The9

I thought he was pants, but has potential to make it work. I've already posted on here that for him to be a success he'll need to 1) Close down defenders 2) Learn to head a ball and 3) Learn the offside trap. I thought what you did about the midfield, but that was in the previous home match when he was attacking the Chapel for the last 20 minutes - got a good look at him in front of the Northam on Tuesday, and he was NEVER on-side, and it wouldn't have mattered if the passes were first time or 5 seconds late, as he was never the right side of the last defender. Oh, and he definitely didn't score, the lino had already flagged for Lambert's header being in. However, plenty of time for him to adapt, can't judge a guy on one performance when he barely knows the country, never mind the team.

What's it based on though ? We've played 4 of the top 6 and none of the bottom 6 (5 excluding us), and haven't lost to anyone below 8th (and even they haven't lost at home yet). The effort and drive of the team, and the quality of the players comprising that team is significantly and tangibly better than it was even for the first match of this season, never mind last season. We're not even in the bottom 4 on 10-match form without the 10 point deduction now.

I agree with the first part and I think he'll come good but can't agree with the second. I thought Waigo looked completely lost on Tuesday, and as for his attitude to straying offside during the build-up... he's obviously got skill and pace, but learning to head a ball (Hammond's free kick which he watched go past his head at the far post), closing the ball down (see Lallana for details who was excellent on Tuesday) and offside (endless failures to stand anywhere other than goalside of the last defender) would be a good start. And I'm not slating him because of the hype, as I was never part of the hype in the first place, I just think he needs a sharp lesson in the basics, and from earning the right to be on the pitch he can nutmeg fullbacks and dummy keepers all he likes.

About a month into the 2010-11 season if we're in Div 4 and haven't won a game. Other than that, I'm prepared to give him plenty of opportunity, given the leaps and bounds the team has improved by since he came in.

Hmph, he hasn't replied to my lengthy rant about music being played after goals yet. Admittedly I did send it the day before we went into administration, but that's not the point, surely ?

Actually as that was in Div 3 South and there was an equivalent Div 3 North with the same number of teams we'd have to finish 28th out of the 24 teams in this division to match it. Somehow I think that's slightly unlikely...

Ooh, can we do this again after our next win, so we can compare the results ? That's assuming our next win is soon, if it's December or 2010 I think I'd rather not know.

Quite. And any mistakes he may have arguably made pale into insignificance compared to the effort and drive shown by the majority of Saints players compared to last season.

Well, yeah, but does he gets SLOWER when he plays at a higher level ? Pace is one of those things that even parks players can have, you don't get slower *without* the ball just because there are better players around - anyway, my point was that some dullard last week actually thought he was slow, he's not. Played badly for the first team I can't disagree with, but losing his pace when he plays at St Mary's not Staplewood? Nah...

Would anyone who watched the match be able to confirm that Jake is, in fact, very quick ? Just a little difference of opinion from on here last week...

You were more or less right until about 5 years ago, and its changed twice since then, to the point where FIFA are considering allowing changes from pretty much anyone, at any time (though the World Cup seems to be a benchmark, not wanting anyone to play in successive ones for different nations). The links are above. The Ukrainians in the Russian team were given the option to "continue" to play for USSR/CIS/Russia (as they had already represented them and the Russian Federation was considered the dominant entity which inherited the USSR's record) or to play for their "nation". I would imagine the decision was taken based on the number of international tournaments they felt they'd get to play in based on what they were used to, for the likes of Kanchelskis. It was a fairly unique situation, I'm not sure any of the Slovaks in the Czechoslovakia/RCS teams stayed in the Czech side, and war prevented anything similar happening in Yugoslavia.

He could spend the whole game being caught offside because the midfielders don't release the ball quick enough, then everyone who had been hyping him up can start ranting on about how over-hyped he is... ...or just running 50 yards with the ball and scoring every time he gets it, I suppose.

Well, I'm not a parent, but I went to my first game aged 2 weeks (a 0-0 draw in the 4th Division, at least I got a photo in the local paper though), so I suspect I may be a little biased. My dad did mostly hold off taking me until I was about 5 - I wrote a very nice account of Newport County v West Ham in the 1979 FA Cup in my "what I did on the weekend" book from infant school, too. Having said that I remember him being pretty peeved that I spent the whole of the Mercantile Credit Classic Football League v Rest of the World match at Wembley reading the programme, and I was 15 by then... ...so it just depends if they're interested enough and ready enough. I'd say putting Saints kit on and demanding to go to a match is evidence enough !

Yeah, but the lino was wrong, it was not remotely near being deliberate, as the bloke was half-turning around and facing the other way at the time. Fact.

Nope. Thomas has been a revelation at right back, would be a shame to see him lose his place - and I suspect he won't for as long as we're keeping clean sheets.

Signing a Fiorentina reserve and Senegalese international is going to be a bit of a no-brainer though anyway isn't it ? I mean, we are bottom of the third division and all... what are the chances he's NOT better than some of the existing squad ? I'd be bloody shocked and a little bit frightened if anyone had watched Poo-lis before we signed him for a start.

I was quite pleased that we didn't look like conceding from every set-piece. Progress as far as I can tell. Jaidi had a very good home debut, and the rest of the back 4 did well too.

I walked down the Avenue from the Alex at half time in the West Ham v Liverpool match (about 6:30pm then) and it was chocka as far as the eye could see, weird.

I'm a fan of the Boom Boom Boom too, it did get a muffled outing in the Northam on Saturday, hope it catches on, better than bloody Pigbag "duh-duh-duh-duh " which wasn't even original when we nicked Palace's Andy Johnson chant to use for Dexter Blackstock some 4-5 years ago.

Much better than he did against his old Colchester mates, interesting how 4 or 5 sliding tackles somehow registers with people though. He did make one excellent near post clearance for a corner when tracking a run, and we have been lacking that recently. Other than that I thought he was pretty much the same overall with a bit more running around, but he needs to learn when not to make stupid tackles, could easily have been sent off. Plays the simple ball but likes a bit of space, not sure what he's like in a congested midfield yet. Reminds me of Lee Holmes but infield, strangely.

We could try changing the lyrics and the tune ?

Linesman was wrong at least twice and his dummy when he got booked and the near post shot were plenty promising enough for his 20 minutes. He didn't actually give us an end product though, which was food for thought.

Actually Saga was very late with the contact, whilst the defender was perfectly on time getting the ball about a yard ahead of where he was diving from and not touching him.

I actually thought it was a terrible dive, the kind of overdramatic one that gets players booked for diving and doesn't fool even the worst ref. But I was wrong, it DID fool the worst ref. Second one was accidental if it was even his hand at all, and the guy asking why he wasn't booked might want to consider that the defender probably didn't even realise he was going to handle it. Two awful decisions which masked a dubious performance - ah well.

Erm, it was blatantly a dive, which was patently obvious to anyone in Blocks 41 and 42 of the Northam. Even watching the replay over and over it's still bloody obvious it was a dive, and a dive made after the defender cleanly won the ball as well. Saganowski toed the ball ahead (it would probably have run out of play) to invite the tackle, and was already halfway to his knees falling forwards with his arms ready to flail when HE made contact with the defender's leg, which had just quite obviously cleared ball off the pitch without even touching him. It was an unnecessary sliding tackle (only because the ball was almost certainly going off the pitch from Saga's knock-ahead anyway) but the player comfortably got the ball which was nearly off the pitch by the time Saga's knees collided with the side of the defender's leg as he fell.