Forester

The only smidgeon of hope here is that this match is sandwiched by both legs of Arsenal Europa Cup quarter final including tricky trip to Moscow. Arsenal have no chance of Champions League qualification via Premier League so this is surely their priority

Yes agree with this

In 30 years of watching Saints home and away that first half was the very worst I have ever seen in terms of absence of commitment and quality combined. Truly awful. We have little hope I am afraid of avoiding the drop now, but in my opinion the only small chance remaining is if we maximise the selection of a number of genuine grafters who have a heart. So I would bring in Yoshida, Romeu, Davis and Long for Hoedt, Lamina, Hoj and Gabby. Sims and McQueen on the bench too. It is useless having talent if you are backing out of challenges, basically cheating the club and the fans on huge wage packets.

Sorry if posted elsewhere but just seen that RMT strike planned for Saturday. SWR say they are still planning to operate full service but urging you to check before travelling...

Thought it was a genuinely interesting and insightful interview. Also we have restored our status of having the best PLAYER as a manager in the Premier League (surely was Koeman). In his pomp, which was well before he came to the Dell, he was a truly outstanding player

I think Hughes is a good choice to keep us up. Very experienced in the Premier League, clearly more of a “no nonsense” character than Pellegrino and realistically we need three wins and a couple of draws maximum. As other have said, he hasn had one poor half season with Stoke and the same with QPR, but very good at Blackburn, City, Fulham, Wales and four seasons at Stoke with three of them in 9th place. It may be that he himself favours a short term deal with an option to extend in the summer. Has never managed in the championship and probably doesn’t want to start now.

What a historically dreadful decision by Saints to sack Puel. What a mess we are in

Things have certainly improved since Eric Black left......

I agree. But I also think Koeman, with a better side to choose from, screwed up away to Midget Land, and to Sheffield Utd. And Poch, again with a better side, screwed up in every cup competition. I still argue you can’t airbrush out from history a cup run to Wembley featuring all Prem sides, away wins at Arsenal and Liverpool and the glaringly obvious point of having sold and not replaced Pelle, Mane and Wanyama. Why can’t people see that this is worth a good chunk of points, especially with VVD and Austin out for half the season or more!!!

I think what your analysis shows is that the crucial games are Swansea and Newcastle away. I think (hope) you have been pessimistic on saying just one point, but I accept that it is entirely possible you are right. In my opinion we need six or seven points from our three away games at Swansea, Wet Spam and Newcastle. I a man more confident in getting points on the road than I am at St Mary’s

People will hate this answer, but the truth I think is that the Board will argue: - we have lost just once in ten games in all competitions, and that was to Liverpool - with the exception of Palace, every time we have played a team for the second time this season we have either matched or improved the first result - we are through to FA Cup Quarter Final - the players do not appear to have downtools in terms of effort, it’s more quality of attacking play To be clear, I argued for him to be sacked after Huddersfield and Spurs games in December, but it is hard to argue that things have got worse since then. The question is would replacing him with nine games left make a positive difference.

Well I had us down to finish on 40 points but that included yesterday as a win. Not convinced 38 will be enough, assuming we get that many now, so very worrying. First half was what you expect from two teams in a relegation scrap who aren’t winning. Stoke to their credit were in our faces at every occasion in the first half and gave us no time. I always thought it would be hard for them to maintain that for 90 mins and that space would open up for us. We had some chances, but to be fair so did they with the 1 on 1 second half. I don’t begrudge them their point. Finally we took an eternity to take a throw, Long holding on to the ball, with every one seeing 2 mins go up on the board, so I don’t blame the red. Why should he add on more time for a free kick? How would we feel if we were Stoke and it ended up as a goal? Positives are that we got a point, we are hard to beat, and arguably are more set up to play away from home. Going to be very tight I think

Yes that gets my vote. Absolutely perishing and people chucking snow balls smashing the poor old guy’s greenhouse on the way out of the away end

Cup win

Excellent assist for Tadic today. Need time to settle, having had no pre season in England. I can remember morons booing Pelle against WBA in his first home game.

Watched game out here in Spain, much the better side first half but hanging on second half. Classy goal from Tadic with excellent Guido assist on the counter attack. McCarthy, Bertrand and Stephens all excellent. Quarter finals here we come!

McCarthy Cedric Stephens Yoshida Bertrand Romeu Lamina Boufal JWP Tadic Guido A full week to recover for Burnley, wins breed confidence and Romeu has more games where he risks suspension than just this one. Hoedt deserves to be dropped, and while I like PEH as a holding midfielder I don’t rate him in the number 10 so bring in Boufal who played well in the league game up there

I am one of the 7% who voted to retain MP. I would have sacked him after the home match against Udders and thought he was very poor wasting lots of winnable games. As a family we go to about 75% away games and season ticket holders, and away performances went backwards from Puel big time. However I genuinely think ON THE WHOLE things have got a bit better in the second half of the season. Only one team playing for a second time have we emerged with a worse result than first time round, Palace, and we are through to 5th round of the cup. At this late stage I think disruption would be a bigger gamble than sticking by him as I think we can get to 40 points with four more wins and two draws and am targeting Stoke, Newcastle, Swansea and Bournemouth with draws at Burnley and Wet Spam. I am assuming defeats in all other games. Away performances Manure onwards have been much better, and I don’t see the away venues as being a disadvantage given our style and the insipid atmosphere at St Mary’s. Let’s see how the cup run pans out and assuming we stay up we can make a decision on MP in May. If though we lost our next two games I see the argument for hitting the panic button, but not now. I realise this argument won’t be popular but it is genuinely how I see it.

I looked ever so closely at your reply, but somehow could not see you respond to the bits about having to manage without the 30 goals of Pelle and Mane as well as missing Austin and VVD for half a season. So go on, talk me through the possible relationship between fewer points and missing Pelle and Mane, you can do it!

This is a joke post from you given you were one of the morons who called for Puel out. He finished 8th, a cup final that Hughes hasn’t managed at, faced a fifty game season, missed out on 30 goals from a sold Pelle and Mane and then had Austin and VVD out for half the season. When will you wake up ad smell the coffee?

The one positive is that I didn’t have this down on my list of the 14 points we need to survive, which I still think can come from wins against Stoke, Newcastle, Swansea and Bournemouth along with draws at Burnley and Wet Spam. Also, after an awful Hoedt error again (remember Bournemouth), I thought we looked the better side for much of the first half wasting three great chances. Second half was a throw the towel in performance I am afraid and was up there with Spurs Boxing Day where we did the same. Very worrying. As others have said these next five league games and West Brom will decide our season and overall I don’t think today will have done either way. I think Hoedt is too casual for this standard of football right now and I would recall Yoshida to play alongside Stephens. That partnership looked quite good after VVD injury last season.

Have had years of doing that with both daughters, although not needed anymore for oldest! Only ever had a problem at Nottm Forest (the game we thought we were going out of business)when an officious steward demanded they get off chair but had no solution to how they could see over standing adults! I am sure you will keep an arm around them in case flip the top of the chair!

Answer is no, Puel is flying at Leicester.....!

Really enjoyable away trip. Always close matches at the Hawthorns with us usually looking the better team but not always winning. Today I thought the result flattered WBA who looked long ball merchants, and once we got our goal we passed them off the field. Excellent performances from McCarthy, Bertrand, JWP and Lemina. Big improvements in second half from Boufal and Tadic. While still finding his feet I thought that Guido looked promising and gave us another type of pass that we have missed since Pelle. Three other observations: - Regis tribute was excellent, and the musical scene with scarves in the air, including Saints fans, was pretty moving - While both have their good individual moments, Hoedt and Stephens are a long way short of what we have been used to through the Lovren, Fonte, Alderweirald, VVD era in terms of defending aerial balls in our box. Can this be coached? I think so as look at the job Potch did with Lovren who has looked a donkey at Liverpool. - while for the most part our fans were excellent, we had some moronic shouts of “sacked in the morning” after about 20 mins of the game. Regardless of your view, why try to turn a game toxic with over an hour to go?

Just to be clear, these aren’t predictions. I will be delighted if this is how it pans out, I was simply setting out what the most realistic route to safety is.