Professor

I just don't understand why anyone would be so desperate to see Portsmouth relegated. Our rival Hampshire club they are but the emphasis should be on rivalry, not adolescent hatred. Being back in the Prem will mean Saints have regained their place as Hampshire's Number One club. Whether Pompy are in the second tier or the third really doesn't matter, and for those of us who follow County Cricket, Saints and Pompy fans are on the same side!

Glorious afternoon in the Itchen, in the sunshine. Doncaster have some technically good players in their 'over-the-hill' ex stars but as they've gone downhill there's a tendency to try to compensatre by foul play and for Diouf particularly, to try unsuccessfully to bully the ref. When Donny did hold the ball for a few passes it was mostly in their own half. Very little goal threat from them and less as the game went on. Saints looking very good and in control. After Ricky went off, Billy assumed the mantle to lead the line very naturally. With Chaplow coming on for Rickie the side did look a bit unbalanced while SDR was then playing out of position so replacing SDR with Barnard was absolutely right but maybe the second substitution could have been closer to the first but the fact is the team controlled the game and it always looked like Saints would score, whereas there was hardly any goal threat from Donny with our defence playing very well. I'd disagree with the couple of critics on here who thought Butterfield was weak - I certainly didn't. He was solid at stopping anything down the Donny left wing, linked well with SDR and a couple of his crosses, especially one or two low, hard, crosses could easily have resulted in goals. I thought Morgan was very influential in midfield but overall I couldn't see any weak links. The Northam chant - "We're top of the league, We're top of the league, We are Southampton, We're top of the league" - even got taken up in the more cultured atmosphere of the Itchen. Bytheway, WHU v Reading is coming at an ideal time as the gap at the top has opened and surely the result doesn't matter to us at all. Either they drop 4 points between them, or one of them drops 3. I don't expect us to lose at Blackpool as the team is playing so well but even if we did, either WHU and RFC close by only 1 immaterial point, or one of them stays the same distance behind. IMHO promotion is certain simply because the team is too good not to continue with more wins than not and can still afford to drop a few points.

Obviously not paying Billy Sharp too much - his car doesn't have electric windows. Look for the Morris 1000 in the car park.

It did seem odd to buy two strikers when most people felt we needed 1 striker and 1 CB - but the oddity now is why Adkins makes such little use of him. Lee has rightly made himself first choice but with him out injured it seemed very strange that Adkins didn't bring Sharp in for the last two games as like-for-like replacement. Guly is playing well but he's not a Tadanari Lee, whereas Sharp has a lot of similarities.

I didn't see Mr Jackett's comments but if he did suggest away teams should be limited to one penalty that would make for an interesting game. It would mean that once there had been a penalty against the home team for a foul in the area, all defenders could act like additional goalkeepers, punching and catching the ball. This would make home advantage really meaningful. Great idea Mr Jackett.

I remember all those seasons during the 1990s when we struggled to stay in The Prem fighting relegation almost every year and despite finishing 11th and 8th in the early 2000s, what a relief it was to be relegated.

If you take a little more care to read what I posted Dean06 you'll see I'm not judging Sharp. I'm merely stating what is posted on the BBC site and pointing out that Adkins did not bring him in as a like-for-like replacement for Tadanari Lee, instead preferring Guly. Those are not judgements or opinions, but statements of fact. If what you saw of him today is supported by others, or by the video when its up on the OS, I'll be more than pleased.

Pleased to read this.

Bit worried about Billy Sharp. He gets four mentions in the BBC live report of the game: (62:04) Dean Hammond leaves the field to be replaced by Billy Sharp. (74.42) Free kick awarded for a foul by Billy Sharp on Jack Smith. (90:00+1:07) Billy Sharp is caught offside. (90:00 + 2:11) Billy Sharp handles the ball and concedes a free kick. It will only be when the full 2nd half goes up on the OS that it will be possible to judge this, but its not encouraging and with Adkins not seeming to make much use of him, I would think he must be getting quite demoralised.

Watching my granddaughter performing on stage in a musical when I desparately wanted to be listening to the game on Saints Player. Checked during the interval on the iPhone and got the disapointing half-time score. Checked again as we were leaving, about 4.30 and no change. Seeing that Reading were winning drove home so depressed couldn't bring myself to turn on the radio and have all the family in the car pointing out that Saints were losing. What a satisfying turn on when I got home. I've seen people saying how well Guly played and that Sharp was anonymous. Can't help wondering why we bought him....

One or two people thought that we won't miss Lee today because we did well enough before he arrived. I'd say we may not miss him too much but not for that reason. To have Billy Sharp available as cover for an injured first choice international striker is just amazing and something most of us would not have dreamt possible back in December when we were not doing all that well at all (26Nov to 2 Jan was 8 points from 8 games). The strengthening up front could be making all the difference and if BS helps us to a win today Adkins' comments about squad depth will be proven right again.

Its like not on to dis that e-mail guy, know what I mean, like hes just riting wot he were learned at skule. Wot Im saying like is hes justa guy wots doing his best, init? maybe his boss is like italian or sumthing and he dont get english neether.

In the last 10 games, Reading have caught up Saints by 3 points. If they do the same in the next 10 games they will finish 1 point ahead of us. Ohh noooooo...

Not playing him?? Maybe that was that a Lookalike wearing a shirt with SHARP on the back who was on the pitch at the end of the game on Saturday? But how can Adkins not start with Lee when he's proving to be a brilliant player.

If it's the midfield who are not playing up to Tadanari's standard, its they who should raise their game, not Lee who should reduce his. Morgan in particular is perfectly capable of playing at Lee's level and I can see more being made of Lee's ability and speed as the Saints' players adapt to him. The second goal yesterday was sublime as he took the ball from between two defenders and then went all the way round the back of the defence instead of just sending over a cross. By the time he set the ball up for Lallana the goal was wide open from 10 yards.

Not just you at all Saint Armstrong. Tadanari is keeping a £1.8m signing out of the team because he's too good to drop and as a full international its not surprising that he's Prem quality. Some of our players, good as they are at this level, haven't adapted yet to the speed and movement of the level above that Lee is showing. The second goal yesterday was an amazing solo effort. Just because it was Lallana who tapped it in from about 10 yards out - and all credit to Adam for taking it so calmly - but it was in reality a solo goal by Tadanari Lee. I feel sorry for Billy Sharp because he's come here with a great reputation but that won't be enough to displace a truly top class player. Still not quite sure why we signed Sharp unless it was that the club didn't realise just how good a player Lee was.

Wasn't there but its reminder of a lot that was wrong with football in the 1970s when, as fans living through it, we thought the game was great. There were far too many thugs following football, or decent blokes who behaved like thugs on a Saturday. Above Bar Street on the Saturday of a home game could be quite unpleasant. As for the state of the pitch, it was common then for league grounds to have hardly any grass on them by January. I was playing Hampshire League football in the early 70s and there were better pitches at a lot of the local clubs.

Why does the sun go on shining, Why does the sea rush to shore? Don't they know it's the end of the world, Since Tuesday when Saints could only draw.

It'll be interesting to see what Adkins does up front. Expect he'll use one of the substitutions to give both Lee and Sharp some time on the pitch but they are both worth a start and a full 90 alongside the undroppable RIckie. Not easy for the manager. Sharp must be 'sharper' after training with Saints for a month, should be fresh and must be raring to go as well as needing to prove to himself and the club that it was right for him to come here. Chung made the goal on Saturday with a devine headed lay-off and has proved his worth to the team, so how do you drop him? I think we will win with either of them in the side so the selection is more about motivation and avoiding demotivation for the future.

One thing Mr Warnock doesn't know is the handball rule (Rule 12). A penalty is awarded for a deliberate handball, however, a handball is not deemed deliberate if a player has instinctively used his hands or arm to protect the his person. When the ball hit Fonte's elbow or upper arm it was because the ball was fired at speed directly towards his face. Maybe we should have Rickie Lambert kick a ball directly at Warnock's face and see if he instinctively puts an arm in the way! Such an action is not deliberate handball, so for Warnock to describe that as "the most blatant handball you have ever seen" shows he does not understand the rule, which is appalling in a manager, as was his statement that the referee or linesman was at fault. Disapointment in a result is no excuse for ignorance.

Its true that if any of the top six teams were to win all their remaining games they would outstrip Saints and win automatic promotion. Even Brighton in 7th. But no team will win all their games, although at this stage of the season it is likely that the promotion competing clubs will increase their win ration compared to the season overall, just because of the extra motivation, and that some of the games will be against teams that increasingly have less to play for. What Saints must do to go up 1st or 2nd is to get enough points themselves and not worry about the others. My estimate is that 87 points will be enough for 1st or 2nd place this year. Saints would reach that total from 12 games by W6 D4 L2. WHU could get there with a similar set of results but Reading need something like P13 W8 D3 L2. If Reading were to achieve it would be a remarkable run and they could still be behind Saints on GD, so its a big task for them, as long as we do get to 87.

Always a little difficult, these debates about the 'best ever'. It will almost always be the most recent for most people simply because those making the judgement don't remember or didn't even see the earlier candidates for 'best player', best squad', best save' etc. On the GK front, we've had some great keepers in Tim Flowers, Peter Shilton, Paul Jones and Anti Neimi. If Kelvin has joined that group, that is a tremendous achievement and if these 3 points make the difference at the end of the season he'll deserve all this weekend's praise all over again.

When Cork came in last summer with such high expectations, it did look as if Morgan was slipping to 3rd choice in MF, especially as it was hard to see Hammond as team captain and with his commitment, being left out. Cork is well worth his place in the side but maybe he hasn't quite reached the heights expected of an u-21 international. I'd certainly see Schneiderlin as our No.1 in CMF and every prospect of him having an impact in the Prem. Having Cork and Hammond, as well as Chaplow, fighting it out for a midfield spot is a good example of of how well this squad has been put together.

In teresting to see in these Vids, Elland Road, a stadium with a European Football history, home to past league champions (very past) and its not a patch on St Mary's. Stantions blocking the view, claustrophobic roof; could almost be the Dell except for the empty gaps in the crowd.

The Liam Lawrence loan to Cardiff is another example of how the FL don't enforce their own rules on the transfer/loan windows. The only emergency element of that loan is PFC needing to off-load costs. As a means of improving Cardiff's chance of a play-off place it is simply cheating the other clubs in the competition. .