VectisSaint

Sorry, but the situation with Theo and AOC was very different. AOC couldn't wait to get away and his old man was a total dickhead and was engineering the move for a while. Fortunately we have a shrewd chairman who got a massive payment for such an inexperienced player, a player leaving a club on the up but with no compunction about going. Theo's situation was very very different, but to be fair to Lowe who I usually hate, he was also very shrewd and did a good deal when it was needed, Theo's departure was inevitable given our precarious financial state at the time, and Theo acted with good grace and ensured together with Lowe that we got a tremendous deal given we were only assured of a tribunal fee. Alos, Theo's father was not a **** like Oxo's. Personally I have no bad feeling against Oxo, but I sure do against his skate father.

Totally agree, maybe he has some hidden qualities but on the evidence I have seen there are none. He has no vision and no movement off the ball. Yes, he is quick, but from a flat-footed standing start that does not help. At school we used to play statues, I think he would have won hands down every time. I have never seen a player who so evidently does not seem to know what to do when he does not have the ball, and hasn't much more idea when he does have it. Our game is so much about movement off the ball and finding space, sadly he does not fit into this style in any way, shape or form. I think we have a very strong squad, but for me Jonno really is the weakest link, and as such we have no backup for Lambert.

Only 6 changes from last round though, one of which was enforced, one of which wouldn't have been a change if Chaplow had not been suspended before. We will struggle up front, hope Reeves is up for it because otherwise we will be relying on the statue formerly known as Forte, hopefully NA will have told him that he needs to add movement to his game. So much for Jaidi playing.

Be surprised if the team is much different to the one that played against Swindon, sounds like Jaidi in for Seaborne and maybe Chaplow on from the start instead of Cork (Bart, Richardson, Martin, Jaidi, Harding, Holmes, Spiderman, Chappers, Lallana, Guly & Forte). 7 subs tonight not 5, expect to see at least 3 youngsters on the bench again, hopefully we will be doing better so that we can actually get them on the pitch and not have to rely on bringing Lambert, Hammo and Fonte on again. Personally I would start de Ridder instead of Forte, who quite honestly does not seem good enough for the current team based on his statues impression at the Swindon game.

Their lowest ever attendance at the Emirates for a competitive match. I don't get this "its only the reserves" argument, last round we played 5 regular first teamers including Lallana and had 4 more on the bench 3 of whom played if I recall correctly (Lambert, Hammond & Fonte). Hardly makes it the reserves, in fact was not too far away from what could be a first team if we had a few injuries/suspensions.

Maybe we would get to see Pulis play

I'll be doggone. Did you hear that through the grapevine?

Yep, just 175 miles down the road (compared with 240 from Southampton). Really don't think Newcastle being a bit nearer home that Southampton but still a bloody long way away would be a factor. No way will RL go to Newcastle, and anyway Pardew will probably not be there much longer once the barcodes start playing some decent teams and get found out.

Well there's a first, newspaper prints only facts!!!

Given Richardson was almost OK last week, I don't think he will miss this week as well, and Harding's knock was only minor, in any case almost everyone thought Fox was better *****il they saw him play), so defence is hardly decimated. In fact we could be back to our regular defence, except DS on Sunday.

2 out of 58 for Ostrava, 8 out of 36 for Brest. 13 goals for Ostrava, not bad for MF.

Good to see that at last someone recognised the real point.

He has hardly been a bench warmer since leaving us, 58 appearances for Banik Ostrava (13 goals) and over 30 appearances for Brest, plus 3 full international caps for the Czech Republic, would suggest that as usual Burley was wrong.

My pet hate on Sky (as well as the Beeb and ITV) is that many pundits do not seem to actually know the laws of the game. They think they do and analys/criticise referees and other officials and show complete ignorance of what the laws actually say. Many don't seem to know that free-kicks for handball should only be given if the offence is deliberate, and many really do not know or understand the offside law. Players and supporters alike are then fooled into believing what these pundits say - the TV people have a lot to answer for when it comes to respect for referees and officials. I wonder how many of these so-called experts have ever read the Laws of the game, and would question whether any of them have ever taken a refereeing course, maybe if they did they would understand and respect officials.

I looked it up after I posted, this season the southern section (Football Combination) has 11 teams, including 2 non-league, split into 2 sections, north and south. Bit pathetic really, but reserve team football really does need some proper reorganisation. Even the Northern section is down to about 20 teams. The Premier Reserve league still has 16 teams.

I think its clear that NA knows how to work the cups. It is not as much of a distraction as for some other teams because of the depth of the squad. NA knows he can play several different players and rest some of the recognised 1st XI while still putting out a team strong enough to deal with anything teams from the Football League can throw at us. It also gives some of the players a welcome competitive game wihtout really having to put out the kids. It might be different if we draw a top PL team but otherwise I don't think its incompatible to have a decent League Cup run and continue to battle for promotion.

I sort of see what you are saying, but I don't think it was particularly outstanding. It could have been improved by Kelvin not lumping it, but passing it out from the back in a more controlled way, we got a bit lucky with Lambert winning a coupld of these balls. It was also clear that Forest had completely lost their way by the 90th minute and some of their players were dead on their feet. But fair's fair, in the past Southampton would have backed off and backed off inviting the opposition to attack and our defence would have panicked and conceded a soft goal, thats an area that we clealry have improved massively. It also shows that our fitness levels are now very good that we can still play like this and even threaten from the 90th to the 95th minute. It was interesting when the 4th official put the board up for 5 minutes (where did that come from) that McClaren initially looked delighted, 3 or 4 minutes later he was trying to hide down the tunnel as he saw his side being completely outplayed. Is this the best 5 minutes of football ever? Nah, doesn't even come close, but good stuff nonetheless. Probably not even our best 5 minutes this season to be honest, ask Ipswich.

Last year it was usually referred to as the development squad, but seems to be called the U21s on the OS. In any case, given the matches are all friendlies there are no set rules. Both teams today played several first-teamers. Does the Reserve League still exist? We withdrew a couple of years back, as did some of the PL teams, there seem to be even more teams now not playing competitive reserve team football.

I was quite shocked during, I think, the Wales v South Africa game, they were addressing the Referee as "Sir". Maybe thats what football should do. I don't agree though with the comment that rugby players do not try to cheat, they do freuqently. But rugby also had the sense to introduce citing (I saw it first in Aussie Rules, not sure which came first), so that cheats who get away with it at the time still often get found out later thanks to the TV cameras.

Should you be getting drunk if you have to go to school next day?

Very strange view of Madejski. Tight-fisted he certainly isn't, he is a major benefactor for arts and education, and has taken Reading from a small-time club in a run-down "stadium" to a PL/Champ Club in a nice new stadium. He is still a very wealthy man, self-made of course all from his beginnings with Auto Trader.

Not many would have even seen him play (not sure whether he made total of 4 or 5 appearances for the Skates, depends on the reference source) - so thats 5 appearances watched by perhaps 20 skates (average home crowd?). His first game was home to Manure so not many skates would have seen him that day, only plastic Mancs. Apparently he only ever started 1 league game for the Skates, plus 1 sub appearance.

Don't forget Carroll as well. No wonder the kid has continued to go off the rails with all those angels around as role models (though he was clearly in a lot of trouble before he joined Newcastle or even for that matter before he joined us).

Agreed, but unfortunately I suspect Kelvin is not blessed with a huge amount of what you might call common sense. He is a great shot stopper, no doubt, but his distribution has always been **** (if it wasn't he would probably be playing regular in the Prem), and he is clearly now under orders to play short whenever possible. Actually after I posted I watched the highlights from Forest's player, and note that for the 2nd goal (I think) KD did actually roll the ball out to Cork who set up the goal down the right. Still, we will continue to play it short most of the time, and we should get used to it, on balance it is more often than not the better option, especially when possession is the primary aim.

Think you'll find a lot of people have heard of Pulis, though they may initially be confused with his old man. As for Tommy Fourpast, was highly regarded at Spuds, has not fulfilled the potential that he must have showed, given that he cannot even get a gam in non-league these days.