Professor

If you look at the table today and compare it with the table in Mid-November you might be able to see why some people have been warning about complacency. What matters is not the table today but the table in May and unless the rot is stopped we won't even make the play-offs. Anyone who thinks that is doom-mongering, just apply the points per game average over then last 8 games to the remaininmg 21 games still to play and see how many points that gives us at the end of the season. It can be turned round, but not by doing nothing. We need fresh blood, probably about five new players, to make promotion as certain as possible.

Obviously we are all desparately disappointed and its time to get the cheque book out. The failures, to replace AOC with a winger who would be a first choice starter, and the failure to sign the second striker are coming home to roost but if Cortese does get the cheque book out now it can yet be rescued. What is a worry though is whether Adkins is adept enough at selection and tactical play. Maybe he needs someone to advise him.

Spot on, and we only need to be third to stay down.

What a shock! It seems that maybe the squad isn't good enough to cope with injuries and suspensions, although aren't Albion struggling with lack of available players as well? Never mind, lets just draw a blue line............or would it be better to get some better players in and damn quick, while we are still in the top two.

Agree that 2 points average will be enough. Average from the last 7 games of 2011 was 1.14 so 'must do better' but if Connolly is back or there are new signings, past performance will be less relevant.

Not quite that simple because we aren't still 'bloody winnning'. We are top because in the first 17 games the form was W12, D3, L2. 39 points from a possible 54 (2.29 points per game). In the next 7 games the form has been W2, D2, L3. 8 points from a possible 21 (1.14 points per game). To be 2nd at the end of the season needed 84 points last season and 91 points in 2009/10. As at 01/01/2012 Saints have 47 points from 24 games (1.95 points per game). To finish on 84 points requires 37 points from the remaining 22 games (1.68 points per game). If we continue the season average, we will finish on 90 points which should be enough for 1st or 2nd but to do that requires a return to the early season form. If we continue on the current (last 7 games) form we will finish on 72 points which would be round about 10th place. The manager's team selection has obviously been limited until now (01/01/2012) and fans who want to see that choice improved, and quickly, have been subject to abuse by some very narrow-minded individuals. The club has a fantastic opportunity from the present league position to get promoted, but it can still throw it away if present performance is not turned round. Other clubs are already strengthening, Blackpool for example, and so are we if the T Lee signing takes place. If a few people on here are so complacent that they think nothing needs to be done, and go so far as to abuse anyone who wants to see the management taking positive action, thats up to them, but such attitudes are very blinkered and unlikely to be in line with what the club actually does. It is inconceivable that NA and NC are not fully aware of the opportunity the club now has and the risks if the squad is not strengthened significantly. Thats why its not just Alpine Saint who has been calling for signings, but Nigel Adkins as well.

Dear Mr MC, if you are satisfied with 8 points out of the last 21 we should all be very grateful that you are not advising the manager. His quotes indicate that he takes a very different attitude to you. If current form was repeated to the end of the season, we would finish with about 65 points and around 10th in the table. If you think that can't happen look at Sheffield Wed, 2nd in L1 this time last year and finished 15th while Saints went from 5th to 2nd. Is Adkins a 'wrist slasher' (moronic term) because he says the team lacked quality against Bristol City, or Jack Cork who said the team were too predictable? Adkins is quoted as wanting to sign two or three players in January, which seems a far more sensible approach than the do nothing attitude suggested by your post. The intelligent approach to management when things go wrong is to identify why and to do something about it. Fact is, that because the rot set in outside of the transfer window, all that could be done until now has been to identify the weaknesses and find the potential signings. The reported T Lee signing suggests the club have been doing something about it, not taking the attitude that we were good in October, we've just had a bit of bad luck and it will all come right again. We have actually had some very good luck that has kept us clear at the top of the table despite dropping 13 points from 7 games. That luck has been the below-par performance of West Ham whilst missing some key players and Boro surprisingly drawing at home to The Posh but the gap between automatic promotion and a play-off place is now so small that it would be crass stupidity to rely on luck and one certainty is that NA and NC are far from stupid.

If we end this season just outside the playoffs, or losing in the playoffs, the complacent few will still say what a great season it's been - how they never expected to spend half the season in the top two, never expected to finish so high, how great it will be to have another season in the Championship, etc, etc. Being a critical friend is far more supportive of the club than lamely praising everything they do, as if losing matches is just as good as winning. The critics want to see more done to ensure this great club gets back to the top half of the top league and to do that these days you must have a team of truly quality players but the first step has to be to get out of this second tier division we are in. This season we have a great chance, but a chance that can yet be thrown away by results such those over the last 5 weeks. The need for quality into the side could not be clearer, and Adkins has said that himself. HE can only pick the players he has on the books so bringing in better is the way to ensure the good first half is not thrown away. Five signings, please. Oh, and offload some of those who are never going to be premier league standard.

Dear Jack, Rose tint does make the world look nice, doesn't it. Can't blame the team for the performance against a struggling bottom of the table side, after all its not the first failure recently. 2 wins and 3 defeats in the last 7 games, 8 points out of 21, only just over a point per game, is bottom six form, not top six. Thats not just an off-day, its an off-five weeks. The team can only play to their ability and if this is their ability, then this is all that can be expected. Still a worrying element of complacency in Adkin's post-match comments suggesting Saints should have won and Brizzle's goal was lucky. Not what I saw. I saw Brizzle have a lot of possession and look just as threatening as Saints. Their goal wasn't unexpected. It may be that Adkins is not complacent and is just defending his team's performance with public statements that he would not make in private. The positive from this will be if the club now realise that being in contention for a play-off place is not good enough given the performance up to November as a launch pad. This team lacks some quality players, not more squad players but real quality, and we will know very soon the level of the Club's ambition from how many signings are made and who those players are.

Very poor tactics by Palace. Defensive approach was a complement to Saints' home form but once they were 1-0 down they never had a chance. In Adkins' post-match interview he said he was satisfied with two good goals. That seemed fair enough against an 8 or 9 man defence especiqally as it could easily have been 3 or 4. Starting with de Ridder made a lot of sense as the team was far better balanced than it has been with too much in MF and without a winger. Be interesting to see if that continues as it could be the answer to the away form. The other big positive was to see Connolly come on.

Very encouraging to see the Echo report on Adkins' signings intentions. To the complacent fans who think that 5 points from 5 games is no worry, becausew we have hung on to top spot, if the report is correct that is not the managers' view. We are top because we did so well early season and have had the great home run, added to WHU dropping points unexpectedly, so this report is very encouraging. We don't want to scrape promotion in a struggle or be left with a play-off spot at best, we want to get back to championship form of 2 points a game and do that regardless of injuries and suspensions, both of which are more likely in the second half of the season. We have a great chance and this window is the way to seal it. Good to hear Adkins' thinking this way.

Ah! Nick the Lick. Do we need to make any January signings? - wait and see what Nigel does; if we sign anyone, he's right to do it, and if we don't, he's right not to. Very decisive.

Made you think up a witty response though, just hope it didn't hurt too much.

If you don't like it, don't read them. Its not compulsory!

If you expected WHU to drop 6 points in two games, congratualations on such foresight, but in view of the swearing, thats the last of your posts I'll read.

Its no use blaming a forward for not being an instinctive defender as well. A FB would have handled the cross differently but Guly is not a FB. Harding and Richardson should have been on the posts, so you could blame Richardson for being AWOL but personally, I blame the club management, NA and NC for not consolidating our position with a loan striker when Connolly and Barnard have been out with injury. We are top by luck, not judgement, so now we need judgement in the January window to make sure this fantastic chance isn't blown.

Expected more from Adkins. If he was trying to sit on a 1-goal lead by subbing Fox for Harding it certainlyt didn't work and NA knows well enough that team only one down is never out of the game. Thats when they say its the next goal that counts and a defensive swop sub is not an attempt to get the next goal. Three central MFs meant no threat down the right at all and not to make a change, even after they equalised, was very strange. Unless Connolly is fit by Jan, we need that new striker urgently and if SDR is not good enough to be a replacement for AOC, which it seems NA has decided he isn't, then we need a quality winger. Its no consolation to still be top by one point when it was 5 points not long ago and 8 points clear of third instead of the 3 it is now. If the club take the complacent line some fans take, we might be down to third, or worse, by the time people wake up.

Thank you, its even worse than I thought! I've inserted an edit.

If Adkins thought de Ridder would be a replacement for Oxlade-Chamberlain he knows by now that he isn't, as shown by SDR's failure to become a first choice player as Alex was. In fairness, you can't replace a £15m player with some one for a few hundred thousand and expect the same performance but all the more reason to spend the Chamberlain money on the team.

If that's true he must be part of a very small minority. Personally, I don't believe him. I don't think what he said is true and it was just said to avoid being critical in public, at least I hope so. A 4-match sequence of LWLD, 5 points from 12, (edit - that should read 4 from 12) must be worrying Nigel but his public statements don't show it. In a sense, thats OK, because its what influence he has on the players that matters, not what the fans think of him, but the fact is we are only top because West Ham have unexpectedly lost 2 games they should have won, and we can't claim any credit for that. Adkins has rightly pointed out injuries, Chaplow for a run of games by the look of it, Rickie for one game, Kelvin, hopefully just for one game, but on the other hand, Nigel has always said its not about the eleven, its about the squad. Now he says its about the injuries. If thats right we need some new blood in the first 11 and in the squad, two or three players of genuinely higher quality who can carry through to next season. The pack is getting closer and there are some tough games in the New Year. Whatever Nigel says to us in interviews, I hope he is really angry about 2 dropped points and about the team's poor performances away from home.

Not Sure??? Certain is the answer - certain that he's no successor at all, let alone a natural. And should we manage to go up, despite the rot beginning to set in, Bart in the Prem is not even imaginable.

Teams in the Premier League tend to have a smattering of current international players. Some maybe for smaller countries but the competitive clubs in the Prem all have a few big names. Our internationals of recent trime are playing for other clubs - Walcott, Jones, Crouch, Bale, etc. If we do get promoted surely we will need a few players of higher calibre but once you look at recruiting players at the next level up the money gets very silly. Obviously, we have to get promteed first, so this looks premature unless you think the time to raise the bar is now and that we need some real quality to make sure of promotion as well as to hit the ground running next year.

Not too encouraged by Adkin's hint that the way to solve the away form is to play more defensively away from home. Steve Bruce (of blessed memory) is quoted as saying that a team is only as good as its strikers. That makes us good when we have Lambert and Connolly in the side in which case we need two more front players of equal quality.

Q. What is more depressing than seeing your team lose 2 games out of 3. A. Reading some of the complacent posts on here.

NA complaining that his team should not have let the goal be scored is not the point. To win this game Saints had to score and they didn't. Saying away form needs to improve is STBO (stating the bleeding obvious) but saying it is not enough. They have to do it and starting straight away. Poor performances recently have suggested this is coming and I'm not convinced that NA knows what to do about it, so Nigel - get out there and pick the targets to bring in i8n January. It is only 4 weeks away and we need at least 3 first choice quality players.