derry

A more realistic measurement of how we are doing is the 20 games we have played including beating Huddersfield on Dec 28th. We have taken 46 points @ 2.3 average per game which is a phenomenal 106 points if taken over the season.

On 28th December we beat Huddersfield 4-1, including that game we have taken 46 points from 20 games. If we continue to take points at that rate 2.3 per game we will be 90 points, Huddersfield can get a maximum of 89 points. Our games in hand are now a massive breathing space, as is our goal difference. we now need 15 points from 7 games and nobody can catch us. As no team will go to the end of the season without drawing one or two games we are well and truly now in the driving seat.

Looks more like an omoeba than a diamond. Otherwise known as a shapeless mess.

And I wonder when you don't go, how you have the neck to make a comment. I expect a bloody sight better than the abysmal display of the first hour yesterday. We got out of jail but that doesn't mean we are going to be able to continue doing it. We are scraping by and unless we improve we could come a cropper.

Lambert was awful for most of the game, no movement, never got above a trot, He is part of the problem why we were so poor after the first fifteen minutes, Harding's passing and crossing was poor. Fonte, Jaidi and Butterfield defended well. We had no right side for the first hour. Stephens came on but was pretty anonymous with just a few little triangle passes, Hammond gave his all and had one of his better games.Chaplow was again a disappointment. Lallana was a livewire. Guly was trying to get things moving but with Lambert static and Barnard ploughing a lone furrow it was difficult. We have been pretty poor but just doing enough to snatch a result for quite a time now. Most of this team are just not good enough to step up and be a top side in the championship. The results are in the main better than the performances. We don't seem to blend as a team and lack thrust and pace up front.

1960 1st div Man City 1 3rd div Saints 5, 1963 1st div Notts Forest 3 2nd div Saints 3 (0-3 with 13 mins left) 2nd replay at White Hart Lane, Saints 5 NF 0.

Pull the ladder up, I retired top of the pay scales. Seriously though it's viewed as a reward for service. Companies were keen for the higher paid to retire and be replaced by a new entrant on the scales. The age laws have now allowed pilots to continue until 65.

Things have changed, when I did my FA coaching badge there were 47 on the course including league players and top class amateurs and 3 passed.

Large airlines have strict pilot seniority lists. Leave, rosters, pay, promotion, allowances etc can be in accordance with seniority, Redundancy operates on a strict LIFO principle as do demotions to compensate for reduction in Captains. Airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair etc as far as I know don't have seniority lists.

When I was doing my Commercial Licence at Oxford ATS in the seventies I was friendly with an ex Viet Nam war 1st Air Cav Helicopter crewman who had started a helicopter pilot course. Everything didn't seem right about him as he was engaged to Dee Dee Wilde and she was supposed to be paying for his course (about the price of a semi detached house at the time). The management wouldn't let him start flying until the money was paid. In the end he disappeared leaving all his stuff at the pub we were living in in Woodstock. I ended up with his Janes military aircraft book, enormous, given to him by Dee Dee and signed by Dee Dee on their engagement. His other claim to fame was getting in a fight at the studios with the Jackson Five + minders after trying to clatter Michael who he described as a little ****. Not long after that he disappeared.

What is his plea. Any ideas?

Virtually every team that builds a new ground goes into administration at some point further down the track.

The three games in hand are two home and one away. I would prefer the games in hand. And before anybody chips in pointing out that the postponed games were all away, Huddersfield have three home games left and we have five.

An interesting quote from an Oldham source in the Pink yesterday. "He's got some talent. When the team's not playing well he can struggle but in a good side like Southampton he will look very good indeed. He's one of those players that looks very classy a lot of the time" As our central midfield isn't really working that well and apart from set pieces we aren't scoring many, this lad may not be the answer many are banking on. If he only plays well in a team that is playing well he may have a bit of a struggle here.

He is not on anything like that. He signed a three year contract at the beginning of the season and is paid no more than our top earners and yes I do know the contract amount because he told my son at the time he signed it. We were at a barbecue at my son's house, Brian was there, I asked my son if there was any interest in him from Saints, He said that Brian had just told him that Pardew had spoken to him but he had just signed a good contract at Reading an amount over three years. 15k to 25k is a rediculous figure to quote and shows that the person quoted hasn't a clue quoting those figures.

I got the feeling that Reading not being prepared to subsidise and the fact McDermott told him he didn't really want him to leave, meant we had to foot the whole cost. He would still have cost as much as Lambert/Fonte etc. It was knocked on the head by Howard a week ago after he was picked to play at Barnsley and then was told by the manager after the game that he wanted him to stay and play a part in their play off ambitions. After all they are in 7th place three points behind and a game in hand.

No, because they went for Howard first. I think the cost put them off and Stephens fills the limited requirements of cover for midfield.

Be smart. Get a mini tape recorder, record some of his outbursts and give him a copy. He may well get the message he is on dodgy ground. Who knows on whose desk the tape might end up. I dealt with a lot of ex military dictators over promoted by their ex military mates, by working on the principle of not trying to push **** uphill, knowing that it moves downhill pretty quick. Being in demand to partner the Managing Director in golf tournaments helped. In the end they were so twitchy about me letting off steam at the Managing Director that they were terrified to do or say anything.

The need with 10 games left is to get promoted. The lad may well be cover for a central midfield that isn't exactly productive or creative, He may turn out to be a good player but he needs to be a good player in the next 10 games not potentially. I don't suggest that Brian Howard is Premier or even an outstanding player but he is an outstanding and perceptive passer. This is something that we lack. The only player I've seen in div 1 that ran his midfield this season is Gary Jones. I want to see us promoted without the lottery of the play offs and I'll wait and see what Stephens achieves in contributing to that. Brian Stock might be an alternative if we are promoted but we desperately need direction in midfield.

And after all that, the Reading manager wants to keep him because he thinks he might help to get them promoted. He is the sort of player alongside Hammond who would give our attacking players a service they lack at the moment because of the lack of a playmaker in central midfield. If we get promoted it wouldn't surprise me if he came in the summer.

You obviously haven't a clue what sort of player Brian Howard is and if you did, you wouldn't be making juvenile facetious comments like this.

We have ten games to see how good he is. If he is half as good as Howard, he will be far better than either of the present incumbents. It will be interesting to read the comments on here after his first two games unless he really has been brought in as cover and isn't playing.

For the whole of last week he was just waiting to sign but all that changed after he played on Saturday and was asked to stay and help their bid to make the play offs.

Brian Howard is one of the best ball passers anywhere in the football league. He would have given us a dimension we just don't have.

I don't know the fee, but Reading paid £500k for him, he signed a new 3 year contract last summer until end of season 2013. He is on a similar contract to that reported being paid to our highest earners. I know the exact basic figure. Contrary to opinions on here he lost his place after injury/suspension and as Reading have been on a good run playing defensive central midfielders he wasn't able to get back in until last Saturday. After the game the manager asked him to stay and in the light of no offer from Saints he decided to commit to Reading. There is no doubt that Stephens is a much cheaper option as far as a loan is concerned as there is no way that Oldham would be paying anything like the salary in Brian Howard's contract. He also hasn't the experience, stature or leadership that would be provided by Howard. Then he isn't coming and is not available as we missed our chance to get him last week when he would have signed. Stephens is probably on a par with our other two midfielders and it is doubtful whether he can come in and lift probably the worst performing part of the team in a way that Brian Howard could well have done. We are scoring the majority of goals from set pieces and produce little from play. A major problem.