Chez

one decent chance, one dangerous cross. It was as comfortable a day as you'll ever likely have at this level. No booze and no exaggeration. It matters little. Reading are a different kettle of fish completely in terms of quality and confidence.

he's a Titchfield lad. Of course he has a balanced view. Excellent radio co-commentator. Less of a fan of his TV work.

wall score

not their battle of Stalingrad?

doesn't the `Germany about to lose the war/Hitler in bunker about to top himself' situation not remind you more of their lot than ours?

you only get so many holidays in life. Why visit the same place every year?

I do wonder which games people are thinking back to when they talk about great away noise/support. Thought our crowd were decent yesterday. Funny, I don't recall the shoot the Pompey scum song being sung once.

can't wait to see Lamberts second. Absolute ****ing class goal, beating his man and once he had created his space there was never any doubt.

today is not the day to be on Guly's back. Smiles from ear to ear kn every single Saints fan at Selhurst. Give the guy a ****ing break whatever you think of him, he's one of us, a Saint.

he's not daft this Adkins fella.

he had a good game, but he was even better today. On Saturday he was a fraction too slow releasing the ball once or twice, he was never put under that sort of pressure so didn't ever get caught, but today he just stepped up a level and got old of the game completely. Work rate was tremendous and he just had that drive. Positional play defensively was first class too. That little ball from midfielder to forward is just never on as he (and Hammond) just get in the right places to prevent it. That has been the biggest improvement on last season. We hardly ever get cut to ribbons through the centre. Great to see him back to his best.

couldn't understand the former at all, the latter he may have had a point as a little give and go might have been a better option but Billy had earned the right to shoot having worked hard all game. Not sure Angry is the right word, annoyed maybe?

Nothing odd about my marks but you are right about Dikgacoi being utter ****e, so perhaps that did make it easier for our central midfielder, but you can only beat what is in front of you and our CM pair killed them and Cork was the main man. Don't subscribe to your lightweight description.

double post...

just back. What a brilliant day topped off by the bluenoses hanging on for bare life for a point. Saints were top notch today. At last we playe d a passing game from the back, through midfield and back round until space opened up for a cross. After a nervy five ten we dominated completely and once Ricky scored it was one way traffic. We hogged possession and were patient to go with it. Whenever Zaha got on the ball we were all over him and second balls were ours all day long. David 7 Two very good saves, punched, commanded area. Solid as a rock. Distribution quick and great too. Not over worked. Butterfield 6 Struggled early on with Zaha skinning him, looking well off the pace and giving the ball away, but he did settle down, got a load of help from Chaplow and thankfully Zaha swapped sides. Great cross for the goal and then he kept the ball very well and was never troubled afterwards. He's so slow, but he showed very good composure and put some the good crosses in (and the odd crap one). Fox 9 Outstanding game. He stepped up a level today and when Zaha came across he didn't give him an inch. This is what he needs to do. Get tight, get physical and show some strength. He did all this and Zaha only got the better of him once. Could not ask more of him. Fonte 9 Strong, got tight to the striker and composed on the ball and off it Jos 9 Physical, all over their striker. Great game Lallana 8 got between the lines, made himself available all the time. Delivery wasn't always great, but what I liked most was the effort he made defensively. He chased hard all game and put them under pressure. He also recognised the threat of Zaha and made it very hard forhim. Brilliant team performance Cork 10 What a game. He's got some stick for some under par displays recently, and despite the huge effort on Saturday he still gave it away a bit too much, but today he was outstanding. He ran the game and totally dominated the middle getting onto almost every second ball. He kept the ball well, I can't recall him giving it away once, a lot of square and backwards stuff, but only once we were ahead. You could not ask more of him. He was so sharp to any danger and gave them no where to go. Hammond 7 worked hard as always, sliding into to lots of tackles. With Cork he just didn't give them a sniff in the middle. Only negative was being outpaced once when one of their payers came inside enabling them to get a shot off that was well saved by Kelvin. Chaplow 8 Back to his best. Energy and drive. Intercepting passes, putting them under pressure then bursting forward. Gave Zaha nothing hence he moved across to the other side. What a great time for him to find his form again. If he plays like that against Reading we have every chance. Sharp 7 Brilliant first half. The best he has played for us by miles. His all round game was excellent and he showed a side to him I didn't think he had. He was very quiet in the second half as the ball didn't really come his way, but so happy as maybe we have got a player here that can offer what we need - Finishing and link up play. Lambert 8 Talking of finishing, Lambert stepped up again and gave us the cutting edge we longed for on Saturday. Brilliant header and tremendous second. Almost completed the left right header hatrick as well. Was much more at the races today, maybe not right back to his sharpest best, but you wouldn't have noticed when he had the goal in his sights. Harding Perfect when he came on. Got tight, worked hard, got forward, overlapped and kicked them. de Ridder usual crop circle stuff that wasted time nicely Guly got stick for not chasing one ball down the line when Sharp was closer and his job was to fill the middle to stop the ball being worked out that way. He responded to jeers by chasing hard and putting in sliding tackle. Won a header and a tackle. The fans seemed happy, well some did. Not on long but did well for me. Top marks to Adkins. The side were all over them. Bottle'd it? Have we ****.

my worries are over, Paul McShane is likely to return to the Palace side.

Reading have by far and away the toughest run in. Brighton at their place is an extremely tough game as we found out. They have us away and Brum away. However, right now they look like they will beat anyone and everyone. West Ham's game at Leicester looks tough and they've struggled to beat teams at their place. Brum are winning games and Brighton are hard to beat too. However I think the drubbing of Barnsley will fill them with new confidence so they could win almost all of them too. Could being the word though. We'll stuff Boro and Cov. Just the kind of sides we can beat. Peterborough is always tough and I've been worried about this Palace game for a while, but they've gone off the boil so a couple of draws perhaps. So the Reading game could make or break us. Fascinating. We'll get promoted.

needs a long run in the side but Adkins doesn't trust him or rate him.

and there's me thinking he sliced de Ridders cross into the Chapel. Not at all. He intended it all the time. He was going for all four stands.

you're right, he lifted his hands as an apology, although he traps the ball further than he kicks it so who knows what he was doing.

I have and you are talking twaddle. He sprinted across, tried a slide tackle but just didn't quite get there. No fault there whatsoever. You are blinded by hate.

I thought Cork put himself about more than he has all season. There was some niggle with Allan and he really got into the game. He worked his nuts off. Unfortunately he got caught a few times in possession, as did Lallana, but he could not have tried harder. Can not ask for more.

bring back Wotton. Sigh.

forget about it, he hit it as hard as he could and the lady didn't bat an eyelid. Pub player.

another good post. I agree fully with your comments about Appleton. He comes across very well indeed in post match interviews. Smug is a good word for Adkins too. I can't stand his post match interviews, but its a small price to pay for such a successful manager. You're right about our tactics too, we have gone long recently because teams push so high up the pitch preventing us playing out from the back. I hate it, but today we were far more effective when we went long than when we tried to build from the back. Any thoughts on the bubble?