sandwichsaint

Scything run into the area from Antonio and the commentator calls it as 'muchos, muchos, muchos, Mick Channon .....', classico!

http://www.atdhe.net/10303/watch-bristol-rovers-vs-southampton I'm watching this one; first time I've ever used it and it works a treat. Pretty even game, Saints 4-4-2, Connolley looks lively and a couple of decent bits from Antonio, haven't seen much of Lambert yet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/21/gareth-southgate-middlesbrough-sacked-fans Decent piece in the Grauniad yesterday saying much the same about Gareth Southgate, (sorry can't do posh links)

Not sure if it's entirely about 'man management' but judging by the above it's certainly not about coherent thought and persuasive arguement. Rarely have I seen such mangled syntax. TBF I did LOL at the dead duck/feathers/race horse analogy.

TBF it's probably more a case of monkeys and typewriters, how many ex-Saints managers are there are out there? There must be a dozen either managing elsewhere, or somewhere on the periphary.

Never say never, but I'd be very surprised if AP walked out on Saints in the next 2-3 years. He's got everything he needs here and is on the verge of building something really good, with all the fan and boardroom support he will ever need.

LOL Where did you live at Crabble? RiverEnd, Town End, Centre Spot, behind the rugby club? I'm also a bit of a part-time Jolly Boy too; it's the first time Saints and Dover have ever been one game apart in the FA Cup draw, and wouldn't you just love it that's it's Eastleigh (and 60-odd other combinations) that stands between us? Have to say that old Saints from the last 5 years would have been given a very difficult time with an away draw at Dover but I can't see the current lot being bothered too much by non-league oppo; Dover and Saints promotion double? You'd have got 500-1 at the start of the season, lucky to get 50-1 now!

My personal triple whammy was: Wolves away last season, Sheff Weds away last season, and then Swindon away this year. Three absolute shockers on and off the pitch, hopefully we'll never see that sort of a shambles on the pitch again, and that sort of beaten-before-we've-started response from the travelling legions. Last three games I've been to have been brilliant on the pitch and off! Charlton a Gillingham h Southend a ..... how fortunes can change .... onwards and upwards from here me thinks.

I don't watch it very often but did last night and I quite liked the feature on the Swindon fan. The guy got to meet Danny Wilson before the game and DW always comes over as a decent bloke whenever I've seen him ,a bit of joshing and banter before the game. After the game (Swindon lost 0-2 at home) the guy gets to meet with DW pitchside and lays straight into the team including two f-words, Wilson keeps smiling, as the guy gives the team both barrels. Who hasn't at sometime wanted to stand where that guy was stood, right after the game, and give it to one (or more!) of our managers?

When was the last time we were 2-0 up in an away game before half time? Can't be very many times in the last however many years; it's great to see us scoring early and scoring often!

I'm really finding it hard to get my head around this attitude that a minority of people would 'choose' not to go up this season ... some would rather we waited a year and Went-Up-As-Champions, others think we might not be ready .... FFS! In no way am I suggesting this would happen but take this scenario: We win 25 of our remaining games We sign two more decent players in Jan We play the second half of the season to home crowds of 25k We take followings of 1500+ to all away games We win our play-off semi 4-1 on aggregate We win 3-0 at Wembley in the play-off final Pardew named L1 manager of the year We sign 4 good CCC players in the summer window We have a 'proper pre-season' for the first time in how long? We sell 18k season tickets for next season's CCC Are some people really saying if that scenario carried through (however unlikely!) 'we wouldn't be ready to play in the CCC next season'; would some people really swap that scenario 'to go up as Champions' twelve months later?

Is it on in Hotshots? (or whatever it was called)

Can we start the season again? On the Gillingham and Southend performances and with the current line-up how many points have we nominally dropped so far? You would have to think that we could/should have beaten Millwall, Brentford, Colchester, Stockport .... those points are handicapping us just as much as the -10. I think if we can maintain current form/team spirit then 4 game mini-sequences of W-W-D-L (7 points out of 12) are not inconceivable. Obvious concerns are squad depth and relying heavily on certain individuals, remove any 2 of KD/Trott/Jaidi/Hamm/Schn/Lalla/Lamb/Papa and we would start to notice the difference, we really do need to keep our strongest X1 fit and suspension-free for as long as possible. I think we will be comfortably out of the bottom four by the half way mark (we need to make a net gain of 6 points in 11 games to achieve this) and we will then have 23 games to finish in a solid mid-table finish. For what it's worth on the evidence of the last 2 games I don't think we will finish in the relegation or the play-off places, but probably likely to finish nearer the top than the bottom. Saturday at Oldham? I hope that we will be committed and hard-to-beat, and we can maybe grab one or two goals in open play again now that for the first time in ages we have got a range of goal scoring options. 0-0? 0-2? could be a 1-0 or a 2-0 .... tricky away game, I'll take what comes with the condition that we beat MK Dons at home the game after.

For Keith's mum: So farewell 'the Pink', Not the Floyd or Lilly or the Panther, though you were special to us. A miracle of old technology. Done down by new We'll all miss you. EJ Thribb (age 17 in 1977)

Always known as 'the Pink' in my house c1970 - 1976. Remember queueing on a Saturday evening outside the newsagents at Netley for it to come out, it used to arrive in Netley around 6 o'clock; if memory serves for the price of 4p (or '4 new pennies' as we probably said then). Fantastic paper in its time, big match day report, lots of inside stuff about all diff sports around the area, all the main results and tables on the front page, first half reports on local league games, and 'final' scores from local league games printed vertically as an extra in a horizontal column across the bottom of the back page (small prize for anybody who knows the technical name for that bit?). Absolutely excellent piece of journalism/editing/printing to get the whole thing nailed together (presumably on traditional type face), printed and in the shops by 6.00 o'clock-ish. Can't comment so much on the quality of the paper in the later years but my Grandma used to periodically post me a bundle of old copies and it was a great way for any 'exiles' to keep in touch. Guess like lots of things it's been superceeded by the all-conquering t'internet but a shame to see it go.

Agree entirely, last night in the second half Harding was stranded in no man's land while Southend consistently had an easy outlet to their right to a player effectively playing in the hole/out wide (if that makes sense). Saints have no orthodox left mid and it easy for the other team to create a 2 v 1 overload down the right. All the time we have momentum and are scoring goals this isn't really a problem (it's all a bit Kevin Keegan actually), but there will come a time when we have to change tactics, I wouldn't fancy going to Leeds away and playing this system. For me we need an orthodox LM and then play Lallana in the hole in a 4-4-2 stroke 4-4-1-1 set up (as some of us have advocated from the start). AL is not a left mid and for certain games he clearly can't play there, I'm sure though that AP knows this and has some options available. A fit and willing Rudi Skacel would have made for an exciting combo down the left with Harding!

Fantastic away day, and a result and performance that can only bring more confidence and belief right through the club and the fanbase. We were straight out of the traps and Southend hardly got out of their own half for the first 10 mins. Someone posted on here a couple of games back that Saints hadn't scored in the first (10 mins) of a game for something like (60? !) games ... now we've done it twice, grabbed early goals in back-to-back league games, it really does make such a difference. Have to say that AP's restructuring of the team has been nothing short of brilliant, great CB pairing, decent LB, quality across the middle, Lallana accomodated and firing on all cylinders, and Ricky topping it all off up front. This side is really starting to remind me of when I first started watching Saints; great all-for-one team spirit, lashings of attacking play, and not scared to put our foot in all over the park, any side that plays us this season better be ready for a battle because we look well up for it! When was the last time Saints physically dominated the oppo like we did last night? Jaidi, Trottman, Wotton, Hammond, Harding, Lambert, we've got half a team of 60's throwbacks there. Really entertaining game last night and put that on top of the Gillingham result and we will surely soon be nudging over 20k for home games which for L1 is fantastic. As I saw it: KD 7, no chance with the goal and his routine stuff was tidy in nightmare conditions for goalkeepers. LJ 7, done for pace once or twice but decent set piece deliveries and he looks a real part of the team spirit. Jaidi 8, awesome, starting to look fitter and real quality at this level. Trottman 7, another busy and comitted performance, sign him now! Harding 7, (8 for an excellent first half) but gave their right side a lot of room in the second half. Papa 8, very impressed, he seems like he wants to be here and looks like he's really enjoying his football. Emphatically answered any questions about his commitment away-at-S'fend-on-a-wet-Friday-night. Sign him! Wotton 8.5, this was the player I thought we'd signed 18 months ago. Swept well in front of our back 4 and made timely interceptions all game including a goal saving one when he tracked back to RB to win a back post header with the rest of the defence awol. Much less hoofing and much more simple passing than previously, the best game I've seen him play for us. Won't start every game but a useful squad player on this form. Schneiderlin 8, the most improved player in the side, long may it continue. Hammond 8, solid, consistent, great signing and hope he stays with us up the leagues. Lallana 9, outstanding (again), mixed skill and application and prodigous workrate (I didn't know he had it in him!). Gone from a player that never looked like scoring last season to a player who doesn't look like missing, deadly round the box and a real hunger for goals, fantastic to see. RL 8, terrific presence and power, a real leader and focal point of all our attacking play. He's got it all and I think we are starting to see the best of him now, long may that continue. Mention too for the lad who came on late on the RW (Reading boy I presume?). Looked up for it, pacey, direct and a great option in the last 15 minutes. Fair play to Southend too, it was a great game and they played their part. I was the first to tout Tilson on here several seasons ago now and he really does do well to keep them punching above their weight. They had several excellent players, neat, tidy, technical but they couldn't live with our strength and power. They tried to play passing football from the back and stuck to their task well never letting their heads drop, and never making it easy for us. Really glad I went last night, the sort of football grounds and football experiences that won't be around for ever. And lay off the ref! Full marks for getting the game on in atrocious weather, and for giving us a very iffy first goal, and for letting the players get on with some good old fashioned sliding tackles! Schneiderlin was rightly booked (I had a decent view of it) he slalomed into the area with exquisite skill, then over ran the ball, tucked his foot under the defender's (planted) foot, and took off full length with the ball 4 or 5m away from him; it was all a bit embarrassing really. Pardew out ... with the chequebook, and sign Trottman and Waigo asap.

Slightly selective reading of the Swindon away game! There was nothing in that game that suggested we shouldn't have lost by anything other than several goals, and we wouldn't have scored if we'd played till midnight. Maybe, just maybe, Pardew's non-use of the subs in that game was a very clever master stroke aimed 'upstairs', as indeed some conspiracy theorists pointed out at the time. From that game we've replaced Lancashire/Perry with Trottman/Jaidi, and Patterson with Papa... nice work AP!

Taylor Baird Beattie(!) Higgy Bridge Surman Delap Bale Crouch Walcott KJ Would beat the team at the top of the page 'We're gonna win 4-3, we're gonna win 4-3 .........'

Wolves away last season when we folded and they pretty much gained promotion, both ends of Molineux were absolutely rocking with us stuck forlornly in the middle! West Brom have good home fans. Highbury used to be great when it was standing on the North bank and at the 'clock end'. Bristol City are proper fans. Quietest? Middlesborough, Chelsea, Coventry (can't believe the nomination above for a 'good atmos' at Cov, I was there and it was pants), Blackburn.

You missed off 'no pre-season' FFS!

Great minds and all that! I hadn't actually read what Pardew said, that was just my take in response to those that rushed to say, 'Great! A new right winger! We can move Waigo into the middle now! etc etc.' Why would we want to do that? Glad to see that we won't be doing that; roll on Friday night, how many have we sold?

Not sure we will be seeing him in the starting X1: if it ain't broke don't fix it! We scored 4 from open play on Saturday, Waigo was effective going forward and put in a decent shift defensively, we have 'finally' found somewhere for Lallana to play, Lambert looked awesome on Saturday, Mellis much improved ... I don't think AP will throw all that away for an unproven 19 year old reserve, will he? Guess he will join the squad for a couple of weeks training and maybe a couple of reserve starts, if we do see him in the first team guess it will on the bench in an 'impact' role. He's not currently anywhere near a struggling Reading team, he's probably more a Ryan Smith than a Ryan Giggs (tho' to be fair Pardew has done v. well with his signings so far).

I thought this too, I think it was something the PL bought in a while ago that clubs had to register their pitch dimension and stick to it for the whole season. Certainly used to be the case you could chop and change and Malcolm Allison at Man City was one of the original proponents of this tactic, setting up the pitch week to week according to who City were playing. Samething that crossed my mind reading this thread: If we have no effective right back, no effective wingers, and we persist in playing an ugly varient of 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 it might be a jolly useful tactic to shave 4 or 5m off each side of the pitch. Mind you it would lead to some pretty ugly football too, but desperate times and all that ...

Forgot to add my other time-keeping pet-hate! Next time you watch a game with extra time in it see how long is added to the two extra 15 minute periods. I bet you it's never less than 2 minutes for each half and it can regularly be 3 or 4 minutes. You do the math; when did you last see 9 or 12 minutes overtime awarded in a regular 45minute half?