Stu Man Do

If I was to chose; Davis Lloyd James Svensson Perry (with no davies as yet) Surman (because who else do we have?!) Dyer Morgan S Gillet Holmes Llalana John

First half clearly had our players not 100% none the less played some nice stuff just same as usual few real efforts or taking too long to shoot .. Llalana (sp?) was class though and Holmes delivered some good crosses. Thought Gillet did well vs a much bigger opponent! Thomson looked rather jaded though didnt get forward as much as 2nd half vs WH and seemed a bit lost. 2nd half was wholescale change people with most credit from this half would have to be mills who gt forward and defended brilliantly, John who had a few decent chances and Dyer who to my mind should be starting on sat in place of thomson. Even BWP looked reasonable. Only thing 2nd half was we seemed susceptible to the counter attack with so many players bombing forward. To be fair thats all Stoke really had but they were organised and so this was a good test Kitson looked good for them but fell over alot ... ****age :-p If thats all they have this season see a points return circa Derbys by next may!

Its ok based on the pre season games I've been to this season scoring from corners won't be happening this season! As for going I'm in the same mind as yourself I think if we perform well against Stoke that will be grounds for optimism :-) Saying that we did well against Stoke both games last season with arguably the worst Saints team in the last 10 years lol

Actually the best (at least first half display) we have played in a veryyyyyy long time! At half time the guy next to me said he was amazed at how well we had played ... you just wouldnt credit it after last season. West ham to my mind put in full effort and got back into it 2nd half purely based on the fact they had like 8 (?) subs wereas we kept on nearly our whole starting 11. Couple of points ... Jake Thompson needs to take his man on more, did this 2nd half and tore through the WH defence easily. Morgan S - What a bargain if he plays that way every game he wont be here long :-( and Svensson looked assured as did Lloyd James who looked much improved from the Celtic game IMO. My only concern would be Surman at left back as he was caught out several times when he had attacked and then not got back ala Skacel last season. Left back in our loan would be nice! All in all really impressed possibly starting to feel like we could be ok this season but Stoke will be the telling game I think!