By Nick Mabey. Russell Martin’s unsurprising sacking as our manager this week gave me no pleasure at all. Optimism has always been a superpower/Achilles heel for me and I really wanted Martin to turn things round at Saints. I’ve been fighting myself about this for most of the season,...
View from the Kingsland
View from the Kingsland – How to feel about VAR?
By Nick Mabey. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR from here on) provokes some of the strongest feelings and opinions the average football fan can muster these days, so I thought it time I gave it some prolonged attention here. For those wondering why I’m distracting myself from Saints’ league...
View from the Kingsland: Harsh Reality
By Nick Mabey. It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. Mostly because I’ve moved house and celebrated a significant birthday with a long holiday, but also because I thought I’d rest for as long as possible in the euphoria of that amazing Wembley day in May. The feel-good...
View from the Kingsland: Ruled by hope or fear?
Saints fan column by Nick Mabey. I’ve been wanting to write this for a while, but the games have come so thick and fast that it is been hard to squeeze it in. And Saints’ fortunes have remained tantalisingly unknown throughout. Every match now means something and yet...
View from the Kingsland – Spring Sabbatical
By Nick Mabey. Well, this is strange. As the Championship promotion race builds to a climax, Saints find themselves with a three-week gap between games. Even stranger, this ‘Spring sabbatical’ (as I’m calling it even though no one else is) follows a mad eleven games in 41 days and...
View from the Kingsland: A hundred year old record
By Nick Mabey We love a record at Saints. If I am being honest we don’t have the most impressive trophy cabinet for a club that’s spent so long in the top division and so records offer some solace and a welcome substitute. And at the moment all the...
View from the Kingsland: Half Time Report
By Nick Mabey. Half way through the season and how are we doing? Yes I know there is one more game before the actual half way mark but Christmas excess means my final article for this year is – in the words of Elvis – now or never. It’s...
View from the Kingsland: International Breaks
By Nick Mabey. As we head into the third international break of the season (only two to go, both in March), it’s been quite a four-week spell for Saints since the last one. We’ve played five games, winning four and – importantly given our earlier travails – suddenly become...
View from the Kingsland: Russell’s Rollercoaster
By Nick Mabey. Am I the only one who thought the days of wild swings in emotion supporting Saints were over, at least for a while? Sure, it has been a turbulent summer in terms of players leaving and joining, but that was always going to be the case....
View from the Kingsland: Revolting referees
by Nick Mabey. The season is well underway now and there’s always much to talk about. A clampdown on time wasting and dissent is hitting the headlines, even managing to upstage VAR and the transfer window this year. I’m hoping it’s just the start of a refereeing revolution. At...