VectisSaint

"They've got the Japanese lad whose name I can't quite say". It's LEE, quite easy really, even for a scouser. Apparently tried to sign Connolly as well.

Chaplow is the guy with no hair, right? Just making sure we are talking about the same bloke. In that case he was utter ****e in the first half, as were all of the MF except Spiderman. 2nd half I'll grant he was good, but to call the whole performance magnificent is a total joke. He should have been subbed at HT, fortunately I guess NA thought otherrwise. Just because someone runs around a lot does not mean he is magnificaent. His passing, his touch and his vision were all abysmal, perhaps he was still jittery after the morning flight.

Only by younger supporters. Mick is much more of a Saints legend in my eyes, always was, always will be.

Reckon 89 will probably just be enough, but could be more.

I suspect that all three top teams will pick up 6 points this week. But we have the hardest game tomorrow against Ipswich. But if either West Ham or Reading do slip up this week, then we cannot afford to have not taken advantage. Not being melodramatic, just realistic, I can easily see Reading getting to 10 wins on the trot, but probably not much further. It is about confidence and pshychology at the moment. Win the next 2 and stay clear and this will start to play on the minds of the Reading and West Ham players and staff. Dropping points this week while not seeming too critical actually is in the grander scheme, you are right that all teams slip up against opposition they should beat, but I just don't think they will yet. You could be right, fine if they do, I will feel better. At the moment I feel this week is critical.

Given they still have to play each other at least one of them will fail to win all of their remaining games, and hopefully we can beat Reading at SMS. They both still have some tricky games, but expect both to win 8 or 9 of remaining games, and thats what we will have to do as well, just like at the end of last season.

Hopefully the team won't be thinking the same. Ipswich are no mugs, they are in very good form, but make no mistake 6 points this week is a must. If we don't get these then the good work of Saturday is all a waste of time. We desparately need to maintain the pressure on West Ham and Reading this week. We will have some room for manouevre later when they have tougher games, but it is all about confidence and maintaining the gap to Reading. Let them catch us and their tails will be up and we will find it impossible to regain the momentum. Home wins are vital, and Ipswich and Barnsley are 2 that we should get, even if its not pretty. Still having supported Saints for 45 years hstorically these are the games we throw away, so nothing will surprise me.

No it wouldn't make any sense at all. Our only existing loan player is to cover for exacty this position. He had one half a game soon after he came in, looked skilful but easily pushed off the ball. Has been training with the squad now for a few weeks and if needed now is the time to utilise his undoubted skills. Punch should not have been played on the left, even Adkins could see this and was swapping him around yesterday when it was clear it was not working. If we were really stuck I would seriously consider playing Chung in AL's position and having Billy or Guly up front, but from what we are hearing AL may be back on Tuesday anyway.

I would be really disappointed if we only get 1 point against Ipswich, would completely undo all of the good work of the last few weeks. Ipswich are a form team, no doubt and it will not be easy, but it is just as vital to get 3 points on Tuesday as it was to get 3 yesterday. We have to win our home games and pick up at least 6 points from our remaining aways. Likely scenario is that us, West Ham and Reading will win a lot more games this season, and the match between us and Reading will be pivotal. For me it is almost certainly any 2 from that 3 for automatic promotion now, the others are scrabbling for the play-offs and thats the one place where we do not want to end up at any price.

Hence why you are not a football league manager. What an absolute load of garbage, really do despair about some people on here and whether they actually know anything about football at all. Harding is perfectly able to fill in for Fox, indeed the difference between the effectiveness of the two is very small, it is only in the last few games that I think Fox has begun to show what NA saw in him and now I agree he looks marginally better at Harding all round. Harding is a better defender, Fox is better going forward and his set pieces give him an edge. I have no qualms about Dan filling in for Fox. Suspect Fox may miss a couple of games at most anyway. This is why we have a squad, and a huge one at that. Don't think I would recall Dickson even if both were out, clearly he has found his level in Division 3 with Orient - by the way he was subbed after 7 minutes yesterday, so presumably is injured, replaced by Taiwo who was later sent off, and Orient conceded a late goal by Ollie Lancashire.

Write them off at your peril, now the League Cup is out of the way they could finish strongly. Whether Whan draw or lose is largely irrelevant, whcihever result they would still not catch us even with their game in hand. A draw really would also put Cardiff out of the hunt. Draw would be the best result all round, only 2 points shared between rivals, whereas a win for either gives one of them 3 points.

Threesixty referred to first half. Chaplow was absolutely awful first half. Was much better in the 2nd. Just because Chappers runs around a lot does not always make him good. If he had used his brain a bit more early on andslowed it down it would have helped. Morgan was immense yesterday again, some people will probably not agree, likely the same ones who used to think Oakley was crap.

Groin

Super performance by KD today, and also top class by Spiderman who was immense in the middle when all around him were losing their head. RL had one great moment that won the game, but otherwise was off form. Special mention for Chung who as I thought he would played, and set up the winning goal (good cross from Cork as well, although other than that he was ****). Chung must be totally ****ged. We were very fortunate to get 3 points today, because we were frankly rubbish, especially the in the 1st half. Interesting that NA was questioning whether it may have had something to do with the flight up this morning, really do wonder whether flying up morning of game is a good idea. For those who were bemoaning our away form a few weeks ago, we now have the 4th best away record in the league - fine margins between success and failure.

Puncheon & Cork maybe, but Morgan, you have got to be insane.

Surely it has to be 5 words, Kelvin Davis, Ricky Lambert, Chung. We would not be winning if it was just about Kelvin, you have to score to win.

True, you wouldn't want to look stupid would you?

Tufty Club reunion?

One to thank Nigel Pearson for, taking Matty Fryatt to Hull and leaving him there when NP went back to Leicester.

Will they actually have any players left soon? Or at least enough to fulfil fixtures? There are 19 shown on their web site now, including 2 keepers, and some of those are injured. Do they still have some yoofs who could be played? I don't actually wish liquidation on them, but it really is looking more and more likely that they will fold very soon, maybe even before we get to play them

I suspect that it is also mathematically impossible for us to finish 17th but can't be arsed to check.

Really, you think this is better than the first few seasons in Division 1 with Channon, Davies, Paine, Sydenham and so on. Sure we got tonked a few times but we also were exciting to watch and could beat top teams on our day. I agree we weren't as professional then, but boy we were certainly more exciting then. What about the squad that got us promoted after the FA Cup win, very comparable. Then again in the Keegan era that squad was arguably the best ever, with quality throughout. I wouldn't put the Le Tiss era squads in the same category because frankly the rest of the squad was not in the same league as Le Tiss. Still can't argue that its great to see us winning and being very professional on and off the field. For pure excitement though, no.

Ships is definitely not "Saints fit".

Have to say I wouldn't have backed it based on form, but might have had a punt if I'd known based on sentiment.

Will be good news if this is finally resolved. In simple terms it is impossible to copyright facts, and fixtures are simply facts. You can really only copyright where creativity is involved, so you could copyright the design or layout of fixtures. But the PL and FL seem to be trying to copyright their database. It is a nonsense though and the EU Courts have said as much. Very unlikely that the English courts will go against this ruling. Hopefully common sense will prevail against the money-grabbing PL/FL.