The9

Yeah we will, and we'll sing it if we go ahead anyway, so why not straight away as mathematically it's the case with the in-play table ?

Get ye to Golden Threads.

Subbuteo don't make curved roof stands. HTH.

Indeed.

Cheers for that, because it made absolutely no sense without !

We certainly passed a few behind him on Saturday evening. He did also over-run the ball at his feet a few times and wasn't getting past people and sticking crosses in like we've seen previously. I actually rate De Ridder but he's a long way short of even reasonable expectations so far, with the exception of his West Brom pre-season appearance, goals at Cardiff and Reading and that one game a couple of months back where he launched cross after cross (could have been Palace, Blackpool, Hull or Ipswich) he's really not done all that much for Saints yet.

Not even if he was keeping us in the Prem ?

Yeah, that's fair enough, and he might even be pivotal in this season like Forte was last year, I'm still not convinced he's got what it takes for the Prem or top of the Championship.

I haven't seen Sharp look knackered for Saints yet and I saw him play 83 minutes at Upton Park. He's certainly added some muscle and slimmed down a bit since he joined as well. Not sure why our failure to pass to him last weekend is his fault either.

Fair point, beats getting Sheffield Wednesday or Northampton though.

Lambert. Care to elaborate ?

It doesn't seem to have stopped us chucking Bale, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain into the first team as 16 year olds, and Stephens already had League One experience before we signed him. Not sure why he wouldn't be ready, maybe he'll get a game against Coventry if we're not playing for anything...

Yep, that's it for me. I've never been. Though I have been past their ground about 20 times between Manchester and Southport on the train. I wouldn't mind them going down if we just got them in a Cup.

If you had the choice, and we make the Prem, which would you prefer as our "target man" for Saints next season ? Not that there's much chance of Carroll pitching up at St Mary's in a Saints shirt, I just want to know what people think.

He's been pretty decent for Leicester in the past few months - not sure his DJing etc is necessarily in line with our recruitment policy but I think he'd be a decent add. I'd take an arm off for Snodgrass, wonder if we'd be interested in Danny Guthrie who must want a chance to start regularly, would love us to sign Matt Jarvis and wonder who else we've got our eye on from the relegated sides if we go up. Shame Hoilett's all but taken... based on previous seasons we'll be in for 20-27 year olds with experience in the Prem or who have excelled at our previous level.

Just like Bale was too young ?

Can't argue that he's a trier.

He is significantly worse than Ormerod was for us, given that he's not even scored in the Prem in his career, hasn't played in an FA Cup Final for Saints, or played in our most successful league team of the Premier League era, etc. Just because they both run around a bit and score the occasional goal doesn't mean the one who's proven it in the Prem is on the same level as the one who's only proven it in League One. In fact, Ormerod was a better League One level striker than Barnard before we signed him from Blackpool too - he scored 20 goals before December for them in 2001/2, Barnard only got 15 for Saints all last season.

Last season, maybe. This year, no. And having one of our two players who are nearest the goal involved in almost half our goals is pretty standard, especially when they're the regular penalty taker and main free-kick taker.

Based on the age group and character of previous signings, I'm pretty sure this one is not going to happen.

I think he found his limit in the top half of League One, personally. One paced, not quick, not good in the air, not skilful enough to beat players, not especially good at holding up the ball or passing. A decent enough finisher but his limitations (particularly lack of pace) mean that he doesn't get as many chances as better players. Sharp is significantly better in most if not all aspects of his game, and Guly has shown far more signs of being able to play at the top level than Barnard has. However, even a blind pig can find a truffle, and in a top of the league side with home games against 2 of the bottom 4, there could be a few truffles about.

I used to have great fun on the national software roll-out I worked on in '99 asking the various Register Office staff where they thought I was from. All over the country in a different location every week for 8 months and no-one ever guessed - meanwhile a colleague who was born in the same hospital as me was picked up on his "Welsh accent" every time. I've never had a Newport accent because a lot of the local speech quirks were educated out of me when I was very young - it's only dropping my Hs like Tony Pulis, spa, that gives me away occasionally. That and saying "car park", and, as B Rabbit will tell you, for "year" I (used to) say "yurr" not "yee-uh" like you lot. I've switched now because the tedious tit picked me up on it every time I said it for about three yeaa-urs, but I do still say "baff" not "barth". I can usually identify where other people are from though, it's another of my tedious academic tendencies.

De Ridder was out wide, hugging the touchline and a complete failure on Saturday. Lallana came inside, played across the middle a bit, and achieved little more. I'd have been happy with sideways passes in advanced position on Saturday, as opposed to basically no passes in the attacking third. Going down the middle on Saturday was a smart tactic on paper, Blackpool usually play 4-3-3 meaning they can only have one man in the middle - in practice though they put their 3 very narrow against us and we couldn't get the wingers involved due to our passing being below par, the pitch and their pressing. The two times we did get down the middle we won the penalty and Guly chipped just wide.

Of course high penalties have a higher success rate WHEN they go in, goalkeepers don't jump for the top corners - but the stats don't show how many penalty misses occur due to players trying to lift the ball and missing altogether. If you hit the target you've got a better than 50% chance of scoring, if you miss it whilst trying to put it in the roof of the net you have 0%.

I don't think he's short of confidence and he hit the target with the penalty. It's also hardly his fault we didn't pass the ball anywhere near him for the remaining 70 minutes. He's already proven he can score goals from limited opportunities and this week Adkins will have been building the team's pattern around him rather than Lambert as the main striker just in case, so we won't be playing the ball at his head or expecting him to link play in the middle. Shame one of his skills is creating space for others when we might not have anyone who can exploit that. Let's face it, if he scores on Saturday and we win he's half way to legend status already with some of our fans.