Chez

Clot said Benjami turned down an offer from Blackburn, and you'd assume they weren't offering buttons, so the skates won't be paying them to him either.

Polygon area (near bedford place/London Road) is mostly student houses so a strong chance of a noisy neighbour or two.

I will be a lot tougher than Barnsley, who looked a poor side, but we are playing well and are full of confidence.

You saw exactly the same game I did.

just got back after staying in Sheffield. Very very good display from us. A bit of the how bad are they how good were we? But which ever it was we totally dominated. They did not cause us any problems at all up until the last five minutes. I don't recall Davis having a save to make first half and we could have been 3 or 4 nil up on another day. It reminded me very much of an away game at Boro many years ago when Fabrice Fernandez ran the show and we took the ****. That was at the top level, so technically this first half display might not have been quite as good, but it felt similar. Cork and Lallana were sublime. I'm not sure of it came across in the radio coverage but one move was about 45 passes that finished with Guly missing a header that he should really have tucked away. At that point I think the whole ground were in awe. We kept the ball very well and defensively we gave them nothing. Barnsley will go down IMO. Davis 7 nothing to do really, but whilst his distribution was woeful last week, this week he made the right choices every time and never put is in any trouble at all. I'd put a 10, as his display was spotless, but I guess you have to save the 8-10 range for when he makes great saves. Richardson 8 I thought he was our MOTM last week, but he was actually better this week. Show great strength and pace and positional play. Good in the air, attacked well, kept the ball, never beaten. You get the idea. Fonte 10 Tight, strong, hard, quick, composed...dominated. Seaborne 8 I notice that fans got straight on his back after hesitating slightly (at no real cost) and then putting one into the stand. He's the new whipping boy it seems. But after that very average start he pinged a beautiful diagonal ball, his confidence grew and got better. In the second half he was very tight to his man always. Distribution was good. Last 5 minutes I think I'd of liked that extra height Jaidi offers Harding 8 Better. I thought he was poor by his standards last week, but after a slightly nervy start he played his usual; strong game linking up well with Adam. Couldn't fault him defensively, and got forward quite well. Guly 6.5 some nice stuff on the ball, but he over did it a little. He's not a dribbler, but played out wide he's expected to carry the ball a lot more. It's not his game and he doesn't look quite right there. He worked hard, kept an end up, but he doesn't do it for me in that position. Cork 10 I wasn't overly impressed last week. He was OK, nothing more. Yesterday he was outstanding. Ran the game with Adam and was head and shoulders above anything they had. Ran all day, great touch, lots of turns in tight places, strength and pace. Fantastic display. Hammond 8 The centre of midfield was ours. Totally run by Hammond and Cork. Cork shined, but Hammond backed him up Lallana 10 Everything good about the lad was on display. Took the **** but did so in an effective way. Tricks, turns, passes, dribbles, crosses. What a player Lambert 7 won a lot in the air and worked hard tracking back and across the line. Held the ball up well and lead the line. Not a real threat but no real criticism. Connelly 7 scored his goal, offered short all the time and decent enough game. He tired though and I'd like to have seen him be on the shoulder of their last defender a bit more. Not his best game, he never gave it away and some of vision was great, but he just lacked that real dynamism and scary pace that might be needed for us to go up. My 175-1 top scorer bet is going well. Chaplow 0 The ball was high, he got the ball, but he made sure he followed through. He knew what he was doing and deserved to go. I thought that at the time and after seeing it once on TV I still think that. Idiot. de Ridder 7 did well and was a threat. Neat tidy, pacey. Can I offer one negative. Our build up was tremendous. We kept possession fantastically well, but we were just a little one paced up front. Against better sides we won't dominate possession like that so I think we will need some pace to unlock them. De Ridder might offer that, but despite wanting Connelly to play all season to make me richer, I think there is room for a top notch pacey forward. Happy days though. A real treat for those that travelled up from the south coast.

Nice draw. Who wants to travel miles for a midweek away game these days?

how did the Celtic fans rate him? How come he was there for only five minutes?

cheers. For some reason I thought they went back with the players coach. I certainly want to get the game against my season ticket. See you all there.

Absolutely fantastic news, this guy is a very good player and better than most give him credit for. Not sure why we've not read it on the OS though, why would they hold back revealing that? Doesn't feel right.

the rumour was we had bid for both so I wonder where that leaves us with the Rodriguez part of the deal?

Can I still buy a Barnsley ticket from ticket office on Friday lunchtime? For some reason I have got it in my head that they return tickets with the coach and I guess that will leave on Friday?

You seem a little unhappy. Is the lad's girlfiend also your sister or did he pull your girlfiend?

you make it sound like we are coming out of this well. We are not. We are wasting money hand over fist. We don't hold the upper hand here. He has the big fat contract and we are getting nothing in return. Playing hard ball with QPR is a risky game.

it possibly weakens Reading, so that is good.

I thought he got caught in possession a few times on Saturday. Great goal though, so you tend to forget about the things he may have done wrong. Can't say I was terribly impressed by him or Cork on the day, but perhaps I have got used to our central midfielders totally dominating games. I have to remember that we've stepped up a league so just competing is desirable. Leeds also had the extra man when Howson dropped in, so considering that fact, perhaps Cork and Hammond did a very decent job after all. Great competition for places in there right now. Morgan looked good when he came on and Chaplow is perfect to bring in to add that extra bit of energy.

I'll be dragged to a few Bury games this season as usual so will keep my hand in so to speak. Really enjoyed touring the grounds of League 1, but I got far too complacent about us winning for my liking.

I saw Forest two seasons ago leave 5 up. They had Morgan and some other brute at the back winning everything and they were chasing the game so it made total sense. The opposition didn't know what to do so had loads back.

0-1 and 3 bookings

well I saw a tin of quality street knocking about the ticket office the other day.

we had just dropped out of the top flight and every man and his dog knew we had to sell to survive financially so £7m was a decent price back then.

if a player has his head turned and the transfer money is right, then more Saints players will be sold as we go forward. We have been paying huge wages and that's what has kept Lallana here. I'm not sure of your opinion on Morgan, but if he doesn't sign a new deal and leaves on a free that will feel exactly the same as us selling a player to me.

I don't blame him for moving, but in my eyes anyone that leaves SFC for something better is dead to me. I don't wish him well, but equally I don't wish ill of him. I do though thank his Dad for selecting Saints rather than them down the road, otherwise they'd be the ones £12m richer this morning. Now where's that thread talking about replacements...

with a little

I agree with you, however its a good business deal no matter what, but as you say, football wise we could end up being a fair bit worse off.

you make a very good point and I think I agree with it, but if we don't take advantage of this crop of players now, Lallana especially, and add to them, is there not a chance that we miss our window? Also if we end up using all this money simply to cover wages, then shouldn't we be asking about the size of the wages we have been paying? I guess you have to spend big to keep Lallana and Davis etc.