Alanh

But I think it's fair to assume that he hasn't been bought to be immediately better than what we already have. He's cover at the moment thereby adding depth to the squad and hopefully will be one for the future once he's been moulded by AP and his team. I'd take the comments from Exeter with a pinch of salt, very few fans talk up a player when they know he's on his way.

Seems like this signing is all about strengthening the squad and looking to the future. I'm not expecting him to walk into the first team but if he can provide cover for the rest of the season, being used as needed and develop into a better performer for next season when we will undoubtedly lose two of the current batch of centre backs at the club - Perry and Thomas - and his first team opportunity may open up. As for us missing out on signing Ward, perhaps the club plan for the likes of Thomas and Lancashire are leaving either permanently or on loan during this window. If so there is a gap in the squad for a CB which would be Ward. I don't think any of us know enough to be able to say for certain that we have missed out on Ward yet.

I don't think there is anything to stop it happening now and to be honest it happens in every industry. I guess the flimsy fit and proper person test is about the only thing to stop people exploiting the system. It's different for us in that ML bought the remains of the club from the administrator and followed the rules of the Football league in doing so. That way we only got a -10 deduction while Leeds got -15. I think Saints are now technically owned by a different company now that ML has sole ownership and we aren't a PLC any more.

I'm pretty sure it did. The original company, owned by Ken Bates was wound up and the creditors got about 20p in the pound payment on what they were owned. The new company, which Bates started almost immediately, took on all the responsbility of running Leeds Utd and managed to retain Leeds position in the League pyramid when the League granted the new company the golden share at the last minute.

In a nutshell if there is a will for there to be a football club in an area i.e.a fanbase, then there will be one. If bad management means that the established on goes out of business then a replacement will pop up. Depending on the timeframe and the reason why they went out of business the new club / company could take on the original league position of the old club - this is what happened to Leeds, or they might have to re-enter the league much lower down the pyramid.

IMO the longer they refer to us as cash-strapped the better. If it means that we can gain an advantage, particularly in the transfer market, by being considered financially impoverished, when in fact we are on a strog financial footing then so much the better.

Incorrect. The terms of the competitions are different. The JPT wins have been single leg affairs with the winner deicded after 90 minutes or penalties if necessary. The playoff tie was a two legged affair in which Derby won the first match, Saints won the second, but the cummulative goals scored across both matches resulted in a tie requiring penalties to determine who progressed to the final which Derby won. You could say that GB lost the playoff semi final (singular) on penatlies after two legs, or you could say that he won one and lost one of the two legs. The penalties determined the result of the two legged tie, not the result of the second of those two legs.

Under the terms of the competition there couldn't be a draw with the penalty shoot out being the mechanism to decide on the winner in the event of scores being tied at the end of 90 mins. The end result is that we won, whether a bookie will pay out on a saints win or whether penalties scored in the shootout count towards a players total are irrelevant.

Depends on whether ML and NC want us to be fully self sufficient in the Prem. If so we are going to need 30K season ticket holders and an enlarged stadium to accomodate 40K plus in order that matchday revenues can get close to supporting the costs of Prem players. Realistically there are no self sufficient Prem teams, they all have a benefactor of some sort who dips his hand in his pocket from time to time and to a greater (Man City) or lesser (Wolves) extent. If ML is up for it I would think that we could be a rival for the likes of Fulham, Birmingham or Sunderland and depending on the quality of manager and players we can attract should be able to look forward to mid to top half placing fairly regularly.

It's going to be really important for us to take points off of the top 8 teams when we play them both to help our points tally but also to take points off them. the match against Walsall this weekend is a real 6 pointer in that regard. Looking at the fixture list we have about 13 matches left against promotion rivals so there is plenty of opportunity to make up ground. Regarding players for January, we need a back up striker to Lambert to take the pressure off him to play 90 mins of every game. He will become less effective if we have to play him for all of every match and I'm concerned about how we would adapt our pattern of play without him as a target man as he seems integral to the way we play.

Absolutely, great credit to AP for the changes he made. The switches in formation made us more effective at each stage of the match. I didn't catch who was on the bench but I would have liked to have seen Lambert taken off for the last 15 mins as he was absolutely knackered - perhaps the after effects of his illness. Thought Morgan, Lallana and Papa had great games apart from the offsides, several of which were incorrect decisions IMO. The defence looked solid but then Wycombe didn't pose much of a threat. Did they have a shot on target all night? Given the conditions I'm really pleased with a win and a clean sheet. The Walsall match will be tough as we are on comparable runs of form but there's no reason for us to be negative. A win and we could climb several places and continue to close the gap on 6th spot.

I'm sure that the Connolly - Lambert partnership will flourish, but from the (mainly) home matches I've seen I think we are better protected with a defensive midfielder anchoring the attacking play that comes from a four man midfield supporting Lambert up front. Lallana, Schneiderlin, Hammond and whoever is playing on the right wing seem to have more license to attack. I'd like to see Hammond or James play that role rather than Wotton with Mellis added into midfield. Connolly on the bench for the time being.

Mainly because Orient very definitely didn't suss us out. They scored one decent goal and only broke into our half a couple of times in the second half, one of which lead to an own goal. For the remainder of the match we controlled play and possession and were almost constantly on the attack. It was just one of those days when we couldn't get the final ball right to create a clear opening until Rickie did his thing just before the end. As for Brighton, I'd say 9 of our staring team had an off day, which is going to happen every so often. We tried to play the sort of game that the OP describes but they were a bit sharper than us and beat us with a counter attacking game that they played well. We look more prone to attack from fast attacks as we haven't got the pace in defence to recover if we get turned. It hasn't happened much this season, mainly because the defecne have worked well as a unit, but against Brighton they just didn't.

It's got to be to win each game that we play, so that means the main priority is the League as we have way more League games than any other. I was hoping that we would get a big Prem team in the cup and go out in glory so that we can concentrate on the League from January onwards. Perhaps in the 4th Round. The JPT is a bonus and it would be great to go to Wembley but it's nowhere near as significant as continuing our winning form in the league.

I'd agree, although to do a real comparison you need to take the first two matches of January as well. If the target is 18 points, like the last 8 matches then we could lose the two tough away matches if we win the other 6. It would be good to get points against those teams in the top 6 though as it takes points off them. the two points Norwich dropped against us could be as valuable to us in our chase for a top 6 spot as the one we earned. Based on recent form the only matches that I have some concern about us getting anything from are Leeds home and away, Norwich away and MK Dons Away.

I think that the last 8 league games (since Bristol Rovers at home) and the 18 points that we have earned in them is a benchmark for our season as that was when the team that is playing regularly now came together and started playing coherently. Assuming key players like Lallana, Lambert, Jaidi and James (for his versatility) don't get long term injuries I don't see any reason why we should not see a return of between 15 and 20 points for each block of 8 games that we play until the end of the season. We will lose and draw a few more games when the team doesn't click in a given match, but I think we'll win the majority from here on in. That means picking up between 52 and 70 more points this season. 52 points would leave us on 68 so probably short of a play off place. 70 leaves us on 86 points and challenging for automatic promotion. Realisitically we will probably end up somewhere in the middle and 76 points sounds achievable as a middle ground. That would mean we can probably afford to lose another 5 or six games with the same number of draws. This also illustrates that provided we maintain recent form this season will go down to the wire and we will have plenty to talk about as the season gets to April. The key thing that will help us achieve the play-offs will be taking points off of teams above us. So if we are going to lose it would be better to do so against a team below us. In that regard if losing to Brighton (who I think will finish well below us at the end of the season) is compensated by a win against someone who should finish in the top 6 it should not be viewed as a disaster.

Get your head around the fact that Saga has gone. He's not going to play for Saints again. I think this is the opportunity to rest a few players and would play something like: Bart Murty - Thomas - Jaidi - Mills Wotton Waigo - Schneiderlin - James - Lallana Connolly Subs: Davies, Perry, Harding, Lambert, Hammond, Antonio, ????

Papa Waigo was the attacking option. It's not a question of whether Saga's good enough, it's all about whether he wants to play and judging by AP's comments in the press the answer is no. Pato should have been on the bench IMO.

I'm not overly concerned if Trottman goes back. He's done well and both Saints and him have benefited from the loan deal but at the moment I'd pick Thomas ahead of him and I'm pretty sure it would be possible to pick up a comparable CB, and ideally one with a bit more composure on the ball. I also agree with everyone who is advocating a new DM in January. Someone who can do tohe job Wotton has been doing but with a better range of passing would be a great addition to the squad.

Fair enough, I don't think he's the perfect finished footballer, but he's young and I felt his performance in that role against Charlton showed some promise.

I'm a big fan of the variation of 1 up front that we played fairly successfully over the last month or so but I'd call it closer to 4-3-3 than 4-5-1. I think there is more creativity, more movement and more variation in our attacking play than with a farily rigid 4-4-2. I'd go back to the team and formation that we employed straight after the Rovers defeat in a heartbeat, even if it means Wotton holding in midfield and dropping Connolly to the bench. I think Connolly is still finding his feet in terms of the squad and his match fitness and a bit more time coming on as a supersub will do him no harm and should benefiot the team. I'm undecided between Antonio and Waigo. Both of them look like good impact players to bring off the bench and both have blown hot and cold as starters. In January I'd like us to look out for a better DM than Wotton although after seeing him against Charlton and seeing the tackle he put on Shelvey (I think) I reckon Lloyd James could do the job pretty well.

In common with a couple of popsters on here I was a Leeds fan at primary school. I even got taken to the Dell to see Saints play Leeds in a cup match. It was a 1-1- draw and I was disappointed because Saints equalised late on. I then took a shine to Villa for a couple of seasons, mainly because I thought Brian Little was a good player. I was converted to Saints in 76 during the cup run when I was about 11 - just the right age to be picking your team for life. I saw the cup final and was taken to the Civic Centre for the victory parade the next day and since then it's been all Saints. My son started off as a glory hunting Man U fan but I've converted him to Saints and now he's stuck with them for life. After going through the last 3 years as a Saints fan hopefully he's seen the worst of it and can look forward to a brighter future.

Work it out in training. Arrange for him to do some shooting practice without the pressure of the match situation so that he can regain the feeling of shooting and scoring. Hopefully that will give him the confidence when it comes to a match when the next scoring opportunity comes along. Not many players at any level are both high scoring and also prolific providers so it might be difficult for him to combine both. You need to have an eye for goal and a degree of selfishness to be a high scorer so perhaps encourage him to be a bit more selfish in his next match. If it results in him scoring then everyone is happy. If it doesn't come off hopefully he will learn that the contributions that he was making with his assists were more valuable than he thought at the time.

We just have to turn up and support the team again next match, and the one after that, that's the job of a supporter. The management will have reviewed the match and will make decisions based on the entire game where changes need to be made, if at all. I'd be amazed if AP let the team rest on their laurels even if they won 10 in a row. It's the job of the manager to prepare the team to win every match and based on recent performance I'd say that is what AP is doing. Having been at the match I can say that it was as one sided as the previous MK Dons match, if not more so and the two goals that we conceded were down to two decent crosses and one decent header - their first, and a bit of absent minded defending - their second. Many people (not everyone) expected us to win against Orient and it sounds like you were one of them, but sometimes things don't work out the way you expect for a whole host ofreasons and variables that you just can't control. On Saturday we created enough chances to win that game even giving them a 4 goal lead, but we just couldn't execute the quality of finishing that we have seen in recent weeks. Sometimes it happens, we just have to learn from it and move on to the next game.

Thanks for that, I missed that article on the OS.