east-stand-nic

Totally agree. West Brom this weekend is gonna be crucial to some degree. If we can actually win that game it starts to give us some daylight between us and them and many of the other contenders. Gonna be a big ask to win that game, but hell, we really need to. I am not gonna say it is a must win as of course it is way to early for that, but it would show intent and start to put teams on the back foot and fear us when they come to play us.

Ipswich play their game in hand tonight at Rotherham. I wonder if the draw (almost defeat) at Brum on the weekend was a sign of the wheels coming off a little? Hopefully they will drop points tonight, even though I cannot really see anything other than them winning.

Interesting games this. Had we have been at full strength I think we would have gotten a draw at least. Two sides on form yes, but West Brom are not great away from home, but sadly we are not great at home. West Brom have are 12th in the away form table as below, but we are not much better at home lying currently in 13th. 12 West Brom 7 2 3 2 11 8 +3 9 Sadly, I have to say i truly believe we will lose this one. Who ever comes in to replace JB will be one of our error prone players (Holgate) or someone out of position (Charles). We will have to be at our very best and push for 95 minutes to get anything out of this, unless we are lucky and West Brom have one of their off days away from home, which they do seem to do.

He told us in 1997. No doubt everyone will deny it and say silly things, but think, for the first time in your lives, think. How could he say this 22 years before it actually happened? I am sorry, but he has been proven right about a great many things. It is just fashionable to pass him off as a nutter as some of what he says about Archons etc. are a bit beyond the pale.

Season defining moment next week against WBA. Shame we will not be at full strength as likely that will cost us. They are hitting form. Cannot see us winning that one sadly.

Seems the wheels have come off at Norwich somewhat. I thought they were fancied to be top 6 at least.

I lost interest in the world cup 20 years ago and it gets more so with each one passing. Mainly because i know England will flatter to deceive as our players are gutless prima donnas who do not have a winning mentality. I also lost interest as each time they just ignore England as a host nation despite our superb facilities. They hate us and we will not host another world cup in my lifetime. It's been to other countries twice since 66 and never to us even once. Utter disgrace of a set up and nothing to do with football at all hence for me it is not a competition I have any interest in.

Millwall have a pretty poor home record so far this season as below. Millwall 7 2 1 4 7 11 -4 7 I hope they do not get some kind of new manager bounce this weekend as really, we should be winning this game. That said, in a way it might be good for us if they appoint Nathan Jones in the next 24 hours as i believe he is the type of guy who will go out to prove a point and have every one wound up too much, which in turn will mess them up and see a red card etc. I don't believe this myth about Millwall being a tough place to go. I went there a few times in the 80's and never felt their home support was all that. Come out hot from the blocks and get an early goal and we will have the crowd on their backs. Things seem to be coming together a little for RM, so I have a feeling we will win this one something like 0-1 or 1-2.

This would probably be the best draw for us. Go up against one of the real bottom 6 side and see how well we fair. We would probably do better if we got an away draw. Bournemouth would be a good draw.

I totally agree but i figure RS was not bought to sit on the bench and cannot see who else might get dropped instead. I just have a feeling due to RM styles of play he will drop AA for RS.

Here's a weird thought. AA is a worker, gets stuck in and back tracks etc. Could we not utilise him in some sort of midfield roles when RS becomes available and leads the line? Perhaps as an impact sub to help get the midfield engine running later in the game?

Yep, this is the problem in a nutshell. It is great when you are up challenging for promotion. But if you keep failing to go up you become Stoke, Blackburn or worse....Derby and Bolton. But then being promoted will suck big time also as we will have to buy a fair few quality players just to stay up and we will be back to where we were for the previous 6 years scraping the barrel. This is Sky Sports football. You are either a big player or you are Saints. Best to just enjoy these times when we are competing and accept the down times when we are bottom 6 all the time.

Probably gonna get pelters for saying this, but at least 8 of these games are totally winnable. In fact, I see no reason why we should not win all 11. Most of these clubs should finish below us...I can only see Cardiff and WBA anywhere near our level (Potentially). If we did win 8, draw two and somehow lose one, we would amass 26 points, giving us 50 in total from 25 games. Surely this has to be the aim? Millwall v Southampton Southampton v West Bromwich Albion Huddersfield Town v Southampton Southampton v Bristol City Southampton v Cardiff City Watford v Southampton Coventry City v Southampton Southampton v Blackburn Rovers Queens Park Rangers v Southampton Southampton v Swansea City Southampton v Plymouth Argyle

Once again almost impossible to predict as we are a bit hot and cold. Preston's home form is pretty good as per the stats below 6 4 1 1 9 9 0 13 Where as, we all know we have won 4 and lost 2 away from home. Looks pretty odds on for a draw. Interesting though that they have won so many more than lost/drawn but still have an even GD. A game we need to win to show some genuine intent but would be OK with a draw as my expectation for this season are top 6 at the very best, unless RM is replaced, which is highly unlikely. 2-2 draw.

Actually, I think Major could well have done better if not so scared of the Thatcher legacy he followed on from. But yes, I also thought GB was better than he got credit for in many cases. But then, I am not so myopic as most on here. I am neither them nor the others. I am who ever seems genuinely best. But some on here will never vote Lab/Con no matter what they say. This is why I hate politics as so many people are so entrenched in one camp they are now simply against the others no matter what. I don't think Starmer will do much as is weak so far as i can see. But leaving Sunak in charge would probably be worse as it would send all the wrong messages to the tories. Got to get them out no matter what this time around.

I just cannot wait to see what the lefties on here use as excuses when nothing at all changes for the first 2 or 3 years under labour, and it wont. It never does. No matter who gets in, inflation, taxes, incomes etc., stay much the same relatively. I have never been any better off under either in my working lifetime.

1 Point above us. In a place off place. Positive GD. Squad way less value than ours. Hmm.

Hull have a very odd home record so far this season as below. Looks odds one for a draw. But as I have said before, we are impossible to predict as we never know if RM is gonna go more direct or pick the best players in the best position. We could win the game if at our best etc. Hull City 5 1 4 0 7 5 +2 7

I rest my case.

The thing is though, has those people had gotten in and done those things Soggy would have supported everything they did and would not a leaver. He and many others on here are so myopic in their view that they will disagree with the likes of Farage, Trump etc., just because they don't like them, even if what they say and do is spot on. Brain dead politics.

Leicester look hot favourites at the moment but that can change with a bad run, which I actually think they will have at some stage. I do not think we will make automatic promotion this time around, but I do think it could end up being a very close league this season. Like Leicester, I cannot see Ipswich hanging on to second place. By Christmas it could be a totally different picture with West Brom higher, Leeds I think also have a lot more about them than they showed against us. All in all, it could be one of those rare seasons where no one runs away at the top.

I dare not predict this game as last time i said we would win, we got stuffed. But in reality we should win this by at least 3-1. More would be better of course to get the GD back to normal. But if they come and park the bus, will we be able to break them down? I think we need to go a bit more gun ho with the line up and have as many forward/creative players as possible.

This. We need a big won to fix our awful GD and also to give us a huge confidence boost. If we can get a 4 or 5-0 win as you say, then we can be back to 0 or +1 GD, which is still poor for a side that will have won 2 more than they have lost. GD could and probably will be a big factor for 6th place come seasons end. I don't think we have any chance of being top 2, so play offs at best, and for that we need to get the GD back up in line with the others.

Interesting leagues this year. Sides seemingly winning and losing games they shouldn't. Brighton brilliant one week, then hammered 6-1 at Villa. Could do with Blackburn beating Leicester today and halting them running away at the top.

If RM has indeed woken up and will change the style, surely this is a game to pack midfield more to combat them?