The9

Never mind the linesman, did you see the ref trying to keep up with Spurs' injury time counterattack yesterday, even Lambert would have overtaken him.

Because we lost.

The guidance given to referees is that the ball should be in a neutral area of the pitch when the whistle is blown to end a half, so if we gave possession away with City attacking he should wait until we clear the ball (or City pass it back into midfield) until he blows. If we'd whacked it clear he'd have blown. That's been the case for about 5 years - there have been a couple of dubious whistle blows recently where they've blown at corners or when teams are on the edge of the box with the ball, when the ref shouldn't have blown up but did. He was pretty crappy overall, but this wasn't part of it.

He was bloody terrible, let Toure shirt pull for 4 different free-kicks before he booked him as well as the penalty non-call. Utterly shirked responsibility. Can't blame him for the offside decisions, but I'd like to see all of those again.

The high press was the missing element to our Prem game - with Lambert now working harder than he ever has before so he's not the weak link in the pressing game it works against any side which plays from the back. You might remember (you won't) that early in the season I pointed out that Lambert was useless in the Prem when left isolated (eg Arsenal away) but when we won the ball high up the pitch with him already in attacking positions we were able to support him, he gets the ball near the goal and doesn't have to run with it, and we scored a lot more goals. This tactic maximises the effectiveness of the players we have and clearly works against passing teams. It will be interesting to see what happens when we play a team set up to play long ball from defence (like Newcastle). Readily accept that our pressing is now happening further up the pitch, I was sober for this one I can see football coming full circle to the long ball game within 4 years, as the only way to counter high pitch pressing will be to set up to bypass it. Watching us last night with our wide fullbacks pushing up and one of the CMs sitting deeper than them, and the others swarming up from, we've already re-invented W formation. One warning note though, this is the first time we've played for all 90 minutes in the 4 games under Pochettino. Playing well for a half like we did in the last 3 games is why we haven't won them.

That probability site I usually reference said 43pts would be 100% safe (after taking into consideration the 15-ish games played by then), so 43 please. Realistically I can't see us getting more than 40 though.

Could also be to do with away fans not selling out their section. A bit.

There's no guarantee that safe standing would lead to either significantly increased attendances, that the demand amongst fans is still there or will last beyond the novelty factor, or that standing will lead to any cheaper tickets per se - clubs were glad to be able to charge seating prices to everyone in the early 90s and I doubt they'll be keen to break their pricing structures if safe standing became an option.

"On the day the "92nd" ground is visited, the qualifier must have visited the current grounds of the other 91 clubs in the League at that time. In recognition of this achievement, the qualifier may then claim to become a Member of an exclusive club of football supporters who follow League soccer and wear their 92 Club insignia with pride knowing that in over 30 years less than 1500 other fans have "done the lot"." I'm not sure I'm bothered any more.

Rules are here : http://www.ninetytwoclub.org.uk/nineq.htm You will note "(2) Any recognised competition normally entered by Football/Premier League Clubs at first-team level may be included. Friendly matches do not count." They have also recently removed the (seriously anal) rules which meant if a team dropped out of the league and was promoted back in, games from their previous spell didn't count ! Nicely, they also allow "In the case of clubs moving grounds, either the original ground or the new ground can be counted during the first two seasons following the move. Once the club has played at the new ground for two seasons then the original ground becomes invalid and thereafter only the new ground can be counted within the 92."

Yes, that's right, the black trim I've ignored on that shirt is exactly like the pinstripes I'm ignoring on the current shirt.

Incorrect, the stripes on that shirt from side stitch to side stitch were Thin white, medium red, broad white, medium red, thin white. I make that 5 stripes on the front of the shirt, ignoring the black trim on some of the stripes.

Usually when I post factual links the thread dies within an hour, so here goes... Average Prem attendances 2011/12 with percentage ground fill and number of ST holders for a bit of Prem context : http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=64079033&postcount=1 And the previous Saintsweb Football League (away) attendance stats thread which is completely irrelevant : http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?35192-Football-League-Away-Support-Stats

One Skate's response to that picture of the Skates I saw on a friend's wall on FB was that "they must have missed the time we took over 5000". He didn't link to any attendance figures or anything. Just saying.

Is he "whipped nippy low passes" Ben Reeves (good) or "sliced Hollywood pass" (not so good) Ben Reeves tonight ?

Wolves being the case in point.

Not sure anything in this thread constitutes "new" though, and about 5% of those posts are by the person who said lock it, so he's obviously not that bothered.

Plastic has been used for a good 15 years to my knowledge. It's a mid/late-90s phrase. I choose to be more impressed with people who support Saints no matter what division they're in over people who turn up when they fancy seeing a big match, I'm not apologising for that.

So you're saying people can't go and form their own football teams if you decide so ? Interesting ego.

They haven't played together since 1st December, which might be a factor... Mulumbu's been at the African Cup of Nations since the start of the year and Yacob had a 6 week hamstring injury which he's only just returned from. Significant effect on their results too : Matches with Y Mulumbu and C Yacob W7 D2 L4 As a %: 54-15-31 Matches without Y Mulumbu and C Yacob W4 D3 L9 As a %: 25-19-56

That'll be Pochettino sacked then.

I seriously doubt ANY team with Lambert in it could operate a practical pressing game, you'd only ever have to pass the ball to the bloke nearest him. And what's this "both strikers" nonsense ? We play 4-2-3-1.

Last season and before that, yes, but he's been quite advanced a fair few times this season under Adkins too. Cork's absence necessitated him being deeper early in the season of course.

I noticed Wigan were going at us with 5 or 6 players in the first half, Martinez being Spanish as well of course. FWIW I thought they were much more effective at it that we were, it wasn't until the tempo dropped a bit (or maybe when we brought Davis on as a third presser as opposed to Ramirez's more flair qualities) that we got on top. Cork and Schneiderlin have been superb at play-breaking match in match out, Liverpool away is the only time I've seen them clearly second best in the middle.

I think that's a fair point, my point being Stoke and West Ham can also get it down when they want - Andy Carroll aside.