sandwichsaint

Poor performance and poor result, I couldn't understand the build up thread - Posh lose (like we've all been hoping they would for weeks) and 50% of posters think that means we then don't have to win our next game - 'a draw will be a good result'. Before yesterday we prob had to win 7 of our last 11 games (4 slip-ups), we now have to win 7 of our last 10 (3 slip-ups) - we have just blown 25% of our wriggle-room. Why was Charlton away bigged up into such a difficult game 'A point will be a good result', 'hard place to go' etc? They have lost 7 of their previous 8, their best player (Jackson) was out, confidence and support at a very low ebb (13k home fans for a meaningless end of season mid-table kick about), they prob didn't have a player on the pitch who would get into our starting 11, yet people seem happy/ok with a point? Potentially Rochdale, Brentford, Plymouth, Orient, and MK are all 'harder' games than Charlton. Badly missed Morgan last night (Chaplow again struggled to retain the ball), and again we underplayed AOC (good when he had it in the first half but he saw very little of the ball). Barnard was busy and effective but RL was a bit meh for most of the game. Injury to AL was obviously disruptive but we should have had enough about us to compensate from other areas - attacking corners in the first half looked dangerous and Fonte has become a real scoring threat over the last few games. Second half we huffed and puffed without forcing any clear cut openings and Dailly and Llera were never really under sustained pressure. Set pieces always looked our best chance and Jaidi took his goal really well, we looked very tired last 15 minutes and their equaliser always looked likely (great goal too, it looked good last night and seen it on the telly now, good measured build up and real quality from their front two to link up there). Gutted we didn't win (I don't expect us to win every game but this was definitely 'winnable'); I suppose if we go up 'drawing ugly' all will be forgiven and forgotten but I expected more last night (a triumph of hope over years of experience I guess?)

Think D'Urso would have had something to say about that...

Still think we shouldn't be targeting anything less than a win tomorrow. For my money after watching tonight MK home is a much tougher game, they really seem to have come on this season..... Thoughts BeN?

PSML from someone who always 'gives it the big one'; on here.

top finish... game over you would like to think...

Is Alpine a CIA controlled sock puppet? TBF it's pretty shiite so far! COYRs!!!

Happy birfday Danny, you are a legend! LOL

In the spirit of Dune's new tyres- I am out Mtb- ing on a beautiful spring afternoon in East Kent. Couple of pub stops and home to watch Saints on the box followed by beers out and sit-down dinner with mates. Luverly - Saints don't ruin my day! Scrappy first half 1-0 or 1-1 at HT, saints to come good in second half 4-1 (4-0). COYRs everybody SING UP Tuesday !!!!!

Glad it's not another online betting outfit, nor financial services, nor junk food. Hopefully if the shirt comes up OK and they pay their wedge then good luck to them. Glad it's a local firm over some faceless multi-national money churner. Hope them and us go on together to bigger and better things. LOL at those crying that it's not a 'big name' - how many other teams' sponsors can you name in this league? Bet for most people it's not more than 2-3 teams tops - the exposure is just not there in our league, and to a certain extent in the CCC too (see what I did there?) Did people really think we were going to get Barclays, or Ford, or Samsung in division 3?

Bobby is right with the maths thing - the absolute points total tell you nothing about the overall 'strength' of the teams in the league or how they compare year to year - all they tell you is the relative distribution of the results and from that the relative stregth of the different teams compared with the other teams in the same league in the same season. (and we still have a quarter of the season to play so they don't even tell us that much at the moment). My gut feeling is that there was more quality in the league last year (Norwich and Leeds would prob have beaten this year's top 2 whoever they turn out to be), the four play off sides this year aren't really going to be any stronger than Swindon/Charlton/Saints/Hudds were last year. Getting in the top 6 is always going to be hard when you have a competetitve league and this season there are enough good sides outside the top 6 who are capable of getting a result against a top 6 side to keep things interesting; eg at the moment Orient, Charlton, Exeter, Hartlepool, Notts County and others are all capable of picking up a result against a top 6 team. This is the weakness of using 'current form' and posting up bed-wetting league tables showing the last 8 games played - these take no account of who you have played - OR who you are going to play in your next 8 games. Personally I think Saints were stronger last season, the other imponderable comparing over seasons is that the same players play differently - one word Lambert. Last season RL was on fire and that just hasn't happened this year, throw Ant and Dec into the mix and we scored in most games; I think we have already hit more zeroes in the league this season than the whole of last season (is that correct?). What you can't factor in is the confidence of having a player who can score for fun - I'm sure all P'boro's players are thriving on the CMS effect. Rambling conclusion - this league is v tight - it will go to the last game - Saints have as good a chance as anybody - we will have to win tons of games - we can drop some points and still go up - the team that goes up will certainly deserve it ..... let's not give up on the play-offs before they have even happened ... if we can't beat (Bompey) over two legs and then win a cup final against (MK Dons) will we really deserve to go up?

Isn't there a window on? Can't see P'boro loaning him out (!) but would be nice for us!

Charlton have W0 D1 L5 and really aren't very good, we can not go there expecting anything other than a win!

If you go on tapatalk this is the second (or third?) biggest football forum on there. Only bested by either one (or possibly both) of Celtic and Man City; not a lot of people know that.

Didn't realise they still did this (that's how often I go onto the concourse during a game); Saints surely missing a major revenue stream here? Fiver for a ticket to come on the concourse, eat expensive fast food and drink expensive ****y beer; and if you've got time between eating, drinking, weeing and generally hanging-out you can watch a little bit of football on the telly. Leave the terraces free for us uber fans who have to suffer all of the 90 minutes, win, lose or draw.

Did he go down early to get a pie or a beer? Did he boo Forte? Did he know all the words of the 'Adam Lallana' chant? Did he boo the Pompey half time score?

A good gutsy win in the end. First half we were pretty poor, second half much better. Disappointed for Martin who was given a rare start but on this form easy to see why he's behind Jaidi and Seabourne in the pecking order, but I'm sure he will bounce back. Yeovil were quite tidy for the first 30 minutes but faded very badly in the second half, over those two games you would have to fancy Walsall's chances of staying up over Yeovil's. Atmosphere was shocking (what atmosphere?) - a bit of board banging and singing at the back of the Northam but that hardly reached halfway down. Can't really put it down to 'nerves' either as it wasn't a nervous night. More like we seem to have reached our collective tether watching Saints make hard work of beating very limited sides, have to say I prefer away games by a factor of about 10! I didn't hear much booing or getting on people's cases either, but I did hear a lot about the people around me's love lifes, what they had for tea, and what they watched on telly last night ... and this was is in block 41 row U. Sort it out fans!

**** poor so far! Scratchy at the back, disjointed in midfield and jack acuity up front. We are making Y look good and they really aren't. You gotta luv winning ugly!

Tempted to have a tenner on Yeovil at 8-1! I'm quite happy to pay a ten pound premium to see Saints win, and I don't think I could face another carp drive home after Hartlepool and Walsall; eighty quid to cover my fuel and ticket might just provide a small tad of comfort - not sure how I cover the draw though? Tense, nervous, bad-tempered evening, 2-1 Saints (just).

The only good thing about bourno going up is that they would likely fill one of next years relegation spots. If they go up it' s a crapp away game you can't get tkts for. And it perpetuates this faux 'rivalry' for another season. Fair play to where they are and fully deserved but I would be quite happy if they didn't go up, for forty years they have barely registered on my football radar, let's leave them to well deserved lower league obscurity. PS Howe well is Eddie doing at Burnley?

Magic result , well done team, well done NA, well done all who went. Can't wait for Tuesday now, lets see 22k happy smiley faces getting behind the team for 90 minutes!

Park at the station, exit, go across and right towards the town centre and takes you into a road with the Norfilk and a couple of other pubs. Shuttle bus to the ground is cheap and efficient but you do have to queue after the game. Last year we got on in 10 mins but it takes 30-40 mins to clear everybody. Colours no problem. Hopefully a better performance and result than last year!

Interesting thoughts and this has crossed my mind on more than a few occaisions - standing at Walsall, 1-0 down and mindlessly hoofing it down blind alleys and watching Walsall defend doggedly and then pick us off with some neat passing and counter-attacking I thought it again. All we have to do to be successful is sign 11 'Walsall' players - no more Ricky, no more Kelvin, no more Dan, no more Adam even - we haven't been overly successful with these players, we pay them a fortune by league one standards, yet they are regularly found wanting in terms of playing consistent, winning football. Let's get 11 of those Walsall boys in, think how good they would be with the facilites, opportunities, crowds, that Saints could offer them. They are pretty good playing on carp pitches and playing in front of carp crowds .. think how 'good' they would be playing for a better team! But is that really a true analogy? As soon as they moved to SMS they would move straight into the 'Saints bubble', away from training on school playing fields, riding round in mini-buses and playing for the money to sustain their modest lifestyles, and into a situation where they joined a mini, in all-but-wages, 'Premier League Club'. The best of training, the best of sports science, the best of treatment, a fantastic pitch and stadium, big crowds etc etc. How long would they remain the same players and with the same attributes that make them effective for Walsall or Tranmere or Hartlepool? The reality is they would fall into the 'lifestyle' in a matter of weeks. Saints/NC/NA are performing a very difficult juggling act trying to balance our costs/squad size with the need to get out of L1, we need to get out of L1 asap but we don't want to spend more than is necessary; what's the answer? Brighton and Bompey have found a model that works for them but is it the right model for us? In the real world you might say 'performance related pay' £1000/week (!) basic and £5000/win - nothing for a draw(!), although of course people will tell you 'that football doesn't work like that'. The reality is that a lot of Saints players live and work at a level that is far in excess of most of their peers - fairly much regardless of 'performance', call it a comfort zone if you will. Could it be that a lot of the players have no real incentive to gain promotion? If the better ones want to move up a league then all they have to do is change clubs, for the lower ones if we move up a league they will also be changing clubs - to one that has cold showers and where you wash your own kit! Have to say in all this that I think NC may have steered the wrong balance between 'Ambition' and 'Consolidation', looking at our current position (great set-up, good team, good manager, great fans! BUT struggling to win winnable games and to make the top two in a weak League one) I find talk of the PL, the CL!, and a 50K stadium!! faintly embarassing, it demotivates me every bit as much as it enthuses me, although I know that many fans lap it up (cue the number of posts this week of people who 'have had enough of this carp league'). Is it not somewhat ironical that it is the 'pressure' and the 'expectation' that is probably making it so difficult to get out of this league? Have to think that if we came out tomorrow and said that we are keeping Adkins for the next three seasons we would be further on and in a better place in three year times, than if we have three more mangers over the next three seasons, and who would bet against that at the moment?

This was presumably the role Wotton was bought for, absolutely the right signing at that time but unfortunately the wrong player! We have been looking for a Matty Holland type character for years but have lacked leadership right through the relegation years, pretty much since killer and claus packed up really. I don't know enough names lower down to bandy many about - where did Bailey ex Charlton end up? Failing that who is on the fringes/going nowhere at the bottom of the prem or the top end of the championship? Look how well Carr and Bowyer are playing at Birmingham after being virtually finished at their previous clubs. Modern footballers seem to go on much longer and we could def do with an experienced old head in the middle of the park, just don't buy one that is already crocked ( a la Conolly or Wotton)!

Oh great! It's their cup-final too. It must be that time of the year again, I've just checked my keyboard and the letters T-U-S-M W-I-N E-A-G-M are starting to look suspiciously shiney, I suspect those keys will be getting plenty more use between now and the end of the season.

Lallana was definitely booked around about the 90min mark for back-chatting the ref after the unsighted lino who was 50m wrongly gave them a goalkick over a corner. Perhaps they were both booked? (he says helpfully) Was Chaplow booked at any stage? (if not, how not? he always looks to me like he's one tackle away from a straight red -he tackles with his front leg straight and his studs up all the time)