sandwichsaint

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?

I'm not generally a ref-basher but I thought it was poor. Minimum of 4 mins presumably goes up to 4.50, if he had wanted to add Bellamy's celebration (and it's not clear why he did. Did he add 0.55 seconds for the other 3 goals in the second half? No.) why did they not adjust the board to 5.00 mins? When United were awarded their last free kick it was pretty much time up, why is he compelled to wait for them to load the box and take aeons placing the ball. What in the rules allows that free kicks at the end of time should be treated as 'time outs' and the clock stopped till the attacking team is organised? If there are 10 seconds left surely the attacking team needs to launch it asap? Once the ref had allowed the kick in what was virtually nil seconds remaining he had nowhere to go, as above he can't stop the game in an attacking area, though he probably could have stopped it once City repelled the initial free kick some 45 yds back towards the half way line? All very unsatisfactory IMHO and more questions than answers! Should we not have standard times for substitutions/goals and then add any stoppage time for injuries, bookings, timewasting? (I though that's what we did have!). Is the 'minimum of 4 minutes' board more trouble than it's worth? United also muddied the waters with a substitution on 92 mins ... their choice but why they should they (or anybody else!) get an extra 30 seconds for disrupting the natural finish to the game? Answer is fairly simple in this hi-tech, super-money age; an independent timekeeper sat in the stand; either controlled by the ref signalling when the clock is to be stopped/re-started, or by the timekeeper's independent judgement of when the ball is in play or otherwise. Either would be preferable to the farce we saw yesterday. And .... ban substitutions after 85 minutes (though AP might struggle with that one!)... is there anything more tedious than watching both sides eeking out 3 or 4 substitutions in the last couple of minutes? Great game! GGRRRR finish!

Glenn ****erill had a glass jaw (allegedly).

If u ain't tried it, don't knock it! I'm 47 and I've played hockey, football, rugby and cricket (and golf and skiing and sailing and cycling) and if I could have my time over again it's not even close .... I would be re-incarnated as a hockey player! Grant it's not a great game to watch, but it's second to none to play (and the social side ****es over any of those others too). Take my word for it: Rupes and ML were onto something there. I'm playing 5 a-side football tomorrow after work, and recuperating for the rest of the weekend, damn knees! COYR's!

**Something's gotta give then**! Picking up a stat from the Charlton forum last week Pardew is on about 5 wins in 30! Saints' league game wins can't be much better than 3 in 20-ish? It's got 1-1 written all over it .... but I was encouraged by quite a bit of what I saw at Charlton; I'll go 2-0, Lambert and Papa.

Tho of course Perry would be playing against his old club; is this a 'good thing' or a 'bad thing'?

Not sure why we didn't close the whole of the Chapel end this season and concentrate our crowds of say 18k-22k on the remaining three sides? We would surely run the ground much more economically if we concentrated the stewards/police/caterers/turnstile people in the bottom 3/4 of the ground and effectively mothballed the whole of the top end; at the moment we still have to staff and police all 4 sides of the ground and the concourses, the corners are closed and the fans are in some areas spread thinly. Let's re-open the two Northam corners, get the atmosphere going, and have a 3/4 full, prem-stylee 'full house'. I hope if we are in this league next season serious consideration will be given to this (apologies to those that do sit in the Chapel, but for the greater good I really do think this model would give the team better support and create a better match day for everyone).

Ipswich away last season (midweek) was pretty much non-stop and just like 'the old days'. My last 2 aways have been Sheff Weds last season and Swindon this; both utterly dire from top to bottom. I'm going on Saturday and everything crossed for a decent turn out from the fans and the team!

CMFG? Paul Williams was good value. Of the current crop Harding on a 'free' is looking like a good signing.

LOL!

Danny Wallace?

LOL, where's 'the stadium' playing next week? Quick quiz question: On average, and compared to other sides in our league, how many points-per-season is playing at SMS worth? On average since we've been there; a) approx -10 b) approx -20 c) approx -30 I can see some signs of green shoots but I'm not sure it's got much to do with our stadium.

Are you sure AP said that? Sounds suspiciously like the ghost of Burley past to me. We would appear to have refreshed 8-9 positions in the starting X1, and have probably got the best bench in the league, though we do still look a bit short up front. C'mon Al, let's have a bit of ambition, how 'bout we win our next three games? Not knocking, I'm quite happy to judge AP over two seasons (subject of course to us staying up this season, though that looks a bit more likely now if these work permits are sorted and one or two are back from injury).

How far we've fallen... are we now to be the Notts County of the South? PS. I heard KK and WGS are going to be joint DoF's, they're starting next week.

BenWatson (ex-Palace) .... Wigan to QPR on loan.... wouldn't have minded some of that..... are their billionaires richer than our billionaire? I'm quite happy to see AP given two seasons to get us out of L1; I just hope that we haven't cut it so fine come Xmas time that we are too far adrift to attract the further players we need (either to push on for next year, or to stay up this year!) When did you ever see the words 'false economy' and 'Saints' in the same sentence?

Shy7e player! The player we could do with now (but who most on here never seemed to rate) is Nathan Dyer. Anyone for a Lambert / BWP combo? While we are at it what's with the Holmes / Mills situation .... both injured or what?