SNSUN

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. :-)

Blackstock, Cox and Sharp up front, and they loaned out McG. With an attack like that, surely they're good for at least the play-offs?

Of those, Tadanari Lee, Guly, Richardson, Cork, Rodriguez, Fox and Kelvin are all far from fringe players. Of those, Chaplow, Seaborne, and possibly even Butterfield and De Ridder are decent enough squad players. That leaves Dickson, Sharp and Hammond, two of which are already on loan and the other has been frozen out. I don't really get the point of this thread...