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Episode 95: BONUS CHRISTMAS DAY EPISODE! Saints on Boxing Day over 10 years
43 Plays16 days ago
Southampton – The Season was dead: to begin with. It's CHRISTMAS DAY! And we are here with a wildcard wednesday exploring the true meaning of christmas: Boxing Day football! Our resident ghost of Christmas past (Zak) has prepared a detailed journey through our last decade of boxing day games. WIth some interesting foreboding for tomorrow?
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Transcript
Introduction: Boxing Day Football Memories
00:00:09
Zak
Hello and welcome to the Daily Southampton. Merry Christmas everyone. it's It's your hosts, I can go Finch, and obviously I'm joined by my amazing co-host Gregory Elliott. On this Christmas Day, I guess bonus episode, technically it's a weekday, but also this is, let's face it, a national holiday for most people everywhere.
00:00:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
it's a Wednesday so we had to do a wildcard episode and it had to took every piece of me to just not scream at the top of my lungs in naughty holder style it's Christmas
00:00:30
Zak
Yeah, you had to do a listen to Zach Ramble for a while.
00:00:44
Zak
and if few are today we are we are going to talk about boxing day football specifically boxing day football at Southampton over the last 10 years so for long term listeners will know I didn't really grow up being too sporty I didn't really have any sort of traditions and other long term listeners will know Greg on the flip side of that goes it's his boxing day tradition now goes with his family you love a good boxing day game right
00:01:08
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah my my young memories as a kid were my dad trying to sneak out from uh my mum's side of the family to listen to the football in the car uh and then as i got older yeah with my father-in-law boxing day football was a tradition and now yeah we got season tickets my sister-in-law and the kid and my wife and we boxing days are time for family you shouldn't be at the football it should be family time and it was established that well she was the minority in that case and so if she wanted family time she'd come to the football with us and yeah i mean last year she went on record and said i hope next year's in a way day and what that was taken to me was she was up for a road trip so
00:01:41
Zak
It's a wind mate day at the end of the day.
00:01:52
Zak
Nice.
The Importance of Fresh Holiday Content
00:01:54
Zak
Well, as obviously it's Christmas Day, I wanted to make sure that we put some stuff out for everybody here. Mainly because I have this thing where as an avid podcast listener myself, usually during the Christmas period, you sort of content disappears and there's a lot of replays and old episodes, and that's understandable. Like we are all human. Me and Greg are human too, despite the fact that we seem to be able to, we're doing a daily podcast episode that is soon to be 100 episodes, which the kind of feels a bit surreal considering we've been doing this together since what September you've been going a little bit longer but yeah so we thought it'd give you a nice one on for Christmas so we will start out everyone's favorite year 2014 because you know one of the years we returned to the Premier League it's 10 years from now so I thought 10 years was is probably a bit too many anyway
00:02:29
Global Sports Podcast Network
Real quick.
Recap of Southampton's Boxing Day Matches 2014-2015
00:02:44
Zak
But let's do it. So 2014 as a season we've talked about a lot. That was a season where we had people like Nathaniel Klein line up. But on Boxing Day, we won 3-1, Greg.
00:02:57
Zak
Thanks Crystal Palace.
00:02:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
wow
00:02:59
Zak
Yeah, it was a good game. Goes from Manet, Bertrand and Toby Aldeweld, who we only had for that like one solitary season before he disappeared off the Spurs, despite the fact that apparently we had, I want to say verbal contract that he was signing to us.
00:03:02
Global Sports Podcast Network
Wow.
00:03:13
Zak
Who knows?
00:03:13
Global Sports Podcast Network
Was he really only here for one season? It felt like he was here much longer than that.
00:03:17
Zak
Yeah, as he went to Spurs, because he was supposed to stay for longer after he came from Athletico Madrid, but didn't. Two of those assists came from a James Ward Prowse, who, you know, went on to be prolific for Saints, but at the time was relatively unknown.
00:03:31
Zak
And we I also came across like another random stat when I was looking this stuff up, which was on this day, 17-year-old Adam Armstrong made his debut for Newcastle, achieving 100% pass rate with only nine passes, two of which, though, were key passes that led to goals. And I don't know why that aged me so much, but like I didn't realise that Adam Armstrong was 27. I, for some reason, thought he was 35. 35. Now, I don't know if that's just because he's like a northern geezer, but thinking about him being 17 at that time broke my brain a little bit but right so you know that was 2014 it was a good one you know that was we started off strong with the win and now we move on to one of the most exciting wins so 2015 Greg do you remember 2015 or not see if you let's see if you do I feel like I'm putting you on the spot because I know your memory isn't half as good as mine
00:04:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, that's crazy. It really doesn't quite click.
00:04:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
mate My memory's shocking. I barely remember what I did this morning.
00:04:27
Zak
if i told you if i told you kooka martina would that jog that memory a little bit
00:04:33
Global Sports Podcast Network
Oh, mate, you know, I do remember this. this book Okay, no, it just took me a minute. it took So Boxing Day 2015 was the day after my daughter was born. And so we had just got back from hospital right around kickoff time on Boxing Day. And I do just about remember sitting holding my newborn daughter and definitely waking her up as that particular goal curled into the net.
00:05:01
Zak
absolute insanity, like no one knows where it came from. But we went on to beat Arsenal that day, 4-0, with a double from Shane Long and also go a goal from Jose Font. Before that, as well, we'd lost four out of five of our Premier League games. So I'm relatively sure that came over that like weird period when Koeman was in charge, where I think some fans wanted to get rid of him because we weren't winning as many games. But you know then we randomly run out of the races and do that, which is mad.
00:05:31
Zak
Absolutely mad. So that was 2015, mate, which suddenly you remember to see this. I mentioned that.
00:05:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's it. Do you know what? I just, it just didn't quite click that that was the year that it was, but you're right. I remember I had just sat down with my Christmas dinner that my father-in-law had very kindly prepared for us after spending two days in hospital.
00:05:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
So yeah, this all kind of a fuzz anyway, if we're being honest, there was a real sleep deprived thing going on that year.
00:05:59
Zak
Yeah, I bet, mate. So before we take our first break, we will talk about the 2016 Boxing Day. so So this is where things started to turn for us at Southampton, Greg. Not entirely, just to be clear. We were fifth in the league when this happened. didn't technically play on Boxing Day. And I'm starting to think if that's part of the problem, although later results will show that it actually doesn't matter at all.
00:06:27
Zak
similar to you know how we kind of suffered the other day a little bit and it's weird how history repeats itself in that way but we lost 4-1 to Spurs yeah there you go we did Van Dijk scored in the second minute and that was about as much as there was from there
00:06:40
Global Sports Podcast Network
Oh, I think I remember this game. Didn't we score early?
00:06:52
Global Sports Podcast Network
I mean, some must have scored for them. He always scores against them.
00:06:54
Zak
Correct. A son, Harry Kane, and two from Dele Alli, another player who always really likes to score like to score against us when he played for Spurs for some reason.
00:06:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Jesus. not eight Yeah, that's that's crazy. i mean that really dates it because wow
00:07:11
Zak
Yeah, that's the thing, right?
00:07:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
eli
00:07:12
Zak
like Obviously, we've just heard Dele Alli put out a statement about leaving Everton and going on to try and sort of kick into his career, into gear somewhere else. but you know yeah mean this was at a time where he was sort of flying high and yeah, and we we got we got punished. So that's that. And we will take our first break now.
Podcasting with Zencastr
00:07:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, so we here at the Global Sports Network spent a lot of time selecting our delivery platform and Zencaster came out the clear winner. With 4K video recording from your phone and AI editing that automatically removes all those ums and ahs, it's super easy to start a podcast that sounds great and is delivered efficiently. If you're ready to tell your story, check out the link in the show description and learn more about Zencaster.
00:08:01
Zak
So we are we are back. The year is 2017. Me and you at this point, mate, have been working together for about a year, which is...
00:08:09
Global Sports Podcast Network
That in itself is pretty crazy.
00:08:12
Zak
Yeah, when you when you look back and realize how how long ago yet, how sort of short time span it was. So we we did actually play Boxing Day this time.
00:08:22
Zak
So if you thought that the curse was the fact that we didn't play in Boxing Day, I think maybe the curse was that we just played Spurs. because this game was another absolute stinker where we lost 5-2 to Spurs.
00:08:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
Oh no.
00:08:37
Zak
Indeed, so Bufau and Tadic both scored for us. Who do you reckon scored for Spurs?
00:08:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
Oh, I'm going to guess Hungman Sun.
00:08:48
Zak
Correct.
00:08:48
Global Sports Podcast Network
Uh, Delhi Alley seemingly.
00:08:50
Zak
Correct.
00:08:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
Probably Hurricane.
00:08:52
Zak
Correct. You got it on the money except that three of those goals were Harry Kane and it was a hat trick.
00:08:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
I remember that.
00:08:59
Zak
Obviously, the venue is Wembley, because I'm pretty sure that's when Spurs were changing over to the Olympic Stadium, which was nuts. Yeah, it was just crazy. We got to play Premier League games at Wembley. Weird time. We were 14th in the season, like that season in the table, in comparison to the year before we were fifth. So this is when we're starting to change, right? This is when things things are starting to feel a bit more like they do now, not quite.
00:09:28
Zak
But but you know we weren't having the best of results as as you know we we were having previously. So that leads us on to 2018.
00:09:35
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:09:38
Zak
This was not a
Southampton Matches 2018-2019 Analysis
00:09:39
Zak
Boxing Day match. 2018 was a 27th of December match. So at this point, we've now started a tradition of Boxing Day losses, which is just awful.
00:09:50
Zak
And we lost 2-1 to West Ham, which doesn't bode well for us playing West Ham.
00:09:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
o Oh no!
00:09:58
Zak
So it might be the reverse of what you think that the score is going to be, mate. Redmond scored the only Saints goal. I'm going to go from Nathan Redmond.
00:10:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
Wow.
00:10:07
Zak
However, all three goals were scored between the 50th and 60th minute. It was like Redmond scored and they scored twice. And then we just couldn't get back into the game.
00:10:19
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's crazy. And also saying, yeah, you're right. Like the more I think about it, I said it's crazy, but actually that sounds so us. Yeah.
00:10:19
Zak
during yeah it's it's weird like It's weird how Southampton that is.
00:10:33
Zak
it It blows my mind because we've been through this before. um talk about it quite a lot where you love the stats and looking at the history of games. And as somebody that studies history, I much prefer doing stuff like this.
00:10:43
Zak
But the actual idea that like we would play historically the same as we play now, it just doesn't compute with the logical side of my brain because they're completely different players.
00:10:53
Global Sports Podcast Network
And yet there are patterns that follow through.
00:10:56
Zak
Free! this is when you start to think maybe there is some sort of weird divide intervention going on but like oh this is the other thing I don't gamble so I don't know how to deal with this juxtaposition and we were also sitting 15th at the time whereas the season before 14th so again the sort of the sort of downhill and continues and Felipe Anderson was the one that scored both goals for West Ham but again that's just such a Southampton thing to do to score
00:11:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's gambler's fallacy, mate, that's all it is.
00:11:17
Global Sports Podcast Network
Slowly. and
00:11:26
Zak
celebrate, sit back on it for all of 30 seconds, concede two, and then just not know how to recover it. So 2019, actual Boxing Day football. This was about a month after I got married, I feel like feels like yesterday. So this was also the last sort of year before all like the weird COVID intermission, where like COVID ball was its own separate, crazy time full of weird results that no one ever expected.
00:11:56
Zak
But we actually won this game, Greg. We won 2-0 against Chelsea. Chelsea at the time being managed by Frank Lampard. but
00:12:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
I think I remember this game I can't remember if I went or not this was right around that time where it could have gone either way but I do you remember this game and yeah
00:12:15
Zak
Yes, it's weird to think, you know, big Frank who's had what, two goes at that job now. Also the Everton job, it is now riding high with Coventry City. which is disrespect to Coventry City.
00:12:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, it started, if I recall properly, up until this season, it started a series of wins where we've really had Chelsea's number for a little while.
00:12:34
Zak
Yeah, we had we had like we've we've played well against Chelsea, weirdly historically, and I don't know why. Maybe we give them a lot of our players and they feel bad. But that was a game that Obafemi scored in, mate, of all of all players and obviously Nathan Redmond, because as much as red I remember Redmond getting a lot of criticism, but yet he was a player that was one of the few players that did occasionally.
00:12:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
Wow.
00:12:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
but bolt and i go
00:12:58
Zak
It's very hot and cold, right? But he's appearing on this score sheet quite a lot, like over a number of years.
00:13:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
hey Give him giving him roast turkeys, it's pre-match day, me and every get a aim, it must have been alright, clearly.
00:13:09
Zak
But yeah, this was another season where, like weirdly, we were we were sitting 14th again. So we we kind of had that sort of mid-table-y vibe straight after.
00:13:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
This was the year that we finished about, I think we finished like 11th or something that year, so.
00:13:20
Zak
I just think it's i think it's crazy like looking at our position at Christmas throughout the years and then remembering where we sort of ended up the end of that season.
00:13:27
Zak
this was the first time we'd kept a clean sheet in 14 games, which apparently, at the time, ended the longest run in the division of not having a clean sheet.
00:13:38
Zak
Which again, like we love to break the weirdest records that nobody ever asked for.
00:13:42
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah you know
00:13:47
Zak
It was like the other day with like us losing 5-0 and then it being like, oh, that's the that's the fourth time in the Premier League history that a team has been down 5-0 at half time.
00:13:58
Zak
The second time it's been south up. Which if you can't laugh at us, Who knows, but I do kind of remember this year.
00:14:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:08
Zak
I'm pretty sure the year that I got married was 2019, and that was the same year that our cat had to be rushed to the vets on Christmas Day.
00:14:19
Zak
So it was a nice bit of like positivity after spending a day in an emergency vet in Bitten, which I can only tell you now is one of the worst Christmases I've ever had.
00:14:25
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, that's unbelievable.
00:14:32
Zak
You try being happy in a place where they're putting down pets on Christmas Day, it's not fun. My cat was fine, to be fair. Just a bit of an idiot that cost me £1,000. So that leads us nicely on to, obviously, the the big turn of of a lot of the world, but specifically in football with a period of time where there just weren't supporters. And that was 2020.
Impact of Covid on Football: The Fulham Game
00:14:52
Zak
Covid ball. Boxing Day football. What do you reckon the result was, Greg?
00:14:59
Global Sports Podcast Network
I don't know, maybe four, I just don't remember at all.
00:15:03
Zak
Right this is the thing, it's it's weird how how often we think this was the game that I alluded to where after having a really bored draw against Fulham we also on this day had a bored draw against Fulham.
00:15:18
Zak
It was a nil-nil on Boxing Day against Fulham which is just
00:15:21
Global Sports Podcast Network
This was a weird period of time, right, because this was like the year where
00:15:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
There were rumors of police raids if you had family Christmas because we headed into a second lockdown or something, right?
00:15:32
Zak
absolutely insane levels of like just the world felt like a different place and time and yeah there's very much a before and after Covid for me now and I still start to think that for me I'm on 2020 plus like 40 months as opposed to you know living it slowly my brain's getting out of that but this was still very much a time you know we were we were ninth
00:15:32
Global Sports Podcast Network
hey
00:15:39
Global Sports Podcast Network
Kind of broke time for me mentally as well, like...
00:15:58
Zak
at this time so I think people kind of forget how wild and wild West Covid ball was and some of the results that have spout of it.
00:16:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
strange.
00:16:05
Zak
There's a couple of threads that were doing the the round on Twitter and they were kind of like the streets won't forget Covid ball and it was just some of like the crazy sort of high scoring results where you had like Liverpool beating Spurs like 7-2 and which to be fair after the other day not so much or so weird anymore
00:16:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah Like all thrillings.
00:16:23
Zak
but But yeah, just like, it was when a lot of results were coming out, obviously no no crowd, and then then you were watching football with fake crowd noise on, which... sure.
00:16:34
Global Sports Podcast Network
Right.
00:16:34
Zak
We were unbeaten in seven away games, but it was the first time we failed to beat a newly promoted squad in the first...
00:16:44
Zak
I think it was, yeah, we failed to win for the first time in 10 games against a newly promoted squad. So... I don't know how that stat ah why why that stat map matters at all, but it's a stat that appeared in the website that I found, which 11v11, by the way, if anyone wants to check that out.
00:16:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's a start.
00:16:58
Zak
We also had a goal scored in this game. was just ruled offside.
00:17:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
Classic.
00:17:03
Zak
And it was a Theo Walcott goal.
00:17:06
Global Sports Podcast Network
Well, it probably wasn't.
00:17:07
Zak
Where, you know, back, back, back. Obviously, I was a var reviewed as well, because obviously, I feel like we think var's been there forever, but it's not.
00:17:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
Of course.
00:17:15
Zak
It's really not.
00:17:16
Global Sports Podcast Network
That's crazy. That is mad.
00:17:18
Zak
Right.
00:17:19
Global Sports Podcast Network
All right. Well, almost on the home straight.
00:17:21
Zak
Very much so. So that leads us nicely into our second break of the day where I'm going to talk to you guys a little bit about the Global Sports Podcast Network. So the Global Sports Podcast Network is changing the face of football podcasting with dedicated daily content for every Premier League team, women's football, fantasy football and a daily Premier League wrap up broadcasted in five different languages. This is your one stop shop for your daily football fix. Find GSPN wherever you find your usual podcasts.
00:17:49
Zak
So, yes mate, we're now back into the sort of home stretch. We're in the 2020s now, so 2021, which was still kind of
Southampton's Boxing Day Victories 2021-2023
00:17:58
Zak
Covid ball.
00:17:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Thank you.
00:17:59
Zak
I don't remember when everyone came back into the stadiums, right? Like this must have been must have been by this point.
00:18:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
uh this was this was back in this was another attendance of 41 000 or just quite spoiler alert yeah i think we're we're back to pretending that covid never existed at this point
00:18:05
Zak
you know
00:18:09
Zak
Okay, well then yeah, I feel like people were there then.
00:18:19
Zak
So in something that might turn out to be a reverse of what I said and more on to yours, this was another game where we played West Ham and it was a a Boxing Day day as well. We were 14th in the league so still not as struggling as much but not quite the 9th the year before. we It was a dramatic 3-2 win over West Ham so we we're really starting to understand where all of these sort of all of this history of us having high scoring games with West Ham's come from, because I remember us also beating them sort of 3-2 with the last minute Charlie Austin penalty. That wasn't this game, but I'm just starting to remember every game we've played against West Ham previously. this had goals from both Elianusi of all people, who I i i just thought he'd never scored for us. James Ward-Prowse and Jan Bedarek.
00:19:04
Zak
So we had goals from West Ham from obviously Antonio which should kind of tell you how long he's been there and I hope he's doing well and Ben Rama. This was also at the time when We had Amanda Brozier in the squad and also Tino. So I think I'm given the stat in the next episode. But this is where I was, I came across how Tino Livermento had started 18 games in a row to be the first teenager to do that since Mika Richards, which is nuts, because that's like shows you, you know, even though we didn't have our academy up to top brass at this kind of point, right? And it's only recently that started to kind of turn the corner. We were still very much about
00:19:46
Zak
buying youth players but this was like the chelsea times right where we would yeah exactly it and like it was devastating because obviously he had a chance i think he came back for like what like a game and then obviously went off to new castle and he's absolutely killing it there but you know this is
00:19:47
Global Sports Podcast Network
i Yeah, you know, it was unbelievable for us that season. And then played too much, got injured, and we never saw him again, so.
00:20:04
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:20:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
We also had a similar sort of time. We had Juan Larios make his debut and this all really does it all right.
00:20:13
Zak
Well, you thought he was a ball boy.
00:20:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
genuine play wasable what yeah like ah that's weird the young mascots run away from the people looking after him there and go on the other side of the pitch that's really funny wait that's our fullback oh my god got be a good sign of things to come right
00:20:30
Zak
but Bless Maybe one day we'll see him play again. Who knows? This game was our... Yeah, for sure. So we got a penalty this game, given to us by VAR, which was nice.
00:20:44
Zak
And it was our our first win in seven.
00:20:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
lovely
00:20:46
Zak
Not all of those big losses. We had some draws in between. it's not like It's not like now, where we feel like if we didn't win it, there must have been a loss beforehand. But yeah, just a bit of bit of a weird... So the omens are, it could go either way with West Ham, but there's a lot of goals on a Boxing Day game with West Ham.
00:21:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
lovely that was the season that we just about hung in there right so
00:21:03
Zak
So...
00:21:08
Zak
Yeah. just about. Right, so unfortunately we are going into 2022.
00:21:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
And now we're solidly into games that I definitely attended.
00:21:20
Zak
So, actual Boxing Day, Nathan Jones is in the dugout and we lost 3-1 to Brighton.
00:21:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:21:30
Zak
Obviously, see one of those goalscorers for Brighton, Greg, was now Adam Lallana, you know, that guy where they occasionally get him out of the freezer he plays for us.
00:21:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, no, I remember.
00:21:41
Zak
Yeah.
00:21:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
Didn't we score a low ball as well?
00:21:43
Zak
I believe so. And then Solly March scored the other one, I think. Or I can't remember if it was either it was either that or Solly March was the one that was given to you off the back of an own goal. But it wasn't a pretty game.
00:21:54
Zak
Ward Prowse was our only scorer, more than likely a free kick. oh We were 20th. But here's one of the fun facts about this, mate, is that we had our worst home record with only six points, but from eight games.
00:22:08
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, here's a fun fact, that was my first season ticket year. So, getting my value from running six points for a mate.
00:22:14
Zak
But like, it's the fact that we like, it's the fact that it was considered to be a problem that we got six points from eight, whereas now we've got six points from what, 16?
00:22:22
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:22:26
Global Sports Podcast Network
I remember it, it was me, that Boxing Day, the team would booed off half time.
00:22:26
Zak
Admittedly only half of those are at home, but maybe, maybe we'll see.
00:22:37
Zak
It's got to ruin in your festive cheer.
00:22:37
Global Sports Podcast Network
Nathan Jones was not nathan james was not a popular appointment.
00:22:42
Zak
No, no he was not.
00:22:43
Global Sports Podcast Network
I think Aussie missed the penalty but scored the rebound, which was endemic of the entire season. yeah It just it wasn't a positive day.
00:22:54
Zak
No.
00:22:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
I left feeling miserable.
00:22:56
Zak
I feel like you probably at that point was like, I've spent all of this money to watch this. Oh goodness gracious me.
00:23:01
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's a strange parallel, right? Because if if I recall, that was actually Nathan Jones' first home game as well. and And... Yeah.
00:23:10
Zak
We all know how well it ended for Nathan Jones.
00:23:11
Global Sports Podcast Network
Or...
00:23:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
It was brief tenure, that's for sure.
00:23:14
Zak
It was a very brief tenure.
00:23:15
Zak
the only different The only thing that they did do, which was very silly, was was give him a transfer window where you know he got to spend the money that he wanted to spend a little bit on players that we probably shouldn't have.
00:23:27
Zak
And this is the problem with history repeating itself, innit?
00:23:28
Global Sports Podcast Network
And we then immediately at the end of the trans transfer window, we just got rid of it. So all of those players were, you know, the only one that came good was James Bray.
00:23:37
Zak
Left in limbo.
00:23:40
Zak
Which was ironic because we would have all thought it would have been Onewachi, Soleimana.
00:23:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:23:45
Zak
It's just weird how how much of a parallel there is, right? We just got to hope that Durek does a little bit more to not upset everybody on Boxing Day. That's where I'm at, right?
00:23:54
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah
00:23:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
Look, I think we're in a position where, I mean, ah the crowd was split with Russell Martin, but much more towards the Martin Outt. The crowd was split with Hassan Hoot, or maybe less so, but Nathan Jones was not who anyone wanted to replace Ralph.
00:24:12
Global Sports Podcast Network
like
00:24:12
Zak
I have never ever seen, i I still to this day can't recall a scene like it on Twitter where I would refresh my page and all it would be was Nathan Jones out, Nathan Jones out, Nathan Jones out, Nathan Jones out, Nathan Jones out, Nathan Jones out.
00:24:28
Zak
And then you click refresh and it would just be a different group of people with Nathan Jones out, Nathan Jones out. There was some similar stuff with Russell Martin, but like not half as much.
00:24:38
Zak
Like it was every single reply to everything.
00:24:38
Global Sports Podcast Network
It was miserable. The whole season was miserable.
00:24:43
Zak
it was a miserable season, which some and somehow this one's less and maybe that's because the players are trying and they're just not as good, whereas that season we had.
00:24:50
Global Sports Podcast Network
Also Pat kind of half expected it because coming up from the championship is difficult.
00:24:55
Zak
Yeah.
00:24:55
Global Sports Podcast Network
whereas you know we were a solid Premier League team before that so I mean the year before we went down I say we only just stayed up but actually if I recall we were pretty comfortably on cruise control by like February and then after that we did when it came so it was
00:25:00
Zak
Yeah. Strange, isn't it? but
00:25:18
Zak
It was whichever season where we managed to score against Swansea right towards the end because that lives in my head front free because it was Gabi Adini and it was the one of the worst goals I've ever seen. And I remember watching at home on my computer and was flipping my desk. So it was whatever season that was. I struggled to remember the actual year, but yes, it's been sort of weird, but you're right. I think it was the fact that we had been such an established Premier League squad and side for so long.
00:25:43
Zak
and that that kind of was coming rapidly to a close and everyone still had this like sort of deluded idea that we'd stay up. And could maybe like now, except the vibes weren't there.
00:25:53
Zak
Maybe the vibes can turn this time around. But let's go to last Boxing Day, which was a cause for celebration and maybe shows the stark difference between, I guess, the championship in the Premier League.
00:25:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
Much happier memories.
00:26:06
Zak
Because last Boxing Day, which you would have attended, Greg, was the Russell Martin Derby, where
00:26:10
Global Sports Podcast Network
Oh, we were there. I got told off by a minute.
00:26:13
Zak
We played against Swansea.
00:26:15
Global Sports Podcast Network
We moved from our normal season to get seats in the northern end and had to, because we get go with a huge amount of my family we had to move ourselves luckily this year we've managed to get tickets and I got got in trouble for standing up and then almost got in trouble for mounting back because I wanted to stand up and yeah other than that though great game good day out rebo and it was I think the first time that we heard the gold music change from zombie nation to gold
00:26:24
Zak
Oh. And that's why you never should move out of Northern mate.
00:26:43
Zak
Yeah, we...
00:26:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
because there was an awkward pause where the entire crowd were like, what's this? This isn't a combination. And then a beautiful moment where it clicked into place and everyone figured it out. And then the arena, the whole stadium just exploded into noise and song.
00:27:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
And yeah.
00:27:05
Zak
beautiful
00:27:07
Global Sports Podcast Network
And that is why every time I take my wife with me to see saints, she is praying for a Rebo to score. So yeah.
00:27:14
Zak
Oh, that's that's a better reason than not making it, you know, but that was a good game. We won five nil. What a beautiful, beautiful time to be alive. and a Joy football, a Rebo, a Dozy, two from Ryan Fraser at that point, and a 93rd minute Che Adams goal sealed the win.
00:27:32
Zak
Moved us third into the championship. We were catching up with the tractor boys, apparently.
00:27:36
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:27:37
Zak
Obviously it wouldn't stay that way. But this was also when we went unbeaten in 16 at this point.
00:27:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah.
00:27:42
Zak
So this was part in the middle of the the unbeaten sort of run, which again, regardless of what the outcome has been with Ross Martin on the lines that we nothing can take away last season in Wembley, like all of that was beautiful.
00:27:53
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah. And I remember at 50 Russell Martin took a lot of stick from the Swansea fans as their former manager and definitely enjoyed
00:27:54
Zak
and
00:28:05
Global Sports Podcast Network
showing it to them back at the end of the game i remember it worked out really well yeah what day yeah they were awful
00:28:14
Zak
What a day. And it was apparently and this contest underlined why Martin left Swansea for Southampton because obviously he he felt a lot of sympathy for them. Didn't try not to celebrate too much because he was like, hey, I know what their problem is. Having absolutely zero investment is a is a problem. And yeah the rest was history. Obviously, we went on to to get promoted and now we're in the horrible position we're in now. But that was a lovely day out for everybody involved. and now Hopefully the next one will be a a lovely doubt too.
00:28:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
Not so much for Swansea fans, it's got to be said.
00:28:43
Zak
Sorry.
00:28:44
Global Sports Podcast Network
and Not so much for the Swansea fans, it has to be said. They haven't been testing their club's owners.
00:28:47
Zak
Everyone involved from the Southampton side mate.
00:28:51
Global Sports Podcast Network
But yeah, I agree with it.
00:28:51
Zak
From a Sondsey side you're right, it would have been awful. ahll Obviously that leads us to 2024 where all I've got in bold capital letters is, who knows, new manager again though.
00:29:03
Global Sports Podcast Network
It's Boxing Day. It's Boxing Day, something crazy's going to happen. We could win 9-0, just put it to bed.
00:29:09
Zak
of Look, I'm all right with some of your delusions, all right?
00:29:14
Global Sports Podcast Network
it
00:29:14
Zak
I've already deluded myself into thinking it's going to be a high-scoring game.
00:29:18
Global Sports Podcast Network
i'll take it
00:29:19
Zak
It's making me... The Festive Cheers making me hope that it's for us. I just will have to see how it works out. You know, it could be the start of the turn in our season to actually starting to get points again.
00:29:32
Zak
And, you know, even if it's just a beat Darby's record, like, that's kind of where I'm at. That's all we got hope for at the moment. We can start hoping for more crazy things if we get some wins, because like the new manager bounce was worked for a few people, like Wolves of you know what wolves won their last game 3-0 against Leicester.
00:29:41
Global Sports Podcast Network
I'll take it.
00:29:48
Zak
But unfortunately, when Leicester came in with Rube Van Astroy and the new manager bounce, that lasted all the two games. And the same with Manchester United, because they lost 3-0 to Bournemouth recently. so So who knows?
00:29:58
Global Sports Podcast Network
yeah anything well european charge starts
00:30:00
Zak
There's lots to look forward to. It's the Premier League. It's fun. But either way, it's all good.
00:30:08
Zak
At some point today, you might have seen a tweet pop up.
Closing Remarks and Holiday Wishes
00:30:11
Zak
That tweet would be Greg's prediction after the Wolves game of what was going to happen. You can tell from his face right now that he has completely forgotten that that's going live at 8am today.
00:30:20
Global Sports Podcast Network
fantastic
00:30:20
Zak
But it is going live at 8am, so look out for that.
00:30:23
Global Sports Podcast Network
15 points of the European charge. and Now we've got a different manager and we got one.
00:30:25
Zak
Yep, not on top of that. One one point, and not only that, that manager isn't here anymore, so it is what it is.
00:30:31
Global Sports Podcast Network
Yeah, but our interim manager retires undefeated, so.
00:30:32
Zak
But Mary...
00:30:36
Zak
He does. he without a goal scored. Literally is flat across the board at the Premier League. but I mean, it's basically like starting ah again. But oh all I can say everyone is thank you very much for joining us today. If you have Merry Christmas, enjoy the rest of your your day. Thank you for being on this journey with us so far. It's been a wild ride. Me and Greg have a lot of fun doing it. It gives us something to concentrate on and laugh about and enjoy.
00:31:06
Zak
that unfortunately isn't the result of the season. But then again, if we won every single game, it would have been like City's podcast up until the like the time they played us, where they've probably had a lot more fun to talk about too. It's just been but a whale of a time and we've still got the rest of the season to go. we hope you join us for the ride. Catch us on all the social media. There'll be a bunch of tweets and stuff going out today or exes or whatever you want to call them. We're on Blue Sky. We're on TikTok. We're on YouTube. We're on Instagram. all of those fun places. Give us a like, follow. We're available on Spotify, Apple Music, all that kind of fun stuff. And we will be with you tomorrow for the preview in the morning before the West Ham game. And hopefully we'll be getting three points. So Merry Christmas, Saints fans and goodbye.