Alanh

We don't play 4-5-1, we play two defensive midfielders, then three attacking midfielders, then a striker. The striker should be supported by the three attacking midfielders with the wingers getting in crosses and the central attacking midfielder supporting the striker. It has worked in terms of positional play during most home games that I've seen this season, but at the moment DMG isn't a clinical enough finisher, Lallana can't shoot for toffee, and the wingers are generally realy young and need time to build confidence. I agree with DT, we need to get the defence sorted and stable, then make sure we have confident players on the wings. I also agree with Steve that Jason Euell could play a big role in this system as an attacking midfielder / striker. I don't think that we will be more successful with 4-2-2 as a starting line up as we don't have a natural strike partnership at the club and will be unlikely to achieve the same level of movement and passing from a flat 4 in midfield. The one potential benefit is that we might be able to defend a bit better if we get two banks of four behind the ball when we are under pressure, but I can't see us being more attacking in a 4-4-2 formation.

My mistake - not thinking on a Monday morning. It's 23 meters, which is about 74 feet, not yards! Agreed that the distances do not take into account different road conditions or the quality of brakes on newer cars, but are a benchmark. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070304

I did one of those courses a couple of weeks ago after being caught on camera doing 36 in a 30 just like you. The course is straightforward and concentrates on making you think more about the speed you are doing in built up areas. The most interesting thing was based on Highway Code stopping distances. At 30 MPH the HC says you will stop in 74 yards. At 40 MPH you'll obviously take longer to stop, but crucially at 74 yards you will still be braking and will be traveling at around 29 MPH. The point being that you should stick to 30 MPH at most in built up areas because if a kid steps into the road and you are traveling at 40 then you've got a greatly reduced chance of stopping in time to avoid them.

Great idea. Essentially it would be like buying gift vouchers for a number of matches which are redeemed at the ticket office for individual match tickets. The sooner the holder redeems the ticket the more chance they have of selecting the seat that they want. I'd be inclined to go for that rather than a season ticket as I always end up missing a few matches each season but generally know a couple of months in advance which ones they will be.

What pathetic tactics at home? I've only seen the team try to play an attacking passing game, keeping possession and creating opportunities through passing. OK, it hasn't worked perfectly every game, we haven't always been solid enough defensively and we don't put away enough of the chances we create, but we have gone out every game looking to attack with multiple players getting forward from the wings and central midfield.

Both Norwich and Palace were just up for the one season though so no recent (last 10 years) tradition of being established in the Prem. A more interesting comparison is Charlton who are a club of a similar size to Saints and who are also struggling this season now that they have run out of parachute money. They seem to be doing just what Saints are doing this year (and should have done last year) - sold off the big earners and brought through youth.

OK. That's a shame as single rockets are pretty unimpressive fireworks in my opinion. The method of propulsion (the rocket motor) is heavy and relatively large in comparison to a shell or any sort of aerial firework which is launched by a lifting charge. As a consequence rockets tend to carry a relatively small payload of stars. If your competition is all about physical size on the ground before launch I advise you to buy a decent size rocket from retail then remove the stick it comes with and replace it with a longer stick just so that you make it bigger. make sure the stick is as light as possible though as it is additional weight that the rocket motor has to get up in the air.

Go to Pains Fireworks in Whiteparish. You can get professional display standard fireworks for use at home. http://www.painsfireworks.com. About £90 should see you alright for a 2 minute finale box with is a single ignition firing. You won't get anything of that sort of quality from any market, farm or DIY shed.

FWIW as this is all just raking over old ground: Biggest footballing mistake - losing the play-off semi to Derby. Biggest managerial mistake - keeping Redknapp after relegation. His heart wasn't in it and we needed someone who was up for the CCC challenge. Even GB from the start of that season would have been a preferable option (if he was available (I don't remember). Biggest financial mistake - Increasing the wage bill at the end of the parachute payments. We should have cut the wage bill dramatically by offloading a few higher earners such as II and not recruiting new high earners such as Euell. There have been plenty of others, but I reckon those are the biggest. Having said that it's easy to say a decision is wrong with hindsight.

Got to agree that this is the most significant area of the game that AL can improve upon, but overall he's one of the brightest prospects at the club and has enough ability and influence to make it into he starting 11 every match at the moment. I thought he looked out of sorts last night. I don't know if that was just about playing wide left or if he was carrying an injury, but based on previous performances I'd say it was a dip in form rather than a fundamental lack of ability.

We haven't played 4-5-1 at home all season. We play 4-2-3-1 with the striker supported by two wide players and the attacking midfielder so often we have 4 in attack. I think that is a more unpredictable attacking threat for the defence to cope with than simply 2 strikers. I also prefer the flexibility that 4-2-3-1 offers and the theoretical protection it gives to the defence in the shape of the two defensive midfielders. As a comparison in the Prem last weekend 10 teams played 4-4-2 and the other 10 all played something like 4-3-3, 4-5-1.

I've got to disagree with you and agree with the bloke in front of you. Surman could hardly walk and was a passenger. JP had no way to know how much longer the ref would play for and if Coventry had broken and scored thanks to Surman's incapacity then JP would have rightly been criticised. It's always better to have 11 fit players on the pitch than 10 fit and one injurred.

Obviously, but the point is that the academy can pay for itself given the number of players who have come through the ranks and been sold on, contributing to the income for the club. Developing and selling players is just about the only way for Saints to stay afloat in the absence of a sugar daddy.

I'm sure I read that the academy costs about £1M a year to run so just Bale and Walcott means it's covered 14 years of running costs. You can also add Best, Blackstock, Crainie, Mills, Jones and Baird to that list in recent times so the academy more than pays for itself and contributes to the running of the club.

Very balanced summery and I agree with what both you and Nick have said. It's interesting that you are both also saying the same as Lowe has said all along - he would willingly sell up to anyone who can prove that they have the money to make the right sort of investment. I think while we were in the Prem and the share price was higher he was saying he would sell to anyone who would invest £25M. I guess that number is lower now but I'm sure the principle remains the same. IMO the worst situation would be for him to leave the position he now holds while retaining his shares and those he represents. That would simple mean he was a shadow influence in the background, provoking conspiracy theories about his longer term intentions and not actually providing a solution to those who feel they can't support the club while he retains a share of ownership.

Loads of people will agree with you, but unless you can either find a buyer for his shares or find a better candidate who is endorsed by a larger shareholder I don't see how just saying 'Lowe out!' is going to have any affect.

If we can keep paying the bills we won't go into administration. I don't think the mortgage on the stadium is likely to send us into admin as there is very little benefit in repossessing the stadium as there is no other viable use for it. It might be that the stadium could be repossessed, sold to a third party and then we could rent it, however that's not a route to administration. The bill that generally puts clubs into admin if not payed is the tax bill and HM Rev and Customs calls in the administrators. If we can get the high earners off the wage bill then our overall tax bill comes. In those terms loaning out Stern John took us a little step further away from administration today.

We should stick to as much of the same team as last night as possible. Obviously Lancashire needs to be replaced so I would move Cork to CB and put James at RB. It's not the ideal option as I don't think James is a natural full back, but with our other CB's injured I think it's the best option. I'd keep Surman and Gillet in the centre mid position and Mills ahead of Skacel as they all seemed to do a good job last might. Hopefully a run in the team will see Stern start scoring again as well.

Perhaps it's 'virtuoso'.

I think the first thing to address is to stop us conceding goals so we need to sort out the defence. We need a specialist experienced right back to replace James as after 11 games it is now clear that he is a weak link in the back line. Also this would address the imbalance of experience in the defence as 3 kids in their first season with one experienced player to help them is not going to work. They need more support to learn from during games. Mills can probably play 50% or so of games at LB with Surman covering the rest. The call to get Chris Baird in for as long as we can afford is a good one. If it were possible it should make a huge difference to our ability to defend.

What does the V stand for?

Unlikely I would have thought given that we play 4-2-3-1 FWIW here's my selection. Davis Cork - Lancashire - Perry - Mills Cork - Wotton McG - Lallana - Surman Robertson Bench: Bart, James, BWP, Stern, Thompson

We have no number 4, 5 or 9 so that's three of those 2 - 11 accounted for. Surman and Perry are there though, and Svensson would be if he could get fit.

For me the start of our decline came when Killer got injured. The confidence in the team seemed to ebb away from that point and none of the efforts of successive managers, players and boards have been able to reverse that downward trend (with the exception of the play-off season) since then. There have been many incompetent actions / decisions taken since Killer injury (Wigley's appointment, D&G's caretaker time, not culing the playing staff in summer 07) but I believe Killer's injury was the start of the decline.