VectisSaint

Can't see why he would get into the TOTD, but he wasn't as bad as some on here are trying to make out. I was at the game yesterday and in the first half his left footed inswinging crosses from deep put their dodgy keeper under pressure on several occassions and nearly resulted in goals, if someone had been on hand to follow up for a tap-in. He was also badly clattered and was down for a longish time which probably didn't help. He was given some awfu passes mainly by Chaplow as well. Tyson gave him a bit of a run around early on but once he was out of the picture Harding was comfortable. There was one mix-up with Fonte in the 1st half which was down to bad communication, and as mcuh Fonte's fault as Harding's. Sadly some people on here do have a bit of an agenda when it comes to Harding, in the end NA would still prefer his professionalism and experience to that of the backup right backs we have in tne squad.

Forte, Lambert (2), Chaplow, Lallana, Schneiderlin, De Ridder (3), Holmes and Connolly have all scored for Saints this season after coming on as subs in various games before yesterday. Odd that apart from Lambert's goal against Millwall the last goa scored by a sub was against Coverntry at the start of November.

Do you get closets in caravans? I have no problem with Claridge, is very fair to Southampton, and often complimentary. Would rather listen to him any day than the muppets who are usually on MotD. He is at least a genuine footballer who carried on playing as long as he could because he loved it rather than for the money and taking the easy way out and retiring "early" to become a pundit like the Slug Balancer and Hanson.

Actually he did a lot more than that, linking up several times on the left with Lallana and Fox. He wasn't great but he certainly deserved more than a 4, maybe 6. Was much better than Chaplow, who couldn't do a thing right in the first half, and quite frankly apart from his energy was appalling. Better in the 2nd half before being replaced, but has some way to go before he is back to where he was before his injury. Still its a measure of how good we were yesterday that we can give Chaplow game time to get back to match fitness and even though he was poor we still bossed the midfield.

Any chance we could get his name right? His name is Chung, not Chun. Not difficult.

Chung, brilliant, long time since i've seen as good a goal at sms. Love his attitude, think we have a new star in the making. Lallana back to his best. Jos awesome. Morgan absolutely ran things in mf. Sharp was anything but, good tactical switch to bring on Chung. Only downside for me was Chaplow in 1st half, looked very rusty, touch awful, but he will get back to his best no doubt. Question now is, who is backup keeper, clearly not Frazer. I reckon its Chung.

Actually you weren't the only one that thought this, it occurred to me as well. I thought that not only would it be a nice gesture but boy would it **** the skates off. Still now they are in Admin they should be able to pay for it themselves.

Agreed. Don't have a season ticket but was given Final 10 tickets (for me and daughter), Friday evening is a fecking nightmare, another half day off work. Also screws up daughter's birthday, she was looking forward to going to the footy on her birthday, then out for dinner afterwards.

Will be interesting to see if Richardson is out on Saturday whether Bart will be on the bench. If not then it would imply that our backup keeper is not Frazer (I suspect its actually Chung)

Could we not just go back to considering Spurs as our rivals. When I first starting going to the Dell. Spurs were our rivals, and were much hated, while Pompey (not Skates) were our friends and neighbours along the coast. Never considered them rivals at the time, but hated Spurs with a vengeance (even though I actually supported them when I was a little kid before I ever went to a real match). I don't know where that rivalry came from but I always assumed it had started in the Southern League days (before my time I hasten to add) when them and us were the top dogs.

Apparently he is either known for recording high scores in classic video games or he is a fictional character in East Enders (so technically does not exist). So, none the wiser, certainly don't think he is famous, even remotely. I once met Martin Chivers at Highbury, he had broken his leg after ho joined Spuds and was sitting in the stand. I spoke to him and he autographed my programme. If I knew when he broke his leg I could work out how old I was, I would guess about 14.

This. I thought this was about famous people.

Sadly a case of one of the brightest prospects never really being able to make the grade as expected. His early career (before saints) showed he was being considered as one of the hottest prospects around, you really don't get to be England U19 skipper if you are "not good enough", and to make your pro debut when 15 shows he was probably in the same class as Oxo or Walcott. Seemed to lose his way a little at Derby (coincidence that Burley was manager?) and then to come into the Agent Orange set up at Saints was probably a disaster for his career, compounded of course by serious injury. I suspect his injury has meant that he has lost some of his pace, and in his position that is a fundamental issue. He needs games now to get back to full fitness, and probably needs to consider more of a central midfield role, rather than a winger. Will never make it at Saints now assuming we go up, but really is still perfectly able in the Championship for a mid-table team. Nice bloke, wish him well, but not a long-term prospect for Saints.

Apart from the fact Richardson was injured. Punch has been lively as well.

Why are Solent saying Probert is from the Isle of Wight? He lives up here in Wiltshire and comes from Gloucester way. Surely they would not appoint an IW ref for Saints would they, he would either be a Saint or a Skate :-)

Then long may it continue. Adkins is a better keeper than Tommy Fourpast will ever be. Fact is that not having a keeper on the bench is worth the risk. What's the worst that can happen? Davis gets injured early in game and we lose the game. 3 points. Not the end of the world. Number of times keeper has come off the bench in last 4 or 5 years is certainly less than 5, probably twice? If it happens late in game and we are winning, chances are we will still win, a decent bit of defending from the front and kicking for touch should ensure that. I think its a risk worth taking, at least for a few games. And if we really do have someone in the squad who can stand between the sticks with some semblance of skill then whats the issue? Unless of course the back-up keeper gets injured or sent-off.

The defence I was watching at close quarters yesterday was very shaky for a few minutes early in the second half against a team with virtually no attacking menace (glad we did not sign J-Rod on that performance). Stood firm? Don't think so, forgot what they were doing for a while and looked panicky (sp?). But not trying to be too critical, just saying that for a while we were bringing trouble onto ourselves for no good reason.

Good point, I was remarking about this during the game but forgot in my post. We should always have an outlet, it is basic stuff, time and again yesterday 11 in or around the box, no-one to relieve pressure and to keep oppo defenders busy.

To be fair for the first 15 minutes or so of the 2nd half yesterday they had a right to be saying this. We were very guilty of fannying around at the back and letting Burnley come on to us, and our defenders were guilty of some awful passing. There are times when pssession is very important and its good to see us playing it short and looking for openings, and there are other times when a better tactic is to boot the ball as far away from our goal as you possibly can. We were under pressure at the bginning of the 2nd half when Burnley were giving it a go, and for a while our defence looked very suspect/shaky. First half I thought our performance was about as good as it gets, and we looked good again last 10 minutes or so. I expected Puncheon to replace Guly at half-time, Guly was the 11th best player in the 1st half (11th best of a top performance) and I thought JP would add something even more. Guly was however much better in the 2nd half, conversely when most others dropped their high level of performance and on balance I think Guly had a good game. Good to see Lallana back to his best, thought he was outstanding in the 1st half, and thats saying something wheneveryone was outstanding. I think the main difference yesterday compared to previous few home games, was that we came out and started at a high tempo again, much as we did at the start of the season. We never gave Burnley a chance to settle, and they did not get into our faces and stop our game. I also wonder whether we play better when kicking towards the Chapel, unsually we did this 1st half yesterday, whereas other games recently we have kicked towards the Chapel in the 2nd half after a poor performance in the 1st half. I would like to know whether we chose to change ends yesterday, or whether Burnley chose ends. All in all good result, great first half, my main criticism is that I wish we had gone for the jugular a bit more 2nd half, I think we could have scored 5 or 6 yesterday but it seemed like we weren't too bothered about getting some more goals to excite the crowd and warm us up on a bitterly cold day.

Lallana made his debut against Yeovil in the League Cup in 2006, we won 5-2. I remember it well, only competitive Saints game my missus has ever been to. The game above was 3 days later.

Really wonder about some people who post on here. Still half-term next week, hopefully your child-minder will ensure that you don't have any accidents...

I have no clue what this means.

One of many bad things about modern football. Before subs were allowed (or when only one was allowed) an outfield player would take over from an injured keeper, there were always players who were reasonably competent between the sticks and the chances were it happened in the last few minutes anyway. Still, it would have been a problem in the Cup Final in Cardiff when Niemi was injured. It means that 50% of professional keepers hardly play a competitive game all season, and some good keepers sit on their arses week after week. Makes more sense in many ways to just have a kid with a pair of gloves than a decent keeper. BUt given only 3 subs are allowed then really there is not much to be gained by having a keeper warming the bench, if you can't cover 3 players from 4 then there is something wrong.

Saints to sign European Player of the Year. Oh sorry that wasn't a rumour, it actually happened.

He's been the best player over the last 2 games (certainly best in 1st half of Cardiff game), but really that isn't saying very much because the whole team has been average in those games. He is clearly not match fit, hence his replacement in 2nd half of both matches, but he has showed that he can make things happen. Has not made a tangible difference to any results so far. Will be interesting to see his progress or otherwise in the next few games when there are other options available. Never liked him and didn't want him back but have to say his performances are clearly turning me into a Bible basher (if thats what accepting that a player might be better than I thought means).