SaintBobby

We ain't going to be level on goals scored. We're way ahead of West Ham on that measure.

Still think six will probably do it. That GD is still worth an edge. I think we need to aim to win all 3 games though - we could still catch Reading FFS.

I'm still pretty confident, but it's a big test now. Am trying to work out how valuable our GD lead is now really worth...but it's making my head hurt.

Agree. I think it's quite important they have nothing to play for on the final day.

We should still be fine. 2 wins out of three is still probably enough - and I reckon we can manage that.

dreadful weekend. May need 7 points, not six now....

Starting to look like GD is a minor advantage for us now, rather than nailed on.

Am keeping an eye on our goal difference now. Our advantage is getting hit badly by Brighton rolling over.

In better news, Pompey are 2-0 down.

No one seems able to do us much of a favour at the moment....

Dream on. Saints will go up with ease.

Some real pant-wetting on here. We don't need to win the last 3 to get promoted. 2 wins will almost certainly get us up, and quite possibly less than that.

The next games are on Tuesday. By 5pm on 21st there will only be one game left.

I reckon the last 3 games are all much of a muchness. We're prob slight favourites for the two away games. Have to hope Coventry are either down or safe on the 28th. Wouldn't say Posh is strictly a must win, but heck the nerves will really set in if we blow it.

A bit hard done by overall. Wouldn't say robbed - but agree with the view of most neutrals/commentators that the better team lost. But fair play to Reading. They lethally punished three sloppy errors. On another day against another team, we may have just got away with it. Other worries are a lack of pace and urgency. De Ridder was too deep for me, he should have hung on Harte's shoulder and we should have played a couple of balls over the top for him to get onto. He always had to get through their left side rather than beat them for pace in a chase for the ball. In terms of urgency, I don't think we picked up the tempo enough when we got the equaliser or even at 2-1 down. From virtually every throw in, the only option seemed to be short to Hammond or Cork. Final complaint was no one seemed willing to put their laces through the ball. Too often Saints players wanted another touch or another pass rather than take a whack at goal. The 12 shots on target include a fair few limp efforts. All that said, we could quite easily have won the game and should have enough to pick up the necessary points from the last three games. Six points will do it - and any slips from West Ham might would mean we can make it on just 4 points or possibly even three. A little hard to see us taking top spot though. I suppose if we win all 3 remaining matches, it's just about doable. We're not down to the wire yet, we have a modicum of breathing space.

Blimey. Top article. Exciting times. Need to pinch myself.

You can get 10/1 on betfair that we won't finish in the top two. An alternative way to bet would be on our final points - Sporting Index have a spread of 88.75 and 89.5 points. If you reckon we are not going to be in the top two, then we're going to get less than 88.75 points! So "sell" Saints on Sporting Index.

That limit on 65% of turnover being spent on players' wages in League One looks like an absolute killer for Portsmouth. Is the implication (if they survive) that they will just have to pay off lots of contracts before the season begins (e.g. offer Kanu 10 months of his remaining 12 months to sod off straight away?)

I wonder if anyone has taken a team so far in less than two seasons as Adkins? Gaining 40+ places in under two seasons is amazing.

Fox - who has generally been doing well - hasn't shown great delivery in last couple of games. Completely agree that limiting Harte's set pieces in vital.

The supposed breach of an embargo on the Staplewood development story. The club imposed an embargo, but the Echo then found enough info already in the public domain to run the story anyway. Most journalists would say that's fair enough. You might consider it sharp practice, but it warrants a rebuke on the phone and a lengthy period before other stories are given to him ahead of time and a warning this isn't helping the club-Echo relationship. Not an indefinite ban, which I believe was the punishment meted out.

I know there's no way of going back, but it does show the dangers of important games towards the end of the season not being played simultaneously. Just suppose it was West Ham playing on Friday and us v Reading on Saturday. Any slip by West Ham could well encourage both teams to play out a bore draw.

Much more concerned about the results on the pitch than some spat with a journalist. But...the club do seem to arrange their PR in an unorthodox and rather odd fashion (the ban on photographers leading papers to show the highlights in a cartoon strip, the ban on the Echo for what seems a minor breach of protocol etc) It's not the most important thing in the world, but it does look a bit silly, weird and childish at times.

I appreciate you suffer from mental health problems (depression, I think you said). You perhaps also suffer from innumeracy or just a fear of numbers? (unable to cope with 2 or 3 numbers in a paragraph). Certainly, last year, you made a range of assertions which literally don't add up. I don't have a love of all things mathematical - although love a bet and thus requires a basic grasp of probabilities. You also wrong though that highly numerate people have the characteristics you suggest. Where has it been established? I'd say my knowledge of football is somewhere above good-ish but a bit below excellent. Certainly in terms of predicting what is likely to happen, which is a reasonably fair test of what you know about the game, I do pretty well and certainly make your record look truly dire (well, a chimp randomly typing numbers on a typewriter would have a fair chance of making your record look dire in fairness, so that's not my proudest ever boast!)

Well, given you probably know as little about human pyschology as you know about football, I think I can safely stay unperturbed by that remark