VectisSaint

Right now I'd be happy to see Brett Ormerod back for the rest of the season and Matt Oakley in MF in place of Dozy Hammond.

Depends, it is more important how many we have won, since turning draws into wins is more benficial than the disbenefit of turning draws into losses (+2 points against -1). Last season we won 23 of 46 league games, exactly half. This season so far we have won 15 of 31, i.e. 48%. However if we win 8 of our remaining 15, which is beyond the realms of possibility, we will have won 23 again. Probably be 5 or 6 points less than last season at the end, but then every team at the top apart from Brighton will end up with less points this season than last, the top 6 last term were far more consistent than this. We will probably end up with net more points than last season (taking into account the 10 point penalty) and so will (probably) finish in a high position. So maybe that will be progress, especially as 1 place higher than last season would mean we would at least be in the play-offs. Do I think we are better this season than last? No, probably not, we seem to have a bunch of players who think that all they have to do is turn up and we will win, they need a good kick up the arse. The team are not clicking and the manager needs to sort that. We played poorly against Swindon and won 4-1, we evidently played well agaist Walsall and lst 1-0, something ain't right.In the end though I am still reasonably confident that if we win against the top teams (B&B) we will still go up.

We still owe them big time for 1900, bastards

What we probably need is to get Murty (or Dodd) out on the pitch and take the armband from Hammond (and preferably leave him out of the team altogether). Murty in place of Butters, drop Hammond and move Butters to MF unless Morgan is fit. Guly for Barnard, jobs a good 'un.

Why would Tommy be on the bench when he is on loan at Eastbourne and we have Shea?

They also have the 2nd worst defence, even before yesterday. Approx 1 in 3 of their away goals this season came from Austin, without his contribution they really are toothless unless the lad from Leeds does well. Comparing them now with how they were before 28 January is not really relevant. They are in free-fall and look certainties for relegation unless another 2 or 3 teams go into admin.

Sulus est in omnibus

Think this is spot-on. The scoreline flattered us, it made a very average performance look good. For long periods in the first half we were frankly appalling, passes going astray, players not competing or looking like they were asleep, Hammond in particular looked like he had just fallen out of bed, completely dozy. For a few minutes before and just after Swindon equalized we were rocking, our defence was all over the place and Davis was very lucky with a ball that fizzed right across the goal and only needed a feint touch to go in. Adkins pt Spiderman on (instead of Chappers, whereas I would have brought off Mr Dozy) and thinks changed quite quickly afterwards, MS took control of the midfield. Two quick goals killed the game and made it look like a walk in the park. Swindon are currently very very poor, yet they could have won it, those who think yesterday was good are kidding themselves. We won 4-1, hit the post twice and had another disallowed for offside, but in the end we really weren't very good. We played far better against Peterborough, much more pace, slick passing and threat, difference was that Posh had good players up front to punish us.

Morgan made a huge difference, though personally I would have taken Hammond off who was having a mare up to that point, looked completely dozy. After MS came on Hammond did improve markedly.

The team that was on the pitch before the AOC/Gobern switch is our best team, although on yesterday's performance I would have had Chaplow over Hammond. Hammond was completely dozy first half, 2nd to every challenge and not aware of what was happening around him. Improved 2nd half once Morgan came on and took control of the MF.

Was in Block 4, no noise at all from the Northam, and Swindon were very loud. One of the major problems of having a split end, whole of Northam should be Saints, with away supporters in the Itchen or Kingskand corner.

You are joking, right? Before the game, 1st half and until they went 3-1 down they were very impressive with their vocal support. OK after that they were like church mice as they sneaked out hoping not to be seen, all the tractors had gone from the car park before the final whistle.

The Northam was like a morgue yesterday (or perhaps more like the Chapel). Completely out sung by a bunch of moonrakers. Really wondered what was the problem, had word got around about Deano? 2nd half was a bit better. Swindon supporters were right yesterday when they were singing to us "your support is ****". Sorry if this offends anyone but sometimes the truth hurts, it was quite embarrassing to have about 20k supporters sitting in almost silence. Nothing wrong with the numbers, just the atmosphere and the singing. I don't recall one sustained "OWTSGMI".

Is there any other sort?

Just back from the game, very sad news. Never heard anything at the ground (was in the Itchen/Northam corner) or on the radio on the way back , perhaps this is why everything seemed rather subdued.

For some of us who happen to work in or live near Swindon this is one of the biggest games of the season. You don't have to put up with the yokels day in day out.

Assuming its based on competitive matches only I don't think Messrs Pulis & Forecast will feature.

I think the point is that was probably the greatest team goal ever. There are goals where an individual does something spectacular (MLT several times) but this was a goal worked by the majority of the team, working from the back, with great first touches and movement. One of the most impressive aspects was David Armstrong's involvement and movement from box to box. In the end Micky had what could almost be described as a tap in.

Hardly a personal attack, as you say yourself "it could well be interpreted by some as a bit of an attack". A "bit of an attack", hardly a feud is it? It contains no vitriole, only a bland statement that he will not be influenced by these people. If this is the only evidence of a feud, then I stand full square behind my previous statement.

But if you take this to its logical conclusion this means that you cannot judge a chairman until he is no longer the chairman. I think you can judge a chairman at interim periods as well, most companies would judge the chairman based on annual results (some short-sighted companies judge their chairman quarterly). There were clearly times under Lowe when we would have judged him in a positive way, indeed he really only became a bad chairman after the Cardiff jaunt, when he completely lost his marbles. Before that time there were many positives and perhaps not so many negatives.

You're absolutely right Benji. In fact I would go further, I don't actually see any evidence of a feud. A feud is "a long-running argument or fight between parties". So far I have only seen evidence of one "party" having a problem, ergo no feud exists. But then of course I am a Cortese Luvvy so I would think that wouldn't I?

Interesting and very unusual use of the words "enjoy" and "Alpine" in the same sentence

There is a lot of misunderstanding about our run-in

The plus side is that Lallana was out for several weeks but missed less games than he would have done if games had not been called off. Spiderman should also be fit and DC is also apparently fit agian after a hernia op. I think that means we have a fully fit squad apart from Bart who we have replaced temporarily anyway. Doubt many other teams who have played the extra games have a fully fit squad and one of such depth as ours. All teams should be more than capable of playing twice per week at this stage in the season, especially those who have had more rest recently. Incidentally currently we only have 5 "double game weeks", but I suspect that some fixtures are still to be rearranged, including Rochadal of course. When you look at that the backlog is not that significant.

People do strange things on Live TV, maybe he thought he was on Big Brother.