Professor

Harding very impressive even though playing out of position! Rickie was a constant threat but maybe he tired a bit towards the end, which is no criticism, just an indication of how hard he played.

The press always want to promote 'hate' and 'fear' as those are the things that sell newspapers, iand if they are trying to promote an anti-Cortese line, its up to Saints fans not to fall for it. We have a great chairman, who is doing his job of keeping the manager under pressure to perform. Its a shame if Pardew makes too many public comments about too much pressure, because he should keep that sort of thing between himself and the Chairman, but in the end the pressure will be good for him as well as for the club.

The population to fans is a great quote, but doesn't most of Hampshire follow the Saints, except for that little island down near Gosport and a few people on the far side of the New Forest, who follow Boscombe? I've supported Saints for over 50 years but have never lived closer than 15 miles to the City.

Just before Connolly came on, Carlise were beginning to get a grip and had scored, with Saints under pressure at the back. Connolly transformed them by adding urgency to the attack and tracking back to our penalty area when needed. It wasn't just the few touches he had, although one exchange near the left corner was top quality, but his positioning meant Saints were a threat again. Can understand Pardew not bringing on subs earlier as the starting 11 were playing well and the game was won anyway, but it was a reminder of just how good Connolly is. The vote is slightly toungue-in-cheek as he wasn't on long enough to be a contender for MoM but you could see the potential influence he could have had if he'd been on longer.

I had great respect for Ted Bates and Big Laurie, but today was the first time this century that I felt a sense of pride in our club's manager when his image was on the big screen at Wembley with his winner's medal round his kneck. A fantastic job, Alan.

I'll be there and I hope we win, but lets remember this is just the JPT, even teams like Peterborough and S****horpe weren't qualified to play in it. Maybe, behaving as if this is the European Cup is possibly, just possibly, a little bit pathetic, in the eyes of Championship and premier Club supporters?

The Buffoon here is the mail journo, Samual, who claims that the item published this week (in The Times) was an 'interview' with Cortese. It wasn't. It was an amalgam of all the comments that have been attributed to Cortese on the OS over weeks and months. It may have been cheap journalism by The Times, although it was nice to see Saints back in some prominence in a major newspaper. As Samuals has used it to attack Cortese, lets hope he doesn't take it laying down. Love to see Nicola suing him for libel.

How the world has moved on. Back in my teens ( a few years ago now) if I was playing football on Saturdays and if my Dad didn't take down the football results at 5pm I sometimes didn't know Saints' result until the Sunday papers, although the written reports were a lot better then. Then there were the years when I would wait at the newsagents by New Milton station for the Pink Paper on a Saturday evening. Not even teletext in those days, let alone the web! When I'm not at a game, I love Saints Player now that the frustrating performance probs have been ironed out.

Its a massive game tonight and to keep the fading dream alive a win is Absolutely Vital ! For Brentford! COYBs

Many people don't care how their team wins as long as they do, and some, such as managers and players simply have financial incentives to win at any cost. If the rules are encouraging cheating, and its hard to detect, maybe its the rules that are wrong. The penalty, virtually a 90%+ certain goal, is a very great a reward for being fouled in the area when all the other effort of both teams over 90 minutes usually produces just a handful of goal chances. Surely its time FIFA thought about changing the law because the behaviour of players has changed beyond recognition in the last 30 years.

After looking at the re-run of the MK Dons game, Fonte's dive looks just too obvious. If you watched the Liverpool/Man U game you will may have seen Valencia's dive - having been obstructed outside the area he crossed the line and threw himself down. In both cases, the ref was on hand. At our game he could not have been better placed to see that Fonte fell in circumstances where he would have stayed on his feet if that had been anywhere else on the field. Is it the refs who are ruining the game by giving soft penalties, which often change the result of matches out of proportion to the play, or is it the administrators who are failing to give proper advice? I was glad of the win, but I want us to win because we are good at football, not because we are better at conning the ref. If its win at all costs, why have any rules at all?

Realistic? Apart from the fact that there are 3 teams between Saints and the Playoffs, to get into the top six requires at least two of the teams currently in the top six to lose nearly half of their remaining games. Overall 5 clubs that have played well all season have to begin playing more like relegation candidates. A loan RB would make no difference to the season's outcome so why should the club incur the cost when there are already far too many players in the squad? Answer - they won't.

Good read but am I alone in thinking I didn't see anything that was new. Could this just be a re-cycle of stories that have already been in the press?

AP is OK - he has his strengths and weaknesses like everyone. There is no 'perfect' manager - so if AP left, or was replaced, the new guy would just have different strengths and different weaknesses. What is good at SFC is that teh manager is being managed by the Chairman, and is under pressure to perform - unlike the dire days of Wilde, Crouch etc, who meant well but weren't up to the role.

A lot of people would agree, but I'm not sure how it stacks up with drawn games such as Brentford, Exeter and Wycombe, and defeats to Swindon and Tranmere, especially Tranmere.

Making the Playoffs has been a fantasy for weeks. Its just surprising that people have continued to dream, when there has been no realistic prospect since the two defeats at the end of Dec, although even the Brighton game in Nov suggested there were still too many weaknesses. Not making the playoffs is no disaster though, its an opportunity for a better season next year, provided there is some re-building, a clear out of fringe players and one or two who will be over the hill, and a review of tactics.

Interesting that Pulis seems to be a better player in the eyes of the coaching staff than some posters on here would suggest, or is that some people just WANT him to fail because he came here under RL? If its the latter, there are still plenty of other players from the previous era, so why pick on Pulis?

Saints have earned 57 points this season from 35 games. Swindon have got 66 from 36 games, so its not surprising that they looked the better side on Tuesday. There's a lot of talk about us doing a Norwich or Leeds next year, but they have 78 and 71 points from 36 games. This gap is not down just to those first few weeks. Despite some good results there are still poor ones, even against teams that are nearer to League 2 than to the Championship. So, what is the way ahead? This is not a 'Pardew Out' thread, although on another thread its said he might choose to go. Whether he stays or not, other clubs have found that no manager is all good or all bad - Hull for example, even Chelsea - so its more than just a simple, knee jerk, change the manager. We like a lot of our current players, we argue about who are thye best 11, but is it simply that we do need more quality, that there are still weak points? And how do you get a team that will perform nearly every week, the manure of League1? Answers on a post card to N Cortese c/o SMS

There are two benefits from Saints missing out on promotion this year - 1. Another year to build the squad and be better placed to compete in the CCC in 2011, as Leicester have done this year; 2. A chance to go up as Champions, which would give the fans a great season and provide a nice piece of silverware in the cabinet.

Be fair about Beckford, he could yet compete at the Olympics for the diving, although its a shame he's not quite good enough at it to win a medal.

Expect a comfortable win, especially as Swindon only just managed a 1-0 over Brighton on Saturday, but its not a 'must win game for the play-offs'. Tranmere away was conceivably the last 'must win' game and we lost, although after the drawn away games at Brentford, Exeter and Wycombe, even the Tranmere game may have been too late to rescue a play-off chance. Even if we hadn't dropped the 9 points that we did over those 4 games, we'd be 7 points behind Swindon with a game in hand - still not a certainty - but 16 points is a completely unrealistic gap to bridge with only 12 games to go.

Jaidi is doing a job but his age is against him and Pards has said that it has been the signing of Dan Seaborne that has given Jaidi a boost that he needed. It is sad that good players do have to decline, but unavoidable. Expect Seaborne to be preferred alongside Fonte next season.

With some of the top six sides beginning to stumble it is a shame that Saints' didn't do enough earlier in the season because they if they were in the play-offs this year they would go up, and have the resources to be a force in the CCC. It still looks like Norwich and Leeds will be 1 and 2 but of the rest its lottery. Millwall are the current form team but if they make it, I can see them coming straight back as we pass them on the way up next year.

Sorry, but IMO the ref was right to disallow Jaidi's 'goal'. Not for anything Jaidi did but because of the off-the-ball foul by the Saints' player ahead of him who brought a Leeds' defender down inside the goal area and which opened the route to gaol for Jaidi's strike. Didn't notice during the game and couldn't see on BBCi Player who it was, possibly Morgan, but not sure.

Hope to see David Connolly play a part today - and not too late in the game, Alan. Could make the difference.