gjphilsaint

Yes..that an allegedly a plough through the middle of the football pitch one night?

And I need to change my avatar! Any help for something more up to date?

The margin between keeping up with the front runners and being caught by the high mid tables is slim. There is a rhythm to it all and slim margins for error. For example yesterday we drew away at Stoke...we dropped a position, now a win next week whilst other teams above us stutter might mean a move up or stay as we are..depends...also when top 5 teams play each other it becomes an opportunity. Yesterday was a chance to go second ( for a while) we didn't take it, but that's the journey we are on.can we maintain that momentum, if we do we will need to avoid the silly losses, turn games we do not dominate in a minimum of draws and see off the weaker sides, and there are plenty of them this year. Margins are slim for a team like us, whereas, top 5 current will expect realistically to win and draw enough to keep them at the high levels. Can we? I think we can as long as we maintain the standards that others are defining us by, hardworking and skillful; that and a good run of injury free games. All of this as Lambert still IMHO on real form. Promising and certainly not intended as an arrogant post. The journey continues...not a bad 10 games really!

My mate from USA watched the game live and sent me two reports: one at half time , one at full time. Here goes: 1-0 Sunderland at halftime. Are you able to listen to it on the radio? I find one major difference between the top tier teams and everyone else is precision passing. The Saints seem to be losing a lot of balls in the middle third which prevents them from having real scoring opportunities. However, I am impressed with Lambert and his ability to get his head on the ball. He had a wonderful opportunity towards the end of the first half that he really should have put away. He was also pulled down in the penalty area but was not given the call...much to the chagrin of the home fans. More to come. Fonte scored the tying goal. 1-1 FT. A bit of an unfortunate score for the Saints. They were the better team in the 2nd half. The offensive attack was greatly improved, and there were many scoring opportunities. Finishing could be better, but i think the offense shows promise. Some questionable calls went against the Saints. A loss would have been devastating based on the quality of play. I imagine a draw is tolerable. Osvaldo is as advertised, skillful, dangerous and volatile. Enjoyable experience. I am glad I was able to see them play. HTH

prepared to take one for the team and waste one of my posts...bump..

depth needed.. players out of form need motivating.. a good learning curve

correct! impossible for both villa and wigan to pass us on 40 points as they play each other and AV GD is worse than our by a large margin

A point for us tomorrow will guarantee us safety if score stays the same (1-2)

If we better villas result at weekend we are mathematically safe.

If we are above villa and wigan come the last game we are safe

Lens.

Apologies jammed up keyboard: Seriously believe that we have thrown away some vital points recently... but then who saw Man City game coming. Sadly don't see us getting the breaks to sneak the wins we need. Lucky to get past 35 points so am hoping there are 3 teams likely to finish with pooer form than us. Norwich & Reading games crucial and both have that annoying habit of buggering up my match day!!!

Seriously believe that we have thrn aay some vital points recently... but then who sawMan game coming. Sadly don't see us getting the breaks to sneak the wins we need. Luckyto get past 35points so am hoping there are 3 teams likely to finish with pooer orm than us. Norwich & Reading games crucial and both have that annoying habit of buggering up my match day!!!

Man Utd 6-3 (h) & 3-1 (h) Man City Chelsea Tottenham 4-0 (h) cup Arsenal 3-2 (h) Everton 2-0 (h) to stay up. Swansea West Brom 4-0 (h) 76 FAC run Liverpool 4-1 (h) Stoke 1-0 (h) West Ham Fulham Sunderland Norwich Newcastle 3-1(h) Aston Villa 4-1 (h) Reading Wigan QPR 1-4 (a

Curran also did that at the 2nd leg of the league Cup semi final against Leeds in 78. It went to extra time and Lawrie mac had to wait to give the final team talk whilst the team waited for him... I remember all of the team cracking up as he sprinted back on....