Neil

They haven't yet quoted West Ham, Wigan, Wolves and Blackpool for the Championship next season. 10/1 does seem short enough. The target for next season is to win the league. Having said that, when we get to the end of July and haven't signed anyone I may adjust my expectations...

It would help if fans had some expectation of when they need to get the money ready to pay for the ST each season, instead of having this guessing game! But I think STs should be on sale next week, to cash in on the feel good factor of promotion. And we should aim for 20,000+.

Bring on Monday. At least everyone can put their radios and iPhones etc away and just concentrate on beating Plymouth!

Congratulations to Brighton. They've been phenomenal this season and fully deserve their early promotion. Got to say with the number of STs they've sold for next season they could be very competitive in the Championship. Will be good to have local derbies with them again next season. Hopefully we can beat them at the Withdean shortly, we'll need the points more than they do...

Just about rather have the 3 games in hand, but this is Saints and you never know! Also conscious of that Brighton fixture looming, although as this is Saints I probably should be more worried about other apparently easier fixtures. That Charlton game was a big blow and has reduced the margin for error. Need 12 points from the next four games, and see where we are then.

Is it possible that we could gain promotion at this game?

Disagree. We need to win and get to second as soon as possible (i.e. tomorrow), get points in the bag to build up a gap on 3rd. Not enough margin for error at the moment to accept a point draw tomorrow.

Should be good, but 2 per ST is completely unnecessary and daft given the popularity of this one.

Bournemouth-Huddersfield draw please. Not really bothered about other results.

I've stopped getting the Echo as their coverage of Saints was so dismal. Presumably they've offered a full-page apology for the lies, bull-**** and ****-stirring about AOC that they continued with for most of January?

It sounds like a Jaidi sort of game if they're physical up front and with another crappy pitch to play on. Hoof it clear without too much fancy stuff! If we can win this game it will really increase the belief in automatic promotion.

Agreed. Probably will be too late to link to Notts County, so those three are good choices.

Shouldn't this thread be at the top of the board? (already there are two threads about a Cup game above this one)

Go all out for victory! No real need to fret about fixtures.

Good results on Tuesday/Wednesday have set this one up nicely. Hope for c28,000 and a good win. Then a couple more signings at least (Chaplow is a good start but doesn't really feel like a new signing).

We could do with stripping Huddersfield of a player or two - Jordan? Novak? Danns, Le Fondre and Harley are probably the best shouts, I'd take a punt on Le Fondre rather than Austin. A CM is needed (probably in addition to Chaplow). A CB is needed.

Well we were shockingly bad pretty much all over the park. Hammond/Schneiderlin are poor together, and getting worse. Predictable, one-paced, going sideways or backwards, not even that good at winning tackles and can't shoot for toffee. We must have won a lot of games despite these two rather than because of them. If Lallana and Oxlade are shut down we have big problems - guess Antonio made a big contribution while he was here. That said, we'd look much better with Fonte/Chaplow/Barnard. But I think at least two new signings are required in January (in addition to Chaplow). If you can't make three HT changes when you're 2-0 down at home then you've got problems with the depth/quality of the squad. The worst thing was the lack of stomach for a fight - Leeds came from 2-0 down away to win on Saturday - it can be done but seemingly never by Saints. Having won a few games coming from behind recently, it looks like we're back to the good old days of just throw the towel in meekly.

Many thanks Spudgun. All good stuff, glad that the ST instalment plan should be returning, hopefully for next season in the Championship. The stuff about the redevelopment around SMS is the most intriguing, would be good to hear more on this as and when the plans move forward - perhaps we need to hear from the Council for their view.

When they say 'application form', I think they mean a crap 'Word document', the only purpose of which seems to be to indicate the £3 booking fee - which incidentally is not mentioned in the OS article. Surely in this day and age there is some way that these requests can be made online or via email*, thus negating the need for the 'application form', speeding up the whole process, and enabling fans to have a clearer idea of their movements on Monday 3rd January 2011? (looks like the fans won't know until 16/17th December) Should we boycott this whole application process, let the tickets go to general sale and all queue up at the ticket office on December 20th, thus potentially costing the club up to £3,600 (£3 booking fee x 1,200) plus any additional cost of ticket office staff required on December 20th? I fully appreciate Cortese's aim to run SFC as a business, I don't appreciate his aim to treat loyal fans with contempt. * = "unfortunately we will not be able to receive email applications for security reasons". I don't think there are any security reasons why you are not able to receive emails, but I would welcome further clarification of this, as obviously I'm not privvy to the clandestine security operation that is Southampton FC.

If it's true that the 1st XI are not flying to any away games now, presumably a go/no-go decision will be made on the Friday morning before they are due to set off from Southampton? Which won't help the fans who have gone up there, but may save a few wasted journeys.

Happy and relieved to be four points off second, after such an indifferent start and the Pardew shenanigans. Adkins has improved the quality of football from Pardew but still a work in progress. That said, there is room for improvement. We must toughen up away from home, and not take long to get going. We gave Huddersfield, Notts County and Carlisle a head start and only got away with it at Notts County. Lambert must improve or a new striker in January. Would expect to be in the top 2 in January. Then start to put some daylight between us and 3rd.

Bialkowski Richardson Seaborne Martin Dickson Lallana Hammond Chaplow Holmes Barnard Lambert Bring Doble on for 20/30m if possible? More competition up front the better.

Very good performance, although a frustrating result. We were much the better team over 90 minutes, and by a long way in the 1st half. As for Brighton, I thought they were pretty embarassing for a top-of-the-table side in their attempts to spoil the game and waste time. Although admittedly they got what they came for, and could have even have nicked it near the end - which would have been a travesty of justice. Brighton clearly can't match us for quality, but they are well organised and stubborn to break down. You can clearly see Poyet's impact, I wondered if were playing Uruguay at times they were that niggly! Plenty to be positive about, if we can get Lambert going. Nothing much to worry about in League One going by Brighton!

Minutes per goal this season (League games): Oxlade - 181 (4 goals) Barnard - 202 (4) Lambert - 210 (6) Lallana - 268 (3) Guly - 345 (1) Fonte - 420 (3) Hammond - 1,340 (1) Even with Lambert's 4 pens and 1 deflected free-kick, Oxlade and Barnard are still (slightly) ahead. Do we have a penalty taker to replace Lambert if required?