Match Day Thread Southampton v West Ham United Saturday 6th February 2016 KO 17:30

Welcome to the Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Really, Happy Clappy, Super Positive, Un-necessarily Negative Posts will get some Stick, And I would Walk 500 miles, Charlie, Charlie, Score A Goal for Me, We Love You Really Tom so Please Come Back, Match Thread

versus


Saints host the new West Ham and for a welcome change, will be looking forward to a good game of football against them now that the anti-football bully that is Big Fat Sam and his niggling side kick have cleared off. Shame they still bring with them their grubby little chairman.

Match Appointments
Referee: Mark Clattenburg Assistants: S Beck, R West Fourth Official: N Swarbrick
(come on Tom - it's your hero. Something to be happy about )

The Hammers currently sit 6th in the Premier league on 39 points, only 5 points and one place above Saints and they are just keeping that spot warm for us.

League Form last four games (again no point just looking at one game

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)

Saints
Watford (home) won 2-0, but should have been 5
West Brom (home) won 3-0, but should have been 5
Man United (away) won 1-0 (AGAIN), easy performance where we managed to throttle back just enough so that Charlie boy could come of the bench and be the hero.
Arsenal (away) drew 0-0, The Arsne Whingers got a jammy point thanks to Shane Long's back heel when through on goal. Fraser will be hoping for a little more action this week

West Ham
Cherries (away) won 3-1, meh they didn't score against us!
Newcastle (away) lost 2-1, yes, they lost to Newcastle. Some achievement that!
Man Citeh (home) drew 2-2, City aren't even top of the league. We drew at home to the leaders
Aston Villa (home) won 2-0, it was Villa with ten men FFS

This form guide clearly points to a Saints win and another clean sheet

Most of the last meetings at St Mary's have hurt my eyes
Wednesday, 11th February 2015
Southampton 0 v 0 West Ham United - BFS ugly side kicked their way to a dodgy point
Tuesday, 18th October 2011
Southampton 1 v 0 West Ham United - it was a Tuesday and you know who always scored on a Tuesday

Possible Saints line-up: Your guess is as good as mine with the tactical genius that is Ronald Koeman mixing things up.
Forster, Cedric, Fonte, Van Dijk, Bertrand, Targett, Vic, Clasie, Davis, Mane, Long
Subs:
Gazza, Yoshida, Romeu, Pelle, Tadic, JWP and CHARLIE ****ING AUSTIN (to come off the bench and give the bird to the grubby brothers)

Formation (there are no choices this game): Your guess really is as good as mine. Will he go for the negative and defensive 5-3-2 that keeps clean sheets and wins games or the 4-something-something that picks F**ing useless selections and a S** team?
Will Fraser be bored again?

Song to sing:
To the tune of the Ben E King song "Stand by Me"

"When the points are low
And the team are poor
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, oh I won't be afraid
As long as you score for me
So Charlie, Charlie, score for me
Oh score, score for me
Score for me"


Fats' Forecast

Southampton 2 West Ham United 0 (Austin, 2)

COYR

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3-0

 

'Bout time....where you bin?

Am going for a nice win as this game is very important.....a win will put us just behind the Hammers, lose and we will drop back to 8 points behind (and we don't want that as we start the fag end of the season). If Austin is on the subs bench, I don't want him to be the only scorer (as Fats does)....unless he is brought on very early. I want at least 2 Saints goals in the first half (just to settle the nerves), then Austin can come on at half time to score the third.....just as whispering Dave is saying, 'What West Ham don't want to do now is.......'

 

P.s. Nice job, Fats.

 

Before anyone else says it, we're only 1 place behind.....

 

Loved that goal at 2m 30secs. The two CBs combine take a defence apart.

 

An immense production as that match thread requires that he start early. Events overtook it.

 

The very reason we don't want that gap to open now....this could be the most crucial game of the season if we want a Europa place. I know there are still a lot of games to go, but 8 points is quite a gap. Pretty sure that WHU will have realised it as well, but they are in pole position. Must win or draw this game....to build on all the hard work in last few games.

 

In keeping with my defeat predictions (that result in wins etc.) i reckon 2 - 0 to west ham.

 

Nice video too Fats, love Jos!

Only Jose and SKD left from that team now, but that, of course, is a positive thing!

Should be a cracking game this: we always play well against West Ham under floodlights, so I'm going for a close, tense, 5-0 win for us.

 

Pundits have been saying that Chelsea still have a slim chance to make the Top 4. That would make our Europa qualification a stroll by comparison.

 

Forgot how much I loved Championship Jos

 

Jos used to be the guy given the job of looking after newbies....such as Charlie....so must have been a nice guy. Loved his big smiley face.

 

Patience young lady! I bin reveling in Fraser's glory with all my Gooner mates

 

Being a naturally contrary person, my first instinct is to defy all this relentless positivity just for the hell of it; but I can't find anything to be negative about. This one has "late Charlie Austin winner" written all over it.

 

*chairmen - they're both grubby!

 

A straight forward 2-0 for me with a few little scares thrown in to keep us on our feet
Would like to see the return of 3-5-2 again with Austin and Long up front (Mane & Tadic dropping to the bench)

 

If we can keep Payet quiet, we keep West Ham quiet.

 

Not for me. I was getting a little cheesed off with Long's inability to link the play [it is his major weakness - when he's bad, he's bad] against Arsenal, so I'm looking for some superb chest down's and lay offs by Pelle, which kind of means Mane or Tadic to partner him. Charlie might be QPR fit, but I don't think he's Southampton FC fit yet. He can come on for Graziano after 65-70 minutes to top up the Saints score. Hopefully, Steve Davis is back in contention as well. I'll settle for 2-0, but I prefer Chilco's 5-0 for some odd reason. Can't think why, at the moment, but I'll figure it out.