sandwichsaint

Which is easiest to replicate next time out? 2-0 is a clean team performance with everybody doing their jobs. 4-2 gives a licence to sloppy defending and relies on your team scoring 3 to get a win ..... can you really rely on your team scoring 3 (a relatively high number of goals) every game? The manager / coach / player would always take the 2-0. The fan and the chairman would always take the 4-2. I used to like it when we won 3-1 every week.

Did he though? With the new financial rules that's probably the going rate for the absolute top-end youngsters (there's not very many of them available with probably 90% of the top boys already with the big clubs). Bits I've seen of AOC he seems to have settled well and at this stage I would imagine that they consider it money well spent (even though you and I would probably have bought an established goal keeper and a decent centrehalf for the same money).

Trottman did well for us, some people have funny memories.

Really hope the club have pushed for max allocation for this. We have a group of 5 (no STs) who have been to about 6 aways each. I'll be proper ****ed if the club take 2k and then put them out in a very restricted last-minute window to 'two per ST' or some such rollocks. Let's get them out to one-per-ST this week, and then database one-per-customer-number next week.

Don't get it. Why have we suddenly started doing our business in public when we haven't done that at all since NC has been here? Either it's us putting it out there that we're after a big player and don't mind spending big money, why would we do that? Or it's kite-flying by agents and other clubs saying 'I'm available', 'Come and buy me', 'Let's start an auction'; I can't see that's really the way for other clubs/agents/players to go if they want to impress NC. cf The way he bombed Ward(?) out from Cov at the last minute. For these reasons I'm not sure we'll now get either of these, much as either (both!) would be welcome. Much more likely to get somebody under the radar who hasn't been linked at all, or possibly Maynard or Sordell still (if they keep their traps shut!)?

My top 4; Saints, WHU, Reading, Hull. Which would leave 2 spots for Cardiff, Boro, Palace, Leeds, Brum, BPool, Derby or Burnley...... say Cardiff and Brum then? It's a tough old league that we're top of.

12 noon on Good Friday? (give us a nice extra day to prepare for Palace if it is)

Was she the girl standing on her seat at the back directly behind the goal? Absolute legend, she stood and sang everything for the full 90; she could show some of our travelling support how to do it;). If it was you, you were stood right behind me, we were the the noisy beggars in front of you.

Lallana plays well. There is a lot less hoofing/long diagonal passes (take your pick) from Fox. There is lots more inter-changing and ground work/short stuff between DF / AL / DC. Chicken or egg (?)

Nutshell! Can't believe Saints haven't had more credit for how well we played. The first 20 minutes were pretty level but from the first goal it was pretty much game over. Of course Forest were poor and the 10 man thing killed it for them but it was great to see Saints have the confidence to keep the ball in all areas of the pitch, with some awesome passages of play. One sequence in the second half in front of the dug outs was shades of the Leeds/Saints humiliation clip from the 70's as we made about 15 passes in a 10m grid, then sprung out to the opposite side of the pitch to start yet another attack. Fantastic stuff. Forest fan on 606 on the way back '........ Southampton were an average team ......' , Forest fan on one of their message boards 'we should be doing better .... man-for-man .... blah, blah .... it's not as if Southampton had any players who would get in our team ....' Clueless, just like their manager. Anybody that was there on Saturday was privileged to watch real quality, if we can roll that forward into the Leic and Cardiff games then we should be seeing a couple of crackers at SMS.

Hammond was the monkey that let everybody else (Cork, Morgo, Connelly, Harding, Adam) grind.

Did Michael Owen play today?

Great away day and you can only beat what's put in front of you. A great team performance and hopefully one that will kick-start our second part of the season. KD 7 Little to do in the first half and even less in the second. DH 8 Thought he was excellent throughout. Great engine and he was up and down all game. Hoov 8 (every week!) Fast becoming a new Saints legend - love his celebrations on the goals and after the games. He's more of a Saints fan than most of us! We are really lucky to have him. AM 8 I've seen him live 5 or 6 times and I've never seen him have a bad game. More than capable cover at CH. DF 7 Mixed it up better today, played a lot of short stuff with AL and DC though a lot of his corners were poor. JC 8 Back to his best, a class above anything Forest had on the pitch. DH 9 Captain marvel today, he was everywhere first half and kept everybody else pulling in the right direction. MS 9 Give him this sort of room and he will destroy you; he did. AL 8 Much improved, not back to his best 'best' but still way too good for Forest. Gully 7 Worked hard but not enough end product. Took his goal well enough. DC 9 Another that looked back to his best. Looked fitter and sharper than he has done for a long time, still a top player at this level. Fantastic away performance, we could (and should!) have had 5 or 6. If we can stick Lambert and Hooper on the front of this lot there's no reason why we can't win this league! COYRs

They say it's better to travel than to arrive but I'm not going to be thinking that on the way up tomorrow. I'll grab a newspaper and feast my eyes on the championship league table - little old promoted Sarfampton lording it over West Ham, Cardiff, Midds, Battery chuckers, Ipswich, Reading, Watford et al. It doesn't get any better than this, put 17th out of your mind and ENJOY: We ARE Souff-ampton We're TOP O' THE LEAGUE!!!! One - Nil ...... GULLY! Get in!!!!

LOL at 'their salarial mass' that's awesome! Have you just made that up or is this another bu--sh-t bingo, buzz-phrase that hasn't reached me yet?

I think you'll find they've just caught some criminals. HTH.

And if you buy it up front with a railcard it's probably GBP100 tops, 50 if you're prepared to dig around and travel at silly times. No way can running a car be cheaper.

So let's recap: we are at home on the exact 100th anniversary of what is probably the best known maritime disaster in history, one that is inextricably linked with the city of Southampton and one that took the life's of probably hundreds of the city's seafaring workers and no doubt impacted on '000s more within the city. Indeed very many of those killed would have been from the very communities who lived in and around the area where our stadium is now located and no doubt walked down the same roads that many of us will have walked to and from the stadium. The city is running a series of 'events' to mark this occasion. As the game at SMS will represent the largest public gathering that will take place in the city that week what better way to let the ordinary people to take part in a simple act of rememberence to those on the Titanic and to all those from the city who have perished at sea and in war. I would suggest that to a lot of people 'city and club' are intertwined and they would welcome the opportunity to offer a simple public mark of respect to our proud forefathers. And further that to hold a small ceremony would show the club to be very much at the centre of the city. What's not to like?

You mean a sort of Frankenstein 'Dublin-Franchise-Dons' type set up? You mean just make up a team with no basis in reality, no tradition, no history, no fans; then base them in another country, and then invite them over to take one of the places in the league that we are all busting a gut to get into? Why would you want to do that? If we are that desperate for a bit of fake glamour and a weekend awayday maybe we should just invite ParisSG into the Premier League, that makes about as much sense.

Good draw, London away at 3.00 on a Saturday. Daggers was one of the best aways I went to last year, I'd love to go if I can get tkts. Millwall not as attractive (understatement!) but a big away end where we will get plenty of tkts and can make plenty of noise. Good chance of winning and perhaps getting another non-Prem team in the 5th round, a decent cup run never hurt anyone. I thought it was a red, if you arrive at the ball with both feet, studs-up, and both legs extended you are potentially in a position to do a lot of damage to the ball carrier; the fact that Nani (?) jumped out the way is irrelevant. It was potentially dangerous and that's what he was sent off for. IMHO of course.

Pretty sure Ricky wasn't playing when we won it.

I went to school with a Wayne King, not sure what his parents were thinking of!

Puncheon? Was never as bad as some on here make out, proved when he went on to DAdecentJF Millwall and Blackpool. Clearly good enough to play for us but I'm not sure that second chances are the NC/NA way of doing things? I'd have him back now for the rest of the season but not sure the powers that be will see it that way; once a bad apple, always a bad apple etc.

Any defeat to Tranmere is a disgrace.

And you can add Jermaine Wright and Jason Euell to that list. And what do those five players have in common? When was the last time we had a white boo-boy at Saints?