VectisSaint

Thank you for providing a potted history of each of the players mentioned, I am so thankful to learn such information. Doesn't change what I said in response to your original groundless remark, money talks and players (most) will go where the money is. If Mr Scotland is different then good luck to him, but I bet if we offered him the right deal he would be tempted. Wigan don't pay big money, I agree we probably wouldn't land Gerrard (well Steven anyway) but there are run of the mill prem players who would still be prepared to drop down to further their careers. And who's to say we will not be only one level down within 5 months?

Why not? Connolly has, and David Healy is reportedly keen to rejoin Leeds. If the money is reasonable many players will play at whatever level that money takes them, and many see Saints (or Leeds) as a decent place to go at present. Ask Fonte about dropping down as well, doesn't seem to have any qualms about it.

We could offer more if they will take Pulis as well

Goo dresult, but could have been better, we should have been at least 2 up by half-time. Ref was terribly inconsistent, but unfortunately got Morgan's sending off spot on, straight red for pushing in the face. Of course the MK bloke should have gone as well, but there can be no complaints about Spiderman. Ref missed the penalty shout, I thought there was another handball missed as well. Thought Fonte looked absolute class, what a signing he should turn out to be. The game seemed a bit pedestrian to me, was the pitch really heavy or something, difficult to tell on the TV. Was urprsied how their players got away with murder (Gleeson was it, the red faced little *****, got away with all sorts all night). Funny really that I thought we out-niggled an Ince team, really got to them in the 1st half, great closing down, never let them settle. Still we nearly threw it away. Same old Saints - looking forward to the 2nd leg, got tickets today, just hope we can get down there for 7pm kick-off, what a ****ing stupid time to start a football match on a weekday.

Community Service orders I imagine

Maybe it will happen, but unless the transfer embargo is lifted I think they will at least still be going down...

Seems quite clear to me, Pardew and O'Driscoll have not been involved, but Cortese made an enquiry to the Donny Chief Exec (or whatever his title is) to make an enquiry about Stock. Donny CE told him he would cost £x, Cortese said thanks, but no thanks, told Pardew and that was that. This goes on all the time, its not unusual, its how negotiations start. No formal bid was made, neither manager was involved directly because it didn't get that far. The only question is who leaked the story, because clearly someone did. I would suggest Stock's agent would be a likely candidate.

Because he was and is a very good coach. World of difference between being a coach and being a manager, shame Lowe never realised. Same with Wigley.

Not sure Wotton missed a vital header, but he should have been contesting the ball that Seaborne headed out, with whatever part of his body was most appropriate. But instead he was just dilly-dallying around. I note that Wes Tender also spotted this, but on another thread my comment about this was greeted with a response from a meathead of "utter bollix", glad some others have realsied. I'm not one normally to criticise Wotton, who comes in for stick unfairly, but in this particular case, he was largely (not completely) responsible for the goal.

OK, so now I know for sure that you haven't watched the goal. Seaborne headed the ball out to where Wotton should have been, but instead he was wandering around aimlessly, and only when he realised his mistake did he make a half-hearted attempt to make amends. By that time Trotter had taken full advantage racing in to get the ball completely unchallenged. Your reading of the game is laughable. If you think Wotton was blameless for that goal then you have no idea about football. Clueless ****. Perhaps you could attach some blame to Seaborne I would agree, but it he did at least make an initial clearance and should feel agrieved that the most experienced player on the pitch had completely switched off and was not reading what was happening.

But wins against Swindon and Huddersfield are more vital than others since they are our main rivals for 6th and a win against them effectively is a 6 point swing. Lose these and win 14 others and the chances of 6th are not so great.

Fair point. The play-offs though were the only realistic possibility from the start. The fact is that IF we make the play-offs now it will be because we have been on a terrific run of form, probably having just won 14 or more of our last 21 games. When you come into the play-offs situation on the back of that sort of form, there is evidence that the momentum continues for a further 3 games - this is the unfairness of the play-offs, frequently a team finishing 6th gets promoted over a team that has done better over a full season. In our case it would actually be a little more deserved because of where we started. Personally if we get beaten in the final at Wembley I will put it down as a successful season, especially if it is our second trip there of the season.

Interesting because most people consider his best achievements to have been with Reading. He did have a good season at WHU as well. In fact really he only failed to deliver at Charlton, which was always a poison chalice following the departure of Curbs, after such a long tenure. Like many managers, a failure such as Charlton can be the best thing to happen, they learn from it, change their thinking a little and emerge as better managers, a la Strachan with Coventry/Saints. I don't think AP is the greatest tactician, but what he has done at Saints, and this is no mean achievement, is to rid the club of the negative, losing mentality that had pervaded since the time of Burley, with a brief break while we had Pearson in charge. Difficult to say whether he has improved players, since very few have survived. James has clearly become a regular (though many claim he is rubbish, not me I hasten to add), Schneiderlin seems much more assertive, though still seems to lack the ability to score, and Lallana has looked terrific until recently (though he also had flashes of this under Pearson). All three should have improved anyway as they are young. AP seems to have a good idea of the areas to strengthen, although I beloeve he still needs an addition in MF and a backup striker to complete the picture, nevertheless bolstering the defence had to be #1 priority. The other point is the backroom staff. George Burley was made to look reasonable for one season, purely by the presence of Glyn Snodin. Once Snodin departed Burley was shown up to be what many had previously thought, complete gash. Dean Wilkins may be in the same mould as Snodin, but as with so many managers it is the assistant who makes the difference. Clough and Taylor, Hoddle and Gorman, the sum of the parts is greater than the individuals, as Hoddle has clearly shown since he split with his right hand man. There aren't many better in L1 at the moment than AP IMHO, perhaps 2 with one of those ably assisted by the aforementioned Snodin of course. Lambert does look to be a star in the making. Someone made the point earlier why WGS was not turning things round at Boro, easy one really, lack of pre-season. WGS always relied on fitness. You cannot instill the type of fitness that he did mid-season, it comes from stamina training before the season kicks off, and something that would be counter-productive mid-season. It will be interesting to see if Boro improve a bit now that WGS has been able to bring in some of his own players from Celtic.

Have never slated Wotton before, and I am not one who picks on players for no reason, unlike some on this board. Watch it again, header comes out from defence (Seaborne?), watch Wotton's response, or rather lack of. That was the moment Millwall were going to score, not much Waigo or Jon could do. Let down by our wily old fox of a midfielder who was caught napping. Perhaps they could have done better. Wotton switched off, completely. Millwall scored, simples.

Thank you so much for your well informed and erudite opinion. I guess you did not see the lead up to the goal, if you did you would see Wotton prancing around in the middle of nowhere like a ****ing fairy. What happened afterwards is not the issue, it is the result of Wotton having switched off.

The Play-offs are still a realistic possibility, if we consider 6th place as being the most we can expect. BUT, it is getting harder to see that we can do it, primarily because the top 6 seem to keep winning. Personally I still believe one or two of the teams there will falter, most likely Swindon, possibly Huddersfied, it really only needs one or two though. First and foremost it is imperative that we beat both of these when we play them, and there is no reason why we shouldn't at home. The teams above us all have to play each other still as well, so for instance good chance that Swindon can lose or draw to Leeds, Norwich, Charlton, Huddersfield, MK Dons, etc. For some reason the league fixtures recently seem to have been top half v bottom half and so the top teams seem to keep winning. I think it will be difficult, but we will have a better view in 4 weeks say. we do need to start winning consistently again, but 14 wins between now and end of season should do it. We do urgently need someone else up front, to me that was as high a priority as defenders, to help Lambert. and we need creativity in MF, especially with Hammond out. If we can solve those 2 issues, then I am sure we could still do it.

Not clear at all, looks to me like the initial fault is with Wotton, who was ambling around in a dream. It should have been his ball long before it got anywhere near Waigo or Jon

And from what I can see on the FL goals, he was initially largely to blame for their goal, wandering around aimlessly ball watching...

Who will be captain as Hammond is out?

But we have scored 15 points more than the bottom 4. FFS if you are still seriously worried about relegation then you are more stupid than I thought, and that would be difficult. Its points at the end of the season that count, when you have played every other team twice and all the other teams have played every other team twice as well. 6th was about as good as we could have hoped for this season with a -10 start and after our first 7 or 8 games that was looking a very long shot. Our form since then has been as good as anyone in the top 3 or 4. Take a look at the fixtures today, and apart from Norwich v Colchester it was almost all top half v bottom half. All the teams above us have to play each other still, and we still have to play Huddersfield, Swindon, Norwich and Leeds (and others). It will be difficult to get into the play-offs but to write us off now and even mention the R word is frankly stupid.

On the other hand if they don't win their games in hand and we beat both of them at home, the maths is somewhat different. Ifs and buts. Its points that count.

Exactly, obviously galling that we threw away a goal lead in the last minute but a point away with their home form is actually a good result, and a point more than nearly everyone else has got at Millwall this season. But has to be said the gap between us and 6th is getting a bit too big.

Oh my God, this must take the biscuit for over reaction. You have to laugh when people post crap like this. I hope you are joking Charlie. Good result against team that have only lost once at home this season and have won 8 of the other 11.

Its a risk, but a calculated one, AP will have seen them work together, and have been satisfied that the gamble was worthwhile. Can't see bringing in Holmes was a risk though. Thats why we have good players in the squad. If he'd played Pulis then that would have been a risk, actually that would have been suicide come to think of it. Some changes were enforced anyway, Jaidi is injured, Trotman is gone, so what was he supposed to do?

Come on Alps, no-one is that bad...