sotonjoe

It's not as if Brighton 'rolled over' for West Ham is it?

yes, it's the one just posted!

Depends what you mean big. I thought they just had a load of 40" tvs hanging on the walls.

well spotted. this is a great view of our away terrace viewed from the home fans.

this. he tries hard but his touch is poor.

You disagreed with the fact that I thought he was good when he came on the other night; at least that's the discussion I thought we were having! In the context of the game and the fact that he was replacing Chaplow who was having a stinker, I said I thought De Ridder did alright. I don't see why he's getting stick for his 'distribution' anymore and think there's a lot of people reeling that line off because they heard it was a popular thing to say a while back and they now assume it must be right! If people want to talk about distribution then I think it's fair to say than an awful lot of the timer Saints are finding themselves hitting hopeful crosses into the box once all the defenders have got back and marked our attackers anyway. We then hear moans that our crosses aren't finding attackers but as I've tried to say in this instance that's impossible. I don't think it's a crossing issue. It's more to do with whether we're breaking quick enough and whether we have the opportunity to actually find unmarked players in the box. The other night, De Ridder was a much better player than Chaplow when he came on.

As long as season ticket holders get priority and can buy extra tickets for their friends and family I don't mind.

guess that's the downside of having a nice bank holiday game at home!

Personally, I think there are question marks over both first choice fullbacks and whether they would cut it for us in the Prem; irrespective of whether or not Fox has already had a go with Burnley.

Would make for a good Bank Holiday Monday day out if we're left with no option but playing in the playoffs

Yes, I go to all home games and have done 7 aways so far. I apologise for seeing games differently to you and not singling out Hammond for either a positive or negative performance on Friday. Sometimes I just get into the game and forget to make detailed notes about each of our player's performance. I think this is called enjoying myself.

I didn't think Hammond was particularly poor on Friday. I can't remember my attention being drawn to him for either good or bad reasons. He was, however, immense against Palace, and I think would be able to do a similar job of putting himself about and getting the tackles in against Peterborough. FWIW I'd stick with Hammond and Cork for tomorrow.

Are you Alpine in disguise?

Avoid all threads named after a player or the manager. Oh, and the post-match reaction thread.

On the plus side, at least if we came 3rd we'd have the 2nd leg at home on bank holiday monday. Good way to spend bank holiday and all that.

Do I tempt fate and write these in my diary or do I 'grow some' and just ignore them?

quite

The Megastore?

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.