derry

Lallana was much better in the previous five games. I think Clifford Nelson could well be right about Antonio. Both of them were not helping by being mostly too close to the central midfielders and strikers making it very difficult to spread the play. Harding's goal was the only real passing move, where a string of passes were put together.

40 for, 18 against.

whatever.

You obviously see what you want to see. The lack of width was the problem with Lallana and especially Antonio and caused the melee in midfield.

This was another of those essential ugly wins, like Wycombe but worse, we got away with it and collected another three points. The lack of width was appalling and the fundamental reason we played poorly. The only move with any passing and width led to Harding's goal. Antonio was poor, played far too narrow, positional play was amateurish, control non existent, pace was completely negated by his poor positioning. He gave us no width and by coming into the middle played into the defence's hands. Lallana after 5 games of proper footballing, back to a narrow, cameo, non productive performance that again played into the defence's hands. James is a liability at right back, the lad means well but that is not good enough. Against quicker opponents he will be our achilles heel. Bialkowski isn't a bad keeper and I feel more comfortable with him there. The rest of the players were decent without playing well but I think that had more to do with the narrow way we played, allowing the defence and midfield to compact and deny us the space and stopping us passing and moving. One goal from play, hardly a shot of note, plus a penalty and a direct free kick summed it up, it could easily have been another 1-0 ugly win. The best thing is the ability to scrape a win out of a poor performance but I really did expect us to play better football against the bottom side. I felt sorry for Waigo feeding off scraps and Mellis doesn't look at all convincing when he came on. Wotton was, well Wotton! Although Pardew dodged the question when asked about potential transfers we need four or five more decent players.

East Cowes Vics?

I don't know but the terms and conditions are explicit. I think that the problem only arises when lower than normal gates are expected because of the competition/opposition and the club close sections of the ground. Usually the whole ground with the exception of Blocks 1-3 is open for popular later stage matches so we all get to reserve our seats.

What probably happened was NFDC published two weeks ago but the Echo only found out this week, then contacted the club for quotes but because the press launch was a day later were asked not to go ahead that day. It could be because of the detail available on the NFDC website that the story was already written and in place except for last minute quotes, ready to go to print. It is possible that withdrawing the story would have caused problems to that days Echo and wasn't an option at a late stage.

Not true, the ticket doesn't guarantee the seat for any match. The club can allocate an equal value alternative at their discretion under rule 6 in the front of each season ticket. In reality the seats are never changed nevertheless they can if they so wish.

The same rules applied to the Northam but I suspect the only place the Kingsland ST holders would be inclined to want to sit would be the Itchen for obvious reasons. I think if specific seats are an issue then the common sense action is to try and book on day one before they are taken.

I'm in block 5 so booked early on Monday and reserved the four season ticket seats normally used. As there was no reserved seating period the problem is made by delaying. I think booking on the first day is the surest way to get specific seats when other parts of the ground are closed.

I've just checked the replays, the Echo and newspapers all said Schneiderlin. It was James played the ball down the line but hardly MOTM. Connolly- first goal - individual, second goal dribble and shot deflected to give Hammond an open goal then a beautiful through ball for Lambert to score and James MOTM- no way.

I know James for once had a decent game but what did he create. Schneiderlin's pass for Connolly, a through ball for Lambert and a deflected Connolly shot for Hammond. Waigo has to play wide right if he is fit. Thomas is a better defender than James. I think Pardew prefers James but he is on borrowed time, the more players we bring in the less he will fill in. His lack of pace is the big impediment for me. We need more pace and dynamism not less. We got away with James wide right at Walsall but we need Waigo's pace.

Kevin James quoted Nicola Cortese on BBC Solent sports news this morning. The owner is paying for the training ground and money is available for transfers in January.

The OS does say significant ligament damage and out until the new year. May not be 6 weeks but these things usually drag on.

I didn't see it, I also wonder what Aaron Martin or Neil Trotman/Perry would play like there.

I don't think I would want to swop our debt free circumstances together with the owner's proposed capital investment and steady progress with any club outside the Premier league and certainly not Portsmouth. I think looking at the big picture, we are far better off than most Premier clubs who are existing, fuelling their massive costs with tv money and debt.

James is really too slow and leaves us open to counter attack. I prefer Thomas there but I don't think it will happen. I wonder what Wotton would be like. Pardew may be tempted not to spend money on a right back when there are other permanent priorities. We know there is money available but Murty is a decent player and I think Pardew may well gamble on his fitness. I think another alternative would be either a quick centre back who could fill in or a holding defensive midfield player who could play right back. I see Nicky Butt is looking for a regular game but I think his demands would be far too high even if he would drop down.

That was an aside, not the main point. It is a fundamental right to be able to object to development in one's locality, not that it does any good, as it is going to be people that don't live in the area making the decision at NFDC, from New Milton to Lymington to Totton which is the real weakness in the objecting principle. Virtually all projects are eventually passed even if it means an appeal despite local opposition, this will be no different. What makes this different to most other clubs, the owner is paying for it and the club remains debt free which is almost unique in football.

They may well bring a big following. No pushover as they beat S****horpe in the JPT final at Wembley in May.

This is probably startup brand new investment including the land, We've already got a decent training setup and are upgrading. With the upgrading Staplewood would probably be compareable to equivalent new Premier style setups.

dluker@saintsfc.co.uk

JPT. Charlton.

I must admit, I did take it to mean the Kingsland/Northam corner plus the Northam and the Itchen as previously.

Lallana for me for one reason. His ability and ball skills are easily recognised however he spoiled this with a lack of discipline and team play but at last he seems to be getting the point about team play. He is now playing with discipline, tracking the opposition runners and helping out the full back, that together with playing like a proper wide player, providing decent width and getting into the middle to keep up his threat on goal makes him easily the most improved player, consequently because of the unexpected sea change in the way he is now playing, to date our man of the season.