The Kraken

Talking of patterns: Won 4-1 Won 3-1 Won 3-1 Won 3-1 Drew 2-2 That's our last 5 league games. As much as we'd like it to, that sort of form is very unlikely to be continued for the whole of the season. We will lose games. The team will have off-days. And we will lose or draw games that we should have won. Rather than analysing one game, I'm happier to look at the bigger picture and know that we have completely steamrollered teams in the last few games. I've rarely seen a Saints team so consistently dominating and creating so many chances, and the difference in the team now compared to the start of the season is unbelievable. So for now my faith is with our management team and not some doom sayers who think we might be a bit predictable.

I thought it was a decent atmosphere, especially given there was very, very little in return from the Orient end. Not too sure why so many idiots felt they had to storm the pitch on the equaliser though. I could maybe understand it if we'd got a winner, just. But to go so mental at a draw to Orient; small time.

StuRomseySaint and DullDays. Perfect examples of how football and brains often don't mix.

We used to have bottle bars in the concourse with bottles of Carlsberg on sale from a separate temporary stand. As much as I don't like Carlsberg, in a biottle infinitely better than the horrible flat pap they serve out of the pipes. Bring these back, surely? The queues for a pint are a joke anyway. At other stadia and events there's all sorts of efforts made to sell beer not just from the designated kiosks, through bottle bars, lads with beer cooler backpacks etc, why can't we do that? It would pay for itself surely.

If the coffee is worse than the beer, then it must be very poor indeed. I've rarely had a worse pint than inside the ground.

Very well said Wes, I agree with all of that except for the MK Dons goal. I think it was definitely a foul by Jaidi, not a shoulder barge, he blocked him off deliberately. It was totally needless as the ball was going through to Davis anyway. You could tell by Jaidi's reaction after the goal that he knew he had ****ed up. But fair play, other than that he and Trottman were immense at the back; I really don't think I'v ever seen such a strong defensive combination for us. But you're definitely right about them being complete pansies. Their number 9, who was a complete unit, just crumpled at the slightest touch. Nice to see a Saints team who can bully a side as well as outplay them. Being a Saints fan right now is really enjoyable.

Surprised about the crowd, I thought it looked to be 23K at least. Still, risible away support, probably the most inept display of away fans I've ever seen at St. Mary's. F*ck off Franchise FC.

Exactly what I was thinking. Makes sense, nice and local, and a step down for him to find his feet.

I have no intention of engaging with someone who's ramblings on this site are predominantly motivated by attacking Saints legends in an obvious and rather sorrowful attempt to wind-up others. I actually find it painfully sad that someone has to resort to this just to get some attention.

Yet another thinkly veiled wind-up intended to stir up trouble by being controversial about a well-liked former Saint. "Hmmmm, Friday today, I think I'll do a wind-up on that Saints Forum about Lawrie, haven't used him as bait for a few days". Sad, sad, sad. So transparent.

TalkSport is a decent radio programme at times, but completely let down by the fact that the bulk its revenues come from people calling in to the show on the premium rate phone line. As a consequnce you get wind up merchants like Jon Gaunt (previously), Adrian Durham and the like peddling ridiculous ideas that they don't actually believe in just to get a raft of callers dialling in disagree with them on air. Durham is the worst, his wind ups are so obvious. Every month or so he'll have a topic along the lines of "Celtic & Rangers / Bristol City & Rovers / Sheffield Wednesday & United should merge as its the only way they'll ever be successful, and you get the great unwashed who buy into the rubbish and spend a fortune telling him something he already knows, yet prompting more mock outrage. Don't get me started on Irani; the man is an oxygen thief, and bereft of any persona or sporting knowledge outside of cricket. Brazil props up the morning programme and deserves better than the inept tosser alongside him, he would be better off presenting on his own. Mike Parry is a great companion for Brazil, because while he's always on the wind up he does it in a funny way and you can always tell he doesn't believe what he's saying most of the time, and almost always ends up laughing at himself for it. Hawksbee & Jacobs, however, are what the programme should be all about. They are genuinely knowledgable about football, completely reasonable, and always very, very funny. Their's should be the programme model TalkSport should aim at.

Score a goal David Connolly, and we will love you more than you will know.....

Exactly this. Outsiders seem to think that Souness got completely duped and threw him into the team without seeing play, based on the "George Weah" recommendations alone. The reality should be much more embarrassing for Souness, as he watched him train with us for a few days before deciding he was good enough to play Premier League football.

My time machine is broken right now so they'll be no good for me, but thanks for the heads up.

Quite a few high marks throughout here; I actually thought we played much, much better against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday than we did today. But, credit to the team, once 2-1 up we were never troubled and it was a very comfortable, comprehensive victory. My ratings: Davis: 6 Not troubled apart from the goal James: 6 Got some good crosses in but looked a bit shaky defensively. Jaidi: 7 Commanding figure at the back; so good to see a Saints defender who can properly clear the lines. Trotman: 7 See above. Harding: 7 Really rate him, often plays with not a great deal of support in front of him but looked very strong today. Wotton: 6 Holding role, did enough but I'm just not convinced with him, I much prefer Schneiderlin in there (and I'm not his biggest fan either). Hammond: 7 A real calming influence in the middle, a class act at this level. Outfield skipper role beckons, surely? Mellis: 6 Some very good moments but tends to drift out of the game at times. Waigo: 6 Looked out of sorts for long periods of the game, but capable of changing things in an instant. Got his goal, almost made one in the second half with a great bit of skill down the right. Is very raw, but looks capable of getting much better. Lallana: 8 Excellent, real touch of class and took both goals very well. Lambert: 8 MOM Still don't think he's getting as much support as we should be giving, but he is a cracking striker and we should be so grateful to have him, he's the teams real focal point. Reminds me so much of Beattie. Too good for League 1 level. Subs: Gillett: 4 I like him but thought he looked poor, and very nervous. Patterson: 5 Not long enough to get into the game. Holmes: 5 Looked steady enough in the very short time he was on, a steadying influenece.

Yep, I was almost level with it and he looked definitely onside.

League 1 Top Scorers Beckford (Leeds United) 7 Forster (Brighton) 7 Baker (Stockport) 6 Barnard (Southend) 6 Jackson (Gillingham) 6 Lisbie (Colchester) 6 Lambert (Southampton) 5 Burton (Charlton) 5 Johnson (Leeds United) 5 Kuffour (Bristol Rovers) 5 So 5 league goals from 9 league games, and 1 in the cup. Some people will complain about anything.....

The lineman's performance for that goal was absolutely comical; much in keeping with his overall performance. The ball was clearly over the line from Lambert's header, but the lino didn't flag. Waigo then came in and made sure, and only when the ball hit the back of the net did the lino raise his flag and start legging it back to the halfway line. A total bottle job. The standard of refereeing and linemanship in this division is so, so far below even Championship level that it's frightening. And I thought THAT was poor...

Typical over-reactionary post. "God awful" is an utterly ridiculous description of his performance. One thing's for sure, he looks better up front that wide right, as he drifted out of the game far too much when playing on the right. That said, he scored a goal (I also thought it was already in but you've got to give him credit for beating two defenders to the ball to make sure) and he had a great bit of play down the right to set up Schneiderlin, who I can't believe didn't score. There were a couple of opportunities when he was caught offside when I actually blamed the midfield for taking 2 or 3 touches before playing him in, where he was anticipating an early ball. Although the 2 or 3 times he was caught offside just before being subbed looked to me as if he was completely knackered. To be expected I suppose with his lack of games of late. It wasn't a polished performance for sure. but there's certainly enough there to suggest he'll settle in, get better, and provide us with a dimension we currently don't have. "God awful", he most definitely isn't.

After having been to the match and got back and read this thread, I guess it just shows how different people have different opinions to the game, as I've agreed and disagreed with various opinions that have been given from various other match go-ers. There's certainly no need for the hysterical postings seen earlier in the thread. Yes, we should have closed out the game for at least a point (and maybe even all three) but the suggestions that there's been no improvements from earlier in the season are just ridiculous. As I saw it, we were undone all game by Harding having no support defensively down the left hand side. First Mellis, and then Mills when he came on, just seem to forget about their defensive duties and think that the left back would bail them out each time. I actually thought Schneiderlin had quite an average game, though he seems to be getting a bit of praise on here. Hammond was excellent though, a real leader. Jaidi and Trotman were superb at the back in the most part, I've rarely seen a Saints defence be so dominant at clearing the ball from an aerial assault. Papa seems to be a striker and not a winger, though with Lallana playing like he did he'll do well to displace him. Lambert didn't do enough for me today, I've seen him play much better than that. James is not good enough at right back for me, hopefully Murty will be back soon. And neither Mellis or Mills are the answer at left wing, Holmes has to be given a chance as I just don't think these two will cut it there. In summary, I think that at 2-1 up we just seemed terrified to win the game. And then at 2-2, full time couldn't come quick enough for us. After habing 15 minutes following half time where we utterly dominated all over the pitch, we just seemed to stop playing and invited them on to us, and we've all been watching Saints for long enough to know that you just can't do that. So, a very poor result. But, if we'd have put our very good chances away we'd have been out of sight. I'm not going to panic yet, though talk is very cheap and we absolutely need to put together a run of victories, and soon. There's no doubt we're good enough, but it's whether the team can believe in themselves enough.

****ing get in. When do we ever get last minute equalisers?! Never! Love it.

Er, what?

Just listening to it now? Who is the compere? It sounds like Alan Partridge....

As much as I thought Saga was pretty anonymous on Saturday, I can't see Waigo ousting him just yet. Waigo seems to be an impact type of player, so I'd imagine while he's still getting settled to the English game Pardew will use him from the bench more often than not in the next few games. I like Saga, and would love to see him hit some form, but the stats don't lie and he's just not creating enough chances lately. I do put some of that down to the fact that Lallana and James are clearly not wingers, but also Saga is falling way short of the standard expected. That said, I'd have him in the team ahead of Pogo every day of the week...

I thought it was a good debut, and certainloy he and Trotman looked very comfortable together. They did give away a few cheap fouls but I guess that's what comes with the type of players they are. I think the biggest highlight for me is that our defence shouldn't get bullied to the extent that we have in the past. Any striker playing against those two will know that they've been in a game, something we haven't been able to say for some time. I'll be very happy if these two can stay injury free and forge a strong partnership together, I think it's what our future success will be built upon.