Galway saint

I think he’s a very good keeper don’t think he’ll want to be a number 2 - far too good for that.

these are the guys who paid £23.5million for Rhian Brewster so could be a runner

hi - just messaged you

he looked a bit leaner yesterday to me he’s playing well in this front three with fraser and AA and he’s good at bringing others into play even if his finishing is at times erratic seems pointless disrupting that front three for the sake of a few million quid in the grand scheme of things

thought stephens looked tentative in the pass and he obviously suffers in comparison to THB. the way we play you’ve got to be on your game around the 18 year box otherwise it’s calamity time and Stephen’s wasn’t quite on it thought it was the wrong move to break up the CB partnership. we got away with it today and hopefully lessons learnt first half was superb and RM has us playing some great stuff . come a long way in 12 months

he made a positive difference in the second half to the outcome of game today and to date he’s not done that enough for me but fair play to him today. we’ll need more of that when we play ipswich, leicester etc away

can we bring THB back on ?

If anyone has a spare rotherham ticket let me know as managed to miss the rush

i’m no defender of bazanu and he was in an odd position for a conventional keeper but as he’s effectively asked to play the sweeper role he will always be more advanced than he might like and he therefore can get caught in no mans land. see the goal against rotherham for another example. however you cannot him blame for that as it’s the role he’s asked to play

Not sure it’s about creativity more a dominant centre centre to lead the line and create a bit of hovoc in and around the box and get onto crosses ( that are now increasing) . we created lots of openings yesterday. not sure of the stats but after adam armstrong out next highest scorer must be adams with 6 or so. seems to be more of an achilles heel away from home but you will always be vulnerable being only one up as no matter how good the defence you will always concede some goals

today was frustrating but we look a very good team at the moment and that’s without a recognised number 9 to lead the line

10 points from 12 is pretty good going over Xmas and we have managed to put ourselves in contention for 2nd so got to be happy overall even if today was a bit disappointing. the stephens thing is odd

don’t be pathetic

i can’t be bothered to go back through them all but the goal conceded against watford was clearly a ‘howler’

he’s a very very good player and whoever at the club arranged this deserves a huge pat on the back. indeed having him, bednarek and KWP in defence is exceptional really for the championship

i have some difficulty seeing anyone from the premiership is seriously scouting him. since Huddersfield they would be reporting back that saints have only conceded 4 goals but of those two were his fault and one was arguably where he should have done better. mistakes like last night happen to the best keepers so we move on from that but again anyone scouting him over the past 18 months would need their heads examining if they reported back that the club should be signing him. i don’t see we are very fortunate to have him. the converse really. He’s very fortunate to have a club who have stuck by him and continue to do so. we’re doing great at the moment and we are far superior to most teams we play so he doesn’t have much to do but if we do go up Baz would be back centre stage with the ball flying at him from all angles and i have my doubts it would be much different to last time

THB is very very good

these things happen. doesn’t alter my concerns but we move on as he’s earned that by virtue of the way he’s asked to play

great finish

get fraser and stu on too slow

it would be churlish to say he’s not improving( but that’s from a pretty low base last season) but overall the defence is much better. it’s incomparable to those games at sunderland and middlesbrough and so he’s doesn’t have a great deal to do comparatively. he still has that technical deficiency down to his left hand side and before we anyone gets concerned about his leaving he needs to sort that out. if we don’t go up i’d be far more concerned about replacing downes and THB than the keeper. you look at the guy at rotherham and see what you can pick up for say 5 or 6 million. personally if we ever get an offer for more than we paid we will have done well but he certainly seems a more confident presence but so he should as we’ve not lost for 16 games.

still seems a very long time for a hamstring injury but i can’t see what they gain by lying about it

never heard of anyone being out for five/six months with a hamstring injury to be fair you don’t miss what you never had but the lack of a real focal point up front could cost us seemed a real gamble at the time and it hasn’t paid off. see what we do in January but if we don’t properly address it then that will be two years without a decent number 9.

don’t see it personally - we have finally got some resilience at the back so would be daft to tinker with it out of loyalty to the captain

blackmore said on solent they were reset