sandwichsaint

Yes!

Easy, RL! Who is our second best player? AL. After that it gets interesting ... KD possibly?

I'm not sure our squad is quite up to this. How many transfer windows are you proposing in a 126 week season?

Brilliant (no pun intended). Maybe the Saints trust can now house a few of the forthcoming homeless under their warm glow?

I thought you said 'accidental'?

Davis ... several times Richardson ..... has played for Leeds = big games regularly Fonte ..... once? Jos ... Celtic v Rangers ... he'll cope Fox .... big game SDR .... don't know but fancies himself as a big game type Hammond / MS ... both played Pomps before Cork .... don't know but sure he will be fine Lallana ... played them before RL ... played them before Gully ... not sure (?) but so laid back I'm sure he won't be bothered How many of their rag-tag army have faced the full force of c3000 bubble-wrapped Saints fans?

Who knows indeed? Are Havant and Waterlooville home on the same day?

Don't diss big Jonny - one of the coolest playerz we have had at SFC for quite some time! I always felt he gave out a certain gangsta cool in our midfield - he gave the impression he was only ever one headline away from a drugs bust, a drive-by, or an unfortunate domestic incident. Fairly average playa but he wouldn't have needed no hand-hold from the Feds to get to FP. Schitt no, respect to the fella! Magic at Derby too, 'officially; (in my mind) 'the best Saints game eva'.

Seen SDR a few times but my jury's definitely out! Derby away, he produced a tidy 20 minutes without really changing the game. Reading away, he came on. did well and scored a cracker. Palace away he was bright for 20 mins then faded badly. Hull came on, changed the game, decent 45 mins. Started at home v Watford, not very good by all accounts. Same today, got two different starts but not convincing in either role and taken off. Can we afford to play Lallana, Guly and SDR in the same starting X1? (with Lambert playing then possibly yes, without RL almost certainly not), My bigger concerns would be the form of Lallana, Cork, MS, Fonte .... we just haven't got the depth to rotate players and provide the competition for places and the recovery time needed. Don't get me wrong, we are doing well to be where we are, and if you look at the strength of WHU, Leicester, Hull, Leeds we are doing REALLY well to be where we are. Looks like NC has some big decisions to make in January .... spend the farm on one shot at promotion (will we ever be in a better position?) or let Nige have another of the 5 years to consolidate and go again next year? Interesting times and some big decisions coming up in the next month.

Two things from watching the championship: I'm pretty sure I heard the commentator say 'Southampton, with the most wins and most goals scored in the league', and I've read 300-400 posts on today's game and not seen Fonte's name anywhere, could he have done more with the first goal? Hoovey certainly seemed to think so. We seem to be in a bit of a pickle for the next couple of weeks and the squad looks very threadbare, I'm not convinced with SDR starting or that Barnard looks anywhere near. Here's a left field suggestion: ...................................DAVIS......................... BUTTER ........... JF ...................JOS.....................FOX FRAZER .............CORK....................MORG...............HOLMES ...............................................AL ......................................... ......................................GULLY........................................... Keep SDR on the bench Move Lallana infield (take away the defensive side and let him loose on the ball) Gully up front (not great, but better than LB at the moment) Utilise FR and DB who are both good enough to play at this level Stop picking all our three centre mids and cramming them into round holes, bite the bullet and play MS and JC (harsh on Dean but 3 into 2 don't go!)

anybody else's saints player down?

Gully sounding good.

Totally agree.

Great result, if not a great performance. Saints started very flat and looked unbalanced from the off with MS alternating between a narrow right and wide right position and not being very effective in either. Gully and Lambert also failed to connect, add in a fairly limp AL and a midfield that failed to deliver very much quality ball to the strikers and it was always likely that Hull would score first. As others have said Hull were neat and tidy and pretty much out-played Saints at their own game for large parts of the first half, they must be strong play-off contenders on this form. Second half Saints were a different side (literally, with SDR on wide right and a more orthodox 4-4-2 shape) and scored two good goals (though Gully was very lucky to get a second go at his after missing a really straightforward chance that the keeper could only parry back to him). Unfortunately after this rousing 10 mins Saints were unable to apply the coup-de-grace of a third and Hull forced themselves back into it in the last 20 minutes and might consider themselves unlucky not to take a point from the game; at half time they looked favourites to take all three. KD 6, no chance with the goal and little else to do, but he never looked comfortable and his distribution was very scratchy. Bring back new improved KD immediately, I don't like old flappy Kelv much. FR 8, solid game at the back and regularly raided forward to good effect. JF + JH 7,7; both had a difficult first 20 mins but both settled well after that, now forming a really good partnership together. DH 5, shaky first half (no cover from AL though), improved as the game went on but offered very little going forward, no comparison with Fox on this showing. MS 7, out of position in the first half, and it showed; much better second half and made some crucial interceptions around and in front of our box. JC 7, lively first 20 mins but faded out (prob due to injury?) and was replaced at HT DH 8, excellent, did everything a skipper needs to do; got through shed loads of work and most of it decent, my MOM. AL 7, prob his best game since his injury, obviously nowhere near his best but he still had the tricks and awareness to help us unlock a resolute Hull defence. GdP 4, I'm a massive fan but this was probably as poor as he has ever been in a Saints shirt. Just couldn't get going and nothing he tried came off. Looked tired and I would rest him on Sat and bring him back fresh in 2 weeks to face Blackpool. RL 7, great quality and endeavour (as always) but like Gully nothing really fell for him. Fantastic persistence for his part in the second goal. SDR 8, looked fresh and lively and injected some much needed energy; I'm in a minority but I'm quite happy to see him continue in this 'impact' role at the moment. LB 2, lots of questions at the moment but he doesn't seem to be coming up with any answers. We can do better, and hopefully we will in January. Crowd 3, good numbers for a midweek game but a dire atmosphere for all bar first 20 mins of the second half. Do we just turn up and wait to be entertained nowadays? What's with all this leaving 5-10 mins early? Isn't being top of the champs, completing our umpteenth straight home win, and fighting back for a very creditable 3 points, worth 5 minutes of your time to stay and clap the team off? Unreal! I enjoyed it, Saints weren't great but Hull were pretty decent and it ended up a very satisfying three points - a champions style performance.

I'd be surprised if Palace can't shift up to 3000 for an attractive, reasonably local, Boxing Day game.

In raising your children spend twice as much time and half as much money. Wise words (not from me) but I thoroughly endorse them.

I didn't realise they had ever recorded more than one song. If SOTW is best, can't imagine the others are up to much.

Rather like a goal of the month competition but now we count in whole games. After seeing Dubai's rection to the Brighton game 'are we really this good?' what do you think is our best performance of the season? I've seen six games live and three more on telly/streams. For me Ipswich away, first 45 minutes, was the 'best' Saints football I've ever seen; I also saw Midds home on the stream and that was also an excellent performance. For those that have seen lots of games (or even if you haven't!) what's our best performance so far this season?

Don't talk wet, we were bent over a barrel with our wrists cuffed to our ankles. I for one am very glad of that decision, we kept trading, we kept our heads above water, and we got ourselves into a position where our saviour stepped up at the 11th minute of the 11th hour. I've never looked back since then and I don't think you should either.

Stern John v Norwich anyone?

Thanks for the heads up, might just do that.

Thanks for the history lesson! This is a complete 'blank' in my Saints supporting days, having spent many a time in the chocolate boxes, I wasn't aware that the Milton even went to a two tier terrace! Moved away from Soton in 76-77 aged 14 and despite the one-off away game didn't really get back properly till the early 90's. I must be the only person on here of a certain age who never saw a Le Tiss classic, I saw him live lots of times and saw him score lots of scuffs and penalties but never saw any single one of his classics live. Sad, me; but my match day shirt can now be reliably carbon dated at 20 years old.

Just watching some s7ite music channel and have just seen the video for the Smith's 'There's A Light' ... the one with the bikes in it if you've seen it. Never seen it before, awesome - took me straight back to the Thatcher times, without passing go, and when I looked again we've come full circle - what's with the boarded up houses? Are they still there or have been gentrified into massive negative equity opportunities? Or have the poor always been with us? Plus ca change, but a decent video though!

Looks like we are all barking up the wrong tree - clearly what we need is a ground reduction. Saints have a hard core of uber fans, like all clubs I guess; a Dover fan has just clocked up 1000 consecutive games, home and away, pre-season friendlies and testimonials included, everything! Fifteen years of his life, and God knows how much wonga, he'll never get back. 'Sad loser' or 'paragon of fandom'? You decide.... Lets reduce SMS to 24k, pack out the corporates at premium prices, fleece the STs for another 30%, and sell walk-up tkts at 40GBP, but only when the oppo don't want them at 35 pounds a pop. Job done; revenues are similar, the club can save on stewards, bar servers, policing and all the rest. The club gets to play in front of a 24k 'sell out' crowd every week. What more could anybody want - the plastics can all go shopping on a Saturday and real men can all go to the footie. What could go wrong?

When does this picture date from? Chocolate boxes and the Shearer/Draper tools shirt... late eighties? I'm still wearing this shirt to games now ... it must be 25 years old???