So this morning I saw Southampton was playing Stoke City and thought, hey why not jot down the lineups for the blog? Woke up around 10 AM, grabbed my phone still half asleep, and opened Twitter straight away. Figured club accounts post lineups fastest, right?
The Hunt Begins
Scrolled through Southampton’s official feed first – nothing. Checked Stoke City’s page too – zilch. Started feeling like a detective hunting for clues. Switched to the BBC Sport app next, tapped through menus forever, but their match center only showed prematch stats and old news. Total waste of ten minutes.
Then I remembered FotMob usually has lineup leaks early. Downloaded the app again – last update was two months ago! Almost threw my phone across the room. Made coffee while it updated muttering about stupid tech glitches.
Finding Gold
Finally got FotMob running around 11:30 AM. Found the match page after typing “Southampton” three times wrong – fingers still clumsy. Scrolled down and boom! Both lineups displayed clear as day.
- Southampton: Bazunu – Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Stephens, Manning – Smallbone, Downes – Armstrong, Aribo, Sulemana – Adams
- Stoke: Bonham – Gooch, McNally, Wilmot, Stevens – Burger, Laurent – Vidigal, Pearson, Mmaee – Campbell
Copied them manually into my notes app. Spilled coffee on my sweatpants doing this. Classic.
Why Bother?
You’re probably thinking – why’s this dude obsessed with football teamsheets? Here’s the backstory. Back in uni, I dated this girl who hated sports. Like despised them. Caught her ripping my Match Attax cards once during an argument. Dumbest fight ever over cardboard player pictures.
When she dumped me, I went full football nerd mode. Started documenting random lineup facts as therapy. Sounds ridiculous but tracking who plays where calms my brain like yoga for stats geeks. Still doing it six years later – cheaper than actual therapy too.