John Boy Saint

Danny Mills summed it up "if Lallana's goal was scored by an Oscar or another foreign player we would gave been........"

Should be a good game Sean Dyche, one of footballs least glamourous hard working managers, certainly has Burnley going well.

I was very impressed with him up at Sunderland, I quite fancy the idea of him being eased into the team in the latter stages as SD understudy, take off a Jack Russell of a midfielder and replace him with another Jack Russell except this one is on Speed and wired into the mains! His brief cameo showed he has no fear against " the bigger boys" and his little burst of acceleration he showed yesterday had folks sat around me getting a bit excited.

I have to say that was the one thing that I took from the Sunderland Cup Game, that night the bulk of the team was the "second string" but the one thing you could see was that the players could slot into the first team and match rust aside would take up the slack left by the first choice player in that position being out. Many of us must have walked into SMS yesterday, knowing the state of the team, with the acceptance that it might be a tricky afternoon, and walked home with a spring in our step after normal Saints service resumed from about 15mins in. You can't argue with that season ticket comment in the Mail on Sunday

First time I had seen him was in Spain pre season and he looked competent albeit against a little team, I also had Jos sat behind me really heaping praise on him. Then first game of the season v WBA him and JWP worked really well together he certainly isn't shy in getting up the line and has some pace. Overall it's good to have a competent back up for Clyne.

Jose knows exactly what he's doing, the effort of a major wedgie is clear as day on his face!

Today he epitomised what you want in a Saints player, pull on the shirt and take their chance with aplomb, and create a nice headache for the Manager.

My turn to play Turkish .............. Explain

Really!??

Much maligned manager by the ignorant.

We will be going up the Ar$e or to the Totts: "everybody peeps"

Well that's a bit of a bugger, I was really looking forward to the rumble in the Jungle of Big Vic v Toure. 3 Weetabix for Breakfast Jack!!!

Just one of those nights. We just play too much pit pat slow football around the 18yard box instead of lighting a few speculative smashes (just saw Spurs thread their equaliser through the box from outside) , "1-2-3 touches good 9 players in the box 4th ah good 10 in there now let's walk through the first 3!". How the dickens did matey who absolutely scythed Luke into air stay on the pitch that looked horrific from the other end of the pitch. it will be a good test to stop the rot.

Blimey its the 23rd of December in the Turkey shed on here, We are in the situation we find ourselves in and have to deal with it, the ball has to get past 10 other players before it gets to Paulo and we have been quite good at dealing with that for most of this season so why would that change. "He didn't inspire confidence when he was getting ready to come on v Chelsea" how bizarre! The lad has been sat there minding his own business as one of the players least likely to be called into action then all of a sudden like winning the lottery "Paulo your on mate!!", what's he supposed to do shadow box like a prize fighter entering the ring?! We should all get behind him, without the histrionic audible ooo's aaarghs sharp intakes of breath when he comes to get the ball, Tony got Buruc sorted out and doing well between the sticks with us what's to say he hasn't been able to improve young Paulo?

Dave Jones said about Blackburn signing Kevin Davies, it went along the lines of being sat in his office when the phone rang the chap on the other end said Blackburn Rovers here we are interested in signing Kevin Davies from you and are offering £7.5m, Jones said that he nearly fell off his chair at the offer and thought Kevin was a young lad and worth nowhere near the £7.5m that had just been placed on the table!! It was rude to refuse. Still a tidy bit of business £750k buying him from Chesterfield then flogging him to Blackburn and James Beattie coming the other way as part of the deal.

If saw what I saw of him at Sunderland was anything go by, hell why not give him a spin if only to snuff out the flame of the candle folks are vermently burning for him.

The last 2 games have probably not been a bad thing for us, just gives us a reality check. It keeps everyone's feet on the ground after the mountain of sunshine that has been blown up our backsides by all quarters of the media over the past few months, Villa will be a tricky game as they will have smelt the blood in the water. As has been said before we just don't seem to have the pace in attack that has been used against us these last 2 weeks, and this goes back quite a way, it's almost like we want to score the perfect goal but in setting it up the oppos are allowed to get into position to snuff us out. If Boruc being out for 6 weeks is true then we need to get behind Gazza he was cold off the bench and yet looked happy enough, I expect being a nipper amongst a team of nippers makes him feel much more comfortable. JWP just had a bad day at the office, Big Vic does increasingly looks to be a menace, Osvaldo seems to becoming another ex Serie A enigma. Morgan is a bit of a blow although Jack is just as capable in a different style (if it's serious enough) Luke Shaw looked good in places but I think he showed a bit too much respect to the Chelsea players he was in combat with almost to the point of being soft: but then we don't know how much what of the injury that saw him being subbed last week was still lurking. Still at the end of the day we are on the first page of the league table, I am sure that if many of us had been offered 7th on the first of December a week before the season kicked off the majority would have taken it.

At least he didn't book Wanyama as now big Vic has to survive Wednesday night to give us Wanyama v Toure next weekend!!

Paul Jones first season was a great shot stopper, (put us out of the League cup v Stockport almost singlehandedly) second season his weakness was discovered. Took a very warm conversation in the local Offy between me and David Coles (the then goalkeeping coach), who lived down the road from me, pointing out the bleeding obvious every striker in the prem to that point had been taking advantage of!!

Ying and Yang Marian Pahars - Lee Todd I think Cardiff City sum him up, in the running to get to the top flight but just repeatedly fell short: Malky MacKay bang job done!

Smiling quietly to himself springs to mind.

Caught me out too as I thought I heard through the inebriated haze that Reading beat Forest last night, then they were playing Blackpool today in the OP!!

That was very decent of you.

Programme Monthly & Football Collectable!! Who is the guest presenter this week and where are Hislop and Merton. How can a Programme that is totally impractical unless you have a carrier bag full of player pictures to get autographed or a Roy Cropper bag with your Thermos in be the best? Seeing a Programme that size in the offic....... Bedsit of PM&FC must have been like the day man invented fire!!

Mourinho said that his players looked exhausted v Basel so will likely shuffle the pack for "Saturdays game" as a result, which means if the fringe players coming in have anything about them then they might be a little more up for it than the rag tag and bobtail Chelsea that got the run around off Basel. That said they might be a bit like strangers to each other if Jose's shuffle isn't right. Should be a good game.