derry

Don't take anybody, if it is true, until after next weeks Brighton game, we need them to at least draw.

Adkins had evolved a system rotating the wide men and the two strikers and allowing them to interchange with Chaplow running from midfield providing chances and multiple scorers.. Yesterday that all went out of the window, eventually becoming narrow with two wrong footed wide men, Lambert out of it and only Guly a threat. Schneiderlin gave another cosmetic performance lacking any substance. He should have stepped up to the plate when Chaplow went off but just continued another one of his superficial performances. There was only one way to beat Notts County yesterday down the touchlines and from the byeline. If the rotating option wasn't working then Chamberlain and Puncheon should have hugged the touchlines on their natural sides and if Lambert wasn't performing take him off and put Barnard up front and Guly behind him. As soon as Barnard came on Lambert was getting in the way and Guly was rendered inneffective sitting behind with no width on the left. Once that happened we were never going to break them down.

That's a shame. He went on loan to Grosseto on 4th Jan so could probably still be bought.

NC didn't play any football from the back, packed the midfield and belted the ball up front for a break. They were very spoiling and put bodies in the way, thanks to the referee they were allowed to get away with it. Davis as usual shot stopped but we need a proper goalkeeper and he wasted so much time when he had the ball. Richardson's distribution gave the ball away time and time again, Lambert was no threat at all, Chamberlain had a poorish game for him but was physically pulled about, Morgan was second best today, Guly looked like our only threat today and the centre backs were solid. It sounds like noone is going and we are in for some players. If Lallana is out for a couple of months it will make things difficult, maybe time to bring back Waigo.

If it goes to a jury trial would a Southampton jury convict? Would he get a fair trial anywhere in the south bearing in mind the antipathy from Brighton to Bristol and Southampton to Oxford?

It's January, fees are inflated and Millwall can hardly expect us to give them a 20 goal (potentially) multi position player if we can't bring in decent price replacements. £1m isn't inflated and Millwall can't afford him. Have they even signed McQuoid yet who isn't scoring regularly.

I think the key issue will be the amount of the fee that Cortese will want up front. It may well be that the top clubs may well baulk at the prospect of having to pay a massive fee up front for potential. I just can't see Cortese buying a long term multi incentive transfer fee with the bulk jam tomorrow plus he will want a sell on percentage.

I'm told they have read this thread and tested the system, nobody will get more than the one ticket they are entitled to and will only get the first ticket against the customer number, so it is possible to not get season ticket seat if first ticket is already logged.

I think the tickets are posted manually so there still could be a block on random purchases.

Priskin back in favour at Ipswich, just scored against Arsenal.

Could be all Southampton pubs closed 1200 - 2100.

We have two big bids in but Nicola Cortese won't be held to ransome. Get those in and lose nobody we are nicely placed. Puncheon needs a three position quick goalscorer to replace him and it would be madness to let Chamberlain go without a complete replacement. It seems Millwall and Blackpool think they can steal him, well, as we have no need of the money, and as we are also clearing £500k+ from the Utd game they are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Every home match we have at least 13000 STs plus 7000 random non STs who would go to the Carlisle game. That means that another 8000 tickets will be sold worth at least another £200,000 for the Carlisle game.

What Adkins actually said was that he was ill, missed training then was examined by the doctor the next morning and sent home and is expected for training on Thursday. Sounds straightforward to me. If anything was being hidden the doctor's examination wouldn't have been mentioned.

We should now set a trend, cash on the nail. Set the price and take it up front, all the incentives in the world won't replace the loss to us. So if the price is set, that's it, plus a 25% sell on clause. If a club wants one of our valuable players we are willing to sell at that price they can write a cheque. It may well make a few eyes water but in my view the rediculous transfer fees would be no more if clubs had to pay up front.

I have no irrational hatred for KD he seems a nice guy but that isn't enough. I want to see our defence put under less pressure in our box because our keeper stays anchored to the goal line. We need an all round goalkeeper not a two trick pony. As far as I am concerned it is only a matter of time until he is replaced.

I gave him credit for his shot stopping which is really noticeable when playing for a team under pressure. In my opinion he isn't a good enough all round goalkeeper and could yet cost us. Nearly every goalkeeper at SMS this season has been a good shot stopper. Exeter's reserve keeper was a standout we would have scored 10 otherwise, another Lee of Brentford was brilliant and both of them cleaned up the crosses.

FFS Bill, Bart caught everything that wasn't hit hard and deep, thereby relieving the back four and allowed them to defend outside the six yd box instead of under their own crossbar. He forced Blackpool to either hit the crosses away from him or deep and the only two he didn't get were overhit. John thought he was a vast improvement and made it easy for the central defenders and coming from him, a great central defender himself was good enough for me.

I just don't get the hero worship of Kelvin Davis. He is a good shotstopper but so are most other goalkeepers, it's what they do. He is a good kicker of the ball given no pressure. That's it, he is flakey, linebound forcing the defence to defend almost under our own crossbar, he doesn't command the goal area and communicates badly with his defenders. He rarely starts a buildup from the back and seems to panic if a forward gets too near when he has the ball on the ground. It's unbelievable that we wasted £2m on him. A free transfer maybe but £2m. We need a goalkeeper that catches crosses, controls the penalty area and is comfortable under pressure playing from the back when appropriate. Bialkowski had a good game on Saturday and forced Blackpool to hit their crosses long after he caught the early balls into the goal area. There were only two crosses he didn't get and both of those were hit hard and deep outside the back post. He made one blinding save and caught two ground shots that would more than likely have been rebounded by Davis. As far as I am concerned even if his kicking isn't as good, that Bialkowski should be given the chance to be our goalkeeper. I know he probably won't be, Unless we bring in another keeper we are a better team defensively with Bialkowski in goal..

If the pitch is bad up the middle we need to play up the touchlines with Lallana/Chamberlain/Puncheon wide. A narrow formation will be more of last season blaming the pitch. Get it out wide onto the best bits and forget about trying to play through the mud.

Average 20000 Saints fans at every match. IMO every ST a ticket, then 15+, 10+, 5+ matches at SMS finally if any left general sale. That way the fans that go to the matches get priority. Having said that it won't happen, STs then general sale.

Adkins is definitely doing something right. I heard yesterday that the club is a really happy place to be now. Which is for me a really important issue.

The defence looked very comfortable with Bart taking up a position off his line and pushed the back four up a few yards so the crosses weren't coming in under the crossbar as he caught every thing that was catchable, The two he missed were more shot / crosses struck hard which went over him at the far post and went out of play, even Ron Davies wouldn't have reached them. John and I felt really comfortable with him there. He made one blinder of a tip over and saved two ground shots which he caught and unlike Davis didn't let them come out off him. I'd play him every time instead of Davis but like you I'd like to see us bring in a good goalkeeper that dominates the box and manages the back four.

Blackpool probably wouldn't be a destination but there are several Championship clubs looking and after seeing Newcastle tonight it wouldn't be a surprise to see him go there, His agent would have made him aware of the importance of playing well, as he is being watched by interested parties and needs to perform if he is to persuade other than Millwall to buy him. If he wants to stay and plays like this then I'd welcome him provided he embraces the squad ethic and understands he won't start every game.

I think the shop window is more likely than a sudden injection of team spirit. Having said that if he has decided to start afresh and is going to give his best and toe the line he would be a big asset giving us cover for several positions. He made a great lung bursting run to get up alongside Chamberlain and create an open goal, only messed up by Chamberlain going for unlikely glory rather than looking up and giving Puncheon an easy third goal.