Cabrone

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.

Yes, for me one of the most overrated players we've ever signed. Was expecting great things and with the exception of one brilliant game against Spurs in the cup he under delivered. Will always remember his sit down tantrum on the touch line at Fulham. THis thread shows that despite always having tight budgets we've really spanked a lot on 'big name' duds up and down the years.

Probably but if they got into Europe via the PL at least they would be able to hold their heads up high and know they got there by actually being good! At the moment they sneak in on false pretences, get kicked out almost instantaneously by some dodgy euro team and then sit around till the next chance comes along, normally during the next season. Would also give us a chance to kick their arrogant butts every now and again .

I'd personally have them in as I think it would add a bit of extra spice to the English leagues and completely level out the SPL but they'd have to start at champ or below. Judging from some of their arrogant comments towards us I also think they'd have an almighty shock. Also looking at the size of the SPL it seems that an automatic champs league place for the winner is very generous (Rangers and Celtic have a 50:50 chance every year) when compared to the 4 that the PL gets. How about the SPL winners having to playoff against 5th place in the prem for that final champs league spot?

Never mind, we're still top and Hooper will be off just as soon as a half decent prem outfit come sniffing. Best of luck to the reasonable Celtic fans, the rest of the pompous asses who have done nothing but disrespect my club can Foxtrot Oscar. I'm sure the Don still has a few more Irons in the fire and there's still an exiting season that needs completing.

Just had a look at the SPL and it really is a tiny tiny league. Take out Rangers\Celtic and the highest average attendance is Hearts with 13,441. That would put them 18th in the Champ (between Burnley and Bristol C). 7 teams (out of 12) get lower attendances than ANY championship club and all but the top 3 get less than 10k per game. Bottom is St Johnstone with 3,918 (lower than almost half of league 2 teams). Outside of the old firm + Hearts every SPL team would have a tough time in the champ and quite a few of them would even find league 1 tough. Just to show how lopsided it is Celtic (49,426) and Rangers (45,493) average over 30,000 more per game than ANY other club in that league. I thought the prem was bad but it's positively fair and balanced compared to the SPL. Just imagine if we played in the SPL.....it'd be regular Euro football for us. Unfortunately unlike Celtic we have the misfortune of having to compete in proper football leagues. PS: We average 26,097. Championship Stats SPL Stats

Great win and performance by the sounds of it. Needed to get back to winning ways ASAP. Outside of the obvious challengers look out for Brum, 6-0 winners at Millwall and getting a strong run going. Just glad we've already got 10 points on them.

Sorry but I disagree - £10M would be way too much for a striker thats not played in a top flight league (SPL is not top flight IMO) and is still untried against the best. A £10M player should be a tried and tested player. £6M + Puncheon would be as far as I'd go.

Totally agree and that's the angle I would have thought NC would be taking, plus there's obviously the NA connection. Hooper can play in Scotland infront of massive (home) crowds and get the adulation for banging them in week after week against modest opposition but if he has ambition - and I assume he has be accepting Celtic in the first place - he's going to want to play in the PL. Celtic\Rangers are big clubs - no one is denying that - but they will be forever stunted in a league that they have easily outgrown. I also agree on the 2nd point, I'd love to see Rangers and Celtic come into the English leagues, maybe at Champ level. I think they'd add a bit of extra spice. I'd also love to see a team from Dublin created and entered into the English leagues. I think they would get massive support + it would make for some very colourful away games.

No denying that Celtic are a big club (in turns of fans) but if he stays there he'll never get any decent top flight experience outside of a couple of Champ league games per season against lesser european teams. Not saying he'd come to us but if he has any ambition he'll be making a path for the prem sooner rather than later. Being as Adkins knows the player and that we are top of the champ a bid from us is reasonable, tough if Celtic fans don't like it but the champ is probably better than their league. Until (if) they get out of the Scottish leagues the Celtic fans just have to suck it up.

Dean Richard(s) Mark Dennis

Couple of decent goals for Wycombe on the YouTube link, looks like a fairly direct player with an eye for goal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3gI1IkEuXc

Well we lost at home, was going to happen some day and yesterday was the day. It's been an amazing 2011 and one that every Saints fan needs to lock away in the memory as it's unlikely that we'll have as good a year as this for a long time. We are now at the half way mark with an amazing opportunity to get out of this league at the first time of asking, if we don't grasp it now who knows when the chance will come again? However the fact that teams are starting to suss us out now means we face a pivotal moment in the season. We need to up our game - our creative players like AL, RL, SDR, Guly and DC need to find a new dimension to overcome the closing pack and the whole team has to go into every game like its a cup final. We need some new pace up front and a good GK (no disrespect to Kelvin but he isn't getting any younger). We also need Chaplow back ASAP, he's a real beating heart in the centre of the park and has been sorely missed. Despite the knee jerk doom mongers on here it's all very much still to play for, top 2 is realistically up for grabs but I think we need to step up now. I hope that Brizzle last night was the shock to the system, the kick in the nether regions that we needed to push on. Come on Saints - it's still in your hands but you need to react fast if you want that top 2.

Simeon Jackson and Wayne Bridge + a decent keeper.

He's the dominant part of the best defensive partnership we've had since Killer\Claus. Jos plays the Killer role whilst Jose is more Claus like IMO. If we get to the prem I'd like to see them kept together, I think they could be good enough. Plenty of loud mouths on here must have swallowed a humble pie or two over this particular signing .

I like Guly, he's the type of player that can win you a match with a second of skill BUT you have to know when and when not to play him. Today's game was one that he should not have played in IMO - we needed a more determined player, Guly was never going to get the space he needs This was more of a game for Barnard or SDR.