Professor

It would be good to see a more attacking line up with de Ridder getting a start and Barnard coming on from the bench. An away win is badly needed to start to improve the away stats and with West Ham at home to Burnley we need to score enough goals to keep the goal difference up.

Peter White - Winchester born Saint's fan and broadcaster. Always ready to declare his allegiance to the Saints .

if SFC are serious about making promotion as certain as it can be, the club must aim for top spot so that 2nd is there as a buffer. The way to do this is to strengthen the team in January with at least two players who would be first choice selections and would be Prem players for next year. Take on WHU at their own game and bring in big guns.

Having a moan seems reasonable given the inconsistent performances. The last 3 games of 2 wins and one defeat ask more questions than they answer. Against Brighton, we stopped them having any meaningful attack and no shots on goal but the scoreline only looked respectable because of two extremely doubtful penalties. Losing to Bristol City was obviously a poor result, but then a poor Watford side score 2 against them. And now a 2-1 win at home to Hull after going a goal down, several players below par and for the 3rd time recently failing to score against 10 men. Add to that our manager being less than convincing in his football knowledge when interviewed, always saying the same things about fantastic bunch, hardworking professionals, superb staff, etc. etc. but not a lot about the game itself. Maybe he feels constrained by not having been an outfield player himself but I hope he talks differently to the squad. WHU fans must feel more confident given the fire their team seems to be showing and the prescence of Big Sam. At the moment I'd back them to overtake Saints before Xmas, but maybe that would be the prompting the club needs to bring in some extra quality in the January window. The gap to 3rd place looks good for promotion, but its still over half the season to go and to lose out on the exceptional opportunity of going up this season that the club now has would be criminal.

Having just seen the Football League Show 'highlights' it seems the radio commentary on Solent and SaintsPlayer gave Saints too much credit. Bristol City seem to be streets ahead of them. Can't see City agreeing to sell Maynard having just invested in a new and very capable manager. We must expect to lose some games but this is a reminder that the team is not good enough yet to storm into the Prem. Hard decision for Adkins because in January, if we are to make certain of promotion, it may be necessary to replace 2 or 3 people who are good players, with players who are technically even better.

Good decision. Just because a striker with Southampton connections is touted as being available is no reason for SFC to go into the loan market. We have Guly well able to play at striker and to provide cover if RL were to be injured. Connolly is said to need only 2 or 3 weeks to be back in the side and Barnard looked sharp when he came on against Brighton. If that isn't enough, Ryan Doble must be worth a place or he wouldn't be in the squad. What we do need in Jan is a striker with Prem league promise, probably to replace Connolly next season, even if DC stays on as cover for another year.

Dancing girls as per Palace seems very suitable. A good number of women come to matches but they do only see men performing during the 90 minutes. Many women enjoy dancing and having dancing girls at half-time would help balance out the entertainment so there was something that appealed more to the ladies. The blokes would just have to put up with it.

A connection to Southampton shouldn't be a factor in the decision and Maynard is available, in January. Despite Connolly's injury surely we can cope for a few more weeks and go for the better player.

Few would disagree that Fonte was outside of the penalty area when he was fouled and brought down. So was it a penalty? The rules of the game say that a free kick is awarded if a player trips an opponent and that a penalty kick is awarded if the offence is comitted by a player inside his own penalty area, irrespective of the position of the ball. Although Fonte was not inside the area, if Dunk who committed the foul was inside the area, that suggests a penalty would be the correct decision. Have to say I'm not clear whether Dunk had crossed the line into the area when he tripped Jose with a trailing foot. Not that it matters. Penalties should have been awarded in the 1st half and 2nd half when Lambert was manhandled in the area and the game was won anyway by Lambert's great header in open play.

I'm sure Dave is right. If only he'd been able to stay on at Southampton, Saints would have recruited far better players, played far better football and would have risen to the top echelons of the Premier league. The evidence is clear from his incredible success with Wolves and Cardiff before each club was stupid enough to sack him, just because he couldn't get them out of the Championship.

If you need to insult someone who has insulted you, and you choose to call them a b*****d or a c**t the insulting noun really does need a descriptive adjective in front of it to give it adequate strength. Perhaps the police could issue a list of which descriptive adjectives are legal and which are not.

With NA hinting he will strengthen the team in January and not ruling out a loan signing before then, how good has transfer activity been and is it the manager or the chairman who is driving the bus? The present team is still largely Pardew's team, as per:- Players already here before the Administration include:- Davis; Schneiderlin; Lallana; Holmes Players added by Pardew are:- Richardson & Butterfield; Fonte & Jaidi; Harding, Hammond, Dickson, Guly, Connolly, Lambert, Barnard, also Seaborne and Martin Players signed by Adkins:- Chaplow, Forte, Cork, de Ridder, Fox, and Hooiveldt. Of these, two had already played for the club under previous managers. The striker signing not made, despite the string of bids attributed to the club, was a disapointment but the Hooiveldt loan was clearly a good move. de Ridder is used only as an impact sub and not as a replacement for AOC who had become aregular first choice in the starting line-up. Fox has added to the crowded LFB slot and Forte is on his way out. It does seem that more was achieved in the transfer market when Pardew was here yet we still have the same chairman and, we are told, a strong scouting network. So what can we expect? A first choice player or two, more squad players, or nothing because this team is already good enough to do the job.

Take care about quoting Big Names to justify being a Big Club! In the 1960's Brighton had Flash Gordon on one wing and Frankie Howard on the other!

Even back in 1900, Saints did not limit themselves to local players and it would make no sense to start now. There will be local players spotted at a young age and bought through the Academy but after that you want the best players available to you regardless of where they are from. As an example, we have a decent CB in Aaron Martin who may well graduate from squad to first team regular in time, but we have a better CB in Hayfield.

Bringing two Albion fans to the game, so we had better win for the sake of my journey home. My impression is that their fans are a bit demoralised at the moment, despite the win against poor old Barnsley. I'm encouraging my two to have a good look at the ground and to buy a souvenir in the Saints Shop as they probably won't see St Marys' again for quite a few years.

Last summer it was fair to see Lucas as a candidate, along with Championship strikers like Sharp and Maynard. As it is, Lambert and Connolly have stayed fit and with Guly as back-up we have been lucky not to need the extrea striker. With Barnard coming back, I'm not sure we now need anyone else at that standard. If the club does sign a striker in January I'd like to see a Premier standard signing as a start to building next season's team. Probably Connolly's replacement, even if DC acts as cover for another year.

I don't feel pleased that we lost by 1-0 against 10 men in 55 minutes of football. If playing with 10 against 11 somehow gives the 10 men an advantage, why not take a player off at the start of the game? Of course, not. If teams are equal in skill, 11 should beat 10, and we didn't. I do think it was a mistake to go 4-5-1. Adkins should have brought Connolly on at half time and they should have gone all out for the third goal.

Dc's shot was fantastic because he hit it with the outside of his foot to send the defenders and GK one way while the ball went the other. But he didn't have to think about it, it was instinctive - the sign of an absolute top class striker - as was the way he got into position. Add to that the build up of the 22 or so passes and Lambert's quality final pass and you have goal that will rarely be bettered.

So, how come he walks over the Woolston without using the bridge?

D'accord, exactement! Quatre quatre deux sonne encore mieuxs en Francais! What I did notice in the video about Connolly's goal that you couldn't see at the game, was how he hit with the outside of his foot to send it to his right while making the defenders and GK think it was going left. Absolute class.

Like this a lot. And they could change the club names - I' sure they'd love to sell the naming rights.

A lot of sense in what people have said, including that being a Yo-Yo club might be the best compromise until the Prem goes into meltdown. I agree with CBSaint on the silly wages for players who are marginally better, if that. Trouble is that we have always lost the best of the Academy players to clubs willing to pay them more. Le Tiss being the exception only proves that he was the one and only. Being top of the table and beating WHU made promotion begin to look a distinct possibility. Beat 'boro tomorow and it becomes a probability, so Cortese is going to have to address this question of what he wants to achieve at the next level.

Hearing that Tevez is paid £200K a week at Manchester City, is this where Saints are headed if the team win promotion? It does seem that any club in the Prem that does not include world-class international players will never compete for the title itself. I will be at the SMS tomorrow supporting Saints as loudly as ever, leaping up and down if they score a goal and I am desparate that they win promotion now they are in such a great poisition after the first quarter of the season............................................ BUT, I am not sure I want to watch them failing to compete in the meaningless competition that the Prem has become; and if SFC was to dump the present squad to bring in world-class stars on inflated wages so as to have a chance of getting into the top 6, would I be the interested in a team of money-chasers or in paying huge ticket prices for the priviledge? Probably not.

Good time to get out of the CC, so well done NA for picking a team that could do the job. Was also helpful to see where the weaknesses are in the squad. CB - while Jaidi and Seaborne are injured, having to fall back on Jack Cork at CB shows we should have taken on another loan when Seaborne was hurt. Striker - Forte not up to it should be off-loaded asap. Still need the transfer-in in Jan that was tried for and failed in the summer window.

Good or Bad for us? Neither I suppose. If Leicester improve under a new manager they will take points off other clubs, so thats not bad for Saints. But if the fault is in the scatter gun buying, the new guy will still have the same team so improvement isn't guaranteed by the organ grinders changing the monkey. Quiet satisfaction over the press being proved wrong again when you look back at the attention they gave the celeb managers at the start of the season and now its 2 down.