derry

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.

Puncheon looked the part today and played well. However I can't help thinking that it is the shop window we saw.

Presumably you mean Newcastle 2 down at Stevenage.

Unlikely, but Lallana could go as he is out of contract at the end of the season. If a good offer came now, against the alternative of the player wanting to go and tribunal compensation.,

I can see several problems for clubs wanting to unsettle and shift Chamberlain. We don't need the money. Cortese isn't going to be dictated to by anyone, if Chamberlain goes against him, he may well end up not playing for anybody until 2013/14 season at the end of his contract. He isn't going to be cheap and Cortese doesn't believe in the never never. £10m could mean 'cash on the nail or don't waste my time', we now pay up front for transfers due to the Leibherr no debt principles. Cortese will decide where and when Chamberlain goes and the benefit to the club will be the only criteria. I wouldn't want to be the first player to suddenly find at this club the usual shenanigans won't work.

Unless he is loaned or transferred his registration with Millwall lapses today and he reverts to his registration with Saints.

I was delighted when Pardew went and even more delighted when we employed Nigel Adkins. I'm pleased that he is winning over many of those that liked Pardew.

If both Guly or Chamberlain are not available we will not have any pace up front. We need to keep or replace Puncheon. At the moment Guly's movement and pace and Chamberlain's penetration is our main threat, take that away and we are pretty pedestrian. IMO we need two alternatives to cover and compete. If we don't it could dry up the goals and derail the promotion. We need a goalkeeper that will dominate the penalty area. The Exeter goalkeeper played a blinder against us and prevented a rout, he was pretty good all round and surprisingly I believe was their reserve keeper.

The fee for Guly has already been agreed in the original agreement. Once the club has decided to keep him they only have to agree a permanent contract with him then pay that fee.

The problem with the D&R attacking at the end was the lack of pace up front as Alex and Guly had been taken off. Barnard is energetic but not quick, Lambert likewise. If we are going to get in front and defend a lead under pressure we need some lightning pace to bring on as it is difficult to break out if the defenders/midfield defend deep as it causes us tremendous problems especially with a goal line rooted keeper that allows the defence to back into the six yd area. If we are to soak up pressure we need a dominant keeper that will drive the back four out and catch the crosses thrown into the box. Two players like Waigo/Antonio would stop the oppositions defenders pushing forward and make them vulnerable to quick breaks.

21/8/2010 signed a three year contract until Aug 2013. Besides he has been with the club since he was seven years of age.

Something which is also being ignored by the Guly critics is his ability to drift away from the markers and reset his position having made himself space, something that Adam Lallana and Alex Chamberlain need to learn. If they do, it will make them incredibly dangerous, having lost their markers on the backpost corner of the penalty area/goal area.

I think the relevance of the ends decision is for the away fans not to be close to our goal when the away team is attacking in the second half. They are then deprived of noisy support which is drowned out at the far end.

Only quoting the PNE Chairman Maurice Lindsay who confirmed this at their fans forum. Mind you he gave Ferguson his backing and he was sacked yesterday.

More importantly would Barnard have been subtle enough to put in Lallana (missed open goal) Chamberlain and Chaplow with defence beating passes for clear shots. More than likely would have ignored them and tried himself even though the others were clear. Horses for courses, Guly provides the movement and space to open up defences for others, the strikers primarily are looking to score which often stifles movement. The movement on Tuesday provided seven or eight really good chances whereas up to now we have been struggling to break through defences. We looked capable of scoring all the match after the equaliser.

I think the noise from the Brentford game when we were turned over, plus the fact we nearly tried it before but reverted to habit, has made them realise that playing into the noisy home support is worth something in the second half when the results of most games is settled. The home goal is a long way from the away supporters and they can't unsettle our defence with their noise.