Cabrone

B - we go up on merit or we don't go up (couldn't care less about getting to the plastic league TBH). Don't want Pompey to go bust, enjoy the rivalry, demotion to lge 1 would be sufficient for me.

Has to be Ricky for me with Adam and Jos joint 2nd and Chaplow 4th. Without Ricky we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are. Our standout striker, infact the whole division's standout striker. Bit unlucky for the other guys as in many other seasons any one of them could have won it.

Kelvin is fine but Green is a much better keeper. I'd have him in a shot.

I got closure the day we were taken over but from a club perspective I guess it's when we get back to where we were before L**e screwed it all up, lower-mid table obscurity in the prem. Not that I'm in any way bothered about being back in the prem, I think this league is much better.

I quite like Carroll, he's a pretty effective striker if you play him correctly. Plenty of balls in from the wings and he'll create chaos in the opposition's box. Not his fault Liverpool paid a mad fee for him and don't play to his strengths thus lowering his confidence. He's no Pele but he's decent at what he does. However does make you think how much Ricky would be worth if we were to sell him? Guess his age would go very much against him now in terms of cash value.

Phew, fantastic result at a ground that's been a banana skin in the past. Just as important are the results around us, despite Reading's form still think that W.Ham and Brum are the teams to watch and I'm sooo glad Brum lost today. I'm really hoping they have a dip in form (they are due one). Reading will crash and burn at some stage IMO. Another massive game at Leeds next week (TBH they are all pretty massive from now onwards).

I quite liked him, he definately had some skill but I always thought he over elaborated on things when he could have been a bit more direct and effective. Will always remember his helicopter twirls all over the place which were to be fair to him, pretty effective at getting him some space. I hope the fans give him a warm reception.

If we lose and Brum win then they will have the chance to go above us. When you compare their form and remaining fixtures against ours I'd say it would take a massive effort to overhaul them. West Ham look likely to win too so they could pull ahead by 4 points with 1 game in hand. We really need to win on Saturday, it's crunch time.

Yes, hate to say it about the negative whinge bag but he is effective. The other manager that I have a serious aversion to is Neil Warnock but again, I have to say he is damn effective in getting clubs into the prem. Despite their records I still wouldn't like us to hire either of them though, the daily moaning and whining would be too much.

That's pretty much how I feel. It's a race between us,W.Ham and Brum. W.Ham have points on us and Brum are going like a steam train. I think it will go to the end but my gut feeling is we'll trip up in enough away games to cost us 2nd. Brum as champs, W.Ham 2nd and we'll go into the lottery. Really hope I'm wrong.

Whilst a point away and 3 at home should do it this really is the kind of game that we should be looking at 3 points if we are to get top 2. Merely aiming for a point in away games puts huge pressure on our home form so when we can get 3 we need to go for it. I think we'll need 26 points for an auto place so a win at Watford will reduce the target down to 23 from 13 games with 6 at home. Very doable IMO.

The last 3 games have been away at the best 2 teams (alongside us) in the division + home against a team on an awayday hot streak and we've bagged 5 points. Got to be happy with that though can't help thinking we could have nicked it last night (like Brum). Looking at our respective fixture lists we'll finish above West Ham IMHO, not so sure about Brum though.

What I meant was that apart from those 4 games we have either exactly the same or (theoretically) significantly easier fixtures than them. Therefore if we can get close to their points tally in these 4 matches then (on paper) we should have every chance of overtaking them. But as you say there is a long way to go and injuries\suspensions are going to have a big impact. I just hope we have got all our bad luck out of the way over the last 2 months. I also think we should be good enough for at least a draw at their place.

Agreed, West Ham do look to have a tougher run in than us. They play Palace, Boro, Hull and Watford at home whereas we play them away so if we could get within 2-3 points of their tally in these games then I think we'll overhaul them. Long way to go yet though.

I may be in a minority but I like HR and think he's a top manager. When he came here we were a ship that was already going down, I remember seeing one of his first games incharge at Spurs and we were total gash. I mean total and utter gash. I can remember thinking that if he could manage to keep us up that season he'd have done something pretty heroic. Let's not forget that he had to work under L**e who was coming up with genius ideas like paying a fortune to get a rugby coach and a 'soccer school' manager to take over behind Harry's back. Let's also not forget that he assembled a damn good champ team that was one quality striker short of getting us out of the Coke at the first attempt IMO.......and how much was he given to spend at the start of that season?? £90K for Fuller. We battered teams without beating them because we couldn't score. Ipswich away springs to mind, we murdered them and somehow only got 1 point. Imagine if the clowns in the boardroom had actually backed him with a couple of million from the sale of Crouch and Phillips? I think we really could have gotten back to the prem and then who knows? HR might have been a hero here. I'm not surprised that he thought 'bugger this' and left. Lesser managers than HR would have walked, SFC was a total circus at the time. No hard feelings Harry, I know who the real culprit was.

Pretty much agree with everything BrummieinHants said. Brum and W.Ham are our biggest rivals for top 2 IMO so a point at St Andrews was good all things considered. Brum look to have a v.good defence IMO. Would love to have Curtis Davies here.

To be fair to Guly our most dangerous moment on Sat was when Guly made a penetrating run into their box and the Brum defender was forced to take one for the team on the edge of the area. Lambert blasted over but had the Brum defender not taken a yellow then Guly may have nicked it for us. He may look disinterested but he does offer a flash of brilliance every now and again that has quite often made the difference. Overall I quite like him.

Thought we played some good stuff until we got to their end of the pitch and then we got scared. Nige needs to coach them to have a go a bit more often, can't tippy tappy it into the net all the time. Last night cried out for more speculative long range shots + a few mazy runs into the box. No shots all game is poor. Punch + KD were my standouts. Maybe a new and improved Punch will be like a new signing? Great to get a point off Brum. They will be there or thereabouts, esp impressed with their defence which looked v.solid. Pleased with a point but can't help feeling we could have grabbed 3. Definite reasons to be cheerful though. We've been through the toughest run of fixtures that we'll have this season + we've been hit with injuries\suspensions yet we are still 2nd. With the exception of W.Ham(a), B'Pool(a) and Boro(a) all our remaining games are against teams outside the top 6 and the squad is coming together. I think we'll really start to kick on from here.

We've played the conditions the best but we need to get more direct. Would like to see us play more down the middle, get the ball to Adam and Jason and get them to take it into the box a lot more. Brum have 2 great CHs but they pretty tall and in these conditions their high centre of gravity needs to be exploited. Would also like to see Billy on at half time for DC. From what I've seen I think we could nick it tonight.

For me this one looks like the toughest match of the season, Brum are smashing teams all over the place and I'll be happy if we get anything out of it. On the other hand the team is starting to get back to full strength after all the injuries\suspensions so hopefully we'll give them a cracking game. Not particularly confident but knowing us we'll probably go up there and win 4-0 now.

That's a great signing. We now have either a hard working, fast, honest proven goal scorer + an exciting, potentially explosive international talent to choose from to play alongside Rikky. If Rikky gets injured or suspended again we also should have enough strength in depth to still put out a dangerous forward line. From looking a bit threadbare a couple of weeks ago all of a sudden our attacking options look very strong indeed. Congratulations to the management team, I think they've had a very good transfer window.

+1 (although I do think that Morgan has improved this season).

Blimey, whilst I admire his ambition that's a pretty high bar to set. Not even Ricky is doing that. If he gets anywhere near that target then he'll quickly turn into a cult hero but I'd be very very happy with a goal every 3 games TBH.

Was not surprised at the result but the performance sounded really dissapointing. With about 25-30 mins to go Mark McGhee (who was commentating on R5) said that we looked like a beaten team. I don't mind us losing - it happens esp against what I think is a strong Leicester side (wish we had Danns in our midfield) - BUT to lose so lamely is a real downer. I know we were missing 4 key players but still, we are top 2 and I'd expect a lot more passion before taking a home defeat like that. With Ricky back and RC + Jose + Adam hopefully coming back soon we'll get better but NA has to somehow motivate them to keep their heads up else we're going to slip out of top 2 in the next couple of weeks.

Mark Wright came from Oxford for next to nothing and went on to be England CH.