SNSUN

2 or more points from these two games would be a cracking result. Two draws would continue the unbeaten run, but I'd take one loss if it meant beating the other. Losing both would still not be the end of the world, we've given ourselves an excellent platform to build on for the rest of the season. I bet neither of them are particularly looking forward to playing us... Beat both?

:-) Lose today and IMO he's a goner. Underachieving. The wife (Norwich fan) agrees.

Wow. I was so busy at work telling irritable customers that there's no through Piccadilly Line service from HEathrow that I completely lost track of time. By the time my colleague told me the score, we were already 3-0 up! Wow. I wish I'd watched it - I'll have to wrestle the Norwich supporting wife for the remote control when Football First comes on. :-) 3rd in the table. Got a nosebleed. I know we may not be there after the weekend, but at least we know Chelsea have fewer points from the same number of games! Sadly, after the Chile game, the world will know the name "Adam Lallana".

My guess is his family don't even call him Mauricio Potchettino. :-) I'd shorten it to give him an English name. If Wiki is to be believed his full name is Mauricio Roberto Pochettino Trossero, so MRPT, or Petey for short. A nice anglicised nickname. Far better than Morris.

The winners from this deal, I'm guessing, seem to be BT subscribers, the teams that qualify for the Champions League (I can only assume they'll get even more money) and pubs. Unless Saints do qualify over that 3 years, I'm not too concerned, although I'll miss watching the games on ITV when there's sod all else to watch.

Cortese and the Liebherrs walking away from the project would also worry me, not that I think it will happen any time soon, but as people have said before we are debt free up until a point and Markus probably set up some sort of trust for us should the worst happen. And that's not to say we wouldn't be an attractive proposition for another investor, because we would. My biggest concern is assembling a brilliant team and seeing is disassembled as players decide they'd rather go to a "big" club. Again, not that I think it would happen any time soon, but it could happen in the not too distant future. As it stands though, we're safely back in the Premier League with little to no chance of relegation with the current squad - I think relegation is a very distant worry for us. (Touch wood - weirder things have happened...)

"Lallana picks the ball up on the right, Oooh a lovely deft touch nudges it past the onrushing Chilean defender, he plays a one-two with Wilshere, sees Rodriguez in space on the left, presents a perfectly weighted cross field pass to Rodriguez, Rodriguez controls it on the outside of his foot, he pushes it forward, he's running at the Chilean right back, he's still going, still going, still going, they're backing off him, he's pushed to the bye line, he looks up and sees Lambert rushing in....LAMBERT!!!!! OH WHAT A GOAL! He continues his England goalscoring exploits thanks to the hard work of his Southampton colleagues!!!!" This will be the actual radio commentary on the night... :-D (We hope...)

Hypothetically, was Jay eligable to play for Spain?

Congratulations to Mauricio Pochettino! Fully deserved this month, but there are a tougher couple of months coming up. Staying in the top six by Christmas would be a remarkable achievement, but I'll be happy as long as we remain within touching distance.

To me at least, Lallana is priceless on current form. Virtually irreplaceable unless we're extremely lucky, and any "known" player that is as good as Lallana at what he does would almost certainly cost more than £15 million. That's IMO of course, I'm sure Cortese has other ideas.

The only way our players leave is if we get a bid the club accepts or an unhappy player tries to force a move. So far we have no unhappy players, and no bids that the club have accepted. I can't see any player becoming unhappy, now that it's been proved they can achieve international status from within this club. Only a lack of a trophy or medal could perhaps in the future make one or two wish for more succesful climes, or a club like Chelsea paying "silly money" for wages that we simply cannot match. These are positive times to be a Saint for sure.

Watched it last night! Same channel. TBF they glanced over his Saints career, aside from praising the Saints for giving him a chance and interviewing Burley a bit.

#it'llneverhappen :-)

Fantastic news - and I'm most chuffed Lallana is in there. That's that then, I'm certain Lallana will cement his place in the squad and will be in the England team for years to come. :-D

I'm not sure which it is - either the club decided the League Cup is not worth winning, and therefore a team of reserves and youngsters was put out, or they genuinely thought our "B" team was good enough to get through. I think the management's comments after the game showed it was the former. It is a shame we're out, our day out in 2010 at Wembley was something I'll never forget, irrespective of the status of the trophy we won. Seeing how much smaller clubs' fans like Swansea and Wigan were celebrating showed that all cup competitions have their merits. However we're out, and there's not much we can do to change it. I would hazard a guess that a similar team would have been put out against Chelsea anyway, and we'd probably have gone out then. The only thing it's robbed me of is the chance for another trip to St Mary's in December. We can hope that Pochettino learns from his first League cup experience and sets us up more strongly next season (if he's still around then.) It's the FA Cup I'm most looking forward to, the prestige cup where most clubs put out their first team. I truly believe we can do well in that this season, our first team can beat any other first team of the 91 when they're on song.

Irrespective of the others, if Lallana doesn't get a call up it will be a travesty. He's versatile (perfect for a limited tournament squad), talented, can score goals if needed, young enough that he can be an asset for years to come, and is in the form of his life. He's the sort of game changer England could definitely use. Clyne has tough competition at right back sadly, only time will see if he gets overlooked, Shaw though could replace the ageing Cole, but even he will have competition from Rose and Gibbs in the future. (and possibly even Bertrand if he comes good.)

This is a good game for Osvaldo to play in. The man needs confidence that will come with goals, and I think we'll get the chances against Hull that he needs to convert. Sorry to say it, but that means Lambert will have to make way. The attacking trio of Lallana, JWP and JRod are almost undroppable on present form - JWP has particularly impressed me of late. Whether Pochettino will drop Lambert for Osvaldo remains to be seen, but with a bit of confidence I think Osvaldo could become a major asset. Hull won't be an easy side to beat, Bruce seemingly made some excellent signings in the summer, but we're at home and should be winning games like this is our intention is to challenge for a European spot. (More so when you glance at the fixtures coming up.)

Me too, but I feel that the FA Cup is the cup of choice. That's the cup we play the first XI, and as has already been proved, we can beat the big 4 (or big 6 whichever way you look at it) over 90 minutes, with wins over Liverpool, City and Chelsea under Pochettino and pushing United close a couple of times. We have an excellent chance of doing well in the FA Cup, if the draw is kind to us. I'd rather 3 points against Hull on Saturday than a win tonight, hands down, if it had been offered.

Meh. Still time to get back into this but I'm not holding my breath.

The "Sky SPorts 1" link on that is working for me, but no sound.

Not one. Not one fricking person... :-( JK. To be fair, with touch technology being so popular, it's very easy to click on a link by accident. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking by it.)

It's 50/50. It happens against you, you spit blood. It happens for you, you celebrate. I actually feel that some penalties are justified. United not scoring theirs tonight meaning the penalty shouldn't have happened. Obviously this means that all Saints penalties are justified though...

Double barrelled shotgun, castration and a horses head to any clubs remotely interested in Luke. Add the same punishment to any journalists that link him with another club, and fans of other clubs that want him, and I think we have it covered. Do we want to be a top club? Keep the talent! (This is probably not going to happen, but Clyne, Shaw and Lovren could be our defence for years to come if we can keep them happy with progression.)

I hadn't thought about the possibility of penalties. Lambert on the bench then, with 6 of his clones.

Master Bates - ex-poster or bewbs and inboxer of soft core pornography. (Which I still have...)