Sheaf Saint

Exactly what I thought would happen - especially after this disgraceful rag of a paper blamed England's defeat to Italy in 1997 entirely on MLT. This is why I was surprised and a little concerned about J-Rod's call-up, and starting him last night was a mistake. I just hope the mauling he gets from certain sections of the press don't dent his confidence too much because we all know how important that is to his game.

What a ridiculous goal to give away at international level. Really sloppy. Play like this in Brazil and we will be totally embarrassed.

Solid debut from Lallana I reckon. Not spectacular by any means but he didn't look out of place, linked up well a couple of times with Rooney and deserves another chance on tuesday. J-rod certainly didn't disgrace himself but he looked like he was never sure what role he was supposed to be playing and didn't really get into the game at all. I think this may have come too soon for him, and I hope it doesn't affect his confidence too much. Absolutely dreadful team performance overall though. Barring some kind of miracle improvement England will get humiliated against a half-decent side at the WC.

God what a dull game this is.

Don't think J-Rod has done too much wrong really, apart from that tame half-hit towards goal when he had better options, but I won't be surprised if he is taken of at HT. Lallana has been good though - really got involved and made his presence felt, and had a couple of efforts at goal. A poor team performance from England though. Tactics seem sketchy and a few experienced players are having a mare. Lampard is a strange one - how is it that somebody can reach 100 international caps without ever actually having a single decent game? And in what twisted version of reality is Glen Johnson a better RB than Clyne?

It's not just their own website they tried to clean up though. As the article says, they tried to get any reference to these speeches removed from search engines as well. That clearly points to something more sinister than the reasoning they provided: that they were just carrying out a bit of housekeeping to make their website easier to navigate for visitors to it.

Who would have believed that just two seasons later he would have the highest number of tackles or interceptions in the PL. Amazing.

And that justifies the attempt to remove them all from public record does it?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/southampton/10439633/Southampton-revival-puts-England-on-path-to-success.html

No need to correct you. You're right. People may say our run of fixtures has been relatively easy so far, but the lads have shown that they fear nobody and the results, and more importantly the performances, at OT and Anfield give me great encouragement in the coming weeks. With other teams at the top showing some indifferent form recently (such as Man City's shocking away form and Chelsea's lacklustre performances) we should go into these games with total confidence that we can get something out of them.

Apparently, so I'm told anyway, there is a website dedicated to these torrent thingies of which you speak, that pluralises the word using a 'z' and is based in the European Union! I am led to believe that it allows you to find all sorts of non-copyrighted files by searching a whole host of other sites. Allegedly - of course

So 3 people reckon Wanyama was MOTM? Oh how side-splittingly funny you all are!

It's happening

Well, the Sky commentary team claimed after their win against Arsenal that Utd are 'firmly back in the mix for the title race', and they currently sit 2 places below us in 5th.

Looking at the BBC match stats it's no more than Swansea deserve. Stoke have only had 35% possession and scored with their only two shots on target. Edit: scored with their only three shots on target! 96th minute equaliser!

Another couple of goals for Utd would do nicely - bring Arsenals GD down a little bit.

Flamini booked and misses game against us.

Wowzer. I fully expected both Spurs and Citeh to win today to drop us down to 5th. Now we are 3rd on full merit having played the exact same number of games as the teams below us, and if Utd can beat Arsenal then we will stay two points off top.

Biggest winning margin on MOTM vote ever?

Gary Lineker: "If England get a penalty shootout in the world cup then just get all the Southampton players on, they never miss."

Hilarious.

That's just ridiculous. You can clearly see Ramires deliberately fall into the WBA player to con the ref there. If that had been given against us I would be fuming. Terrible refereeing IMO.

Great stuff yet again. Thought we might struggle today against a well-drilled side, but our first half performance would have had any opposition rocking. They switched to a flat back four after the break and showed a bit more quality but still only managed a goal thanks to a horrific mistake from Wanyama. Great subs from MP though to put us back in control. Lallana MOTM for me. Simply unplayable today. If he can do the same again for England next week then he will have booked his ticket to Brazil.

J-Rod played really well. Not got a goal but caused all kinds of trouble with his direct running. Osvaldo has put himself about since coming on but not really had a sniff of goal so far.

Oooh, unlucky J-Rod. Half an hour ago he would have buried that but he's run so hard today.