VectisSaint

Common and decency, never thought I would see those 2 words in the same sentence as Rupert Lowe.

Tea leaves

I will be very surprised if 6th actually do achieve 82 points. The fact is that between now and end of season the top 6 have to play each other several times and someone will drop points. It is a strange thing this season that almost every week all the fixtures seem to be top 8 v bottom half for weeks on end, and it is clear that there are 8 or 9 teams who are head and shoulders above the rest of the division (at least on a level playing surface) That said, we still will not get anywhere near 6th place, 8th would be the result of a very good run-in.

Hoping Arry gets a lot more than 18 months, and Mandic and Storrie Teller as well. What has AP done to warrant getting 18 months? Didn't even know he had been arrested.

Problem is that we are not better than any of the teams above us (except Charlton). We may be 7th best or even 2nd best, but with a 19 point gap this doesn't help. Even if we had had as good a run as Norwich we would still be 7 points behind Huddersfield, admittedly with 2 games in hand. Agreed we haven't been doing bad, but "not bad" is not good enough to get into the play-offs. The remote possibility of achieving this disappeared completely at St James Park Cabbage Patch.

Talk about clutching at straws. Even if one did go into Admin we would still need to be within 10 points of them, given Huddersfield are 19 points above us and Millwall 15, all of the Top 7 could go into admin and it would help us not a jot. I do wish people would accept that we have zero chance of making the play-offs this season. Nothing to do with last night, the Exeter game was the final straw (not just because we drew but also because everyone else won).

The reality set in after the Exeter game for me. This is not just based on us, but also the reality that the rivals for 6th spot (Swindon then, but no longer, Huddersfield and Millwall) were also in form and continuing to win more often than not and also win more often than us. Even if we were to have gone on a brilliant run, we would still not overhaul the team in 6th. In my view we will do very well indeed to finish 8th, I believe 9th is more realistic. I actually hope that we don't get to less than 10 points from the play-offs, otherwise I will be ****ed off that we missed out because of RL's ridiculous decision to delay administration.

Actually the real consistent thing in all of those years (don't quite get to 50 yet) is that we have nearly always always suffered when the heavy pitchs come along in Jan/Feb.

League season was over when we drew with Exeter. Anyone who actually thinks otherwise is in dreamland. We will finish 8th at best, more likely 9th

Norwich losing

But why 9 instead of 10? They play 8 games less in the Prem, so 7 or 8 would make more sense. On the other hand as its Pompey it should be 99

Lets hope we get to the Premier League soon, and get to play at Wigan. Nothing to do with L1, its more to do with egg-chasers sharing pitches.

I didn't see it that way. We stunned Pompey by equalising and went for the win when we got back to 1-1, and frankly we looked at that stage like we could achieve that. Lets face it anyway a draw was no good to anyone, it was a case of **** or bust. I admired AP's attitiude against Pompey, he was going for the win which at that point we would have richly deserved, because we were by far the better side up to then. OK, they got another goal, and then we had a goal disallowed, this was a great cup match end-to-end exciting stuff with both teams going for a result. It didn't turn out quite right for us, and eventually we threw the kitchen sink at it by taking off Perry. Going hell for leather in a cup game when you have a genuine chance to win is the right thing to do, in fact I think we should have done more. Still football's about opinions. Like almost everyone else there is nothing about the Pompey game that concerns me at all, and I am very satisfied with what AP has done with the new signings, the evidence from the norwich game is that AP has indeed addressed the problem area. We'll see a bit more tonight.

Tim, not going to insult you, thats just silly, but I am still perplexed by your attitude to the Pompey game which you have repeated here again. You seem to have a problem that we were chasing the game when we were behind. Do you really think we should have sat back and tried to defend a 1-2 defeat. If so then really its not worth continuing to have a sensible debate. If it was a League game and goal difference might have some impact then perhaps you would have a point. But in a cup game there is no logic behind sitting back and trying to avoid conceding more goals. The problem you seme to have is that you are embarrased because Pompey ended up putting 4 goals past us. You need to get over this, the issue was not Pompey, this was a cup game and we were trying to win. If this had been Arsenal or Manure would you have this problem? No. Of course it hurts to have lost 4-1 to Pompey, but take a look at the bigger picture, we were already losing, and had nothing more to lose and everything to gain by going all out for an equaliser. Personally at 1-2 or eve 1-3 the right tactic would have been to take another defender off and put on another striker or midfielder and go all out. Why didn't KD go up for the corners near the end and try to head in a goal. Playing defensively in a cup game to try to save face is not a tactic that any true football team would entertain in my humble opinion. Lets hope we continue tonight in the same vain as Saturday and no late goals are conceded that have any bearing on the result. Now we have the best available team (barring injuries) I expect to see the problem that you have being addressed, and the team being professional enough to shut out our opponents when we have an advantage. Peace and love

Laughed at the little article in the Sunday Express rag yesterday (Page 118 "Still hope for Saints") that inferred that Saints might be reinstated if Pompey are liquidated on 1st March. (1) Pompey will not be liquidated (they may well go into Admin) and (2) we would not be reinstated under any circumstances other than a finding that they fielded an illegible player or broke some other competition rule. It is quite simple if they were unable to fulfil the fixture Birmingham would be awarded a walkover, but it ain't gonna happen, and quite frankly anyone who wishes this on even our deadliest rivals is a little bit sick, it wasn't so long ago the boot was on the other foot. In any case, I would not want Saints to be reinstated under any circumstances. we lost, end of. Now the cup run is over (and I enjoyed it while it lasted) I wouldn't want us to have to now consider playing against Birmingham.

He'd be an even better lad if he wasn't a regular. Don't think professional athletes should be drinking regularly.

Wigan aren't in a lower league though (although they should be with the level of support they can muster)

Just a minor point but surely thats 12 from 8, not 10 from 8 isn't it? Not a huge difference but nevertheless.

We have 10 home games after Tuesday, so away games are not such a factor as if we had 10 away games still to come.

Sorry but I think you are mistaken. I am100% sure Connolly would be in the team if fully fit and available. You can take his quote several ways, but I would think he meant strongest available, and first time he has been able to play his strongest available side. Murty would be in the team if available, though it seems quite clear to me that he won't be coming back from injury.

Its a pipe dream. We lost the chance when we failed to beat Exeter and other results went against us. The only possible chance is to overhaul Huddersfield, forget the others they are gone. I guess if we win our 2 games in hand and beat Huddersfield it could be on again, but highly unlikely. Huddersfield have a tough run-in, with 5 of the top 6 plus us to play, so they could be vulnerable. So if you believe in miracles I guess you could carry on dreaming a while longer but in my opinion it won't happen (but of course I'll be over the moon if it does)

He was injured yesterday, so you don't know this is the case. AP played the strongest 11 he had available.

The original poster asked whether AP should now rest Lambert for a complete game. That is the idea that is nonsnse. Subbing him 15 minutes from the end when we are 3-0 up is a different matter, and would be something most managers would consider. Unfortunately it hasn't happened too often to give AP that luxury. With all our attacking force it still surprises me that we have yet to give any team a complete tonking.

It was the top 11 players he had available. I don't know if he would have picked the same team if Connolly and James had been fit, perhaps, perhaps not. Personally I think Connolly is class, and would be the first name on the team sheet if fit, I believe he is a major factor in the downturn in form we suffered until recently, along with the loss of Hammond. James, not so sure, but given Ap picked him for every game until very recently I would suspect that James is still very much part of AP's plans. I'm ignoring Murty as I think it is quite clear that he will not play for us again (at least this season). Apart from this, then yes it is probably the best team. That said it is great that we can name a bckup team that still looks at least decent for this level on paper. I think we now have a very strong squad with good replacements in every position if needed.

If that was a main match then highlights would have been non-existent. Wish I hadn't stayed up now.