VectisSaint

Neither is Fox

Interesting though that we are not making use of Steve Davis for corners, he does a lot of them for NI.

The difference is that you don't get a bunch of cloggers in the PL, the standard of play is better, better timed tackles means players can work with the ball instead of being scared of getting broken legs. That said there are still some awful tackles. Compliment to MS yesterday was that he was targeted by Manure for some special treatment, with some serious, professional tackles to try to slow him down, they were very clear who was bossing MF yesterday, and as usual the awful ref missed some if not all.

Same people who used to say similar things about Matt Oakley. People who know nowt about football.

Morgan was MOTM, and that deffo includes RvP. Even without his goal he would have been MOTM. Absolutely brilliant breaking up play, so many tackles won and then setting the play on its way often with a simple pass. Was completely responsible for the first goal, even though someone else (Punch?) will get the assist. You can always tell when someone if bossing midfield when the opposition start targeting him and taking him out, pity the excuse for the ref missed one or two of those, I imaging Morgan's ankles will be black & blue in the morning. Thought Punch was excellent today as well.

Not today it wasn't. It was against Wigan though. After we went 2-1 up today the ground was really rocking like I had never heard it before, apart from perhaps against the Skates. BTW just because the Muftis sound like they're from Manchester means nothing, I could put on a Manc accent reasonably easily, or at least what would sound like one.

Don't think the Liebherr's have much influence at Sky.

We don't technically have to wait until Christmas. Wouldn't surprise me to see a free agent or two arriving before then. Think it was blindingly obvious we needed a LB, and claerly NA thought so too, hence going for Buttner and leaving the 3 shirt vacant. Most people also thought KD was a weak link. Have to see about CBs, we have brought one in, so maybe we will be OK there.

No, RvP was not the best player on the pitch, still find it hard to believe that the **** scored a hat-trick. Morgan was outstanding today, even without his goal, Punch was a close second.

This is a very good assessment. The only thing missing was the appalling referee, how officials like that get near professional football, let alone the PL is beyond me. I'm not talking about the penalty, but all the fouls and other things (corner) he completely missed, can only assume Fergie bunged him a wedge.

Just got back, have to agree the subs cost us the game today. The only change needed was to take Lambert off, easy to do, replace like for like with J-Rod. Lambert was knackered and so were Rio & Vidic, a fresh pair of legs and we could even have scored a third. Taking Lallana off was down right stupid. I would have brought Chung on for 5 minutes if we were still winning.

2 of our 3 new signings are not available. Only Mayuka can play and hopefully will. Ramirez signed too late, and Yoshida does not yet have an entry permit and is away with Japan (as far as I can tell he he not even been to Southampton yet unless we got him down here unofficially during the Olympics). Not sure we will even see these two start against Arsenal as they will only have been back with the squad for a couple of days to quote NA.

My mistake, the game is in Japan, not Iraq. The game in Iraq is next June.

Where does Spudgun say anything about terrible performances with Pardew? No-one seriously still believes Pardew was sacked for footballing reasons, do they? Pardew was good for us, but he really wasn't the greatest tactician, I guess you were not at Swindon (away). Quite honestly if NC fires Adkins in October/November I'm not sure I would call that trigger happy, 2 years is a long time in football management these days.

Disagree completely, whenever he played he was an excellent backup, no-one ever said he should be first choice ahead of Jos or Jose, but he is a darn sight better than Seaborne. With experience and coaching will be part of squad in the future I am sure. Needs experience, and some experience around him, probably not the best choice to go to Palace who are very poor this season, and if they are playing him out of position (which is right side of centre) then why is anyone surprised?

No entry permit as yet, hasn't even been to Southampton as far as I can tell, hence nothing much on the OS. Will join up when he returns from Iraq.

The youngsters hardly ever get a mention on here any more. Good to see they are top of the U18s league after 3 games with 3 wins. Perhaps we will see Gazza coming on as an outfield player for last few minutes against Utd tomorrow to win some headers, like the U18s keeper. Interesting new tactic.

See post below, Drogba is apparently not free agent: http://www.itv.com/sport/football/ar...orts-nonsense/

I think Drogba can play CB actually, but I don't think he's a free agent. But we wouldn't want him because he has a poor attitude.

Swindon played like Barcelona (apparently), many teams struggle against Barca.

You can say what you want about possession and Wigan, fact was they were awful last week. Only thing they had was clinical finishing, twice, and even one of those was a gift when it really didn't matter. They may be reasonably well organised in defence but they were woeful. Trouble is we were even worse.

There were a lot of empties in the Itchen/Chapel corner. But we do suffer from having the away supporters behind the goal at the Northam end when the away team has shocking support like Wigan. The TV picks up huge empty areas and the casual TV viewer/Merson assumes its our lack of support. I think this season there will be a general drop in attendances, not just a Saints issue. Prices for games are getting really silly. I'm actually surprised we got 29k for Wigan, I bet if it had been in November we would have struggled to get 26k.

Jersey, I was wondering about a nice new cardie or perhaps a tank-top. Do people really still refer to football shirts as jerseys outside the USA? I actually prefer guernseys like they wear in Aussie Rules.

Michael Owen - still without a club, and Heskey as well, mouth watering prospects.

Steve and Kelvin Davis and, oh well who cares :-) 3 Olympic players, several other internationals and plenty of experience in decent European Leagues (Italy, Holland & Switzerland), oh and Scotland (LOL - Fox, Hooiveld & Davis). Adkins has experience of managing and winning in the Premier League (the Welsh one). OK, in fact Butterfield, Puncheon, Fox and Richardson have also played (briefly) in the PL. We should also take into account that Adam, Rickie and several others now have PL experience (2 apps).