SNSUN

Looked good yesterday, he's been given his chance and has taken it with both hands. Literally. I even feel more comfortable with him in goal than with Bart, so to that end we've improved the back-up keeper position. Boruc will eventually worm his way in and if he's as good as people say, will make the number one spot his own, but Gazza provides excellent competition. Poor old Kelv must be wondering what hit him, but his career is far from over. 3 keepers is the requirement in this league IMO. As for yesterday, Gazza made some decent punches, his kicking was good (bar one I think), he made a great instinctive save, and thanks to Calamity Jos he could do nothing for the goals. He'd have got to Richardsons, had it not been deflected.

After scoring the first in 4 minutes, I thought we'd go on and get a few more, but Fulham didn't make it too easy for us. It's easy to see why our defence struggles, they're just so nervous when the ball comes near them. Granted we were unfortunate to lose Frazer early on, and not have a right back on the bench, but Jos was shocking when he came on. Just shocking, and I hate to say that as he was one of my fave players in the nPC. Fonte has grown in stature as the season has gone on, and ignoring his two well taken goals, he was our best defender today. Perhaps he's improved since being partnered with Yoshi. So far, it's hard to see Jos as a Premier League defender. Maybe he'll improve, but maybe the Celtic fans were on to something. Danny Fox had a better game than others I've seen this season, but it's easy to see why he's limited. We had a good spell of passing in the first half, we strung quite a few together, then the ball eventually went to Fox and he punted it long. It's a shame Clyne picked up a knock pre-game, thank God he's got a couple of weeks to recover. Gazzaniga, I thought, looked fairly good. He made a good save shortly after they hit the post, and his long kicking was good, but it's obvious he's still learning the game. He'll make a mistake eventually, a la Bialkowski against Blackpool last season, it's a case of whether it'll dent his confidence. I'm looking forward to the introduction of Boruc. As for the midfield, Davis and Morgan did both have good games. We were the better team in the first half. Lallana has had better games - I still prefer him higher up the pitch. Up top, I am surprised both Rickie and Punch was subbed. Fonte gets my MOTM (and probably most other people's) but Puncheon was having a good game. Always hustling, good touch on the ball, always looking for an outlet and has that pace to scare the opposition. Perhaps he faded a bit, but he seemed like our best attacking outlet. I'd havce brought Mayuka on in lieu of Guly, but that's up to Nigel I guess. Rickie could've scored a couple today, and probably would on a better day, but Rodriguez looked a bit lost. All in all we should've won, as for the bulk of the game I thought we were the better, more decisive team, but as soon as Jos banged that ball past Gazzaniga, I just knew they'd go on to get a second. I'm mightily relieved we didn't give up, and one point is better than none, but this is two points dropped for me. Still, blue line and all that, bring on the Hammers, and a fully fit Saints...

I thought Puncheon was having a good game before he got subbed, so honorouble mention, and also one for Morgan and Adam who worked tirelessly, but it has to be Fonte. Not just for his match saving two goals but also for his much better defensive performance.

In general? People be all moaning a lot about Mags Thatcher. Twas before my time though. Personally? Gok Wan. He is everything that is bad in the world. (And because my missus loves him for everything he does. If he crapped in our toilet, she'd love that too.)

After banging his head against the wall repeatedly since Skatesmouth decided to head south through the leagues, TCWTB goes one too far and bashes his brains out. (Sooooo many captions for this particular caption comp...)

This is just it. 6 points after the run of games we've had would actually be a good start to the season. Apathy though is the tool of the devil, but from what I've seen so far, we have a sublime attack now that Ramirez has come in and started well and, as well as being at home, I can see a scoreline similar to the Villa game. Fulham aren't a bad team, but while they adjust to life without Dembele and Dempsey, they're there for the taking. A few goals better on the goal difference would be nice too. We've been working on the defence apparently, so we wait with bated breath to see if it's worked. I don't see a draw in this game. Either we'll play sublime football and smash them, or we'll end up with a Wiganesque result. I hope it's the former.

Wasn't it Elliot Ward we could've signed instead of Danny Seaborne? One suspects in hindsight that could've been a better deal for us, but I'm sure that for every player we should've signed that we had the chance to but didn't, there's another player that we were lucky to have passed over. Fate, I guess.

Otherwise known as the "Hooiveld Hoof"?!? :-) Some teams can make long ball work. How many times a long ball is in hit and how many times it works for a goal scoring chance isn't listed in the table above, that I'd like to see, but I'm surprised to see Stoke so low in the table, especially as they have Crouch up front. Reading however doesn't surprise me - they are looking for a way to stay in this division and long ball is one of those options they can use... but it's obviously not working for them at the moment. Perhaps QPR should try a few more long balls too!

Le Tissier's chip against United in the 6-3. The highlights (which I'm sad to say are all I saw of it but had recorded on VHS until the system died out) of the whole game were goosebumpy, but Le Tissier's chip in particular over one of the best (if not the best) Keeper of his day, and against the best team of its day, was extra special. The best player we've had in my generation, with one of his best goals against the best team.

Besides Wigan, which perhaps we should have got all 3 points from, it's gone pretty much as I expected. I did think we'd get a point at Everton, but that was at the start of the season before I knew they'd be flying. The Wigan game really cam at the wrong time - I'd have rather had Chelsea in that second game and got the toughies out of the way early on.

To be frank, I thought our goal difference would be far worse than it is right now. Yes our defence is a problem, but we came away from both Manchester games with only a -1 goal difference and that's better than I could have dreamed. Indeed we could've won both games with a better defence (which we all agree we need). This shows the strength of our attacking outlets, and the reason I think we're better than most of the lower league sides in the division. (All of whom will have their own defensive problems eventually, and some of whom haven't even played the Manchesters. 6 of our fifteen goals came against the most creative team in the division too, which warps the statistic. It's far from panic stations, the phrase "keeping our heads above water in January" is very true, and I definitely think we'll do that based on a strong attacking side to our game. The defence will be sorted out in January, of that I have no doubt, so until then let's just watch Lallana, Ramirez and Lambert (and Mayuka, JRod and Punch) rip teams a new one, while hoping we solidify a tad at the back. After all, there's not a thing any of us can do to help the defence, short of pulling on a pair of boots and offering our services. (THey wouldn't want me though...)

Not disheartened with the loss, Everton are on fire at the moment I think we'll beat Fulham. Sounds like Gazza had a good game today, a better test of his talents.

I'm upbeat about our chances of staying in this division. Yes our defence sucks big ones, but I'd say our attacking outlets are better than many in this league. I agree with people saying we need to keep afloat until January, when we can sort the defence out, and I think we will. I've not seen every game, but the signs are we're a good attacking outlet now. Hopefully we can beat Fulham and 6 points from 7 games won't seem all that bad. Will beat Fulham? I think we will.

Gaston!!!!

I HAD a posh, private school-educated, Berkshire accent until I started my first proper job. I swiftly learned to ditch it and now have a bit of a London accent, to make the tourists I serve feel welcome.

I personally think Lambert has the brain to play anywhere in the front 6, but he's doing such a good job in the No 9 position this season so far he shouldn't be moved to accomodate others. Shame for JayRod though, you'd think he'd earned a start, but even if he does play it may not be in his favoured position. He'll either have to wait for a Lambert dip in form (which could take a while), an injury/suspension, or hope we end up resorting to 4-4-2. As for Mayuka, from the couple of glimpses I've seen of him, he looks very good. He'd have to be, if we ended up loaning out Sharp and Manny proves to be a heap of shyte, Adkins would be given hell. Again, with Lambert in front of him, and JayRod to boot, he'll have to wait for his chance, or be given a run out in the Puncheon position. I hope he gets a full game against Leeds at least, that I'd love to see.

This is precisely why the best Football game on the market is, and has always been (in both guises), the FM series. Will still get Fifa though, but I'm really **** at it. I'm not patient enough figuring out the controls.

My guess is they get a short term, no risk contract, they can play well for a couple of games to attract the attention of better teams. If Buzsacky really is on a free (which I didn't know, good player) it may be that he's become the forgotten man. A few good games of playing well at Skatesmouth (while each player makes themselves feel special because they're doing their part to save a HUGE, historic club) and nPC sides will come a calling. Tis my understanding anyway. What's a Nettos? Never heard of it.

What are they paying him in? "Magic" baked beans?

Bad news, but it'd be a lot worse had JWP not stepped up his game this season. Morgan, Davis, Lallana and JWP, not to forget Mr Chaplow are still available for us.

I think only Mods can start polls. Gazza hasn't done anything wrong. Stick with him. Boruc will get his time eventually.

With one of Manchester United or Chelsea definitely going out, winning the next tie would surely make us one of the favourites to make the final. That's if we win it of course. But I bet the Leeds fans are saying it's a winnable game. I'd still play the back ups, especially against dirty Leeds. A game like this could be right up Chaplow's street.

Very loseable. Still, in this cup, if we win, we say we have a great chance of winning it, and if we lose, we say it's a silly tossy cup and we're better off out of it. I still think it's dependant on what form each club is in going into the game. Even using the back up players, if we've won a couple more league games by then, the spirit around the club should inspire the back up boys to victory.

Having a glance about our newest debutant too, Andy Robinson. He's 20 in less than a month. Is he a late developer or will he be on next summer's released list? How did he look last night?

Aston Villa at St Mary's. Well we've already proved we can **** them. :-)