the saint in winchester

An act of bullying by Man City tonight. Just because you CAN beat them up, doesn't mean you should. I hope Jake plays second leg, and scores 7 himself.

Belgium striker Michy Batshuayi, 25, could return to Stamford Bridge early as Valencia consider cutting short their year-long loan deal, with Crystal Palace and West Ham interested. (Mail) Now he WOULD be good for us. Probably out of our price range though, but a mobile #9 ...

Alpine doesn't post on here these days so he may think it but won't post it. Lookman is too like Redmond for my liking. I would prefer more of a target man. I still hope Gallagher will get back to fitness. If not, someone like Llorente.

This. Reading fans in the office here (Basingstoke) say he looks too good for them, has skill and flair, but right now and for the rest of the season they want to play more basic kick and rush as they hope for survival. They expect us to come asking for him back and they would agree to it.

Yeah, he's a 'fox in the box' and has the quickest reactions around, hence his goals so far. But we tend not to drop the ball in the box and hope for a pinball goal.

I agree with you, John Boy. PEH is hard on himself. You can see him pushing himself hard in games and the incident on Sunday was a result of him inwardly shouting "get in there, Pierre, set the lead." In hindsight, he shouldn't have, at 3-1 down, and now he is suspended long term.

We've talked about this before. Stop listening to those voices in your head!

Delighted for Nige and hope they keep it going. Our director is a Hull-ite and a big fan. As noted above, they expected relegation due to the ownership not being interested. And here they are making strides up the league. If they can keep everyone on the bus, the ride will be a good one.

This just in : 13:25DAVIS BACK TO RANGERS? Southampton are willing to let Steven Davis re-join Rangers if the Scottish club can muster an agreeable contract offer for the Northern Ireland midfielder, Sky Sports News understands. The 33-year-old, who switched to St Mary’s from Ibrox in 2012, is entering the final six months of his contract on the south coast and Gers boss Steven Gerrard is very interested in bringing him back to Glasgow.

They didn't want to sell him. It was Gunn that wanted out. I'm sure we didn't sell him on the idea of sitting on our bench rather than City's. He needs to be starting games. Macca has done very well, but they could timeshare it so Ralph can see Gunn in matches not just training. If it becomes apparent that Gunn is not all that, then we will have seen it for ourselves.

He definitely is. His whole demeanour of "hey, it's only a game, worse things happen at sea" and "you have to feel sorry for the referees, they have a tough job." Someone needs to tell him he is supposed to be stressed, angry and disagreeable. I must admit I do like his approach.

He still has a part to play when Austin is alongside him. He can goal hang and wait for Long to do all the running and crossing. Long is our assist-man. But not when we need a goal, like yesterday.

We SHOULD re-sign Clyne, yes. If we can. We should make an offer and try to bring him back. Surely a better option than Cardiff. No way will McCarthy be going, IMHO. If there was any consideration of that, Gunn would be getting games. Davis, Gabbiadini, Cedric, (maybe) Bertrand, (maybe) Hoedt as outs. The final two added simply because the talk is that they are heads-gone cases. I have no sources, just my own opinion.

Yeah, I did call for squad rotation, but this lineup today is bizarre. Random generator as above noted. Are Cedric and Bertie still out? Has Ramsey even been playing for the U21s? To go into a game leaving your best players on the bench seems stupid, even if we expect them to come on and play a small part. It does look like Ralph has decided to forgo this game and save our stars for next week. Now make me eat my words, Ralph, I want to be wrong, I really do.

Ok, you're one of the few genuine ITK, so if you have said this, then I believe it. That's a shame, but hopefully it gives a place to someone else.

Tea over monitor moment

Had to smile that Ep54 after the Cardiff game was doom and gloom and "we just want to see improvement cos we won't get anything vs Arsenal". Then Ep.55 after the Arsenal win was pure elation and "how many are we going to smash past Huddersfield?" Let's see if things are normalised for Ep.56 !!!

Why would Poch trade DOWN to United? Those days are over.

Roy Keane from now to the end of the season? That would wipe that smirk off Pogba's face!

LOL. Free pint of John Smith's for everyone? Can't change a winning formula!

Great determined performance. Even at 2-2 we didn't buckle and looked to get the winner. And it came. Well done, Ralph. Now if we can cut out the individual errors, particularly at the back, we can put relegation fears behind us. A win against Udders and things will look so much better.

How would y'all feel about doffing our cap at Nat Clyne? Cardiff interested. We probs would have kept him if Liverpool hadn't offered us 5x our purchase price and we hadn't had a deputy in Chambers. What about now? Assuming he's no longer puffing the magic dragon, and all that.

(applause icon) Let's get that started on Sunday

Tend to agree. If the club hasn't been tough with them, they should get tough on themselves and get themselves to peak fitness. They have the time and the financial resources.

No, no and thrice no. We have finally appointed a top notch manager who won't be blamed if the players don't perform. I sincerely believe the club will stand by their man - yes, I heard the same reassurances of mutual loyalty if relegation ensues. We must back him with our support and the club will (hopefully) back him in his player sifting, in and out.