Andy_Porter

It was obviously unfortunate for Richardson to get injured so soon in to his Southampton career, from what i've read I'm sure he will be fine. Butterfield seemed to have a solid enough debut and brings the experience that Lloyd James lacks, altough I would have kept Lloyd James, surely he would be more usefull on the bench than Wotton. I think Hammond is as good as we will get as a box to box player, I'd like to see us play Schneiderlin deep as our most defensive midfeilder with a genuine attacking midfielder alongside him who just wants to get into the box and score goals. It's to be expected when you're pushing men forward and chasing a game.

For the first 45 minutes we where pinging crosses in fine and really stretched the game. And just pure width isn't the answer, you have to mix it up. Defending with two banks of four (occasionally more) is always difficult, I think once we get Lallana and Lambert back we should have enough match winners to see us through these sort of games.

Agreed. I think the problem was obvious, we created a lot of chances in the first half just didn't take any of them. The crossing for a change was inch perfect in the first half, Hammond should have had two and if Lambert was in there getting on the end of things he would have probably scored in the first 45. We need more goals from the centre of midfield and have done for a while. Hammond gets his head on so much, just can't get the ball into the right sort of areas. I find he's quite frustrating as a player, he really could be so much better as a player if he just started to get a few more basic things right.

I'm pretty sure at the end of the season it was fairly obvious our main concern was at right back. Finding a pacey winger who can deliver is hard enough in the premiership, let alone finding one who will be happy to sit on the bench in Leage One. I'm not sure why so many feel we need this dominating holding midfielder to break teams up, I can't remember many games where the opposition have dominated possesion and we've struggled to get the ball. It's usually games like yesterday where we had all the ball just couldn't break teams down. I'd rather we went out and signed a goal scoring central midfielder rather than a holding player.

If he had signed ready for tomorrow it would be announced. Stop dreaming.

Came off the bench against Eastleigh, I think it was for Ben Reeves.

That may be all that matters to you, but for me and many others football is about far more than just getting three points every Saturday

Cortese is really coming across as one of the most egotistical and arrogant men in football.

I really can't see how we're going to attract a midfielder to play second fiddle to Schneiderlin and Hammond, someone like Danns or Stock would want to play every week as do Schneiderlin and Hammond... I think we will have to settle with Butterfield, Puncheon and Wotton as backup for those two.

I'd love to see Antonio back, I don't know much about the other lad but if it frees up Lallana or Puncheon to move inside and cover injuries it must be a good thing. If we could add those two we would be sorted IMO. Butterfield,Wotton, Hammond, Schneiderlin and Puncheon can all play in the middle and then Puncheon, Lallana, Antonio, Oxo-Chamberlain and Phillips can cover the wide positions, still with people like McNish, Gobern (is he still here), Mills, Dickson etc who can do a decent enough job in midfield. Would be a massive boost before the big game on Saturday.

Making a weekend of it. Should be a good game, hopefully we can beat them for a 5th time in a year.

Just back from the game. Hoskins in particular was brilliant, looked lively upfront and took his goal well then in the second half Garrod came on for Oxo-Chamberlain and Hoskins moved to the right and everything went through him. His first touch, passing and movement where all top draw, can't fault him on his performance tonight. Both the lads on the left hand side where linking up and playing well, Reeves is a fantastic left back and the winger Isgrove (?) looked very assured on the ball. Downsides where probably Pulis (suprising) who just isn't a footballer and Martin who looked very poor on the ball, every time he had the ball at his feet he would hoof it diagonally at one of our midget wingers. Was also a bit strange to play a right footer at left back, didn't look comfortble on the ball at all. Was nice to see Lambert, Fonte, Jaidi, Hammond, Mills and a couple of other first teamers watching the game and signing a few autographs.

Maybe you should stop being such a drama queen all the time. This is almost as embarassing as when you spent 6 or 7 months banging on about Schneiderlin being some sort of 'luxury' player when the alternative was Wotton. You the man.

I'm basically going to be crying myself to sleep tonight. We're doomed. Time to hit the bottle.

Of course we have, but then we had already replaced people like Thomas and Perry they where just playing because Ostemebor and Fonte where cup tied. Would you really rather have the squad that finished last season over this one?

Why bother? even if you get one of these right it will just be a case of throwing enough ****.

The squad is stronger than the squad that finished last season without a doubt. Antonio, Waigo, James and Ostemebor vs Dickson, Butterfield and Richardson It's an easy choice and we're quite likely to add another player or two before the deadline. Obviously it's unforunate Richardson got injured so early on and that Lallana is unfit but that's just one of those things that happens to all clubs. If Connolly can keep himself fit that's like a new signing as well, in 2009 our best football came with Connolly in the side, we looked lost without him untill we made a few signings in January.

Fair point. We are ****ed.

Indeed, it's almost like people forget how strongly we finished the season.

Not happening now, probably closer to a 3 or 4 / 10

I think you will find that Turkish agreed we needed a wide man / striker to replace Waigo. You've lost me with the GK part though it looks like Bart will sign so we're more than sorted there. Lallana, Puncheon, Mills, Dickson, Holmes, Oxlade-Chamberlain and another possibly Tyson would be more than good enough to cover the wide areas.

I think it was more of a case of Garvan getting home sick and wanting to move back home to his farm with his family. Which is understandable to an extent as he was only a young lad at the time.

Carter looked decent in the first half on Tuesday, a bit of an all rounder like Hammond. Second half he couldn't really get into it with all the subs going on.

I agree, hopefully Carter and an attacking midfielder come striker. Anymore than that would be counter-productive at this stage.

15k is nothing on a wedding for some people. My parents are wedding photographers and have all sorts of stories, one couple paid 45k just to have a marquee outside for the reception...