sandwichsaint

Don't forget to print 10, 000 extra tickets to represent all the new seats we're going to need, and you'll also need a pair of giant foam hands with 'look at me' written on them. (there were some shocking fancy dresses yesterday, not even a theme FFS. Why do people do this?)

Good day out, Sunderland might be grim but it's got some of the friendliest natives and the most welcoming pubs in the PL. I thought Saints fans were excellent, pretty much non stop where we were, left hand side, a few rows back from Mikey-D or so the shirt said. Atmosphere from the home fans absolutely abysmal (again), one massive roar when they scored and literally that was the only time we heard them all game. I couldn't hear or see any chanting/singing in any part of their ground, people that moan about SMS really do need to go and look at some of these away grounds. Game was surprisingly low-key from their point of view, they never got started and we did a job on them the whole first half without really threatening, a couple of smart stops from Mignolet apart. First 20 of the second half they upped it and played quicker and more direct but again without threatening, didn't see the deflection live, just saw Bardsley welt it across Boruc and into the far sidenet. Great response from Saints, got back into playing our football, deserved equaliser, and looked the more likely in the last 10 minutes. Shaw was excellent, back to his rampaging best, what a talent. I thought Cork had a very busy first half, playing deep in front of the centre backs and making lots of challenges and interceptions (was he injured again, or tactical?). Morgan very good and Davis got through plenty of work. Punch and JWP also effective when they came on. We were only a decent finish or two away from winning that game very comfortably, we looked like the home team for large parts and Sunderland had no real answers.

Drove up overnight, kipped in the car, breakfast on the seafront at Roker in full sunshine. Hissing down now, Sunderland is pub central, natives v friendly. Just need a result now. 0-1 lambert, you heard it here first.

What an interesting read, never seen this website before so well done to whoever posted this up. And Davis filling in as a front sweeper to cover Cork's surges fd, well I never.

Thanks all, seems v straightfd, now just need to find a lead to temporarily hook the sky box to the phone point while it is activated.

So, for an old techno-phobe like me, what does this actually mean? I currently have Sky and I am also a BT internet customer, but not on cable. I understand the concept of watching football on a PC or a tablet or a phone. How does one watch 'BT Sport' on the television? Presumably not via satellite and a Sky box? Does one need some sort of BT Vision box? Do I automatically get it or do I have to 'opt-in?' Seems worth having, 18 first pick games plus FA Cup, for free, what's not to like? If anybody could answer any of this, brilliant. PS Who are the Beatles?

Ye, LOL, every dog and all that.

Second only to the number of people who jump in to correct a poster (and then admit they haven't read the original properly). You seem to do this quite often?

Been toying with posting up an 'Is Adebayor the worst striker in the PL?' thread for the last 20 minutes ..... and then he does that. Shocking defending tho, and I think we can still all agree that he is the sort of moneyed-up lightweight we need to keep well away from our club? Saints related 1, we need Spurs to lose to keep the pressure on Sunderland, or something like that. Saints related 2, we have Mike Dean on Sat, usually one of the worst for us but no major dramas so far (but how did he miss Huddlestone's yellow? If he gives that a foul it has to be a card, Huddlestone has gone 5 yds out of his way to block him off).

Can somebody paste up a picture of shooting fish in a barrel?

Caveat emptor (sp?) Why wouldn't DL 'deceive us as to his worth'? He is a successful businessman you know.

I would say they are massively irrelevant to where we are now. We are in a two leg play-off with two of the poorest sides in the league. We need to raise our game massively from where it's been the past few weeks. We did do this on Saturday and were unlucky not to get a point, if we could score a goal we might have got all three. I'm sticking to 0-0 or 1-1 on Sunday, which will probably be enough.

That old chestnut, form, stats, damned lies and statistics. Five games: Reading A 2-0 West Ham H 1-1 Swansea A 0-0 West Brom H 0-3 Spuds A 0-1 Taken in the round you couldn't get a better run of 5 PL fixtures (admittedly 3 aways and only 2 homes), 5 points from 5 games = 38 points in the season = relegation. 3 goals scored in 5 games (and 5 conceeded in 5) makes it hard to win games. We 'were' on a good run ..... our current, immediate form, as represented over the last five games is not really enough to take us to the points we need. (Ignoring the Spurs 'performance' and concentrating on the result - if we play really well at Sunderland and lose 1-0 we will get no points for artistic interpretation).

Can't see past a Wigan win (but then again I'm carp at predictions) so hopefully that will be wrong as well.

This game is woeful, absolutely the other side of the 'THE-PL-IS-THE-BEST-LEAGUE-IN-THE-WORLD' coin, if this had been a Championship game I'd have turned it off by now. Sunderland were one of the most limited sides we have seen at SMS all season, parked the bus, their best players were Cuellar and O'Shea (both v good on the day) who did a job on RL all day long. Stoke are typically niggly/physical with no shape or pattern, this game really is from the dark ages. We have a two leg play-off against these two inadequates and need to win just one of those games to stay up. Unfortunately we have hit our worst form of the season right at the wrong time. I'm going on Sunday, can't wait, I've no doubt our players are up for it (see Spuds on Saturday when they made 90% of this forum's predictions look stupid) - I really hope Poch has a Plan B tho, we're not scoring goals and not really looking much like scoring. I called it 0-0 or 1-1 last week and seen nothing since then to make me change my mind.

Keep up, the Northam's been a dead duck for at least 2 seasons now.

I read that as 'lingerie', WTF?

Done (can you really get degrees in this sort of stuff?)

Progs are great, thanks. I think we'll draw at Spurs - Poch will want a reaction (and to get us MATHEMATICALLY SAFE!) and I think he'll get one, if you had to pick one team even more adept at Saints at falling over their own feet and plucking defeat from the jaws of victory it would be Spuds. DRAW. I'm going to Sunderland, it will be grim attrition if they still need the points, we're not scoring very freely, 0-0 or 1-1. DRAW Stoke home, we will both be safe, we can celebrate and look forward to bigger and brighter things, not sure what Stoke have to look forward to though? Entertaining nothing game, 1-1 or 2-2. DRAW.

Draw Draw Draw Odds:?:

Best add Olssen and McAuley to that list, Lambert didn't have a kick Saturday either.

Agreed, probably the best 'individual' performance I've seen this season, he was the difference between the teams on the day and we would have won that game without his performance for them.

Lukaka Fellaini Maloney Caulker and Gallas were both excellent RVP (tho can't recall him doing much other than scoring 3 times!) Collins played well for West Ham O'Shea Junior Hoillet ... is he a realistic target? Thinking back there haven't been that many stand-out individual performances against us.

Par for the course, 'Arry has previous for 'regretting' taking a job .......

9 or 10 positions yesterday. The single biggest difference between the teams yesterday was their pace 1v1, West Brom were quicker man for man in attack and defence in virtually every position on the pitch. I'd even wager Foster could beat Boruc over 10m, 25m and 50m. We really seem to have lost shape in attack and defence since Puncheon has been out of the team, and obviously Shaw is a massive loss at LB. I also think our attacking options have changed since Davis has come in - he's doing a good job and until yesterday the goals against was very much under control (3 in the previous 6). Earlier in the season when we were playing 4 attacking players across the front the movement and interchanging was excellent, for my money we always seem to struggle when we play Lambert with just 2 other attackers. Our default front 4 was Punch, Ramirez, Lallana, RL and these 4 put in some good performances together. J Rod is well worth his place but we don't seem to have found the same balance when he's been in the team. I think it's becoming increasingly clear that Lallana and Ramirez together is not really working out, and I'm starting to think there might be similar thing with RL/JRod playing together. I can't work out why Puncheon is the fall guy in all this (new contract, he's done a Saganowski on us?)? His combo down the right with Clyne has been a strength all season. Lets not sign anymore tippy tappy one-paced touch players, we need either a beast up front (Carrol dare I say?!) or a really quick and adept finisher (possibly JRod on a full time basis), not sure where RL is fitting in as a striker for next season but would be a vast improvement on Ramirez at number 10 (see Villa away). We will stay up We will finish somewhere between 12 and 16 We will finish higher next season. COYRS.