CB Fry

My all time favourite forum bulls hit myth. Well, that and "we would have definitely gone out of business forever without Markus".

So we're fifth at Christmas, and we've all sat back enviously as Gaston has rejuvenated Hull City to untold new heights in his time there. Where do people think we would be in the league if we still had him in the squad? I'm a pessimist, but I'd suggest eight points clear at the top. What do other people think?

We're fifth at Christmas. When are we allowed to get carried away, because it isn't really ever going to be much better than that.

Ten Richard Chaplows on the pitch and we'd walk this league.

Clearly not "touch and go", nowhere near that. If Arsenal (or Barcelona) rock up with £25m he would go, but that's more than incredibly unlikely. He's here until the summer.

Or not.

You don't see much, then. How do you think our huge transfer fees come about?

The weird thing is, with all the players out this weekend we have suddenly become a bad team overnight. But if Lawro has faith in us, I just gotta believe.

Stop ruining his fun. I think this one is one of Batman's finest "everyone's a hypocrite" incredulous routines. I can see he is proud of it. Pochettino and Koeman had exactly the same approach to the League Cup at Saints, exactly the same. Honest they did.

Well, they'll be 28,000 Saints fans at St Marys on Saturday which no doubt will be a bubbling cauldron of non stop throat ripping deafening song after deafening song in every seat in the stands, from the first kick to the bitter end, win or lose. We're famed for it.

So now we're on to supporters of other clubs. Well done. Personally I think the drab atmosphere cam be explained and really not all that surprising. But you want to act all shocked and appalled, fill your boots. After all, we have such a world famous reputation for the rollicking noisy passion of our fans when we are playing terribly so your horror is understandable.

Not seen The Sun or the Daily Mail recently, then?

No. I'll stand by that all day long. Smaller hardcore away followings will make more noise than massive followings. One of the factors that explain our weak support on Tuesday.

The tier that went on sale to non season ticket holding, low loyalty point latecomer fans you mean (like me)? I wonder why that was quiet. I went on my own as I work near (ish) and saw another three or four similar loner types near me, a couple of couples, a girl and her mum, assorted old blokes, kids etc. I had a bit of a join in but frankly no one was singing around me. I'm going to stop going on about it, but stick to my original point the atmosphere was predictable.

Funny that all those games were Saturday afternoon train ride pi ss up games in London (or close enough). Didn't go to all of them but I did Reading and the first Orient game and the atmosphere there (brilliant) was as explicable as last night's was weak.

What games? We were playing Sheffield United in a completely winnable match with fairly low intensity. It wasn't the Old Firm. Sorry, our poor support entirely explainable.

Not sure anyone is saying it wasn't weak. But 5000 fans, in a game most thought we would win before kick off, which then went pear shaped - these are not the conditions for an electric atmosphere and loads of singing. SUFC fans only really got going after they scored IMO.

The eight nil was national headline football news, and an abject humiliation. Cup upsets are ten a f uck ing penny. How long have you followed professional football?

We still made more noise than the SUFC fans. For 5,000 away fans of any club there is no way that all 5,000 are going to be mad keen singers. Also, we were s hit and we lost, especially the last 20 minutes. Not really the conditions to turn reluctant singers into keeno singers.

Yes, but by its nature those 750 get dissipated among the 5,000.

750 hardcore away fans will always make more noise than a 5,000 special event crowd. Not sure why anyone is surprised at this. Some people need to understand that many fans grow out of that need to sing all the way through a game.

It was a difficult combination of an abject performance in front of an exceptional turn out. However, man up people. It was a cup upset, not some utter humiliation (like, say, losing 8-0). That's football.

This is "constructive"? Okay then.

Kept the linesman busy.

I've heard Hull City council are discussing erecting a statue of Gaston in their main market square in honour of the sensational impact he's made at the KC stadium this season. The plaque will say something like "Britain's greatest theoretical player" or similar. "Greater in the mind than on the grass" will be the inscription.