derry

There has been a lot of talk on here about overlapping full backs. The last thing a really quick player needs is a full back taking the ball up behind him, passing it and going for the overlap because it means the quick player never gets to get down the line pretty much like Forte yesterday. It needs the ball to be given early to the quick player or better still played down the line and the fullback supporting inside but leaving the wingers space for him to run into.

I thought about this yesterday because of the dire central midfield, but came to a different conclusion. I would team Connolly up front with Guly and play Lallana and Forte wide. But in midfield I would replace the strolling Stephens with the strolling Lambert teamed with Hammond. Lambert is probably the most incisive passer in the team but is not breaking sweat to get into dangerous positions. Stephens made one tackle after losing the ball yesterday, made a few forward passes but mainly sideways and backwards, Lambert would be a much more dangerous player for us and Hammond could concentrate on defensive duties. I came to this conclusion because of Connolly's injury record although he has a great football brain and could probably play central midfield. It isn't however going to happen, as Adkins is very orthodox and not at all innovative or original in his thinking, hence the way Jones and the empty right side turned us over against Rochdale when it was crying out for us to clamp down on their midfield..

The two players in the centre of midfield are the main reason we are underperforming. Hammond, Stephens, Chaplow and Schneiderlin are just not strong enough. We play an enormous number of meaningless round robin passes that go nowhere and just invite the opposition to close us down because of the negative slowness of our play. Our two central midfielders basically hang around the centre circle, Stephens is neat and tidy, painfully deliberate and totally unambitious, whilst Hammond provides effort but little else and no leadership. We need leaders in central midfield showing the same basic football understanding that Connolly does naturally. We were a different team late in the second half after Connolly came on. Connolly has a proper football brain and his movement and passing ability brought the best in football terms out of Guly and Lambert, which then involved other players like Dickson, Butterfield and N'Guessan. It is a crying shame that we had in Forte the quickest player on the field yet nobody played him in down the line. Invariably he was taking the ball square with the fullback trying to get outside him, instead of playing him down the line and getting up in support. If Connolly can stay fit we will be a better team. In footballing terms we still need two strong leaders in midfield.

Count me in. Whoever is going to manage this should pm Steve Grant, who talks to the club on behalf of the SW, regarding the proposition.

Committed to Crown court June 8th, unconditional bail.

We are just playing without a right midfielder and very narrow surrendering the wide areas to the opposition. We got away with it v MK Dons and Orient but we were exposed wide last night. Both goals came from out wide, the first a deep cross and Harding ball watching yet again, as against Peterborough, he allowed his man to nudge him out of the way and get a free header, he just doesn't know where to position himself so he can see the man and the ball and not be baulked. The second a speculative shot from wide right yet again missed at the near post. Play 4-4-2 and use Forte/N'guessan/Guly wide until Lallana/O-C are fit to start. We should be positive now and go for it in the last six games. It doesn't look like Stephens is the answer. The view from Oldham was he plays well in a team playing well but goes missing if the going gets tough.

He did a good job on Kevin Davies v Bolton. He just goes wherever Jones goes. Whereas a defensive midfielder picks up any threat in his zone, I'm suggesting a close marking of Jones because he is so vital to them. Knock him out of the equation and Rochdale are only half the threat.

I'm not proposing that Martin plays in midfield. I'm suggesting he man to man marks Jones who is probably the most effective central midfield playmaker in this division. Take him out and Rochdale will struggle. Let him play and he could cause big problems.

Schneiderlin in addition to medial ligament damage has DVT and until that is sorted would be unlikely to play.

It's far from negative as he is Rochdale's stand out player. Playmaker and top scorer. Take him out of the equation as he is so fundamental to Rochdale, that neutralising him will make our chances of winning increase. As we play a holding midfielder anyway and play a narrow diamond it would be no problem to shut him out by playing Aaron Martin on him with two central midfielders playing normally with Guly, Lambert and Barnard in front. If we play 4-4-2 then we we don't need to do it. With the narrow diamond we surrender the wide areas to the opposition and he will exploit that with his passing ability and cause us a lot of problems.

If we get stuck into Gary Jones and don't allow him to run the midfield as he did at SMS we will win. If we give him the room to play it his way he will pick us apart, which will make it much more difficult. Play Aaron Martin as an extra defender and man mark him.

Because Adkins had to get to grips with an underperforming team and add some players of his own choice. The transition period of mixed results was pretty much before Christmas which was also almost the halfway point of the season. The form has been consistent since then, mostly wins with the odd draw/defeat. Taking an average over the whole time Adkins has been manager is distorted by the poorer form/results of the initial period, 21 points from 14 games of which 8 were at home. In the last 20 games 9 at home 11 away.

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.