Chez

a lot. Decent first touch, good engine, ability to beat a man, scores goals, tackles. None of which could be seen last night where he had an absolute mare, but his off the ball running alone will be missed badly when he leaves.

classy on the ball and a very good passer. One diagonal ball across to Euell last night stood out for me in what was a very dull game, Unfortunatley at the moment the negatives outweight the positives - he doesn't tackle, he's a complete bottle job (he got hurt last night twice and on both occasions it was because he didn't fully commit to the tackle/header) and he simply does not grab hold of a game and dictate it. That said he's been unlucky with injuries and it takes time for a lot of French players to find their feet over here. I'm hopeful that next season he can push on. The guy has class and there is not a lot of that at SMS these days.

if they're of the same quality of Smith then don't bother.

fair point and if no season tickets had been sold at the start if the season I would bet that our recent 13k crowd (it was more like 12k IMO) would have been closer to 7k

indeed it is and its pretty difficult to predict results in the CCC. I've already written off Sheff Wed and Wolves away but even those games might produce a shock.

Agreed, besides I don;t want to see Molyneux back in the side this season. But Lallana is struggling though with this knock.

Right midfield appears to be a problem position with neither Schneiderlin nor Lallana really suitable for that role. Defensively McGoldrick wins headers at set peices but apart from that I thnk Lallana offers just as much in that position if not more.

I always thought that a larger than normal percentage of our crowd at SMS was youngsters and the retired - both group of which are not affected as much by the downturn. You'd think that clubs that traditionally have a very large 20-40 year old following would be more susceptical to an economic downturn.

despite ticket prices being reduced this season a lot of Brum fans are extremely ****ed off at the way they were treated (like cash cows) when the going was good. The board is worth over a Billion quid yet they broke even every season (without hands going in board members pockets) at the expense of fans paying well over the odds for absolute ****e football all season. I might add that nothing has changed in that regard, they have stunk St Andrews up all season and their home results are not a reflection on how they have performed. I think you'll find a lot of undeserved 1-0s, and plenty of last minute goals etc. disguising many abject displays. It seems then that its not only Saints fans that have been treated like `customers' over the last five years and now are telling fat cat owners where they can stick their £3 pie adn £4 prgrammes. Greedy ****ers.

I wouldn't bet against that depending on the price of ST's. Over £300 and I think we'll be hard pushed to sell 7000 and as we have seen non ST sales have been very small. Add to this tiny away crowds as well.

how big do you think they are? You only have to look at their attendances when they dropped to the third tier to know that they have a very decent following indeed and are far from `tin-pot'. Its hard to explain the low crowds this season but as I understand it they have played poorly at home the entire season and their fans are just sick of watching **** despite haing multimillion pound owners who keep a tight reign on their own spending.

I have no idea why so many of you rate him so highly. He has done nothing since he joined.

Brum gave existing season ticket holders a free ticket to the FA cup game against Wolves this season. I think that is something fans would really appreciate as apposed to 5p off a game of ten pin ****ing bowling.

but they are second bottom?

I've been saying it for weeks (even before oru recent winnng streak started) that Brum are ****e at home and this could be the long awaited day that we beat them at their place. They obviously still have KP to ruin our day but I still expect us to win.

Euell wins more headers, leads the lnie better, works harder, quicker, defends better and on th elimited evidence we have seen recently holds the ball up better. What Rasiak offers is top class finishing and the ability to be in the right place at the right time...oh and the ability to nudge defenders in the back and head the ball in without refs noticing. Since Jones left we have been crying out for a big target man. Euell offers that.

if, and its a big IF, we go into administration that wouldn't mean next years seasons ticket would become null and void. Liquidation would though but that would only happen if we went into administration and couldn't find someone to buy the club and take over/settle the debts.

no March madness? Madness.

some people did back him last season.

Its the old head and heart thing. I honestly still think we will be relegated but my heart is desperate for another `great escape'. By the way if we did would this rank up there with some of those unbelievable escapes of old?

Davis 9 - what a save, from my angle it looked in all the way. Decent distribution and caught when required. Not overly busy, but did what was required. Can't think of a reason to take marks from him except the lack of things to do. James 7 - another solid display though less effective going forward than last week. Seijs 7 - not as dominant in the air as last week but still a good display. Cardoff started to win a lot in the air towards the end. He has made all the different to our side IMO. Perry 6 - dropped far too deep in the second half and didn't win enough headers, but he's still a decent foil for Seijs. Skacel 8 overlapped well in the first half. He and Surman forge a very good partnership. Gillet 9 tremendous first half, he was absolutely everywhere and showed great composure and decent passing. Not quite as good second half but playing well. McGoldrick 7 the new formation suits him, he never worked hard enough to get in the box and now he isn't required to which gives the team more shape defensively. Lallana 4 One or two lovely touches that no other player could have done but not nearly enough. Doesn't look fit to me or sharp enough. Surman 9 If there are any doubters as to Surmans quality this game surely put them to bed. Great from start to finish, tackles, movement, and passing. The left side was excellent today. Euell 9 brilliant first touch, held up the ball as good if not better than Stern ever did but unlike John he chases across the line and down the channels as well. Another great display Saga 5 I lost count of ther number of times he gave the ball away when it was played to his feet 10, 15 times at least. His hold up play was appauling. He chased a lot of lost causes, but today was not his day IMO.

I worry more about the strength of Cardiff wide men. Preston must have offered the least threat from their two wide players of any side we have played this season. I was surprised at how poor Wallace was considering how well he played in the televised FA Cup game recently. Having no rigid left and right midfield leaves us wide open and we have been exposed time after time. Gillett actually covered the right side a lot last week - especially long channel balls. If they chose to pass it short but in wide positions I just wonder how he is going to be able to snub that out as well. Isn't it amazing that we have no specialised right back or right midfield in the entire squad?

I'm not sure I do feel anything is different, but as I said in the pre Preston game thread - I go into every game with hope. The difference this week is that I go into the game with hope and also the knowledge that we won last week and wins bread confidence. If I had to put my house on it I'd say last week was just another blip in our relegation season but I'd rather wait until after the game before I confirm that. Can I just add that we didn't play a great deal better than a lot of other games this season but there is a fine line between winning and losing in football and perhaps Euell up front, Seijs at the back and Saga finding his range is enough to tip the balance. Lets hope so. Go on son, let your guard down for five minutes and actually hope for better.

Anyone else a little more excited than usual about tomorrows game due to last weeks win? A back to back win is unheard of in recent times but should we manage it I guess we would be well within our rights to start dreaming of survival. As for the side people say you should change a winning team, is that how everyone else feels? I think Schneiderlin could be fit, does he return in stead of someone or does he go on the bench? Oh one more thing, should things go well is there any chance at all of Wottes name being sung? What would it take for that to happen?

mate an I drove all the way up to a midweek Liverpool game a few years back and it took over 7 hours to get there. The game was live on SKY and I remember queing at a set of traffic lights, having finally arrived in Liverpool, and watching them bloody score on a TV set in the pub. We arrived at the ground at half time and eventually managed to find a steward to let us in. Thank god we had booked a hotel in Liverpool and got a quality night out for our troubles.