Legod Second Coming

Trust me, nothing pretty about it today... OK, we could have tried two up front but since we weren't holding the ball well and the passing was off piste, not sure it would have made a difference. It didn't work for the last 15 miutes because Kelvin resorted to hitting it long. Which from my vantage point was because the back and midfield weren't functioning properly. Look, to me, football is a simple game. If you have the ball, the opposition don't. If you move into space and receive it, and then look up and give it, and then look for a player moving into a good space behind, you can beat anyone. Today, our lads were off the boil. Nothing they tried seemed to work, so I personally don't believe anything would have worked. Davy McG looked lacklustre and we just seemed, 'amiss'. Admittedly, they started brightly and closed us down, but so have we been doing in previous matches and we didn't today. Just didn't fire. If you want to know where I think that game was lost today, it was on the six inches between the ears... But hey, had we put Stern up with McG, we might have nicked it...

Guilty - but God he winds me up. Not a word following two wins but now everything is wrong and we're not up to it and yada yada yada. Admit it, you've smacked your kids when you know it makes no difference to how they behave but for a second it was a release for you... Won't happen again, I have a nice glass in my hand and am relaxed now...

Because the players were not 'AT IT' playing to their strengths. So to suggest that we could have reverted to an alternative plan and seen them 'raise their game' is at best optimistic. Think seriously about this. There are two types of football. Passing and direct. Our style is to retain the ball and aim to find a colleague in a position to receive it, good, neat play aimed at opening up teams. The Plan B you postulate must be to hit the ball long and hope it runs for you? Since the former is a much higher percentage game, it stands to reason it's most likely to work, surely?? And, as we saw, when we did try to go direct we simply lost our way. If there was an error today it was in the personnel, not the plan (in my view) as Gillet had a poor game by recent standards and gave the ball away too often, with a result that we simply lost the midfield. So if you're view is Plan B is substitutions, then yes I guess I would agree with you. But people bandy PLAN B around as though it's a different type of football. Well, you can't have a passing team suddenly lump it - which is what half the people around me wanted. Just as Arsenal will LOSE some games playing really good football. And people will moan, because they think what? That Walcott is more likely to score if the ball is blasted at him from 70 yards through the air????? It's madness I tell you. If we're going to work with a style of play, for once in several decades let's REALLY work at it and make it happen for us, even if that means losing and LEARNING along the way.

We were playing with the 'multi-ball' to speed the game up and he stood on every free kick we got. Hopelessly fussy but sadly most decisions including the big one, right... more's the pity!

I'll chalk that up as a win and move onto someone with something constructive to offer...

That's exactly what it looked like from the off. We didn't press the way we did against Birmingham in both games. We looked to 'at ease with ourselves'. Like I said earlier, today was the first game we were actually expected to win. And that might be what found them out.

You sir, cannot comment on HOW we played and what we NEED to do if you do not SEE what happens?? We have had this argument before. People who were in Camden High Street last night will not be called as witnesses to a crime committed in Worthing because they 'heard about it'. FWIW, a PLAN B would have been as much use today as a jellyfish in a tennis match because of one simple fact. We played CRAP. So go and open a nice chilled Chablis and give yourself a round of applause. Today for once you are right. We were poor. Congratufeckinglations.

If a man wandered up to me in the street and told me that the moon was made of 'I Can't Believe it's not Butter' I would give him EXACTLY the same credence as I'm giving you... Satisfied?

Says a man who has seen NONE of it... yawn...

Good grief. You're on the wrong messageboard. No room for consideration, sensibility and contemplation on here. Off with you man...

Didn't think any of them were at the races personally. None of the zip and zest of recent weeks. Who knows why?? Gillet had a bad game. Killer not great. Only Kelvin stood out today.

We were poor. Of course, I knew you would revel in that...

Actually, we didn't need a Plan B. We simply needed to play better. We were poor. What was your Plan B - rolling out Ronaldo?? We were poor. What part of that is not to get?? There's no need to start disecting it to discover the problems. No need to start yet another monotonous and ill-conceived witch-hunt. And certainly NO need to change the passing game which until today was working well. We simply didn't employ it today! Blackpool played exactly as Birmingham did. On Tuesday we were good. Today we were not. That's how it goes some times. I hate it. You hate it. No-one is to blame because eveyone is to blame. The manager said: We will lose and we have to LEARN from losing. Well today we learned that we cannot enter the arena and expect to be GIFTED a win. We have to work harder, train harder and keep doing what we do well, and simply get better at it. IMHO

Yeah, because had people not bood the manager and players would have given themselves a big pat on the back and considered it a job well done...

That friends was simply a bad day at the office. No one really on their game (bar the MOM). And I put it down to this: Until today those boys just went out to play. Today they were EXPECTED to win. And it showed. But life is nowt if not a classroom. And that was a lesson learned the hard way.

lol, you cheeky fecker!!!

Funnily enough, that was the first question I asked... lol!! But this (quite foxy) consultant says: "Mr Legod, you will have to avoid alcohol, anywhere hot and doing anything that raises your blood pressure..." "So" says I, "That's a second honeymoon in the Caribbean out of the question?" "Mr Legod," she replies, "We hardly know each other..." With a cute little wink... (All true!!) Made my day actually! Until she told me that I could reduce my stress levels through following her advice and not working on Mondays!!!

Steve Moran for me, always, just ahead of KK and then Danny Wallace - but probably giving my age and era away!!

LOL!!! Would you bloody believe that I (true story) went to see a dermatologist recently who tells me I am intolerant of yeast!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. And I thought I was only intolerant of Alpine!!! Offer's still open by the way (and Ian, it's not that far! Well, as long as the bloody tourists move out the way of the beemer... )

Great find friend, really enjoyed that and can't believe I have seen our head coach my whole life without knowing who he was!! I was 8 when Gemmil scored that goal and can remember that World Cup like it was yesterday. The ticker tape everywhere!!! More than anything I remember the fantastic piano music that went with the TV coverage. If anyone knows what it is, I'd be grateful!!

OK, I've just got off the phone from Macleren and he translated what JP basically said as: "Southampton, yes. I thought maybe we get big club, like Blackpool. And it is Blackpool. Players, they are yes it is Blackpool. Players, they want to play Blackpool. I want play Blackpool. Championship. It is why I come to FC Southampton and now. Now, it is Blackpool. So, we see if Blackpool can be beat. Yes. Now, where the feck are those chocolate shprinkles and who stole my bloody caravan????"

Is it me, or does he sound a bit like Steve McLaren...

Going to the game tomorrow and will have three empty seats from Walton to Southampton and back. Happy to give anyone who wants one a lift - albeit won't get there too early and do need to leg it fairly quick afterwards (not before the end, NEVER) for family reasons! PM me.

Have to say I am UP TO MY ARSE in work and very nearly tonight thought about dipping out on this, watching on SKY and saving myself four hours to put into the current project which needs doing... But then I thought FECK that, only one thing will give me the energy and strength required to see this job through effectively!!! COYR Don't let me down boys, my mortgage depends on the right result and performance!!!!

Jesus, is there any minor sporting event success anywhere in the world that Woodward did not craft?? Feck me, when my daughter beat me at Pool had he commissioned the £500,000 on the pub refurbishment and the new cue rack which made all the difference??