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Episode 347: Matchday Preview: Boxing day away at Oxford!
14 Plays1 month ago
Southampton – We take on Oxford United this boxing day, is it a banana skin? Or a game we really need to be winning!
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Transcript
Introduction and Greetings
00:00:06
Speaker
Your daily soccer podcast with the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:00:15
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Southampton part of the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:00:22
Speaker
My name is Greg Elliott and as always today joined by my good friend and wonderful co-host, Zach Ngo Finch.
00:00:28
Speaker
How you doing mate, you alright?
00:00:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'm good.
00:00:31
Speaker
Looking forward to some festive football to watch, you know.
00:00:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's it.
00:00:36
Speaker
As is tradition?
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:39
Speaker
I mean, not quite a tradition for
Boxing Day Tradition Disruption
00:00:41
Speaker
me.
00:00:41
Speaker
My wife deeply upset to have our tradition ruined of going to Boxing Day as a whole family unit down to St.
00:00:49
Speaker
Mary's.
00:00:50
Speaker
And in fact, so upset was she to miss out that she's booked us a table at the Dell.
00:00:55
Speaker
So we're going to St.
00:00:56
Speaker
Mary's anyway.
00:00:57
Speaker
Happy day.
00:00:58
Speaker
It was nice.
00:00:59
Speaker
Ain't too bad, ain't too bad.
Southampton vs. Oxford United Rivalry
00:01:01
Speaker
That's it.
00:01:02
Speaker
And look, a rare game for us, right, against Oxford.
00:01:07
Speaker
We were just discussing before recording.
00:01:10
Speaker
The first time we've played them in a competitive fixture since 1996.
00:01:16
Speaker
The first time we've played them since...
00:01:21
Speaker
They beat us 2-0 in a pre-season friendly that Russell Martin had to come out and apologise for before our Premier League season, which, you know, probably should have been a sign of things to come.
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:33
Speaker
Of course, Ludwig van played in that game.
00:01:36
Speaker
The 1996 one, not the pre-season friendly.
00:01:39
Speaker
Probably would have done better in the pre-season friendly if he'd been playing, to be honest, especially in the way that it went.
00:01:44
Speaker
But, yeah, that's something.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, as a team, I feel bad because last episode, I may have implied that they are more of a league one side and it's because I forgot that they survived last championship spell and I just assumed they came up until I remembered that, no, it was Birmingham, Wrexham and Charlton, not Oxford United.
00:02:09
Speaker
They had actually managed to survive.
00:02:10
Speaker
Narrowly though, right?
00:02:11
Speaker
They narrowly survived.
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah.
Oxford's Championship Survival and Expectations
00:02:15
Speaker
But credit where credit's due, they stayed in the championship, which is better than some sides have managed in recent years.
00:02:23
Speaker
But at the same time, what else do you know about Oxford United?
00:02:28
Speaker
Oh, I know that their stadium has three sides.
00:02:32
Speaker
LAUGHTER
00:02:33
Speaker
That really, really is about it, mate, to be honest.
00:02:38
Speaker
Our first ever competitive game at the Kassam as well.
00:02:42
Speaker
That's nuts.
00:02:42
Speaker
And it'll be our last ever competitive game because I'm pretty sure they're looking to move stadiums.
00:02:47
Speaker
I mean, well, yeah, like especially as you get bigger, you kind of need to.
00:02:51
Speaker
But, yeah, I mean, respect where respect's due.
00:02:57
Speaker
Like you, yourself, mate.
00:02:59
Speaker
are one of those guys that will turn around and be like, one of the best things about the championship.
00:03:03
Speaker
So any team could beat any other team.
00:03:05
Speaker
And yet I also feel like you're going to turn around to me and be like, we're going to beat them 8-0.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, look, based off of form, we should be beating Oxford.
00:03:19
Speaker
We've got to be realistic, right?
00:03:20
Speaker
And all of the talk from Tonda and from the club, and we're recording this pre-press conference, because I think he's doing this press conference on Christmas Eve.
00:03:30
Speaker
I said he does one, right?
00:03:31
Speaker
I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't.
00:03:32
Speaker
Who's got time for that?
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:35
Speaker
But all of the chatter out of the club is that promotion is still the target for the season, right?
00:03:42
Speaker
And if that is the case, which, you know, probably should be and fair enough, then these are games we need to win.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:03:50
Speaker
These are the games we need to be comfortably put into bed.
00:03:53
Speaker
And, you know, on paper, we absolutely should be.
00:03:58
Speaker
If we are...
00:04:00
Speaker
if we're going to be annoyed that we didn't beat Coventry, we'll be putting them down to 10 men.
00:04:05
Speaker
But then we slip up against like Oxford United.
00:04:09
Speaker
then it kind of makes it all a moot point, right?
00:04:12
Speaker
It's kind of why I'm still probably more cross about the Norwich loss than anything else because you're at a time where, yeah, okay, they've got a new manager.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah, okay, they're trying to kind of like re-find their form.
00:04:23
Speaker
But like us allowing that, for me, I felt like that entire game was three points dropped because it was entirely.
00:04:29
Speaker
I felt like we should have gone in and tried to win that game and do a lot better than we did.
00:04:33
Speaker
So I'm really hoping we show that against Oxford because like when we played Charlton and I was like, oh, I don't know.
00:04:39
Speaker
Like I would really like to see another big win to show that we're here to play ball, right?
00:04:45
Speaker
We're here to try and get that target.
The Importance of Beating Oxford
00:04:47
Speaker
And you're right.
00:04:48
Speaker
Ultimately, one of the things that we need to do is put that statement out there and win this game because we should be winning this game.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:56
Speaker
But at the same time, it's important not to assume it's a done deal because they beat Ipswich at home recently.
00:05:04
Speaker
So it's, you know, it's a game we should be winning.
00:05:08
Speaker
It's a game we need to be winning.
00:05:10
Speaker
It does not mean that it is as clear-cut as that.
00:05:15
Speaker
We still need to put the work in and show up because, like you say, realistically, this league, anyone can beat anyone.
00:05:22
Speaker
But...
00:05:23
Speaker
But on paper, we should be doing the job, right?
00:05:27
Speaker
It's a shame that it's played on grass.
00:05:30
Speaker
There it is.
00:05:31
Speaker
I had to say the line at this point.
00:05:34
Speaker
At least the hope no longer kills us, mate.
00:05:36
Speaker
Sometimes the hope actually spurns us on to win, which is... That's a nice one.
00:05:42
Speaker
But that's it.
00:05:43
Speaker
And I mean, speaking of being spurred on, right, like...
00:05:47
Speaker
nothing like a little post-match brawl to get the fire going in you, right?
00:05:52
Speaker
Surely that's got to get the motivation kicking in there for some of the players.
00:05:57
Speaker
I mean, where am I at in the nicest possible way, Greg, is you're right.
00:06:00
Speaker
But also one of the things that we did discuss after that game is that it's going to be forgotten about by next game.
00:06:08
Speaker
So I feel like we'd be hypocrites if we were like, you know, they're not going to go out there and be like, hey guys, where's that?
00:06:14
Speaker
You know, I want the fiery passion regardless.
00:06:16
Speaker
I don't, not just because off the back of a brawl, but I just, yeah, you just want to see him go out and attack this game.
00:06:23
Speaker
And I think there's been a bit of lethargy because of the sheer amount of games we've had to play recently, you know, even after a week of sort of recovery.
00:06:31
Speaker
And obviously we had a problem where Fellows wasn't quite in where we thought he was.
00:06:37
Speaker
And we discussed in our post-match review that that's probably due to the fact that they didn't want to let, you know, let them know that Fellows wasn't going to be starting.
00:06:47
Speaker
But it'll be, yeah, it'll be, can't be too complacent.
00:06:51
Speaker
But at the same time, I'm not as worried about it as I have been the other games, you
Game Expectations and Predictions
00:06:57
Speaker
know?
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, look, I don't think it's going to, by any stretch of the imagination, be... I hope it is.
00:07:04
Speaker
I hope it's one of these games where we go and stomp them in the first half and that's game done, 4-5-0.
00:07:09
Speaker
I don't necessarily think it's actually going to be a particularly high-scoring affair.
00:07:14
Speaker
They seem to be pretty well organised in defence, especially at home.
00:07:18
Speaker
They just don't give away huge amounts of goals.
00:07:23
Speaker
But...
00:07:26
Speaker
Yeah, just hopefully we go out, start strong, put the game to bed.
00:07:31
Speaker
Bish bash bosh, job done.
00:07:32
Speaker
Happy days.
00:07:33
Speaker
Move on to the next one.
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'd really like to see another Charlton-esque performance, right?
00:07:37
Speaker
Go out there, you know, beating the opponents that we should be beating and put them to the sword.
00:07:44
Speaker
Because if not, like, you know, a loss, a draw, we don't want, like, another draw or a loss.
00:07:49
Speaker
We don't want to start to wobble.
00:07:50
Speaker
We want to carry on with the momentum that we've had with our new manager, you know?
00:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, we've got to push on.
00:07:56
Speaker
I said it a lot in our championship roundup yesterday, but these festive periods sort of make or break time for a lot of teams, and we need to be definitely heading towards that make period, especially if we're eyeing up automatics instead of playoffs.
00:08:12
Speaker
I mean, even playoffs is still out of reach currently, so we just need to push on and fight and win.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:21
Speaker
Right.
00:08:21
Speaker
Let's, uh, let's have a little break, mate.
00:08:24
Speaker
And then let's get into our predicted starting lineups.
00:08:28
Speaker
Uh,
00:08:29
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:08:59
Speaker
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00:09:00
Speaker
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00:09:04
Speaker
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00:09:07
Speaker
Okay, and we are back.
00:09:13
Speaker
Right.
00:09:14
Speaker
Bazin goal?
00:09:16
Speaker
We'll not do this week in week out, yes.
00:09:20
Speaker
Until further notice, Gavin Pizzunu will be in goal.
00:09:25
Speaker
Maybe that changes in January, but I do not think that we're going to put Alex McCarthy in goal.
00:09:30
Speaker
I heard some other podcasts wildly suggesting that instead of bringing Cameron Archer on, we should have brought Alex McCarthy on and put Bazzy on up front.
00:09:39
Speaker
So...
00:09:40
Speaker
Maybe.
00:09:42
Speaker
Maybe that's the sort of craziness we start to see as the festive period goes on.
00:09:46
Speaker
Let's not see absolute insanity.
00:09:48
Speaker
I'm quite happy for, you know, Baz the Bingo is what it is.
00:09:52
Speaker
All right.
00:09:54
Speaker
Manning?
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah?
00:09:57
Speaker
Let's not start with attacking players.
00:09:59
Speaker
Sorry.
00:09:59
Speaker
Let's stick to the defence.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:02
Speaker
Stevens or Quasi?
00:10:05
Speaker
I think that Stevens is going to be okay in this game.
00:10:08
Speaker
Again, Quasi seems to be put in against teams that are quite physical up front.
00:10:12
Speaker
And also, he seems to be put in what we'd consider to be top 10 teams, right?
00:10:17
Speaker
They've put them against Leicester.
00:10:18
Speaker
They've put them against Coventry.
00:10:20
Speaker
I think that maybe because they won that pace and physicality, I think Stevens against Oxford United will be fine.
00:10:27
Speaker
Should we be settling for our club captain, though?
00:10:30
Speaker
Is that...
00:10:31
Speaker
Is that the position we want to be in?
00:10:33
Speaker
No, I said I think it will be fine.
00:10:34
Speaker
It's not settling.
00:10:35
Speaker
I'm just saying that I think that he will be a player that, if played in that role, will do the job required of him.
00:10:41
Speaker
I don't think Quash is necessarily better than him.
00:10:44
Speaker
But at the same time, I'm fine with him being there.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:49
Speaker
That's a rage beating right there, mate.
00:10:53
Speaker
I don't know what you mean.
00:10:59
Speaker
Harwood, Bellis, Nathan Wood.
00:11:01
Speaker
Got to be on there, right?
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:02
Speaker
You know, Nathan Wood scored a goal, which is, you know, we always like to see from our centre-backs.
00:11:08
Speaker
Alba Bellis has also scored some goals and is also, you know, proper in his element at the moment.
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah, just coming into himself, right?
00:11:16
Speaker
Yeah, very much in the early season, we kind of like, kind of disappeared a little bit, but he's definitely back to his
Player Performances and Lineup Discussion
00:11:21
Speaker
old self now and, you know, squaring up to people after games and afters is always, oh, sorry, it's not something you always like to see.
00:11:28
Speaker
It's something I always like to see.
00:11:33
Speaker
He's looking more and more like the Taylor Harbour-Bellis we were happy we signed from getting promoted and getting that obligation to buy triggered.
00:11:44
Speaker
He's really coming into his game, stepping up forward, finding those forward passes to the attack when the options are there.
00:11:51
Speaker
So, yeah, honestly, one of the first names on the team sheet for me.
00:11:55
Speaker
His quality has improved so much, and it's exactly what we wanted.
00:12:01
Speaker
It's great.
00:12:03
Speaker
Right.
00:12:04
Speaker
Wide wing slash wingbacks.
00:12:09
Speaker
Whatever.
00:12:10
Speaker
The people on the left or the right.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:13
Speaker
Manning, presumably.
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, if he's fit.
00:12:16
Speaker
On the left.
00:12:17
Speaker
We keep saying if he's fit, like he's not been fit for every game.
00:12:20
Speaker
So... He's got to get tired, right?
00:12:24
Speaker
I don't know.
00:12:25
Speaker
Some players just like that, right?
00:12:28
Speaker
It reminds me, you know, not just because he's Irish, but Shane Long was very much the same, right?
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:32
Speaker
You'd put him on a run for 90 minutes if you wanted him to.
00:12:36
Speaker
And he seems to be sort of in a similar vein, so... If Tom Fellows can manage half an hour against Coventry, you'd like to think he'd be starting against Oxford?
00:12:45
Speaker
Maybe.
00:12:46
Speaker
I mean, why would you not want to put, you know, you want to win the game, ultimately.
00:12:49
Speaker
You want to win the game comfortably.
00:12:51
Speaker
I don't know why you'd not want to put him on the pitch unless... Get him started.
00:12:56
Speaker
Get four goals early.
00:12:57
Speaker
If you're worried about his fitness, get him off at half-time when the job's done.
00:13:00
Speaker
Right?
00:13:01
Speaker
Would you be upset if Wallingham started there again?
00:13:05
Speaker
Um...
00:13:06
Speaker
Yes, but it was not Wellington's fault, right?
00:13:10
Speaker
Yeah, I get you.
00:13:12
Speaker
I think Wellington did as good of a job as a left-back playing at right-back as you could possibly have expected him to do.
00:13:20
Speaker
But much like Ryan Fraser the week before, and much like Jay Robinson when he comes on the pitch, he suffers from a terrible fate of not being Tom Fellows.
00:13:33
Speaker
and that really is the option that we seem to be built around and work with.
00:13:38
Speaker
We work best when we have all of those options on the pitch because then the other team don't know who to muck, right?
00:13:45
Speaker
Whereas if you miss any one of them, then quite easily you just chuck two men on Sienza and one on Azaz, and, you know, well, that's the direction the ball's going to go.
00:13:55
Speaker
It's going to go down that side of the pitch.
00:13:56
Speaker
So I think...
00:13:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'd hope to see Fellows back starting just because then it keeps Oxford guessing where we're going to be coming at them from.
00:14:06
Speaker
Isn't Mads supposed to be back at some point?
00:14:08
Speaker
We don't know.
00:14:09
Speaker
We have not had the conference conference as Greg alluded to at the beginning of the episode yet.
00:14:12
Speaker
But I know Gillette's supposed to re-enter training and I saw an interesting tidbit about...
00:14:19
Speaker
Spawn's talking about how, why would we like activate our clause to sign him in November when we literally haven't still made to decide.
00:14:27
Speaker
And obviously he went out injured at just a really unfortunate time.
00:14:30
Speaker
So yeah, it's kind of like, I just, I just feel like you're right.
00:14:33
Speaker
The problem is, is that if either of them are fully fit, would you still want them to replace fellows?
00:14:37
Speaker
And I guess the answer's no, no, no, unfortunately not.
00:14:42
Speaker
So, and like I say, you just hope that,
00:14:47
Speaker
You'd think that this is probably one of those games where we're going to come hot out of the blocks.
00:14:52
Speaker
And so you'd rather have fellows on the pitch for that.
00:14:55
Speaker
And if he's only got a half in him, so be it.
00:14:59
Speaker
Be prepared for that.
00:15:00
Speaker
Part of that planning is the detail, right?
00:15:02
Speaker
Have a backup plan for the second half.
00:15:04
Speaker
But I feel like you want to start your strongest XI and he's always in that strongest XI, right?
00:15:12
Speaker
It's just a no-brainer.
00:15:14
Speaker
In the midfield, Yander of Downs, for me, have it under control.
00:15:20
Speaker
No reason to change.
00:15:21
Speaker
They're going to be hard to displace.
00:15:22
Speaker
It'll be interesting when Shea's back to full fitness.
00:15:26
Speaker
Obviously, we didn't need to use Romero in the last game either.
00:15:29
Speaker
So maybe, but at the same time... Shea, of course...
00:15:34
Speaker
having like a, another niggle or something.
00:15:37
Speaker
And so it seems to be slightly further off from what we were hearing.
00:15:40
Speaker
So yeah, that's been reassessed.
00:15:41
Speaker
A bit of further time to, before we have to think about how that looks then, but, you know, assuming wellness and assuming fitness levels, that they're the two I want to see starting in midfield.
00:15:54
Speaker
Uh, and then, yeah,
00:15:58
Speaker
If they broke, don't fix it.
00:15:59
Speaker
Siense Armstrong, Azaz.
00:16:03
Speaker
Those three and fellows all on the pitch.
00:16:06
Speaker
That's what I want to see.
00:16:06
Speaker
Those attacking outlets, the defense scrambling.
00:16:10
Speaker
Four goals in 20 minutes.
00:16:11
Speaker
Job done.
00:16:12
Speaker
Don't worry about the rest of the game.
00:16:14
Speaker
That's what I want from the game.
00:16:16
Speaker
Don't ask a lot.
00:16:18
Speaker
No, okay.
00:16:20
Speaker
I mean, it's not the six or seven I expected from you, although we haven't actually got to score predictions yet.
00:16:24
Speaker
But yeah, it's made this portion of the show a lot tougher because we actually have what I consider to be a best 11 now, which is wild how long it's taken for us to settle on a best 11, right?
Preferred Starting Eleven and Formation
00:16:39
Speaker
It's interesting, isn't it?
00:16:40
Speaker
Because it's kind of a best 11, but also where there are...
00:16:44
Speaker
are parts that do swap in and out, right?
00:16:47
Speaker
Like you can see, you know, we've seen Stevens and Kwasi swapped quite a lot, obviously with fellows being injured.
00:16:53
Speaker
You see that a lot, but also the midfield as a potential sort of swapping point.
00:16:57
Speaker
You don't want to mess with the front line though, because that's... When Cameron Archer came on, we didn't really talk about it in our review, but he came on, he had two touches and one offside in his substitute appearance.
00:17:08
Speaker
And that is not...
00:17:10
Speaker
It's not inspiring the confidence you want.
00:17:12
Speaker
Damien Downs didn't even make the bench.
00:17:14
Speaker
I don't know if he's taken a knock or disappeared off the face of the planet or Tonda's just not happy with him or he's not high enough up the pecking order.
00:17:23
Speaker
But without those depth options, those front four are who you need on the pitch and I don't see any other names, unfortunately, in our squad who are going to provide what they provide.
00:17:36
Speaker
when they work together.
00:17:38
Speaker
I agree.
00:17:39
Speaker
So yeah, until we have, you know, people back from injury, it would be, it would be interesting to see what happens when Stuart's back.
00:17:49
Speaker
If he comes back at a stage where he's able to play, you know, even, I don't know if he'll just be used.
00:17:55
Speaker
I have a feeling he'll be used as a substitute.
00:17:57
Speaker
I don't know if he'll ever really get a full appearance at this point, which, which is at least sensible because he at least offers a different profile of striker.
00:18:06
Speaker
which is not something that we actually have otherwise, right?
00:18:10
Speaker
Because Cameron Archer is a very similar player to Adam Armstrong.
00:18:14
Speaker
And when I see Damien Downs, I see that same profile.
00:18:17
Speaker
So it's a different option if and when he ever comes back.
00:18:23
Speaker
But yeah, those are bridges to be crossed later in the season as hopefully everyone makes their way back to fitness.
00:18:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:32
Speaker
Right, mate, let's have another little break and then throw it over into our score predictions and see what we think is going to happen.
00:18:40
Speaker
Let's get to it.
00:18:42
Speaker
Here at the Global Sports Podcast Network, we spent a lot of time selecting our delivery platform.
00:18:46
Speaker
Zencaster came out the clear winners.
00:18:49
Speaker
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.
00:18:58
Speaker
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00:19:06
Speaker
All right, mate.
00:19:07
Speaker
And we are
Predicted Scores and Historical Context
00:19:08
Speaker
back.
00:19:08
Speaker
And one thing I haven't done in the episode today is give the little spiel from our stats website.
00:19:18
Speaker
Look, not a lot of historic data to base it off, right?
00:19:22
Speaker
15 games total, mate.
00:19:24
Speaker
About 15 professional games.
00:19:26
Speaker
The only result registered as far back as the stats on this website go is the preseason friendly where they beat us 2-0.
00:19:36
Speaker
But at the moment, Oxford United's form at home is very poor.
00:19:42
Speaker
And Saints are now average away, which is probably the nicest thing we've been called in any form.
00:19:48
Speaker
I'll take average away.
00:19:49
Speaker
I'll take not very poor.
00:19:51
Speaker
The amount of times that you read this out last season, and it's like, and Saints' home form is very poor.
00:19:58
Speaker
Saints away form is very poor.
00:20:01
Speaker
It's just nice to not have either of those come up, if I'm totally honest.
00:20:04
Speaker
And I know that that's like, you know, maybe my head's in the clouds a little bit.
00:20:08
Speaker
But you know what?
00:20:09
Speaker
I'm kind of happier with being there.
00:20:13
Speaker
It's suggesting a likely scoreline of 2-0 Saints with Flynn Downs to get booked, which is funny, really, because that's more or less how I had it penned.
00:20:23
Speaker
So...
00:20:26
Speaker
But I mean, no, I mean, let's get to that.
00:20:28
Speaker
How are you feeling about it, mate?
00:20:29
Speaker
What do you think?
00:20:30
Speaker
I would like another 4-0 Charlton-esque performance with a goal from Armstrong, Azaz, Sienza, and just for you, Greg, Fellows, obviously, with Flynn Downs to get booked.
00:20:48
Speaker
Obviously, that's a no-brainer every single day of the week.
00:20:51
Speaker
There you go.
00:20:52
Speaker
That's how we figured it out, mate.
00:20:53
Speaker
That's how Shea Charles will put this place thinned down.
00:20:56
Speaker
The next time, yeah, he'll get suspended again, and then Shea Charles will step in.
00:21:02
Speaker
You know, he's got this ongoing battle with his illness, so there's going to be space in that midfield eventually.
00:21:08
Speaker
But, yeah.
00:21:09
Speaker
Do you know what, mate?
00:21:10
Speaker
I can't fault your prediction.
00:21:12
Speaker
4-0 is actually what I was going to say as well.
00:21:16
Speaker
I knew.
00:21:17
Speaker
I saw it in your eyes.
00:21:18
Speaker
I beat you to it.
00:21:19
Speaker
We've been alluded to it this whole podcast.
00:21:21
Speaker
I socially engineered you.
00:21:25
Speaker
So not to be outdone, I'm going to have to say 6-0.
00:21:28
Speaker
Yeah, there it is.
00:21:32
Speaker
And that's what happens when you celebrate too early, guys.
00:21:37
Speaker
I celebrated before he made the prediction.
00:21:39
Speaker
That's entirely unmeaned.
00:21:41
Speaker
Look, it's got to be a game, like you say, a decisive victory.
00:21:48
Speaker
Honestly, I'd take a 1-0 as long as it's comfortable.
00:21:52
Speaker
I'd be a nice, clean sheet.
00:21:53
Speaker
As long as it's not too scrappy and not too silly, I'd take it.
00:21:59
Speaker
Just as long as we win, that's the important part.
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's all that matters.
00:22:03
Speaker
As long as we win...
00:22:04
Speaker
I don't really care.
00:22:05
Speaker
I just want to see a win.
00:22:07
Speaker
I don't want Boxing Day to be made sad.
00:22:10
Speaker
I want to make sure that we get a solid win one way or the other.
00:22:17
Speaker
And we have a nice boxing day.
00:22:20
Speaker
That's it, mate.
00:22:22
Speaker
I can't wait.
00:22:23
Speaker
I'm excited.
00:22:24
Speaker
Right.
00:22:24
Speaker
That is all we have got time for today and all we have got time for before Christmas.
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
00:22:32
Speaker
So happy holidays and Merry Christmas to everybody and all of our listeners.
00:22:40
Speaker
And thank you very much for all of your support through the year so far.
00:22:45
Speaker
Zach, as ever, thank you so much for joining me and thank you everyone for listening.
00:22:51
Speaker
Hit us up and let us know your score predictions and how you see the game going on all the socials.
00:22:56
Speaker
We are GSPN Southampton everywhere.
00:23:00
Speaker
We're on X, TikTok, Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, everywhere.
00:23:06
Speaker
Hit us up, let us know.
00:23:07
Speaker
We love hearing from you.
00:23:09
Speaker
And we will be back after Christmas and after the game to talk about it.
00:23:14
Speaker
Whatever goes down.
00:23:16
Speaker
We always are.
00:23:18
Speaker
So until then, have a great Christmas, everyone.
00:23:21
Speaker
And come on, you Saints.
00:23:28
Speaker
Your daily soccer podcast with the Global Sports Podcast Network.
00:23:34
Speaker
Merry Christmas.