SaintBobby

Turkish isn't even worth ignoring. Sad little specimen.

This might help: http://www.picupine.com/bac4a04x#whufc

Back from the game and a few sherberts. I was never in doubt about the 2nd penalty, had a great view of it from where I was...the upper tier towards the corner flag. Good spot from the ref who had a much worse view. Slightly ropey performance overall, but not shocking by any means. Chaplow was very poor first half. I'm a big fan of his, but he's not one of those players who is much good at 80% (whereas, say, Lallana and Lambert can be). He was 80% at best and that just meant he didn't have the bite that we need from him. De Ridder really brought something to us in the first 15 mins of the 2nd half but then we seemed to forget how to use him (and/or Millwall got wise to him). Lambert's composure was amazing. Guly was pretty good. Busy and involved. But I was never quite sure what he was usefully doing in an attacking sense. Morgan Schneiderlin was nearly faultless. An exceptional midfielder. We missed Tadanari Lee. Still in a state of sheer joy and relief. With five mins to go, it looked like we were potentially going to slip to, effectively, third place. Must be a smack in the face to West Ham and Reading that we dug that out. Huge 3 points. Bloody marvellous. P.S. we are now mathematically certain to finish above 17th...what's your new prediction, Dalek? 12th? 15th?

Thanks for digging up an old thread. It's fascinating to re-read it. I didn't comment at the time, but probably would have said something embarrassing. It does show how we fans can get things badly, badly wrong. I think those people complaining about "why has this been dug up...times have changed etc etc" are desperate beyond belief and well worth laughing at.

Boro away

ML and NC were necessary conditions - without them, we probably wouldn't have survived at all. But things could have gone a lot less well even with the buyout and strong overall management. I'd give some considerable credit to Adkins and a fair sprinkling to Pardew. The players have done a great job and our signings have been incredibly astute. None of Fonte, Hoovield, Fox, Chaplow or various others made me punch the air when we signed them, but all have enormously exceeded expectations. It's hard to think of a bad signing really. I'm mildly pro-Guly but wonder if he gets so much flak not for being black but because he's one of very few not to have performed enormously beyond what was initially anticipated.

Saints are favourties to go up as champions following today's results http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/winner

Well, like having an extra 1/2 a point really. But, yep, may be crucially.

Weird substitution.....hope that's not an injury to Rickie and is just to rest him with the game (probably) won...

Get in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love this thread. It has set the tone. But here's a request for help. I think there is now a conclusive case that Birch is acting on his own money to keep the skates alive. I think this needs underlining. I am therefore drafting a letter to the FSA in these terms, but am uncertain that thus is the right route?

Very frustrating night. We shld have been out of sight after 30 minutes. Then having finally got the breakthrough, we shld have held on. Annoying. Not a bad display overall, but a disappointing result.

You what? Are we supposed to aim for 7 points from the next two games?

B@llocks

I def want a Cardiff win....they are very unlikley to catch us.

Sorry...odds will have tightened, but it was 4/1 on betfair when I posted.

No chance of an England call up for Rickie. Sadly.

Pretty much our worst performance of the season, yet you give the starting XI an average score of nearly 7 out of 10????

Where are Corp Ho and pfc123 to explain why everything is tickety-boo? Or is Corp PMSLing?

Seems a fair plan to me, overall. I'm a STH, so unaffected (other than when I want to secure extra seats next to our block of three). But, yep, overall I'd say this is a good system, even if it doesn't suit everyone.

I think you may be right. They certainly shouldn't be treated as "nailed on". The 4/1 odds on West Ham NOT being promoted is quite attractive, I'd say. I'd put there promotion chances as pretty good, but not much higher than 60% or so.

If we are promoted, I don't think we need to make substantial changes. I think we would need more cover at centre back and maybe a bit more pace on the wings. But that probably applies if we are in the NPC for another season too. Those who I think are unlikely to figure next season (whichever division we're in) are Jaidi, Seaborne, Dickson, Holmes, Connolly, Falque and - possibly - Hammond and Barnard.

Seems to me that we are pretty much nailed on to make the play-offs, which was the height of my ambitions at the start of the season. The bookies have us at 5/2 to win the division and 4/6 to get promoted by any means. West Ham are about evens to win the division and about 2/9 to get promoted. These odds seem to overstate their chances, I'd say. It seems unlikely to me that the final game against Coventry will be an irrelevance from our point of view. I think the title and/or auto-promotion will probably still be in play on the last day of the season. Am I unsual in much preferring 1st to 2nd? If losing to Coventry means Pompey go down but we miss out on the title and finish 2nd, that's not a price worth paying IMHO. Incidentally, Pompey are about 1/2 to get relegated at the bookies.

In fairness, the second clause of the second sentence in the second article remains true to this very day....

Depressing thread! :-) I'm feeling pretty optimistic at the moment so am more interested in who is going to get relegated from the Premiership - i.e. which teams do we want to play and avoid in the top flight next season? I think I want Wolves and QPR to drop.