Professor

Anyone who believes that excuse probably believes in Father Christmas. Do you seriously expect NC to announce that he wouldn't improve the squad because it was his policy not to, or that he'd been instructed by the owners not to spend? We did make signings - Forte and N'Guessan - not at 'inflated' prices, in fact for peanuts, so what did we get..............

There were times in the first half that this game looked more like a relegation struggle than a promotion side against a team just above the relegation places. So we won; but if we hadn't won at home against YEOVIL! could anyone have taken promotion as a serious prospect. My confidence in Adkins went weeks ago but I'm not that confident in NC either since he must have set the policy for the January transfers - which was hold what we have but don't improve. What depresses me is that there is nothing that can be done. Its not possible to contemplate another change of manager so we are stuck with what we've got. Second place looks very difficult as our current form is not as good as the teams around us. The play-offs do look assured, but that is no guarantee of promotion and neither is it meeting the target of a team that would hit the NpC running. With the strength of others in the top 6, missing out in the play-offs has to be more likely than not.

When the Play-Off system was introduced - for money, not for sport reasons, one of the potentially relegated teams took part in the charade as well as teams that had missed promotion. Interesting that that idea soon got booted out.

Bookmakers don't base their odds on what they think will happen - the odds are based on how much money has been bet on the various possible outcomes. A lot of the bets were laid at the start of the season when the resources SFC were supposed to be putting into the team, and the statements made about getting to The Prem in a couple of years, would have attracted a lot of punters, some of whom might now feel that their money is more at risk than they expected.

A win is a win and the 3 points were absolutely cruicial since all the other top teams, bar Uddersfield, got 3 points as well. But its not all positive, because we heard the commentary suggesting Colchester had long periods of dominance and ultimately 2-0 against 10 men isn't earth-shattering. I want to see my Saints' team playing the opposition off the park, and its not happening. But if we win against Yoevil and then beat Boscombe next Saturday, I will feel differently.

Lumping the first 7 games together is misleading as it includes the disasterous period when we had no manager following the 'dismissal' of Pardew. Pardew was in charge for just 3 L1 games from which we got 4 points. The last 7 games under Adkins have produced 11 points, so not much difference on a points per game average. It was actually the 3 defeats under Wilkins after Cortese decided to change the manager that really caused the bad start. But if we go on as we have in the last 7 games, we'll be lucky to finish with any more points than we did last season, when we had the -10 as a valid excuse.

I've no idea what standard of football is played by Halmstad BK but if Michael can make their grade, good luck to him. It was tragic that such a brilliant player should have had his career cut short by injury. But it was also sad to see him in the twilight of his comeback attempts, too slow to compete, not able to turn quickly and overall a very pale reflection of what he had been. Even so, all who saw him at his peak would say he was one of Saint's all-time greats and nothing will ever take that away from him.

What worries me about the Positive Thinkers is the people constantly telling themselves and everyone else, that we have the best squad in L1. This keeps being said, even though players in opposition teams demonstrate that they are as good as, and sometimes better. I suspect we would struggle to provide more than 3 or 4 players in a 'best of L1' team and possibly not that many. It could be said that if we had 4 of the best players in L1 (if indeed,we do) that would be a positive thing, but even then it would mean that there were some 7 places that could be improved just by signing players who are already playing in this division.

Well, Mr Windmill Arm, it gives me no pleasure to say that the Walsall result was even worse than at Hartlepool. I give Adkins credit for starting with Morgan tonight and it was very bad luck that he was injured so early in the game, but one player should not make that much difference if our squad was really as good as people say, against a struggling L1 side. I am not convinced by Adkins and I don't look forward at all to reading the excuses.

Exactly. I was certain NA would not start them today and it wasn't until they came on that the poor second half was turned round. No disrespect to Chaplow, who I would play ahead of Hammond, but Guly, once again is good in parts but too unreliable. Today also showed once again that you can't rely on other teams dropping points. This was as much a 'must win game' as they come and its relief to have it in the bag.

I predict:- Davis Butterfield - Fonte - Jaidi - Harding AOC - Schneiderlin - Chaplow - Lallana Lambert - Barnard ..... will not be the starting line-up tomorrow,but it should be.

Except that in the last 6 games Saints have got 1.5 points per game, not 1.9. Fact is you can pick your stats to support a preconceived position. They have to do better in the next 6 games than in the last 6 and hope that other teams keep slipping up.

One important difference between Brighton and Saints this season is that during the close season, Brighton made significant improvements to their squad and seem to have done more on that front than SFC. If our lack of close season squad building and the weak pre-season were due to a falling out between AP and NC, than NC in particular should take responsibility as the senior person involved.

Got to be careful with blaming the start of the season, or saying nearly 2 points a game since Sept is OK. Stats can always mislead, for example, the last 6 games have produced 9 points out of a possible 18, which is only 1.5 points a game. That only one of those games was a defeat doesn't increase the points total. You can make it sound better by saying we've only lost once in the last 6. True but it doesn't help. You pick how many games to include and you can slant the stats one way or the other. But the fans tend to look at current form, for which the last 6 games is a common measure, so its easy to see why there is unease.

I see Schneiderlin as a first choice in midfield and I agree with you that he would be ahead of Hammond. I would see Hammond and Chaplow competing for the other CM slot, with Chaplow ahead. The LMF and RMF are Lallana and AOC. Lambert and Barnard are the best two strikers, with a fit Connolly behind them. Guly, Forte, and N'Guessen would be competing for places on the bench. All IMHO, of course.

Hadn't realised how great we were doing! Scoring 4 goas away to Peterborough was fantastic - shame we let in 4 but what the heck? And a brilliant 1-0 home win against mighty Carlisle who actually had 11 players for half the game. And now we hold high-flying, 14th-placed, Hartlepoool, to a 0-0 draw in front of a daunting 3,000 home crowd. Why worry when the lottery of the play-offs is a distinct possibility. If we don't get promoted it will only be because other teams haven't lost games they should have lost. We have a great squad and a great manager and if we have to, we'll walk this league next year....

Shuffling the chairs around would be an improvement, but its disappointing that this "Best Squad in L1" can't perform at league winning level. It would be an improvement to have Barnard and Lambert together from the start, and to have Schneiderlin in midfield. Guly is worth a place, but that place is on the sub bench. And with Connolly fit again, he should now be the sub striker. But all of this is very depressing as performance should not depend on two or three selection choices.

The implication that S****horpe have only slumped since Adkins left. Their team is the squad he left them with. When he left they had played only 7 games and were in 16th place in the NpC table and are now 22nd. Mr Nexstar's suggestion was that had Adkins not left they would be in comfortable mid-table but there is no evidence for that whatsoever. 16th after 7 games was not comfortable, and had Adkins stayed the team he left them with is just as likely to have performed exactly as it has done, which is to drop into the bottom 3. Fact is that Adkins two promotions are not worth much if followed by two relegations so lets not suggest we have a manager with a great track record.

Sorry to have to correct you Mr Nexstar but check the NpC table. Scunny are in 22nd place, a relegation spot, with 31 points and a GD of -23.

1. After 6 nights in a comfortable hotel, 90 minutes on the pitch shouldn't be hardship for professional footballers. Those of us who have played the game, or still are playing, have turned out in local football in conditions far worse than tonight at Hartlepool. 2. When interviewed, Nigel almost suffers from verbal diarrhoea, constantly repeating 4 or 5 phrases. I hope he does better than that when he's talking to the players. 3. What I would have liked him to do would have been to persuade the chairman to strengthen the team in Jan with one or two first choice better players, not just add squad players, but what I'd like him to do now is play the best eleven, which should include Schneiderlin and not include Guly. 4.So Nigel has got a team out of L1 twice before. And where is he now? Back in L1 because no higher placed club have gone for him, and where is his last club now? About to be relegated.

Just about as worried as Saints' supporters, except two of them are above us in the table.

What is up with fans who see this result as OK? So other teams drew as well. Thats no credit to Saints, just luck. The L1 championship is well beyond us and Brighton are showing how champion teams play. Hartlepool are mid to lower table and our team struggled against them. People who say we have such a great squad need to take off the rose-tinted glasses. This great squad can't produce a consistent winning team and loses too often. The games in hand mean nothing unless the team can win them both and that looks less and less likely.It now seems the playoffs is the best we can hope for and even that depends on other teams doing worse than we do. Have I made it too obvious that I'm p****d off with this result.

Manager and squad. BHA signing Craig Noone showed more ambition than Saints' signing Forte and taking N'Guessen on loan. Result was BHA are stronger after the window while Saints are same old same old. Adkins going back to his old club for Forte smacked too much of Burley and his tendency to sign players he'd managed before.

More games at the end of the season could be to Saints' advantage if some of the other clubs we play may no longer have anything to play for.

Its obviously misleading to look at defeats alone, what matters are wins. In theory a team could be undefeated, drawing every game to finish with 46 points and be relegated. The 4 consecutive wins after Xmas gave us a boost but since then, D, W, L, W is not good enough. Its always tempting to grasp at straws, such as Lallana has been out, but if this was a championship-winning team it would not be dependant on any one player. I'm not impressed by the two squad players brought in as making any difference. We do have a decent first 11, but I think its down to luck now - whether our best players can stay fit through a hard period. It shouldn't have come to this, though, the squad could have been properly strengthened and it wasn't, it was just propped up.