Saint Albert

I half-expect Levy to gazump Everton again. I'm not even sure if they need Morgan, but I wasn't all that sure about Sissoko, either. Spurs were, after all, the first team to turn his head and Poch seems like a more long-term prospect than Koeman, at least right now.

If last night's win against Arsenal proves to be a blip, Morgan may be a little miffed when he turns up at Goodison in January and discovers that Ron isn't there anymore. Still, there's always the dugouts.

All signs point to the glass ceiling smashers going for Morgan in Jan. Since they are more inclined to throw obscene quantities of money at their problems than Saints, I am not keeping my hopes up on this one.

I picked up lots of "fun facts" from the commentators during the Boro game, including that Saints have the second best defensive record in the league (Chelsea are #1). Goal scoring is the problem.

I thought that Clasie had a good game as well. McQueen's crossing disappointed me today.

Positives: 3 points against a team that parked the bus and has only lost away once so far this season. JRod completed his first league 90 mins in 3 years. Improved performance in 2nd half. Boufal's goal was a nice, outside of the box finish. Looked pretty comfortable defending the lead in the last part of the game. Clean sheet. Hopefully Puel can build on this win going forward to the Stoke game and the Christmas schedule. Negatives: We made a meal of beating a truly awful team with some major injury issues. Looked dreadfully uninspired and frustrated in 1st half. Lots of side to side and back passes. I usually like JWP but he was poor today, almost gift-wrapped a goal for the visitors.

Saints looking pretty comfy at the end. FT 1-0

How did JRod miss that?

JWP has not had his best game today.

Long brought down in the box...corner

Lovely...Boro lose an attacking corner for not taking it from the right spot...Long comes on for Clasie.

Traoré on..Long about to come on and Boro clear it off the line!

Boufal with a cracker!!!!!!!

It does not help that Boro are such a negative side, but it works for them. They've apparently lost once away so far this season.

Because Boro are a very, very ordinary side. VVD and Forster did well with some emergency defending. Could have easily given away a pen.

Bloody hell that was close.

Decent effort from J-Rod, from incisive Clasie pass.

The commentators on my feed are having a good moan about the quality of the game. They've started checking out some of the fancy dress among the away supporters. They found a lady dressed as a Christmas tree to be especially diverting.

I'm starting to wonder if Koeman will make it to the January transfer window without getting fired.

I'm hoping for a counter-reaction following the last two poor performances. If we could get Long going after Austin's injury, that would be positive given our lack of striking depth. This is an important string of games against beatable sides.

Here's my counterpoint: the goal difference rule encourages goal scoring and rewards overall better group play. The away goals rule is not my favourite thing. Still, rules are rules.

It does not seem like that long ago that I was happy because we just beat Everton, with everyone seemingly impressed that Puel gave academy product Sims a chance and his resulting strong play. A string of two very poor performances is not enough to pull the plug on Puel in my book. Plus, the club won't fire him. Koeman survived a ridiculous losing streak last season. Getting Tadic back as a starter should help.

Seems like a competitive starting 11 to me.

I can't see him going in Jan, on the grounds that we rarely do major business in Jan (at least lately), and Saints would be bats**t crazy to let him go in Jan.

Others would argue that he will fail the character test. I think that he would be a nice Saints project. He's a natural goal scorer, unsuited to playing in a Pulis squad, and he had his head turned by Levy. I think that we can fix him. He's probably holding out for the big wages involved in free agency by signing abroad in Jan, or for someone of his choosing in summer, but he does seem a little broken now. Austin was in a similar position last Jan and he signed for us, so you never know.