The Fifth Liners

Being a Southampton FC fan, I like many others knew this may well be a summer of big changes, but little did we know that the knife would be slid in and we would be gutted like a fish. So far in the transfer window, the Saints have lost no less than five key players and one of our better managers in the last 10 years. Mauricio Pochettino wasn't a popular managerial replacement after the dismissal of Nigel Adkins back in 2012, but nonetheless he had proven to be the right choice and led us from the foot of the Premier League, to an impressive 8th place finish last season where they won many plaudits for their fine offensive style and Saints fans began to believe. But his position became uncertain after the departure of chairman Nicola Cortese in January this year, the man had been bold and decisive but his methods didn't sit well with new owner Katherina Liebherr- who seemed to secretly fear a repeat of the old Rupert Lowe days which drove us to near financial ruin. The Arg...

A triple overtime winner from Adam Shaw gave the Chicago Blackhawks a terrific fighting 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins in game one of the Stanley Cup Final at the United Center last night! But this was no straight forward affair and required Joel Quenneville 's men to go deep to produce a result from the bleakest of scenario's! Milan Lucic got the Bruins off to a brilliant start with a goal mid way through the first period off an assist from Nathan Horton and the ever impressive David Krecji and Lucic then went one better and bagged a second only 51 seconds into the second period (thats a lot of seconds there!) with one again Krecji providing the chance, before Brandan Saad put Hawks back in contention two minutes later with his first play off goal. Patrice Bergeron restored the Bruins to two goal lead with a powerplay goal 6 minutes into the third and it looked as if the Blackhawks' final might go the same way as the Penguins before them. But however there was to ...

In news that will surprise nobody, there'll be no extended summer holiday period for the Chicago Blackhawks , their 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators at the United Centre last night sealed the first playoff spot for the Western. Goals by Toews , Saad , Shaw , Bickell and Kane did the job for the Hawks. Although Legwand , Spaling and Weber all netted for the Preds, they continued Nashville's season-long tradition of losing to Chicago. Nashville are sat 13th in the conference and while mathematically they have a chance of a playoff spot, it would take a huge stroke of luck to be in with a chance of reaching the cup. At the other end of the conference, the Detroit Red Wings made life more difficult by losing 1-0 to St. Louis Blues at the Joe Louis. Blues Chris Porter  scored the only goal in what was a very tight game. The Wings' offense out-shot the Blues but were unable to find the back of the net. Goalies Brian Elliot and Jimmy Howard took the 1st and 2nd star...