derry

Spot on again Ron. The key to our whole game is Lallana. Tonight he was back to his best headless chicken mode almost never taking up an early wide left midfield position and floating around the centre of the pitch. In the first 20 minutes whilst Waigo was mostly wide right we had our best spell but as soon as he moved inside, more the fact that Lallana was narrow caused the back and midfield players to hit the ball up to the front. Lallana worked hard at what he was doing but it was counterproductive and caused him to be pretty much a non entity, it also allowed Norwich to get at us by picking off Harding as he wasn't tracking their wide runners. Starting with the Norwich league game, for 5 matches Lallana played like a proper left midfielder and we benefited, but on Saturday he was back to staying inside and going wide late, last night was even worse. Unless he disciplines himself and plays like a proper left sided midfielder we are going to get murdered down our left. We damn near lost that game last night because of it. Lambert up front on his own was only picking up scraps as we hardly put a move together after the first 20 minutes.

I was at a meeting last spring where Leon Crouch talked about the annual mortgage payment, I can't remember the actual figure but I think it was £2.8m. I am pretty certain it was over £2m. Added to that, the savings on the grossly overpaid players like Euell, Raziak, John etc, plus the interest on a £6m overdraft, the debt free club will have a fairly low break even, despite still having Saganowski and Thomas on high wages.

Of course it is, this ranks alongside one of the JPT matches that was originally sold as normal then after a lot of tickets sold with seat reservations was changed to the Luton scenario. Then to cap it all, only those that went through turnstile A were told by stewards that spectators were now being stacked from block 4 filling each block on the instructions of some middle manager. Most of those had tickets with seat numbers although later tickets showed unreserved. Consequently there was an immediate reaction, especially when the stewards said that blocks 5 upwards would be opened after 4 was full. It was pointed out that the inevitable result would be a rush from 4-5 etc once they opened. Eventually after a lot of people just stood on the steps and refused to go into block 4 the stewards opened the other blocks. I will say that the response from the stewards was that this was an unworkable stupidity but despite their efforts to get it changed the manager who had imposed it wouldn't change. When I showed the supervising steward my tickets with seat numbers he understood. The club may well be right that the crowd won't be big enough but it is a Saturday. It's the day after the bank holiday and I personally think that could well mean a good crowd despite the status of the opponents.

The Kingsland and Chapel ST holders are hacked off because they can't get their usual seats and if they still intend to go, will most probably go to the Itchen, as most view the Northam as a last resort. That leads to another hacked off group of ST holders in the Itchen, who can't get their seats because they have been sold to others. I already have the tickets for my seats in the Itchen, so don't have a problem, but I can see further problems for all concerned, if we do attract a normal Saturday gate, the Kingsland will be opened, causing ST holders to try and change their seats. It might have been better to open the usual Saturday areas, especially as it is the FA Cup and a Saturday.

It wasn't a goalkick.

Whatever the interpretation Waigo needs to pay more attention to the position of the opposition's last man and stay onside. There will be times with his pace that with a relative opposite movement, the last defender coming out and Waigo going towards goal, he will be onside at the moment the ball is kicked, but appear offside when the ball is on it's way. I can live with that but sometimes he is unaware he has drifted offside and because he isn't constantly checking the defender's position he stays offside and looks stupid.

Spot on Bill, you may be being a bit optimistic talking about width as I'm not sure it's seen as a priority although it should be. Waigo will give us a lot more than Antonio down the right and he doesn't get offside much when he is on the touchline. He is pretty good at tracking the wide runners and his pace means he doesn't get outrun. He is also a much better footballer than many on here give him credit for. He rarely gives the ball away and his crossing is good. Antonio had the touch of an Elephant yesterday. His poor ball control cancelled out his pace and he isn't at all clever. James slowness worries me, he does some good things but he is painfully slow. Thomas is the other alternative and I personally prefer him to James at right back. Either way Waigo would give better support to either and provide a cutting edge on the right. I expect Lallana to be a lot wider against Leeds as I think there will be an emphasis on supporting the full backs against their wide men. That could well work in our favour with the extra width giving the midfield wide options to get the passing game going. Perry had a decent game yesterday and Jaidi is very good in the air but is a bit slow. Trotman may be quicker than Perry but he is nowhere near as competent.

Another person who understands what was happening.

Me too.

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.