Graffito

A touch of humility hasn't gone amiss. This, and a certain credibility I have always thought attaches to supporters of lower league sides are two of the few, very few, benefits of supporting a lower league side. And we do it well by turning up in numbers.

I think our achilles heel is lack of pace at the back, whatever formation we play. Against teams with pace or who move the ball around quickly (e.g Brighton and Norwich) we have sometimes struggled a bit. Although Orient were a little fortunate on the balance of play, Jaidi got isolated against Orient's pacy winger, which led to the og. Brighton made our two CB's look ponderous at times. In retrospect it would have made sense to have played 4-5-1 against them to at least try to protect the back four. I'd like to see a pacy CB brought in in January but such players are like gold dust.

Essentially he's just saying what both he and Lambert said in interviews just after the match, that the game was entertaining but too open. It's not the first time we've been unable to hold onto a lead and see out a game. It's about keeping possession of the ball. We have the players to retain possession but for some reason we just don't. However, some credit to the opposition on this occasion.

You have a point about the pen. Your defence of the other two is a bit feeble Benj.

A good game. Norwich look a good side that moves the ball around quickly but we had the chances to win it. A draw was probably a fair result. A comment on our defending. Three times in a week we have failed to be alert to rebounds. Once against Brighton and twice today.

Human error. Unbelievable human error on the part of the Linesman. The real scandal is the seeding.

That's a heartwarming post and great that you still make the occasional game Old Codger.

I can see why you ask the question. We have a large and supposedly strong squad so why not use it? I disagree that the selection cost us the game. Burnley last season. Small squad. Very few changes. Got promoted.

Credit to Brighton, they played well and deserved it. Saints were below par all over the pitch. Just one more observation; why so many long looping crosses from deep. They just don't work. Try playing through midfield. We do have some quality there.

We travelled up by coach. After the game the coach driver suggested he'd take us to a pub to avoid the worst of the traffic on the way back. He asked for a show of hands which I recall was about 50/50 and there was then a big argument between those that wanted to go to the pub and those that wanted to get back to Southampton as quickly as possible. The pub won and where do we end up? A pub on a Council estate in Watford! Word got round and people started to turn up to see this load of Saints fans in their local. I remember one of the locals saying "You ain't singing. You don't seem very happy for a team that's just won the cup".

Outcome bias - it turned out ok so Fry did a good job. No, based on the facts which have been made public, my opinion is that Fry made a major error of judgement in giving exclusivity to Pinnacle which could so easily have lost us ML's investment. I recognise that he had a difficult job and I suppose if his peers want to give him an award that's fine but I can't see why he deserves praise from Saints fans.

You're right. On Saturday we played the long ball to Lambert missing out the more skilful players in midfield. Seems to me we have more quality than most in this League so it makes no sense to hoof it forward like we did against Orient. When Connolly came on he brought our more skilful players into the game with passing and movement and we looked a much better side.

From what we know of our owner I would have thought the chances of someone with this kind of background signing for Saints are zero. Some other club will take him.

Connolly changed the game when he came on. He brought our better players into the game with his link up play. When AP is convinced of Connolly's fitness I guess 442 will be the preferred formation but I see no reason why it should be used exclusively, with or without Connolly.

Micky Wingnut and his empty wallet.

But has he lost any weight? I agree he's not rubbish but last time I saw him he looked heavy and sluggish. It's down to him to follow Lambert's example, get fitter and get back in.

And it seems to think they were playing Charlton in the second half.

Get a Network Rail Card. £20+ for the year and you get the third off the price of the standard fare.

I think he may be putting pressure on all the players to get a result in an away game at Carlisle without p*ssing off his senior players. Last week was about taking pressure off the players in a home game they were expected to win. Like him or not, he's not passive, he's a manager.

Rome wasn't built in a day but Alpine wasn't on that particular job.

I saw it LTC. It was a penalty. HTH.

A good competitive game between two strong sides. We were good value for the first half lead. They were better second half. We dominated the first 10 mins of the second half and then gifted them a goal which brought on sustained pressure. Unlike Saints, Charlton have pace and it caused us problems at times. We need some pace and to be a bit more creative to make more of Lambert but overall a pretty solid performance. Jaidi looked good when he came on.

FF, in the light of some bizarre comments this afternoon by one particular poster I wanted to redress my omission in an earlier post (to which you responded) to convey my thanks for your very informative post about a period in the clubs recent history of great interest to me and, I believe, other Saints fans.

Choosing Pinnacle over Liebherr could have been the mother of all **** ups by Fry. How the hell did he go for Pinnacle?

Murty has looked good on the two occasions I've seen him and we should snap him up. But I think you're right that we should bring in height (and power) at CB and in other areas of the side.