Chez

FFS, he came on and was ineffective, why the hell say he didn't look interested. What a complete load of utter ********. Was Harding not interested, because he was ****ing dreadful and had the **** taken out of him by Williams. **** in ell, players can play badly and still be interested.

I doubt you will find anyone on here or indeed in SMS that has slated Wotton as much as me - although I admit I did praise his `man posessed' performance at Bristol City last year, so his selection yesterday had me moaning and groaning as you'd expect. His overall performance yesterday was pretty standard fair, lots of shouting, firery studs up tackling, hoofing when he has time, bringing it down when he should be hoofing, struggling to cover the ground and sitting very very deep. But it is perhaps this last point that helped us yesterday. Yes Ok the opposition were not nearly as good as Bristol Rovers, but I thought the difference between the two games (apart from us tiring on tuesday) was the understanding of the midfield three and the freedom this allowed. With Morgan, Melliss and Hammond (who all played well IMO) there seemed to be a kind of rotation system going on whereby if one went forward the other two would cover. At times two went forward and the third would cover, on the odd occasion, and crucially when they hit us on the break, all three bombed forward and we were left stretched. The Wotton selection changed this to a one stays back, two bomb on allowing Mellis to make more runs beyond Lambert and Hammond the freedom to push on as well. I think what it also did was to make it much clearer in the minds of those two players what their role was. Looking forward to Southend I'm slightly torn. With Wotton we get a man we know won't leave his post and as I have said that may help the other two, but at the same time we lose a great deal of quality on the ball compared to Morgan. If Morgan comes back in can he hold this deep position and will Hammond and Mellis be confident to push forward again? Interesting cundumdrm for AP is Morgan is fit. Does anyone else see it that way?

turned what around? Your opinion of him?

I lost count of the times over the last 12 months that I posted on here about the need to get off AL's back and give him time as he is going to be a top top good player. Perhaps now after he has scored a couple, those that struggle to recognise young talent have the sort of evidence they need to tell them we have a player that is going places with or without us. I'm not trying to suggest I'm some sort of great talent scout, any mug could see the boy is a cut above, but there were still fans on here that failed to spot it and harped on about his lack of goals despite it being his first full season. Perhaps in future you will give Saints youngsters, that have a little about them, a little more leeway.

can he rely on him to be a striker?

I remember him tearing us apart at Brentford in the cup several years back now. Very small but with ability. Was surprised Coverntry let him go to Reading to be honest, but perhaps he only did the business against us.

Why sign Waigo if he can't play up front? Is he seriously going to be considered as a right midfielder in a 4-4-2?

pretty much the same player if you ask me. Both play very much with their back to goal. Main difference is that Lambert wins headers.

season reminds me very much of last season. Lots of pretty passing football with a lack of real cutting edge. I wonder if (like last season) we'll slowly lose our confidence, stop playing elaberate passing football, get rid of the manager and end up playing hoof ball? I hope not.

care to pass on the reason if not the email itself?

the fact Peter Tells Stories is now classed as a saviour, after years of fans disliking him, shows just how low they are right now. Shame.

Waigo looks a very very poor man's Camera. A totally skint man's Camera in fact. I'd take him back like a shot, but zero chance of that. I didn't think BWP should have ever left, but he wanted to go so no point in worrying abut it. He broke his leg as soon as he got there didn't he? not even Brighton would take Wotton off our hands last season, so I can't see Plymouth doing so now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1216994/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Dubais-Del-Boy-Sulaiman-Al-Fahim-quick-fix-Portsmouth.html worth a read.

It would be nice if an artist managed to sneek a Saints tattoo onto the portrait.

no one, and I mean no one ever finds row Z quite like chicken did. What's he up to these days by the way. Leg end

so we lost due to luck? There was nothing lucky about Rovers catching us on the break to equalise. They had threatened to catch us a couple of times previously. For example one of their `offside' goals simply wasn't IMO. We were clearly tiring in midfield and overstretching oursleves but Pardew didn't spot it. I thought he was right to bring on Mills, but the goal had already gone in. Was it bad luck that Pardew made the sub AFTER they had scored? You make your own luck and Rovers made theirs by bringing on winger that took the game to us in a way we simply can't. I do happen to believe that luck plays a major part in the way games go, I also don't have an axe togrind regarding Pardew, but I do think he must take a degree of responsibility. He's brought Wotton to `sure thing up' before and it failed, he did it again and what do you know it failed. I thought before the game that the 4-3-3 formation was a risk defensively, but maybe one worth taking. Pardew gambled on creating enough chances to win the game, we created the chances, didn't take them and were predictably punished defensively. He gambled and lost. Was the result therefore down to luck or not playing the percentages?

Mellis and Hammond tired as well though.

I said it all last season and nothing has changed. We do not have a left and right midfielder at the club worth his salt. Those tha do get a game ther just never get to the byeline...ever. Why on earth not?

everyone is entitled to their opinion and I don't see how you came to the conclusion about Pardews' opinion of him seeing as he signed two centre backs immediately and dropped Perry thereafter.

what was the reason, cos he failed to spot that we were tiring in midfield before they scored and failing to change the formation that might have prevented us being exposed down the left hand side. He didn't stop the side bombing on looking for the third and settling for a 2-1. He brought Wotton on who sits so deep that tyhe opposition has no choice but to take charge and put us under...lots of things Pardew might have done differently.

I real mixed bag. He was not picked out with a pass and thats why he was to be found in an offside position so often. His first touch was often extremey good but at times woeful. He didn't show hsi pace much and he didn't really do anything of note. He didn't work all that hard, he did jog across the pitch and track his man from time to time. He certainly wasn't a great threat going forward in terms of dribbling, but he showed good awareness with his passes inside being decent. He tired about 10 minutes before he came off. Can't say I'm all that impressed and pull those socks down FFS you big girl.

the side now reminds me exactly of the side JP put out. We passed teams to death but lacked a real cutting edge and then were often caught on the break, especially exposed down the wings. The passing from JPs side in the first half of last season was JUST AS good as we saw last night. I don't want to think about how bad it got later on (under JP) and then under Wotte and I pray we don't have to watch **** like that again for a long long time.

Plenty of effort there if you ask me. Great first touch as usual, but he won less headers for two reasons - we played it on the deck a lot more, and when we did loft it, their centre back fouled him a fair bit. Thought he should have scored in the first half with the header, but great assists for AL and great goal (or assist) for the second. I thought he needed to get into the box a little more. But you could see he was trying to create that chance to shoot on the edge of the box, but there was never really that space he needed.

lets see how they respond. They played opretty well last night for 70 minutes. Can they replicate that for 96 and show that that defeat was a blip on this very steady improvement we have seen so far.

I thought we were tiring before they equalised. In fact I suggested to a mate that we make a sub and revert to 4-4-2 as we were far too open. Unfortunately Pardew shut the gate after the hose had bolted.