sotonjoe

Chaplow out, De Ridder in. Richardson back in if available. Rest unchanged.

tactical genius

Who is?

We're probably two decent wins away from the Prem. That is bloody exciting.

Quite right in this context. If we beat Coventry and secure auto but keep Pompey up in the process, any fan who draws attention to our part in keeping Pompey up when they should be running on the pitch at St Marys and going absolutely mental is a complete loser.

I think that's what the article says, yes.

For the first goal? When the attacker was unmarked? You really don't get it do you? Did De Ridder have an opportunity like the Kebe one on Fri night with an almost empty box and unmarked attackers or was he generally pumping balls into a busy box? Do you not think it's simpler for an attacker to pick out an attacker who is unmarked and in a box with fewer players? So what's your point about De Ridder? That he was rubbish because he couldn't find an unmarked attacker when there often wasn't one? I think you're being completely unrealistic.

I see the Daily Echo is reporting that Barnard's case will start today at Salisbury Crown Court and is expected to last four days. He's being charge for one count of ABH. Can't see a custodial sentence personally. Link

Brilliant. So now it's even our winger's fault when a defender wins the ball over one of our attackers. What rubbish. In a packed box with tight defending, you can't expect a winger to pick out an unmarked attacker with a cross. You expect the winger to get the cross in and hope that someone in the box is capable of winning the ball.

Alpine? On a serious note, there was a journo on Twitter before the Pompey game saying that he thought he'd seen Pompey at 40-1 to win at St Marys. I think that was rubbish as I couldn't see a price like that at any major bookmakers, but I was fairly convinced that I'd put a tenner on that just because it was such a ridiculously long price. Would I bet against Saints in general? No. However, I'd go for it if the price was silly (i.e. like the one I mentioned).

The funny thing is, whilst TSW isn't representative of Saints fans at large (I bloody hope not anyway), the general feeling on here really is one of extreme anxiety at the moment. So much so that I would hazard a guess the players are far more confident than the average fan on here.

They're all Saintsweb scapegoats for our bad weekend. This forum is embarrassing this morning and I've never seen a bigger bunch of bedwetters in my life. In all probability, we're still two wins away from automatic promotion and yet it's toys out of pram central on here. Thank God I'll be at the game on Tuesday and won't have to see the reaction on here. Up the Saints.

Sounds great except that every cross he played yesterday went into the six yard box.

Control the controllables

No you're right, having to walk the long way round the ground when they block the car park off isn't an issue at all? Course it's a factor. It's another ten minutes walk on an already 20minute walk from the pub.

Could you marry your boyfriend on board the submarine you both serve on? That would be romantic.

What a load of rubbish. You really are a miserable bastard.

You missed April Fools Days by 14 days you lunatic.

He isn't being picked because he had a couple of games and was his usual ineffective self. Why does there have to be something darker to the situation?

I've been saying to mates at games for a while now that it's his decision making which seems to have deserted him. He just seems to end up making the wrong decision too often, whether it be one turn too many etc or something else. He's still an immense talent but I wonder if the pressure is affecting him. Perhaps he just needs to be more impulsive?

Walking from the bridge round to the Itchen could be a pain, especially when the North car park is shut, but I'm tempted by the Itchen North. I think with the Northam suffers with a lot of people (kids?) going in there because they think it makes them proper naughty, but they don't really get behind the team.

Had it for 18months and it has been trouble free. As others have said it's ADSL which is an inferior product to fibre optic but then you get what you pay for. I think I get about 11mb or so and live about 2000m from the exchange. I had much better speeds on Virgin Media but didn't want all the other services Virgin expect you to have. When I got O2, it was them and Be who consistently topped polls as the most popular ADSL providers.

Chaplow has a stinker last night in the first half which was epitomised by him trying to shoot and completely missing the ball. He had a better strike at the beginning of the 2nd half but I think Adkins had already decided to get him off by then. I thought Steve was a revelation on the right compared to Chaplow and his creativity was emphasised by how often the creative play went through him. People have criticised his 'end product' far too often and last night it just wasn't warranted; time and time again he crossed the ball into the box. It didn't plop onto an unmarked Saints player's head with pinpoint accuracy, but then that's because there was never an unmarked Saints player there. Reading defended resolutely and won the 50:50 balls when they came into the box. However, De Ridder was consistent in beating his man (often two men) and getting a ball into the danger area. In my opinion, that's what he was on the pitch to do and he did it. Asking anymore of him in unfair to be honest as you're probably asking him to achieve more than the manager was expecting him to do. He even made a real effort to track back and got some great challenges in.

Barry ... Perhaps we should give Itchen North a go next season and join the self-confessed vocal lot towards the back of block four? Crap view though.

This is handy to know as most of the driving routes I'd made a note of are in the Swiss Alps, and I'm considering a stay in Interlaken.