Arizona

MH Reminded me a bit of Kelvin. Good shot stopper, but seems scared of crosses. Stayed rooted to his line as crosses came in from Skacel and then James for the first goal. Good read though. Just a shame we wont play like that against Plymouth. When teams come here and sit back a bit we seem to run short of ideas.

The thing is, having those four on high wages is only the same as having 8 players on low to average wages. If we had a huge squad of high earners like last season then I could see the loss, but four players? I thought Sunderland agreed to sell us John for £1m as part of the Kenny deal? That's why I didn't get signing John when we already had Rasiak, Saga and BWP. I'll ignore the overwieght waste of space bit, as Saga was the only striker who appeared to putting in the effort for most of last season. It is probably true that we couldn't really afford Saga, but I think you could have made a much stronger case for signing him at the time that Euell or John. I'd describe his season more as: Scoring (3 in his first 3 starts), dropped, 20 minutes a month, injured, dropped, back in poor team, struggling. I wouldn't exactly say he was dropped at the end either. He started the last 2 games of the season and played 9/13 or 10/14 under Pearson, depending on whether you include the Plymouth game.

I think buying Saga for £600k, after his performance on loan, was a good bit of business. Had he been used correctly, he could have scored 20 goals last season. Instead we got a Burley masterclass in buying a player, then not playing him. John and Euell really confused me though. They would have been on huge wages and I couldn't really see that we needed them TBH.

I was refering more to the apparent need to sell players like lallana in January to balance the books. Obviously that figure will have dropped a bit this financial year, but if we are still having to sell players for cash, something is wrong.

Sorry, yeah I've added a bit to that post. What's wrong with EJ? I've always thought he was quite a character.

I just don't get where the money is going. I really don't. We must surely have one of the lowest wage bills in the CCC now. Appart from Davis, Skacel, Thomas, Euell and BWP, all our players are either cheap loans, cheap free transfers or from the accademy. Even with the drop of attendances, 14,000 plus is still pretty healthy for this League. Teams like Colchester, Barnsley, Burnley, Plymouth, Blackpool and Scunny have gotten by with less in recent years. Is it really the stadium debt that's crippling us? I was under the impression that we had a 25 year mortgage, with payments of just over £1m a year, which adds up to around £2m a year when you add in the interest. Surely the accademy doesn't cost that much. What have we got, a cloning lab in there?!

Get in! According to BBC sport Martin Brundle and ex 5 Live commentator Jonathan Legard have been selected as the 2 main commentators, with DC and Jordan (no, not her, Eddie) having been selected for some of the behind the scenes stuff. Should be interesting IMO. 84 year old Murray Walker will play a small role, including contributions to the website via a Q&A forum. Ted Kravitz has also been retained as a pit reporter, along with Lee McKenzie. Here's the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7745347.stm

Personally I'd be happy to keep Cork, Pearce and Robertson. Knowing us though, we'll sign Smith and Pekhart, then sell Lallana to pay for them.

I think you've got to give James a bit of credit. That was certainly a lot better than some performances I've seen from him. He did get the assisst for the first goal too. I also noticed Skacel stop a couple of times when the long ball went over him, but TBH I think they were trying to play the offside trap. It certainly worked a couple of times, like when Readin had a would be equaliser rightly disallowed. Glad I'm not the only one who thought DMG went missing a bit. It's a shame, because I thought he put a decent effort in against Wolves. Did look badly short of stamina in training though.

And you thought the Saint Mary's faithful had it bad... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uxFTYVI_IVU&NR=1

I guess it's a no for this week aswell. This is the last Sunday I'll be in Southampton for probably at least a year, so that's one less. Maybe in the summer.

Oops, should have been a commar in that. I think. "I would stick with that 11 that started the game, against Plymouth"

I'd have thought a RB would be the priority, but I'd take a LB none-the-less.

I wouldn't have said that. The goal came from a shot from Doyle from the opposite side, which Davis could only parry as far as Kebe. If you wanted to find fault, Cork and James could have marked Doyle better, Davis could have pushed the shot further away from the goal and Skacel could have been closer to Kebe. You can't really blame anyone as such.

Didn't realise they had the internet in Arkansas.

It's tempting... Buy PFC for £1 and sell FP for UNaffordable housing. Only bummer would be the £95m in debt. :-k Maybe if an already suicidal Saints fan (there's got to be a few about) did it, then topped themselves, it wouldn't be a problem. Looks like Gaydamak is trying to turn them into the Gretna of the South.

1. When you say ours, you mean a certain portion of the fan base. I never expected us to go up the first season down because I just didn't think Saints knew how to win consistently, if that makes sense. 2. Doesn't make it any less sweet seeing another set of fans with egg on their face after their predictions, even if we thought the same.

Sorry, but Svensson has to prove himself before he gets a run in the team. On Monday night he looked well off the pace, which is to be expected, but I still wouldn't have him in the team until he looks on the ball in at least one more reserve outing. For now, I'd stick with Perry and Cork. If and when that proves unsucessful, I'd have Perry and Pearce. You are right though, Perry and Killer shouldn't play together.

Well, Poindexter and Southern are in, but unless another 6 people sign up tomorrow morning, it aint gonna happen. Lazy cvnts...

Given that we're playing on Tuesday, I wouldn't have thought so either. On a serious note, it it aint broke, don't fix it. I would stick with that 11 that started the game against Plymouth.

We seem to have a pretty good record after minutes silences/applause. :-s Pompey after Ted died: 2-0 win Charlton a few days later when we tried again : 3-2 win QPR last season after their young guy, Jones, died: 3-0 win All Saints day last season: 1-0 win against Cardiff IIRC All Saints day this season: 1-0 defeat against Bristol City Minutes applause today: 2-1 win at Reading. 5 wins in 6 from recent memory. Promotion form

They deserved a bit of slagging off on today's showing. I couldn't believe how poor they were. After 10 mins I was surprised how brightly we'd started. After we scored I thought it was no more than we deserved, but still thought we were on our way to a 3-1 defeat. By half time I just couldn't believe how poor Reading had been. I still thought they'd come charging out the block and hammer us, but no. We scored again and they just weren't in the game for the first hour. Seriously, there were about 10 minutes of Reading pressure after they scored, but f*ck all else. They wont get the autos on that showing. P.S. Lol at the Waitrose adverts and selling wine at the bar. And I thought Peterborough were The Posh...

Best of luck Mark. Not nice to hear, that's gonna put a big dent in his preseason preparations at best.

As several people have pointed out, the Skacel and Perry combination was key today. Most of Reading's attacks, expecially second half, were long balls aimed down our left flank. Skacel delt with most of them very well, and when he was beaten, Perry was there to cover him. Skacel also covered Perry when the long balls were hit a bit more central. Couple of good crosses from Rudi too. One that lead to the goal, which was half cleared before Cork put it back in for BWP. Another right accross the goal, which BWP headed for the bottom corner, only to be kept out by a brilliant save.

Well, their stadium announcer kept refering to them as the 'R's this afternoon. Oh the iron ore.