, solid and calm a CB he is. Vin
Ignorant question - where does the Saints nickname come from, for Southampton? My local rugby team also uses "oh when the Saints" and always has as far as I can remember, but they're St Helens, so I've always understood that one. Is it to do with St Mary's for Southampton?
Tbf to him he did say pretty much straight after that we continue to prove him and everyone else wrong with our performances. Then the main commentator said this season would be the hardest test yet and probably be a bridge too far, which I'm sure they all said last season and had completely written us off the summer we sold Lallana etc. I agree that this season will be harder as we have the Europa aswell, but it is all about expectation. If you are expecting top 10 as a minimum then you probably are going to be disappointed but I see us not challenging top 6 (so European places) this year so in reality (for a fan) finishing anywhere else from 17th upwards is basically irrelevant. Players will still want to come as we are in the PL, the players here won't be demanding moves to similar sized clubs just because they finished 10th to our, say, 15th and we can just push on next year. The club wants to finish as high as possible due to the mental money between places but to fans it shouldn't really matter as long as it is outside the top 6 and not in the bottom 3
Founded as St. Mary's Young Men's Association Football Club. We apparently now allow 'older' men to play as well.
Does anyone know when Gardos will be back? I was thinking during the game how perfect of a match it would have been for him to get some game time, but I've completely lost track of what injury he's got now and how long he'll be out of action.
Agree with all of that, except I think Austin has more or less reached his peak in terms of his natural fitness. He can do the chasing and harassing for 25 minutes but struggles after that. He's much more effective in and around the box.
I think the only caution I'd add to that is the inability Everton had to sign targets supposedly because they had no European footy. Even waving their 100m warchest like a porn stars willy they struggled to close deals. We still have the advantage of having a reputation for developing players, not just the academy but slightly raw talent from elsewhere. And of course we have the beautiful, cosmopolitan city of Southampton to help sell the club.
Cuco was very good last night, excellent going forward and a good defensive effort as well. Some of his crosses were perfect. Yoshi was really calm and had a great game. One suicidal back pass but other than that played excellently. We played really well, and even for the periods where we didn't, we were still totally in control. Sparta were poor.
What a difference a win makes aye. Also fantastic to see so many rotations of the squad and not feel eeek about it. We've got a solid squad, we're going to be able to rotate nicely provided the injuries dont pile up. It felt like we rose to the occasion, here's to this kick starting our Premier campaign. I have to say that Tadic needs to chill out. That must be 3 or 4 times I've seen him try and take over the setpiece duty and often it looks like he's not supposed to. I remember JWP getting shouldered aside only for the captain (?) to step in. Chill Dusan, and score some from open play (nice job against arsenal tho).
Can't blame Tadic if he was the designated penalty taker which I get the impression he was. In which case Austin needs to be put in his place despite his scoring. I've never actually been comfortable with Tadic taking penalties. JWP on the other hand is such a great striker of the ball that I think he should get the job if he's on the pitch of course.
*glares at Templar TDM while holding Wigan supporting wife and kids back* Do you support the Woolly Backs Templar and are you a Woolly Back yourself?
