The9

They've only been playing bottom half teams.

From what I've seen of Sharp so far, his movement is excellent - he's not as fast as Lee but he's quick with the ball and makes his runs at the right time and in the right places. He was pulling West Ham's back line all over the place.

Adkins was quite clear in his comments to Solent that Lee's direct runs are designed to stretch the defence. The defenders are always having to look for him and it creates space in the hole for Saints as defenders drop off to go with him. I'm sure our midfield know he's making the runs, I'm not so sure they're being told to actually pass to him in those positions. As has been discussed before, those straight runs are not easy to time right, and we're all about possession, especially when we're leading.

I actually think we're working Sharp extra hard in training to get him up to Saints' fitness levels and he's getting rested on Saturdays so we can unleash him on the run-in, by which time he'll be up to speed and raring to go. At the moment having Tadanari Lee running around the place like a loon and trying to get in behind all the time seems to be worrying Championship defences enough, but I really think Sharp is more suited to our kind of build-up and he makes better runs to create space for himself and Lambert.

Here's a pic of Lee with his fans after the match...

I just liked it, FWIW. Some links to Tadanari Lee's blog would be good too.

You've got some strange wannabe tendencies.

So far he's been better for the Football League than Saints, I heard some Japanese channel has just forked out half a million quid in tv rights purely based on him playing for us.

301 is the red button channel. So that's what's on the red button on BBC for that time.

I'm less worried about them having seen their run-in than I was having seen their results.

Sounds like Brighton last season - but then THEY already had a 10 point head start when they started doing that.

I could see them getting 3 narrow wins, but their next 5 games after that are Blackpool, West Ham, Leeds, Brighton and Saints.

I was in the Itchen towards the Chapel end today (I'm a Northam ST holder) and I couldn't hear the Chapel at all, Northam were as loud as usual - very surprised at the noise the 50 or so Barnsley fans were making early on though !

Interesting, as Danny Fox speaking on the mic in corporate after the match said Lambo was absolutely fine (other than "being a red", what with Fox being an Evertonian). I also found out before the match that Lee Barnard is a West Ham fan. Awkward ? Have to say Lambert did look to be struggling a bit today, don't mind us taking the chance to rest him or Lallana when we're 2 up at home.

Can't say Lee's movement has impressed me that much so far - it's great that he IS moving and making runs, but all of his runs are very straight and not difficult for defenders to read - plus he goes so early our midfield isn't ready to pass to him and it's not really our style at the moment. I actually prefer Sharp's movement and runs as they're more in keeping with our system and he tends to run across the line without going into offside positions all the time. That said, I love his energy and closing down and he gives us a bit of Ormerod-style pressure on defenders which is certainly worth something at this level. This lot seemed to be enjoying it.

Collins can also play LB.

Fair point, I was trying to think of an obvious left back in their squad and forgot he was on loan - seeing as they can't loan Collins onwards. I suspect now they're just trying to hoover up all possible loan players anyone else might want - it's mental really, they already have about 5 strikers that don't get a look in... and they're just running up debt they can't cover.

I'm going for 4-1, or preferably 8-2. Come to think of it, 8-0.

Not everyone has never been outside Southampton except for away games you know, some people actually live in different places and have watched more than one team in their lifetimes. Also, what if you were a Crawley-based Brighton fan ? Perfectly valid reasons for supporting both since Crawley are now a league side too.

Shoot yourself in the head and bleed all over him.

Pretty sure the FL advancing them that £400k means they will do exactly that in May, when they will have no income over the summer instead of the £200k FL payments they'd have got in May/June.

Not sure I'm too worried about Skates getting Chris Maguire in : "Derby County striker Chris Maguire has joined fellow npower Championship side Portsmouth on a 28-day emergency loan deal. The former Aberdeen forward completed the relevant paperwork this afternoon and is available to feature in Pompey's trip to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday. Manager Nigel Clough said: "With four strikers - Steven Davies, Theo Robinson, Nathan Tyson and Callum Ball - ahead of Chris in the pecking order and young Mason Bennett very much in our plans, his first-team chances have been limited this season. "This loan move will allow Chris to get some regular first-team football under his belt at Championship level." What date are we playing them again ? Saturday 7th April... So.. 9th March, +28 days... 31 days in March, so his emergency loan deal runs out the day before they play us, and after the loan window is closed.

Can't find it on You Tube, never mind a DVD release - literally no idea whether it was even televised, almost certainly not commercially released. With the introduction of live football on tv in 1983 it's possible there weren't even any highlights of the game recorded despite the relatively high standings of the teams at the time. If you already know it was on tv, find out which tv station it was on (which ITV region or BBC) and see if they still exist and if they release bespoke DVDs, but that would cost a few quid. Or keep an eye out to see if ITV4 starts showing The Big Match repeats again like they did a few years ago. Should be glad the 1984 Thames TV strike happened in Oct/Dec '84 as well or you'd have little to no chance. FWIW I just found out that ITV and BBC were alternating coverage weekly in 1984 so if it was shown it could be on either...

There's some dispute over whether it was Saints or Sunderland that were responsible for their colours of Atletico Madrid too, who still wear the blue shorts Saints had at the time. Of course the current Bilbao home shirts are almost identical to the current Saints ones except for having red sleeves where Saints' are white. FWIW I went to Granada v Villarreal in September, awesome fun, I'd recommend it to anyone.