Saint Without a Halo

No one in their right mind pays construction contractors more than 10% up front!

Patience and faith we have had 34 years in the top division and for those that remember them all like me, all but a handful were stark hard relegation dogfights where defeats were plentiful and often heavy and wins were infrequent and hard to get (anyone remember Ruddocks penalty for a 1-0 that stopped a winless streak of countless matches or the 8-0 and 7-0 defeats to Everton and Leeds). The good thing is that unlike at the top of the championship and League 1, a defeat has far less effect on your league position given those around you are struggling too and a draw is often a good result! Statistically to be promoted you need approx 2 points a game whilst around 1 point a game is usually sufficient to stay up! We are currently 3 points of the pace we need and given the fixtures we have had that is not a disaster yet. The test will be the 6 pointers against those around us i.e the teams in positions 10 to 20! So far we have had 2 one good result and one bad! Early days yet!

Agreed Fulham are in the top 7 too we will have played all the top team bar Chelsea and west Brom (if you can call them a top team despite their lofty position) The games against the Norwichs, QPR's, Readings, Stokes etc will define our season everyone seems to have forgotten what a relegation dogfight is really like! We had about 20 of them in the 27 years we were up last time and one every year between 1967 and 1974 the time before. We lost many games against the top teams by big margins not least of which were the 7-0 drubbing to Leeds and 8-0 to Everton. Despite those losses we still stayed up! We all need to Keep the faith! This certainly isn't the Championship or League 1.

Agreed but I would say "a lot" rather than "a little" we seem to allow opposition players plenty of room to get up speed as they approach the defence. also when we sit back (as we did after scoring yesterday) we invite constant pressure with no relief valve.

Wow lets be positive then it is still September for all you know we might buy a whole new team in January! Agreed our defence is leaking like a seive but there are a whole lot of teams around us many with the same problem and a number without our firepower! lets see what happens when we play some of the lower teams

At Celtic, Boruc was at the centre of many controversies. Due to his custom of blessing himself before games, he was known as "The Holy Goalie" from WIKI Should be a good Saint then!

Err they didnt rate Hoieveld either to be fair

Butland has just let in 4 in 15 mins at home to barnsley! at least 5m saved there then!

Good positionjing came off his line well! Did what he had too although villa didnt have too many chances didn't have much chance for the goal!

Class pure class enough said!

Watched in the pub with arabic commentary great spirit to recover after a close first half and scrappy goal. Second half we made chance after chance most made by Gaston but best of all villa made few if any chances. Impressed with all the signings today Clyne Yoshida Mayuka and of course Gaston not forgetting Gazza in goal too! Just got home to hear Andy townsend on TV say Southampton are out of the bottom three just for the moment (prat)! Very very pleased and relieved! onwards and upwards!

It is not right that some teams wind down at the end of the season in key promotion, relegatrion or champion influencing games however surely it is not right for teams to offer others incentives to win key games. What would happen for instance of a key match between two mid table teams was to determine the fate of Man U or Wigan? even if we put aside the doubtful morality of this Man U would be able to pay far more than Wigan! Is that fair? it would give yet another advantage to the richer clubs. Also where does it end? Should richer clubs be able to loan out or even contribute to the buying of better players for teams about to play their rivals?

This

seven of the 14 goals we have conceded have occured in the last 15 mins of each game (2 in each of Manu Manc and Arsenal and 1 against Wigan). Are we still not fit enough as a team or are we doing too much in the first 75 mins, which means we are falling away at the end?

Agreed where were we after the first 4 games before Nigel came in league 1 and where did we end the season?

7-0 at Leeds and at 8-0 at Everton both in 1973 I think and even then we stayed up!

Can you get to the Premier league whilst finishing 17th in the NPC?

is this YOYO plan this years equivalent of the plan to be 17th last year?

Ramirez is the bizz

when we get the ball we just kick it aimlessly long

its not just the defence the midfield cant win the ball either

Davis looks out of his depth

walcott will be on second half too

poor poor poor

cant watch tis anymore