The9

The one that looks like Wimbledon, amusingly.

They still don't count as double anyway, it's an even lazier description. They just count "for more". As you can't have a bit of a goal, it's effectively one goal more, so it's only actually "double" if the ties finish 0-0 and 1-1. That should confuse a few people.

It's just you, I'd rather we win, and Carlisle haven't been as consistent as Leeds, so Carlisle please... and we've got to get there first, I can see us getting pwned tonight with the available players.

Hopefully Antonio will get a game tonight, he utterly murdered their left back (Lewington) at St Mary's over and over again, just by basic shovelling it up the wing and outpacing him. To be honest we seem to be struggling and also missing a lot of players, so I'd be happy with a draw, just scoring and staying within one goal will probably do. On the subject of away goals, they count, but WHEN do they count ? Assuming there's no extra time in the second leg in line with the rest of the competition, it would have to be at the end of 90 mins, but if there's extra time, it's a Football League competition, and they have those stupid Play-Off rules that did for us at Derby. And anyway, whatever the use of the rule, AWAY GOALS DO NOT COUNT DOUBLE, FFS. Nice to see us pitching up in Wimbledon shirts tonight for added comedy value, too.

Yeah, but you do like to panic, Patrick. If we start badly next season it will be because we're a poor side, there will be no excuses of no-pre-season or a disrupted summer, etc. That's assuming we're in League One, and there's still an outside chance, just like there has been all along, that we'll be in the CCC. Saying "I'm the only realistic one" and then picking the positions of most likely finish is a bit lazy really. Though there's some over-exuberance in the QF prediction...

First post seems to sum it up : Today was nearly a complete disaster and lives were nearly lost. The crush in the first 10 minutes of the game appeared to be a direct result of away fans being let in despite there being no room at the beginning of the away end. Plenty of room to the left but the dozy Leeds c*nts in the middle could not be bothered to move despite numerous tannoy announcements. Couple with the Leeds w*nkers who got tickets for the Flybe having to be moved into the away end a crush was inevitable. The police were not to blame for any problems, your own thick fans and our stewards were. What price a fans life eh? Well you nearly found out once again today and thankfully you got lucky. I was in the second row of block m in the Flybe and all was filmed by my son. It is due to be posted on youtube later so you can make your own minds up. No doubt the Leeds fans will blame the away end capacity but there was plenty of room in there, you just couldn't be bothered to help your own fans. Here's the video : - doesn't show much other than a lot of people having to jump over the wall to the far left but then it wouldn't show much...

I think he's quite good when he sticks to the sort of 5 yard passes defensive midfielders are meant to make, it's when he decides he's David Beckham and hits anything over 15 yards he's going to screw up (and does). Obviously he's not as mobile as he used to be either, which is only a problem when he needs to make sudden direction changes. Not that the most agile player in the world would have had much chance of reacting to Seaborne's header with the speed and unexpected direction it went.

I just watched it another 5 times, Seaborne barely beat the Millwall player to the ball, headed it sideways and Wotton was nowhere near it, and nor should anyone have expected him to be.

With hindsight (though some suspected it at the time) he was quite clearly hanging the players out to dry that night. Saying "what have you got?" and knowing if they didn't do it he'd have grounds to buy people to replace them - but at the same time, look at the subs and how few games they've played since. There are few players in that team that Pardew has confidence in. Harding, Mellis and Lambert had only just arrived, but as for the others... only 7 of the 18 are still going to be regularly involved now, and that includes Bart and Oscar Gobern. This is that side : Saints: Davis, James, Thomas, Lancashire (Rasiak 90), Harding, Schneiderlin, Wotton (Gobern 81), Mellis, Lallana, Paterson (Saganowski 81), Lambert. Subs: Bialkowski, Perry, Gillett, Thomson.

I'd be pretty confident that it would be because they have a glut of players who can't really be bothered now they're not in the Prem, and that other sides see them as a scalp and raise their game accordingly. Strachan didn't "get worse" in his last 6 months either, Saints were FOURTH in the Premiership on Boxing Day only 2 months before he left (13th Feb 2004), and we went downhill from Boxing Day '03 (we were diabolical at Loftus Rd against Fulham) until he left because the players knew he was going - from the immediate plummet in form and performances after we beat the Skates compared to I'd also be pretty confident the players found out he was leaving the week of Xmas 2003. English League Cup Southampton 2-0 Portsmouth 02-12-2003 English Premier Southampton 3-2 Charlton 07-12-2003 English Premier Liverpool 1-2 Southampton 13-12-2003 English League Cup Bolton 1-0 Southampton 16-12-2003 English Premier Southampton 3-0 Portsmouth 21-12-2003 FORM starts to go... English Premier Fulham 2-0 Southampton 26-12-2003 English Premier Southampton 0-1 Arsenal 29-12-2003 English FA Cup Southampton 0-3 Newcastle 03-01-2004 English Premier Southampton 0-0 Leicester 07-01-2004 STRACHAN departure becomes public knowledge : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/2370975/Strachan-puts-family-first.html English Premier Birmingham 2-1 Southampton 10-01-2004 English Premier Southampton 2-1 Leeds 17-01-2004 English Premier Man Utd 3-2 Southampton 31-01-2004 English Premier Southampton 0-0 Fulham 07-02-2004 English Premier Arsenal 2-0 Southampton 10-02-2004 STRACHAN GOES (three months early): http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/3485633.stm Bewildering that anyone thinks any different really. Pardew has done well so far but we've plateau'd a bit in the last 6 weeks - fortunately we've made some signings that given a bit of practise together should push us on further.

Considering he got us relegated, spent most of the summer faffing over whether he'd carry on at the expense of strengthening the squad or clearing out the players who wanted to leave, and then bailed after 4 months of the new season, he was hardly in a position to complain.

You are of course wrong to think that...

How many free-kicks did Beattie get in his scoring spell(s) ?

FWIW I think Wotton has looked competent in the role of "the breaking-up play bloke in the middle of the park with fresh legs as a late sub who can't play for 90 minutes any more", and didn't look to be to blame for the Millwall equaliser (though his inability to change direction won't have helped). As we're improving the squad, that role will soon become defunct and he'll be replaced by better players who can do 90 minutes and could be regular starters, but are in poor form/ out of favour. Not sure we need another playbreaker, but we do need to buy another creative midfielder. Hammond's injury is going to leave us with a creativity dilemma, and even he is far from the most creative, but he can see a pass or move it well (a lot better than Wotton, who seems to be his natural replacement without Gillett in the mix).

Amazing that we can field 3 new signings and yet picking Holmes is probably the biggest surprise by far !

It was a perfect cross and your leg bobbled. And Ronny Rosenthal against Villa was nearly 20 years ago and we haven't let up on that one yet.

It's going to take all of my self control not to make a comment about 2 yard tap-ins here... :s

I'm not paying for that load of crap... I know from experience that you can chuck strikers into any team, their mistakes don't cost goals and the don't need to know what their teammates are going to do to be effective. However, with defenders it takes time to learn each others' methods of play, their decision making tendencies and strengths and weaknesses, and even something like two defenders being called "Dan" can cause problems with communication in time-stressed situations, so it's a hell of a risk slinging three newcomers in at once - though it's obviously the longer term goal. Depending on how Pardew decides to address it, it might be easier to assimilate Harding with the other 3 already working as a unit than drip feed them in gradually. Jaidi's current injury makes all of this that bit more urgent, of course.

------------------Davis----------------- --Thomas----Perry----Fonte----Harding-- -----------------James------------------ Antonio---Hammond--Schneiderlin--Lallana -----------------Lambert---------------- Subs: Bialkowski, Otsemobor, Seaborne, Waigo, Gobern, Wotton, Connolly. Can't see the manager risking three new defenders at once unless they've been having a bloody good workout in training together, or starting 4-4-2 away from home, or starting with Wotton in midfield, so that leaves what I've put up there, with my main doubts being Davis/Bart, Perry/Seaborne and Waigo/Antonio.

Swindon were only relegated back into the division they'd been promoted out of eventually... And that was back when the people in charge of football actually did things for the benefit of football generally.

Fair point, Holmes, Gillett and Saganowski have all had their (brief) moments for us. Wondering what the future holds for Schneiderlin though, I'm not yet over us repackaging him from a developing through-ball playing playmaker into a one-speed play-breaker and crossfield passer in front of the back 4. Seems like a waste, though he's not done a great deal to admire at any point.

I think he's a pretty decent defender this season - at right back, his crossing is consistently better than James' too. As for the rest Saga - can go, though he'd improve us... if only... etc. Wotton - may as well keep him for that "last 5 minutes hacking it up the pitch" role, emergency cover, good pro. Holmes - I'd keep him too but as Pardew doesn't rate him... Forecast - May as well get rid. Lancashire - Sell unless he can be reworked as a DM. Paterson - Hang on to him, he's cheap and he'll learn, he's already scored in League One this season. Pulis - Hang, draw and quarter, or sell to Cardiff City/Skates Molyneux - He's not on the bench and Mills is ahead at left back, may as well go. Gillett - Doing better elsewhere, not tall enough for Pardew's liking. Pick or leave.

You mean the ones who used to support Saints on alternate weekends as well ?

Amusingly he actually said something like "I've never seen anything like it" as well. If you've never seen anything like it before, it can hardly be a defining characteristic of what it's always like, can it ? It was a pretty dull piece of reporting - plus I had to avert my eyes for about 5 minutes at the start, I still haven't seen more than a second of that open topped bus parade and I don't plan on doing so.

Money is all football's got at the moment, at least our bloke has got lots of it. If he changes his mind we're as screwed as anyone else in that position (which is pretty much anyone). I'll worry about it when he talks about selling the club rather than buying players.