sandwichsaint

Am I missing something with Jaidi? He has played once in 4 weeks, have we said he needs resting? Surely if he's easing himself back then he plays tonight and misses Saturday? Tonite's game is considerably 'harder' than Saturday's and I hope we go with our strongest available team (which isn't Seaborne over Jaidi... ever!) I would expect it to be Davis Thomas Fonte Jaidi Mills Antonio James MS Lallana Lambert Barnard (possibly Wotton for Antonio and LJ right-mid) Looks a decent side and we will need to be right on our game if we are to win. LOL at those who say Lambert 'looks tired'; I've come to the conclusion that this is his default state of being, to me he doesn't look and play very much different to when we first saw him at Swindon ... he looked 'tired' that night. I'm fairly sure he will play every game till he drops; AP seems to be that sort of manager.

Do people really think this won't sell out? Written by a ST holder one can only presume? I'm bricking it on getting tickets: I've been to 6 homes and 6 aways so far (including tonight!) and around a dozen games a season since relegation ('Where were you when we were 5hit?'). If the club do go down the route of ST+1 and then count back on the FA Cup games (I haven't been to any) then I can't see myself getting anywhere near a ticket; a lot of people will be pretty ****ed if it is ST+1 as loads of regular fans will have to watch on telly as we have a stadium that is 50% full of: partners/hangers-on/plastics/JCLs/best-mates-never-been-to-a-game/neutrals (the number of posts on here saying 'My Man U mate has asked me to get him a ticket' is a joke). Come on ticket office: do the decent thing! STs = 1 Next dibs: STs who have brough extra tickets for family or friends = extra PFC tickets proportional to those they have already bought (1 ticket for every 10? seats bought) Database = work the numbers out ( I would have thought 1 ticket for 6 games home or away might be somewhere near). Difficult one for the club whichever way they call it but I do hope they find a way to get tickets to those who have seen 8-10 games this year over those who potentially haven't seen any! Not selling out? Your 'aving a giraffe aren't you? It's the tie of the round and the biggest game at SMS for quite some time!

Roll out the Union Jacks: that's probably the first time I've ever agreed with anthing GS has ever posted on here! It looks excellent on paper, we just have to turn it into a winning combo on grass now; guess we're back to a permanent 4-4-2 (4-2-4) type situation, we really need to sort out which of Morgan and Hammo is going to be 'holding' and which is going to have the free-er role, my vote is for Hammo to hold and MS to have the free role! COYRs

I've just bought 2 each for Brentford and MK this morning so unfortunately 'I'm out'. Not over-fussed about Saturday's game either way really but I would probably go to a replay if it comes to that; my main hope is for for no silly bookings or injuries on Saturday.

Gravesend, was that you on the train out of London Bridge at 18-04 on Saturday after the Millwall game? The guy that drives govt. cars? If it was you I was the the one that had a bit of a Saints chat with you, anyways, well done with the link tonight. Is there anything on interweb for Ipswich on Saturday?

One word: fourfiveone! Wot a difference from Saturday! We looked very comfortable first half and the man on the ball always had a pass; all the front five had licence to go fd and it was very effective, we also got Fonte fd regularly with Wotton sitting in and holding with Perry. Another one of MS's better games and again it comes in a '5' rather than in 4-4-2. Excellent games for Antonio and James tonight. We should have been 3-0 and out of sight at HT, but at least we should see a decent second leg now. In terms of injuries and suspensions I'm pretty sure we will buy, this has just forced our hand that bit further. Anybody want to review their play-off predictions in light of tonight's performance? We have just won relatively comfortably away at one of the better teams in the division and a team coming off the back of a 5-0 away win. Nice work all, and a big up to the travelling fans tonight.

Eastwood was awesome for a couple of seasons at Southend but has rather lost his way at Wolves and then Cov. Saw him on the telly the other night (Pompey game) and he was dire, admitedly playing out of position. If AP could get him firing again he could be a v useful addition at this level. (I can't believe we can't prise Barnard away from S'arfend before the end of the window, they're virtually skint, we aren't short).

Are the play-offs still achievable? Emphatically ‘Yes!’ … but it will be tight! In the first round of games we gained 10 wins, 8 draws, 5 defeats (38 points gained but equal to a net 28 points with the -10 deduction). If we were to exactly repeat our results (of course we won’t) we would then have 66 points (76 gained minus the 10 point deduction); not enough for the play-offs by some distance. If we take the play-off target as 78 points we need to repeat every point we gained in the first round PLUS a further 12 ‘bonus’ points in the second round – we have now played two reverse fixturse, Colchester, where we needed 1 point (or more) to stay on track; we lost that one; Millwall we needed one point to stay on track or 3 points to move forward, we got one point. Over those two games therefore a net -1 and we now need 13 ‘bonus points’ to reach the magic 78 (the original 12 plus the minus 1 for Colchester). First round of games Win Exeter City_Home_Win Win Gillingham_Home_Win Win Hartlepool United_Away_Win Win Milton Keynes Dons_Home_Win Win Oldham Athletic_Away_Win Win Southend United_Away_Win Win Tranmere Rovers_Home_Win Win Walsall_Away_Win Win Wycombe Wanderers_Home_Win Win Yeovil Town_Home_Win Draw Brentford_Home_Draw Draw Carlisle United_Away_Draw Draw Charlton Athletic_Away_Draw Draw Colchester United_Home_Draw Draw Leyton Orient_Away_Draw Draw Millwall_Home_Draw Draw Norwich City_Home_Draw Draw Stockport County_Away_Draw Lose Brighton & Hove Albion_Home_Lose Lose Bristol Rovers_Home_Lose Lose Huddersfield Town_Away_Lose Lose Leeds United_Away_Lose Lose Swindon Town_Away_Lose Second round of games -1 Colchester United_Away_Draw - actual result was a loss equals minus 1 point 1 Millwall_Away_Draw – actual result draw, no gain or loss GAMES WE NEED TO WIN: 3 Exeter City_Away_ 3 Gillingham_Away_ 3 Hartlepool United_Home_ 3 Milton Keynes Dons_Away_ 3 Oldham Athletic_Home_ 3 Southend United_Home_ 3 Tranmere Rovers_Away_ 3 Walsall_Home_ 3 Wycombe Wanderers_Away_ 3 Yeovil Town_Away_ GAMES WE CAN PICK UP 2 EXTRA POIONTS: 1 Brentford_Away_ 1 Carlisle United_Home_ 1 Charlton Athletic_Home_ 1 Leyton Orient_Home_ 1 Norwich City_Away_ 1 Stockport County_Home_ GAMES WE CAN PICK UP 3 (or 1) EXTRA POINTS: 0 Brighton & Hove Albion_Away_ 0 Bristol Rovers_Away_ 0 Huddersfield Town_Home_ 0 Leeds United_Home_ 0 Swindon Town_Home_ The target is to reach 78 points: We will ideally need to double all of our 10 previous wins, this looks very do-able (with potentially the biggest banana skins at MK away, and perhaps v Walsall or H’pool at home) We have the potential to pick up two bonus points if we can turn any of our 8 draws into wins (Millwall was a big target, as will be B’ford away; Stockport home looks a banker and Carlisle or Orient at home also look winnable) We have the potential to pick up three (or one) bonus points if we can reverse any of our five losses (Brighton and Bristol away and Hudds and Swindon at home are the massive games and all potentially do-able) To re-iterate; we need all of the first round points PLUS an extra 13 bonus points from the remaining 21 games. What happens in the other games is of no real concern to us at this stage, if we get OUR 78 points WE will be in the play-offs (hopefully!). Not impossible but the above shows the size of the task in front of us. I agree our recent form hasn’t been good but on the plus side you have to factor in that our last 4 games have included two of the top 4 away, and also away to Millwall who have one of the best home records in the division. We have loads of games left against middle and bottom sides and we are clearly capable of going on a run if AP starts picking the right sides! AP missed several tricks on Saturday even allowing for the ‘peculiar’ starting line up; he should have pushed LJ inside when Hammond came off and played Waigo, he should have made his 2nd half subs on 60 minutes, he should have taken Otsemobor off (who had completely lost focus/concentration after 60 mins, it was absolutely no surprise when they scored down his side) and moved LJ to RB and played a proper RW. Why not drop Holmes out for the last 20 mins (who had played very well but was obviously tiring) and push AL out to the left? Hopefully we have learnt the lessons from now on … no more defensive line-ups! We are full of goals when we play 4-5-1 (4-3-3) and generally pretty limited when we play 4-4-2! We have to use our pace (no other side in this league would start with both Antonio and Papa on the bench, either at home or away), play Lallana either wide left or in a 4-4-‘1’-1, no way is he a 4-4-‘2’ striker. Can we see less (a lot less) of LJ in midfield? If that’s all Otsemobor’s got to offer I really hope he had a bad day, he offered no more than LJ does at RB and if that’s the case then LJ can safely go back to RB for the remainder of the season. Despite all that I’d give the Millwall result 2 cheers, we didn’t lose and turn our form into LWLL; most of us would have taken a draw before the game and our performance (nor selection) didn’t warrant the full 3 points. In the big picture it was obviously the chance to gain 2 extra points but there are plenty more opportunities for that! The ‘maths’ is difficult but certainly not impossible and I hope we can find form quickly enough to stay in touch and not tail off and leave 10 dead games at the end of the season….. I’m definitely still half-full on the play-off front, there’s certainly no harm in trying for it from where we are, and nothing lost if we don’t make it. Watch the mood swing back from ‘impossible’ to ‘certainties’ when we beat Brentford and Stockport (that would be four ‘bonus points’ and would leave us looking at just 9 more ‘extras’ from the last 19 games). Tight, tight, tight, but surely this team has enough about it to beat Brentford and Stockport for starters?

Are the play-offs still achievable? Emphatically ‘Yes!’ … but it will be tight! In the first round of games we gained 10 wins, 8 draws, 5 defeats (38 points gained but equal to a net 28 points with the -10 deduction). If we exactly repeat our results (of course we won’t) we would have 76 points which is a borderline play off position so add two more points for 78 points which should be enough. To reach 78 points we need to repeat every point we gained in the first round PLUS a further 12 ‘bonus’ points – we have already played our first reverse fixture, Colchester, where we needed 1 point (or more) to stay on track; we lost therefore a net -1 and we now need 13 ‘bonus points’ to reach 78 (the original 12 plus minus 1 for Colchester). First round of games Win Exeter City_Home_Win Win Gillingham_Home_Win Win Hartlepool United_Away_Win Win Milton Keynes Dons_Home_Win Win Oldham Athletic_Away_Win Win Southend United_Away_Win Win Tranmere Rovers_Home_Win Win Walsall_Away_Win Win Wycombe Wanderers_Home_Win Win Yeovil Town_Home_Win Draw Brentford_Home_Draw Draw Carlisle United_Away_Draw Draw Charlton Athletic_Away_Draw Draw Colchester United_Home_Draw Draw Leyton Orient_Away_Draw Draw Millwall_Home_Draw Draw Norwich City_Home_Draw Draw Stockport County_Away_Draw Lose Brighton & Hove Albion_Home_Lose Lose Bristol Rovers_Home_Lose Lose Huddersfield Town_Away_Lose Lose Leeds United_Away_Lose Lose Swindon Town_Away_Lose Second round of games -1 Colchester United_Away_Draw - actual result was a loss equals minus 1 point 3 Exeter City_Away_Win 3 Gillingham_Away_Win 3 Hartlepool United_Home_Win 3 Milton Keynes Dons_Away_Win 3 Oldham Athletic_Home_Win 3 Southend United_Home_Win 3 Tranmere Rovers_Away_Win 3 Walsall_Home_Win 3 Wycombe Wanderers_Away_Win 3 Yeovil Town_Away_Win 1 Brentford_Away_Draw 1 Carlisle United_Home_Draw 1 Charlton Athletic_Home_Draw 1 Leyton Orient_Home_Draw 1 Millwall_Away_Draw 1 Norwich City_Away_Draw 1 Stockport County_Home_Draw 0 Brighton & Hove Albion_Away_Lose 0 Bristol Rovers_Away_Lose 0 Huddersfield Town_Home_Lose 0 Leeds United_Home_Lose 0 Swindon Town_Home_Lose To reach 78 points: We ideally need to double all of our wins, this looks very do-able (with potential banana skins at MK away, and perhaps Walsall or H’pool at home) We have the potential to pick up two bonus points if we can turn any of those draws into wins (Millwall is a big target, as is B’ford away and Carlisle or Orient at home) We have the potential to pick up three (or one) bonus points if we can reverse any of our five losses (Brighton and Bristol away and Hudds and Swindon at home are massive) To re-iterate; we need all of the first round points PLUS an extra 13 bonus points from the remaining 22 games. What happens in the other games is of no real concern to us at this stage, if we get our 78 points we will be in the play-offs (hopefully!). Not impossible but the above shows the size of the task in front of us; fasten your seat belts and get on board! COYRs

Mifsud, someone I've flagged up in the past. Would be quality at this level, technically very good, intelligent movement and the sort of 'creative' player we lack. Not sure he is desperately pacey (as some seem to think) nor is his goal scoring record as good as it might be. I would see him as cover for Lallana/Connelly and would think if he is fit and interested he could be a very useful addition, sorry to those that think he's not good enough and that we should aim higher; perhaps you could all pm ML and tell him to spend more of his own money on your football team. I think if we had 11 1m-pound-players (in the 3rd Division!) there would still be people on here moaning.

'This' will get the job done: a sort of Fonte'd-up version of Southend away where we were excellent. That was probably one of our best midfield and attacking displays all season.

Was it a Gary Glitter night?

Take the telly money and bu88er the travelling fans: Franchise's master plan is coming together nicely then? If they had given us a decent allocation over Xmas I'm sure we would have sold up to maybe 1500 by now. I haven't got mine and if I do decide to go I'll prob just buy on the day (behind the goal hopefully!)

Whooossshhh! (You couldn't make it up could you!) I'm sure AP hangs on your every post: have you offered your talent-spotting skills to the club yet? Just out of interest, what doesn't Mellis have enough of?, and what sort of future do you foresee for him?

Have you seen a game this year? Do you know anything about football? Do you troll on here all day to get reactions like this one? Very few players look 'amazing' in Lge 1, for the very simple reason that it is the third tier of organised league football and if they were 'that' good they would be playing in the second or even the first tier. Mellis looked exactly what he was: a young Premier Lge 'club' player, as opposed to a Premier league 'squad' player, sent out on loan to gain experience. I doubt he will break through at Chelsk though they will no doubt keep hold of him while their transfer future is uncertain; he will assuredly go on to have a solid pro career somewhere in the top two divisions (a la Baird/Surman). He was far from 'useless', only idiots would have expected him to be 'amazing' in his first dozen pro games. Remind me Glasgow, which Lge 1 club did Wayne Rooney go to on loan to when he was a similar age?

Some of us said this at the time but we were drowned out by what used to be known as 'happy clappies' who considered finishing 6th on the last day of the season a very acceptable outcome. Apparently in Saint George-give-him-five-years-Burley they trusted.... for me GB is right up there with RL in the decline and fall of our club... all water under the bridge now and I am quite enjoying the present and looking fd very much to the next 5 years, loved the 80's clips posted up on the other thread. Remind me who was 'Alex' reffered to further up the thread, sorry I'm a complete blank on that one.

With him, Jaidi and Ward as our three main CBs, and Perry and Thomas as backup, our squad would look immense....... OR MERELY BLOATED? What do we need 5 CH's for? If we sign Ward and new boy it's a (reluctant) good-bye to Perry and WT is neither fish at CH or fowl at RB.

I presume they will cover the pitch in heavy sheets and then have 'the fans' and the 'yoof team' shovelling it off on Friday and Saturday morning, in traditional stylee? Unless anybody has got any better ideas, in which case they need to mail the groundstaff pronto. (also need to check where Hudders are staying and arrange a 2.00am fire alarm on Sat morning)

I goosed a bird at the office works do and she said, "Get your hands off my higgin bottom", at least I think she said 'higgin'.

This is a real low-down, dirty stroke from MK! They had their home tickets out before and over Xmas, what was was the problem with them sending 2k down to us at that time? Serve them right if it all backfires on them: I'm half considering not going in a 'cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face' sort of way. F'eck 'em, it's on telly anyway. Hope they get 10,500k tops ...

Not sure they are miles better up-front? Beckford is 'OK' (good in Lge 1 but certainly not Prem standard) and Beckio(?) is pretty average. Lambert/Lallana or Lambert/Connolly are probably at least comparable as a pair? They are much stronger in centre mid *****il we strengthen at full back/CH/wide-mid then the Hammo/Schneiderlin combo will continue to struggle, these two could make a pair but they would need to be playing in a much better team than this one). They are better across the back four too; more pace than us and more prepared to play the ball out to feet when they get the chance. Prob better at GK too (?); Anker-wotsit is unorthodox but very effective, thought he had a great game yesterday. Snodgrass is decent too. We desperately need a proper (pacey) RB and a mobile CH to play with Jaidi+Harding; until we fix our back 4 it's hard to assess the midfield.

Interesting: when's Boxing Day in Poland? 23rd December?

And me...! I can't believe more people didn't see this at the time, some people round me certainly did see it. Morgan was absolutely done with a leading elbow straight to the side of the head and left poleaxed on the ground; it should have been a red card but seeing as how the game went on and there was no yellow either, I can only assume the ref and lino both missed it (it was blind side to the lino but no excuse for the ref not seeing it; I saw it clearly from 75m away!) I'm pretty sure this was why MS came off at HT (as per Big Ron's interpretation above) but strange this hasn't been commented on officially? Perhaps Saints have made some sort of complaint? Pardew's comments after the game were certainly fairly strong in a non-specific sort of way.

Three oldies to graft on to the present side? Mark Wright to play CB with Jaidi Alan Ball to show our midfielders how it's really done CMFG to play LM and free up Lallana to play off Ricky in a 4-4-1-1

Some Col U perspective (off the pitch) and on it. Off the pitch: Arrived at 12.00 and easily found and parked up at the station car park (GBP2) as advised on awayfans and on their website. Visited three pubs, all very normal (drank beer, played darts badly, watched Sky football), caught the shuttle bus to ground at 13.50, two minute wait for a bus, GBP1 return, arrived at the ground at 14.00 and footie burger for the usual 3 quid plus a programme for the usual 3 quid. More beer on the concouse for my passengers. After the game we left at the final whistle and made our way to bus queues, mixed queueing but well-stewarded and no hint of trouble, caught the second wave of buses after approx a 10 minute wait, back in the car at 17.30 and out on the A12 at 17.40. I thought their new ground (location aside) was excellent; smart, tidy, all the facilities you need, good views from every seat and I thought better than average (friendlier) stewards. No one loves an old ground more than me but where would you honestly site a small, ambitious club; in Col's shiny new stadium or, for example, in Southend's relic of an arena? Write-on, those who intend to write and complain, but I don't see anything very out of order there. Where the problems did kick-in was with one of the worst ref displays I have ever seen! I don't usually moan about refs but today's was something special! Absolutely no protection given to the players or their skills, it was like a time-trip back to the '70's. Col players pushed, pulled, held, tripped, and kicked anything that moved. Lambert was battered throughout the first half as was Lallana and then Morgan was taken-out, literally, with an elbow to the side of the head (presumably why he was subbed off at HT)which was 'missed' by both ref and lino and should have been a straight red. We then had Col players diving and falling down trying to get us booked and sent off, and hey, it worked! A final card count of 3 yellows to Saints and 1(!) yellow to Col was an absolute travesty of the play I saw. Lambert was also illegally blocked out in the box for a def penalty(he couldn't go down, he was being physically restrained by two defenders who had him in a rugby hold). Not sour grapes, but a nasty after-taste. Saints deservedly lost it, primarily with their selection and then their first half performance. If you play 4-5-1 and set up for a scrap why not play Wotton? He's not very good but it would have been his sort of game. Why leave Connolly and Papa (two of our best players) on the bench (and start with LJ/Antonio?), that doesn't make sense. How fit was Lallana? Why not play DC (or even Papa) in that position? Where was the service to Lambert suppposed to be coming from in that line-up? Should have played: Bart LJ/WT Jaidi Trotts Harding Papa Morgan Wott Hammo Connolly(or Lallana) Lambert I don't have a problem with 4-5-1 if we play Papa and either Connolly or a fit Lallana, the problem comes when they score first and we never threatened first half. 4-4-2 was a different story and we gave it a good go at 0-1 and fair to say that 0-2 was against the run of play and killed the game. Conclusions (?) = nothing new We can't defend in open play very well, the other team's counter attacks are always dangerous, we need a pacey CB or RB asap (both please!) Midfield is ponderous and one-paced, ball retention is poor, the other team has far too much time and space to build attacks or pick their forward passes; we need either a strong defensive mid or a fast, mobile, attacking mid (Lallana?) (both please!). We rely far too much on Lambert (even though we have been sharing the goals out with AL/DC/PW etc); he's good but he's not that good! We are asking him to get on the end of, and challenge for and win, low percentage balls and also to chase any number of lost causes, and then set himself up, and then score himself; how often is that going to happen? I don't think another Saints player got in their box in open play in the first half. What a difference in the second half once DC came on... we desperately need a third striker to take some of the workload off of RL. Ignoring their Boothroyd-inspired 'dirty Leeds' impression Col definitely did a job on us today. They are probably less good player for player but today they had the better game plan and executed it well, that's why they are where they are in the table. In terms of the play-offs I look at it that in the 23 reverse fixtures we have to get all the points we got first-time round, plus an extra 10 from somewhere. On that basis not a good start to the second round of fixtures, -1 today and we now need to repeat all our first round results PLUS 11 extra points from the remaining 22 games; a tall order but not impossible if we bring in more depth and experience in the window. COYR's!