The9

Mlmlmlmlmlmlmlmlmmmmmllll. What Anders Svensson might say if being held hostage with some tape over his mouth.

Still not sure how anyone could think Morgan's goal was a header - or that it was a decent piece of control from the cross either, Fox's cross sort of hit him and maybe a couple of others before he prodded home the loose ball, not a matter of him killing it and finishing or anything like that...

In many ways... standard, experience, age, knowledge of injuries you can get playing football, I bet I've scored more goals than anyone else in the squad too (but then I've had 30 years to do it)!

Bartley was MoM because he won every header in the midfield - he broke up play pretty well, but it was our lack of being in the right positions to receive passes, and to move the ball quick enough which enabled them to get near us - loads more misplaced passes under no pressure than we have been making. Hammond wasn't noticeably any poorer than Guly or Cork really, but we needed to change something in there. I think Stanislaus going off was a bigger factor in the change in the game, he was using the ball well and controlling the middle - they just didn't have that when he was taken off, even though they still got in behind by doubling up on the exposed Fox.

Agreed. He should have booked a few as well, three or four blatant pull-backs which were bolted-on yellows, not giving those meant it carried on into the last few seconds and basically cost us the win in the 93rd minute.

It's fine if you're 6ft 5 and don't need crampons to get up the steps. We had an ambulant ticket... for row FF, that was about 30 rows up the really high steps, glad our disabled friend didn't actually have to climb that in the end !

Honestly, I thought we were terrible for a long time, Burnley should have been out of sight by the time we put two passes together. We made FOUR last ditch blocks before an hour had passed, and their finishing was also awful. Their number 20 won everything in the air in midfield all game long, whilst we looked disjointed and poor, failing to move the ball quickly and without anything like our usual fluidity on the ball. Our passing was off, and players just weren't available to move the ball. We also resorted to the long pass too often, especially Fox early on. Burnley, rather than being knackered by all their hard work, were undone by Howe taking off Stanislaus who had been totally running the show in midfield with his movement. Wallace (7) was a constant threat down the right in the second half and Fox was being exposed to two men overlapping. Generally we were caught in behind the full backs a few times and Hooiveld was a rock in clearing almost every cross with his head. We didn't seem to be pressing much in front of the back 4 and Hammond being taken off suggests that Adkins realised it - but Burnley chose to use that space to launch attacks down the wings. They also used crossfield balls over Fox a fair bit. The short goal kick thing was insane, we tried it preseason and it always put us under pressure. We can spread the full backs up to the halfway line and the centre backs wide of the area, but if all that does is leave the space for a centre midfielder to drop to the edge of the box and pick up a short pass facing his own goal whilst marked, it's an utterly stupid, no gain tactic. I am almost certain that Les Reed is behind this one, as he writes a couple of the FA Coaching books and this kind of stuff becomes flavour of the month with coaches. I've seen a couple of other sides trying it - it's utterly pointless - high risk and no gain. The only possible defence is that it gives a team being dominated in the air the chance to potentially keep possession from the back, but the risk is way too high. Lose it on halfway or lose it 1 on 1 on the edge of your own box ? I know which I'd prefer. Kelv stopped it after Cork got caught, and just kicked at Lambert, which worked occasionally. Come the last 20 minutes we changed shape a little, stopped hitting long balls to the opposition and Connolly, and got a few balls in behind. Lambert's miss was incredibly unlucky, bouncing up onto the bar from about 4 yards out and unmarked. Lallana had an unmarked header wide, then another which nearly clipped the post. Schneiderlin got a lucky bounce and poked home for our equaliser and only one side was going to win then, but we took way too long to play anything like our decent football, and proved late on that we could have just run them down the wings if we'd got the fullbacks forward more quickly. The last chance of the game should have been a penalty and Lallana should have gone down when pulled back - his shot was a tired one. If De Ridder had come on for Connolly with 10-15 left we have had a few more openings too, Connolly worked hard but by the end he was tired and didn't have the legs to create space and chase through balls. I can see how both Howe and Adkins think they could have won it, Burnley were the better side for an hour and had a lot of attacking play, then Saints took over and had enough chances to win it too. Still, if we're that bad and get a point, it bodes well for when we play well !

Difficult to know, but as Burnley wear reddish shirts and white socks we may look more like Colombia than Brazil on Saturday...

I believe seniority rules are in effect.

The weather killed the walkup, the match moving twice and many people not having bought tickets in the first place as it was expected to be on tv, and the floating plastics being able to watch Spurs v Liverpool and Man U v Chelsea have to be the determining factors. It's a crap attendance for a high-flying Saints team nevertheless, we don't really have a comparable League position, but we're getting fewer than the first season after Prem relegation and the Play-Off season which are reasonably similar. As for STs, they must count them all, because they chuck the stubs straight in the bin at the turnstiles!

...probably.

I've been called it for less. Can't say I've looked at my post count since 2005 on S4E and the laptop with Photoshop on it bit the dust last month, but fortunately I don't need anyone's validation. Anyway, I'm on holiday, posting on Saintsweb at 7:45am, so I win.

The word legend is used altogether too readily nowadays anyway, so I suspect our criteria would be poles apart. Let's hope he meets mine - or those of someone far more demanding (like Cortese, if you believe some of his initial statements).

Oh yeah, and having a right back meant we didn't waste Cork there... I jest, I didn't see or hear any of it, I have no right to vote and won't be.

If he left tomorrow he'd be regarded as a bloke who helped save us, gave us access to a wodge of cash that got us out of the third tier and set us on the way to Championship success. No-one would give much of a toss about the JPT win, nice though it was, and we'd all turn our minds to what happens next. Nothing particularly fantastic has yet been achieved.'getting to the Prem would be great, staying in the Prem would be fantastic. We've done neither yet, and crap treatment of fans is a flaw that means on-field success is that much more necessary. Your point still ignores that the question asked what it would take for him to be a "legend", not to be just regarded as a success. I'd probably give him that just for getting us back in the Prem and staying there, independent of PR cock-ups and ticket taxes, but that wouldn't mean they weren't unnecessary.

Yeah, because not "being a legend" equals "being a bit of a failure". Read the question again. He's done little worthy of legendary status in comparison to current Saints "legends" so far, as a number of people have pointed out. I don't subscribe to the view that anyone is a "legend" for being vaguely competent at running a football club in the second tier of English football, for instance, and on-field success is not the whole argument, as you can see from my criteria.

From my viewpoint sat next to a swimming pool in Andalucia, having not seen or heard a second of it, I'm going for Richardson, as it gives me the chance to point out I said he was ace pre-season.

Not sure exactly what is meant to be wrong with a "business" canvassing the opinion of its "customers", to be honest. We'd all be better off with a bit more transparency about certain decisions...

I'll give him it if he gets rid of the ticket taxes, I can still afford to go and am not inconvenienced every time I buy a ticket, we re-establish ourselves in the Prem and win a trophy played for by Prem clubs. At that point I won't care if he's on the cover of the programme every week. That or gives me a million quid, which would also win me over more quickly, shameless pragmatist that I am.

The free parking tickets are already at Saints' TO so there's no cost at all to the club of giving them out other than a stamp and an envelope.

I remember reading that Shane Supple specifically walked away from football because he'd had enough of it and it wasn't what he expected it to be. You have to admire that really... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/i/ipswich_town/8211586.stm "deep down my heart is not in the game any more and I'm not going to go into work every day trying to convince myself that it is, so it's the right time for me to walk away. "I suppose you could say that I have fallen out of love with the game and when that happens I've always said to myself that I wouldn't hang around."" Excellent article by the way.

Can he do this ? I think it's an essential skill for all top class young centre backs, after all, the World Champions' youngsters are doing it...

Erm, well, we spent most of the last two seasons signing players from the same division (albeit League One) who could have signed for teams in the League above, and Cork at the very least could have played in the Prem if he'd wanted. Leicester and West Ham are spending loads but are both behind us in the table, and Arsenal just spent £12m on some kid who'd never played above League One, £8m on Gervinho, £10m on Arteta, £8m on Mertesacker and £6.5m on Andre Santos. So if that's "won't spend the dosh" I'd be glad of it.

I honestly think we'll slaughter them by 3 or more. Probably won't keep a clean sheet though. They drew at home with Barnsley who we beat away, and lost away to Millwall who we beat at home. They also drew with Leicester at home who we lost to away, and got thrashed by West Ham. I can see us getting an early goal and taking them apart.

Based on my disturbingly accurate guess for the first home match, I'm going for around 27k, possibly just under, for this one. Seems like a long time since we had a home match, not least because I haven't been to any cup games and went to V Festival instead of Millwall. Missing next week's too... what a plastic.