The Cat

Is Russell Martin still a "cretin"? Why would you call someone that because a few results went wrong? It's completely nonsensical.

Have heard Sam Edozie baby a few times recently so that's the song which is getting recycled for him.

Adkins affection most likely comes from the fact it was his most successful time as a manager, getting promoted twice and being part of the revival of the club. If, for example, he'd taken Norwich from League 1 to Premier League with back to back promotions he'd probably love them as much as he loves us.

The only thing that's expanding at the moment is my waistline due to the heroic amount of food and drink I've consumed over the festive period.

Flaking out just before extra time in the play off final. Laying on the side of the pitch while one of the coaches spoons quinoa into his mouth.

Some of that stuff was ridiculous. We lost a game and our manager DOESN'T EAT MEAT. It's a fucking outrage. And he has hair! Hair I tell you. What a twat. How dare he wear clothes. It's an insult.

Last season would have been incredibly difficult for such a young keeper, adjusting to a new team in the hardest league in the world all the while behind a clusterfuck of a defence. If he'd had the wrong temperament it could have broken him, but he's kept his head together and focused on his game. Ever since Russell Martin's passionate defence of him at the fans forum he's become more confident and grown as a player. It was quite obvious that we bought an extremely good young keeper with huge potential. People talk about technical deficiencies like no other goalkeeper has them but pretty much all of them have one somewhere. Begovic also has a problem with diving left but that hasn't stopped him having a long top flight career. De Gea couldn't deal with crosses when Man Utd bought him but he went on to win pretty much every trophy there is. Bazunu is also integral to the way we build from the back, I'm not sure there's another keeper in the league who could do that so well, and not many in the league above either.

Jock the Crock?

He's doing what we expected Sulemana to, beating the full back and putting in dangerous crosses and cut backs. When we isolate him against the full back he beats him more often than not. If teams have to double up against him it gives more space to someone like Stu Armstrong inside. He's also been more defensively minded the last few games, being in slightly better positions to close off space when the opposition play diagonals which is a decent tactic against us because the full backs tend to defend quite narrowly.

Swansea fans seemed to be singing throughout but couldn't really hear them from Block 36. What were they chanting near the end?

There's been a lot of goals in their recent games and they are pretty quick on the break. It may not be as straightforward as some may think. Hopefully an entertaining game and a win.

Martin made some nice comments about Aribo in the post match interview on Solent. Said that he missed a lot of pre season and then had an injury and had to work hard to get in the team. Worth a listen when they put it up.

We're getting the ball forward quicker because the players are now in the right positions when we attack due to them being coached by the manager over a period of time to do exactly that. Previously we were having to stop, turn round and keep possession because they weren't always making the correct movements. He said it would take time yet people were still criticising him about the style even when we were on a long unbeaten run. If you watch the whole pitch from the stands rather than on TV you can see so much more going on in terms of tactics, runs, movement off the ball. The way I see it is the difference now is the players are executing what the coaches want more frequently which is creating more chances. I don't for one minute think that he ever wants us to pass it around the back for no reason like people make out.

Was funny when they played Gold on the tannoy after he scored and everyone sang along. He's done well to come back from being left out by multiple managers, get his head down and work hard to get back in the team.

Amazing performance considering the manager was trying to be "too clever" by "shoehorning" a player into the team and changing formation for no reason. Turns out everyone was wrong because we didn't change formation and Russell Martin knows what he's doing. Up the fucking Saints.

Didn't we finish the game against QPR with Stephens RB, Manning LB and Walker Peters further forward? Maybe that again.

When previous managers rotated the team or tweaked the line up did they get accused of trying to be "too clever" or was there another phrase for it then?

Id imagine there will be some rotation, either for this game or Plymouth. Fraser and Alcaraz may come in. Charles to start against Plymouth after his ban. Wouldn't surprise me if Adams was in the line up for one of them too.

A shout out to the fans near me who spent the first half talking about air fryers and discussing whether there were people who don't own a dishwasher.

Was funny when he scored a hat trick of tap ins a while back and people got overexcited about him.

Ipswich have a couple of Australian players, not sure if they get in the national team but the Asia Cup is taking place in January

Also unnecessary that Stu Armstrong gave the ball away cheaply before both of his yellows. With the number of players we push forward at times these types of yellows and possible reds are always a risk, but ones that the management are prepared to take.

After years of watching us largely be shit away from home it's often the best part of the day. Wouldn't matter to people like you who sit at home.