SNSUN

Winning this game won't make us any better in the league, nor will losing it. This is not our first XI, so it's irrelevant how they do tonight. If anything the starting XI tonight is correct, in that these players playing tonight are the XI that should be busting their arses off to break into the 1st XI. They aren't doing that so far. The only morale that will truly be dented tonight is that of us fans.

I'll never understand why people have such a period over the COCup. It's a competition that over time has become more and more pointless. It's the JPT for the top leagues. The top sides don't really want to be in it, the relegation battlers don't really want to be in it, so it's only mid-table sides that really can take it seriously. Granted, it gives a day out at Wembley and a European Cup spot if you win it, but how often does that happen? Besides Arsenal's poor showing tonight, even clubs like Man U and Man City's second or third teams are better than most others 1st XI. How could they make people take this competition seriously? Who knows. Fine any team that makes more than five changes from their previous match? Possibly.

They've got to name Reading fans on the bench to ensure they even go to games.

Applause to the Saints fans that have gone, but we'd be better out of this competition. The team's full of reserves because Adkins obviously sees it that way too. I still think it's a good team, I've been interested to see how Reeves gets on at left back because I don't trust Fox. Great to see Lee back.

My school was like that. Report the wins in assembly but not the losses. I was annoyed too, because the only time I was captain of the 3rd XI we lost 10-1, but I still wanted the head to anoounce it!

Madness. Looked good in the games I've seen him in. That said I'd still rather he get regular football, and if that's not with us...

Exactly. Teams will go 3 up and shut up shop. Though having said that, many a time does a team have a player sent off and play better with ten, so maybe it'd be even more of a disadvantage to have 12 on the pitch. However it'd certainly sort out our striker surplus.

Lallana running after the Tottenham winger at least twice in the first half without a Fox in sight made me think that's the spot we need to sort out more than any. Surely it's a matter of time before we take the plunge with Shaw? We'll see against Leeds I reckon, but we gave Bridge a chance at a young age, and Bale albeit in a lower league. Shaw may not be ready yet but can he be worse than Fox? (I've never been a fan of his if I'm being honest.)

Mayuka made a good impact today when he came on, and has looked good when I've seen his cameos for us. What are you opinions on him? Should he be starting? Is he better as an impact sub? Are we still bedding him in to the British game? He's only 21 but from what I saw of the highlights today, I'd like to see him get a few full games.

Branfoot lasted 'til January. Say Adkins does the same, we just need a decent motivator. Someone to get the best out of the players we have. I always preferred being able to sign players all season too. Much more exciting.

Great minds. (Or just that it's pretty obvious!) COYS

Villa and Norwich IMO. Villa have been torn apart and added to with mediochre players, Norwich's defence is nearly as bad as ours but they have less attacking threat. QPR are good enough to get out of it, and the January transfer window will make things more interesting. My bottom 3 currently is Reading, Norwich and Us, not in that order. That can change though. I was looking at the 93-94 season on Wikipedia the other day. (Branfoot's last in charge.) We only won one game at the start of the season for ages, had a decent spell in January/February, and picked a few results up at the end of the season thanks to Alan Ball centering on MLT and the Norwich 5-4 win spurring us on. That sort of scenario can happen again, even if it doesn't seem like that at the moment. We need to ride out this form, do as well as we can, and hope that our time comes this season to have a good spell.

If we win this I'll drink my own sperms. :-D (Seriously I will. And I'm not even into that sort of thing.)

What I would like today is an emphatic win. A small win would do, heck I'd even be inclined to accept a draw, what with our leaky defence and Tottenham being far from the worst team ever to visit St Marys. A loss would be worrying but not the end of the world, as long as we can keep the score down. Contrary to pundits saying Spurs made good signings in the window, I actually think they lost a lot of quality. This is a winnable game as long as we're not too disheartened from last week's defeat. Tighten up at the back, stop the stupid mistakes and hope one or two of their better players have a mare, and we could grind something out. Heart says it's doable, head is being a bastard at present. Thankfully I'm working through most of this game so I won't be sat on the edge of my seat. (except I will but with riveting Oyster questions.)

Cheers for the reminder. I'm up at half five for work and I really fancy the extra hour in bed!

Currently? Celtic fans would argue that Artur Boruc wins that title.

I bet the Brighton fans are loving this! I like Adkins, and am very happy with him. A really nice bloke. Sadly niceness doesn't always equate to a good manager. I hope he gets his chance - it'll be a sad day when we part with him.

Definitely Bamboozle. Quite quickly you could work out the page code, so that if you entered the wrong answer, you could correct it before Teletext had found the "bad luck" page. Cheating, but then I cheat at most things. God love the Saturday edition for kids. I was good at that! I hadn't used either for years, since my first freeview box in the mid noughties, but it was useful for Football updates. I did use it once fairly recently, at my parents' house while Swansea were beating Reading in the play-off final. I couldn't quite believe the number of goals that were flying in. It'll be missed, but of course technology moves on. I'm surprised it lasted this long.

He's no central midfielder, he plays better as an attacking player. Against Man U in that advanced role, I thought he was excellent. IMO of course.

I love the nPC, I hated League One. Being in the nPC there's always that chance of a slide into League One. Being in the Premier League there's a chance of a slide into the nPC. but I'd rather be in the Prem fighting against relegation (but not being too disheartened if we go down) than have that chance of slipping from the Championship. Financially it also makes sense to be in this league, even if we do get spanked most weeks, playing against some of the best players in the world is a fantastic learning curve for the players, even if relegation does ultimately follow. A few more Villa results would nice, a few fewer Arsenal or West Ham results would also be nice. We'll get a few more wins for sure, and then strengthen the obvious areas in January. Whether that's with Adkins in charge or someone else, so be it. We'll still at the dawn of this new season and we've only played perhaps two other teams that will be with us battling relegation at the end of the season, and we beat one of them.

Keep him. For now. For the immediate future. No wins in the next three and I'll be altering my view. I really like Adkins, but he's proving so far that he's a fish out of water, specifically for not strengthening the defence sufficiently in the summer. It's a moot thread though, as only one man truly makes the decision to keep him or sack him.

Adkins Out? Not yet. I'm glad I didn't get to see today's game, but seeing Lambert on the bench did make me wonder what was going on. Guly will never be a fan favourite. Boruc for Gazza, who until now had done little wrong? Questions can and should be asked. Any more results like this and Adkins will need fresh undies. It's all about the defence. We got relegated in '05 because our defence was shocking, and it looks like that may be the case again. Still is Adkins getting the sack the answer? We could replace him with God himself, but unless he can make very average defenders better, we'll still be terrible. It does make me wonder how many managers we'll get through this season. Whoever gets the job, should Adkins go, is in for a really sh!tty time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20005157 I thought I was unique with "Police Surveillance Van #2" but clearly not. In light of this no longer being funny, not that it really ever was I suppose, can anyone think of some good'uns? I seem to remember shortly after Madeleine McCann's disappearance, someone changed their bluetooth name to "I have Maddy" (which was inspired, if a tad tasteless). Do any of you lot have a twisted sense of humour by naming your WiFi differently? "The Horton WhoreHouse" would have a few neighbours worried I guess....

A shame they couldn't hang on for the win, but nevertheless a draw is a cracking result for them against the third best (supposedly) team in the world.

Perhaps the most perfectly timed injury ever on Nathaniel Clyne's part...