VectisSaint

Did Adkins go defensive? Did Stoke come out and play very differently in the 2nd half after a hair dryer half time from Pulis. Some people seem to forget that a football match includes 2 teams. We were dominant in the 1st half, but Stoke were also appalling (nevertheless they should have had 2). Anyone who cannot see some positives from yesterday really should hang their head in shame, we battered Stoke for 45 minutes, playing them at their own game. 3 goals scored at the Britannia, only 4 goals conceded in their previous 11, I really do wonder about some of our (Arsenal) supporters.

Ill-advised to leave Saints, as a Saints supporter that is what I think. Maybe you think otherwise. He was advised to leave too soon as soon as the £££s were on the table, money isn't everything, believe it or not.

Don't buy this fitness thing. He was still full of running after 102 minutes yesterday and is the only player that we have that is able to hold the ball up, something we will definitely need. I would be staggered if NA drops him to the bench against the Arse. I also hope that we don't get Fox back in, would be a disaster if we have him up against Oxo (assuming Theo plays as striker as this seems to be his position now).

Claus was the same, but never stopped him being played. I hate smoking and agree no professional sportsman should smoke, but in reality it makes little difference at his age, and is of less consequence to a goalkeeper than an outfield player. Many footballers smoke, they also drink heavily, not good but really should not be a factor for a fit young (compared with me) footballer.

Can only assume you mean Mr Mark Chamberlain, if so I could live with that, assuming he is at the game. Booing Mr Oxlade-Chamberlain would be a different matter, no reason to boo him, just because he was ill-advised by his Skate dad.

Wow, one of Gazza's biggest pluses over KD is his distribution. The fact that he actually gives it to one of our players and doesn't kick into touch like KD usually does for a start. KD used to have one strong point, his shot stopping. Well, I think even that is now a bit suspect, 2nd goal yesterday was a dolly and he let it squirm through his hands (sorry don't buy the unsighted argument, if he was unsighted why did h get his hands round the ball).

Happy New Year Alpine. Thank you for one of the funniest posts I have ever seen. Sorry I was a bit late getting to it. Love it.

Glad someone else noticed it. I'm not 100% convinced, very difficult to tell, but the more I see it the more I think he controlled it with his right arm. Still what goes around comes around, Fonte's handball was nailed on, and he would have been red carded. Yoshi's was so straight forward, not deliberate imo. Davis is awful, flapping again, lets hope his little injury is not too insignificant and NA has to choose Artur.

Unless you were one who said this, I don't know why you even care. Did you say this? Have you been back and edited your post to try to cover your embarrassment? Lighten up, its Christmas. Perhaps you get embarrassed about people wearing Santa costumes as well, or cringe when Sammy Saint does the Gangnam Style thing. Happy New Year.

The Lambert out movement is a figment of your imagination, a bit like the Cult of Cortese. Doesn't get away from the fact that a number of people were seriously suggesting that Lambert was past it, too slow and should be dropped, especially for the Stoke game.

6-3 now. & would make their goal diff the same as ours, and also equal our goals conceded. They are deffo being sucked in.

Unlikely that they will have changed things much by 12th January, most January business is done on the 31st.

38 or 39 should be enough this season, because of the way the bottom few teams have played so far (including us). Shame we didn't get 3 today as that would have put us exactly half way there. We just need to improve on our first half season haul by 4 points and we will be OK. Despite some disappointment today we are back in touching distance of everyone up to 12th, just need the Arse to do the business against Newcastle today, shame Ba just equalised.

Feck me I wish people would understand it is "top drawer" (sorry Trousers not aimed at you but the Solentsport tweety ****).

Bonus point, we really should not have expected anything today, shame we did not hold on to lead, but if you had asked me before the game I would have taken a point. There was at least one poster predicting 0 points from this and the following 4 games. Scoring 3 at Stoke, when they had only conceded 4 in previous 11 is fecking amazing, just a shame I have the Stoke keeper in my Sun Dream Team.

There were some who were saying it, for sure. They are probably editing their posts right now LOL

And there were quite a few on here who suggested he was crap and should be dropped.

Might be something to do with the 4 goals conceded all season at home. I guess we could expect a 0-0, but then we don't keep a clean sheet too often.

Nothing to do with Adkins. There has nearly always been a preference for the side CBs play, Claus and Killer for instance. Still I gather than Yoshi is able to play on the right as well, although based on his right foot kicking I would be a bit concerned.

Well that's good to know, although he seems not to be able to kick the ball too well with his right foot.

True, much like Adkins has a great eye for a keeper.

Sounds good, but this would mean we would end up with 4 left sided CBs (counting Seaborne) and 1 right-sided. I think Fonte has been very good this season after the first couple of games, but it concerns me what would happen if he was injured or suspended. We would have to play one of our left-sided CBs out of position - it might work but seems a big risk. Without Martin as backup we are very exposed in this position.

How is Boruc more experienced than KD? 295 apps cf 560 for KD, and half of Boruc's apps were for Celtic in the Noddy League. That said I would rather he played than KD who makes me nervous every time the ball gets near him, and whose kicking is woeful.

He lost all credibility a long time ago, he is a troll and has hooked good and proper. The sooner he is banned the better. His references to the m**gboard are still as offensive as ever, even though he is top m**g, yet little is done.

8 seasons, 320 games in the top flight, that's 40 per season. Matt may have played in 16 seasons in the top flight but he only made just over a hundred more appearances (443), about 27 a year. In Paine's 18 seasons playing for Saints he played more than 40 times in 15 of those seasons, and apart from his first season when he played 9 times he never played less than 36 in a season. When you consider the way the game was played in those days that is phenomenal. Matt was a great player, but he could have been so much more if he had looked after himself properly. As I said before our best ever signing was Ted Bates. Without him signing from Norwich as a player, nothing that has happened since would have happened and we may never hav made it to the top flight.