stevegrant

**** me. Don't say you weren't warned...

Is Steve Bull being fitted out for a Super Saint costume?

The main thing for me is that it unsettles the opposition defence a bit. They're expecting to have a really physical opponent to deal with, and it's probably easier to deal with that sort of presence from the start of the game - we see so often teams bringing on big physical strikers when they're chasing the game, and it's because when a defender is tired, it makes him more susceptible to losing aerial battles. If Lambert's been battling it out with Cahill, Ivanovic, Luiz or whoever Chelsea pick at the back for 65/70 minutes, he'll be tired himself (and the combination of his physique and age mean he probably wouldn't be at his peak later in the game), so perhaps the comeback we saw tonight doesn't happen. I fully expect a similar system with Lambert benched at Old Trafford in a couple of weeks, Rodriguez to run around a lot for the first hour or so and then Lambert to come on and change things in our favour again.

Guly was poor when he got the ball tonight, but he did a hell of a lot of work supporting Shaw defensively. That's why he was picked ahead of Ramirez - let's not forget, he was completely anonymous on Saturday at Villa.

To be fair, it would have been interesting to see how Antonio would have developed in a winning team like ours, playing to his strengths. Reading stiffed him completely.

Come on, you know as well as I do that it wasn't a proper call-up. He was called up the day before the San Marino game with the sole intention of filling a space on the bench and didn't even have a training session.

Once again, Adkins got his tactics spot on. That's four games since Christmas where he's tweaked our starting lineup and shape in order to counter specific threats (Fulham, Stoke, Arsenal, Chelsea) and four times we've come away with arguably unexpected results.

Because Lambert plays for Southampton, not one of the "big" clubs. As well as he's done this season, I'll still be amazed if he gets a call-up.

I think I heard that the pilot asked to divert to Battersea because of the poor visibility, not as an "emergency" as such.

Yeah, sorry, meant leading by two goals in the 80th minute and then losing the game.

Odemwingie's been in and out of the team this season anyway, and Mulumbu's at the African Cup of Nations. While I'm sure West Brom will level out as the season progresses, what happened on Saturday was a complete freak collapse. I think I read somewhere that it's the first time in more than three years that a team leading a Premier League game at the 80th minute went on to lose the game. Assume the previous one must have been Arsenal when they fell to bits at Wigan.

I still firmly believe Reading and QPR will go, QPR have left themselves too much to do (pretty much European qualification form required for the rest of the season) and Reading simply aren't good enough. For the first 80 minutes on Saturday, by all accounts they barely resembled a Championship side, let alone a Premier League one. You'd think most teams in this league wouldn't let them off the hook in the way West Brom did.

Worth looking at all the results between the bottom 6 - I'm inclined to agree that it'll be points won/lost against teams around us that will be key come May... [table=width: 500, class: grid] [tr] [td][/td] [td]Pld[/td] [td]Won[/td] [td]Drw[/td] [td]Lst[/td] [td]GF[/td] [td]GA[/td] [td]Pts[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]1. Saints[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]0[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]11[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]15[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]2. Wigan[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]10[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]3. Newcastle[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]8[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]4. Aston Villa[/td] [td]7[/td] [td]1[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]10[/td] [td]6[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]5. QPR[/td] [td]6[/td] [td]0[/td] [td]4[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]8[/td] [td]4[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]6. Reading[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]0[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]5[/td] [td]8[/td] [td]2[/td] [/tr] [/table] The only caveat with those figures is that not every team has played the same number of home and away games. Reading have only played one of the teams around them at home, while we've only got QPR to play at St Mary's. However, so far we have a 100% record away from home against the teams around us

"A comedian will be on hand to break the ice" - so they're inviting the supporters trust spokesman along, that's nice.

It's only the OVERSEAS portion that is expected to be three times greater. The domestic deal is already known, at a 70% increase. That means the "equal share" from domestic rights will be around £23m, each live appearance on Sky or BT next season will be worth just under £1m and each finishing position will be worth around £1.3m. Overseas rights are split evenly, which looks like it could be worth £50m+ on its own

Looks like the wind's not helping, to be fair.

While gate receipts are a much smaller percentage of the overall turnover, let's not kid ourselves that this revenue is insignificant. If that was the case, tickets would be free. This season, matchday revenue will probably touch the £15m mark for us. By any stretch of the imagination, that's a large number. The Arsenal situation yesterday is a rubbish case study, really, because the home club are in a position to sell the returned away tickets to their own fans, especially for a game of that magnitude. Surprisingly enough, a team with a big fanbase are able to sell lots of tickets for a game against the reigning champions. Also, I don't see why away fans should be given cheaper tickets when chances are the majority of those tickets would be sold anyway, and that money will only end up being clawed back by clubs from their own fans. The Football Supporters Federation spent years fighting for the Premier and Football Leagues to introduce rules which ensured fans of all clubs were treated equally, i.e. away fans were always being charged the same as home fans in similar parts of the ground - now they seem to want to unbalance it again.

Liverpool seem to be impressively **** in one-on-one situations

I think he once held the record for the number of England U21 caps, I assume James "permanently a young prospect" Milner has that record now. That 10-game ban killed his career, really - he was one of the (very) few players Redknapp managed to get the best out of, he was in the form of his life when the red mist descended. Who knows, we might even have stayed up that year if he'd been available for selection.

I'm in a similar boat (albeit without a child to pay for as well!), only did City because it guaranteed me an Arsenal ticket, and the cheap ticket at the latter cancelled out the rip-off at the former. Didn't do Everton or Liverpool, won't be doing Man United, only going on Wednesday as an "enabler" for a mate with terrible eyesight so my ticket's free Absolutely. Unfortunately, very few seem to be prepared to do so. Yeah, imagine if we were Category A everywhere we went

I only need a single from Manchester to Wigan, managed to get a decent price on the direct train back from Wigan to Euston.

This. I constantly see references to "against modern football" on Facebook, Twitter, etc, and yet I know that every single one of those people still parts with their cash every week. The only way prices will come down is if everyone decides enough is enough and withholds their cash.

This.

There or thereabouts, I'd have thought. Avensis/Princess are doing Villa for £20, so £25-30 would be about right.

Yeah, quite surprising, that, although I guess most Saints-related tweets are posted at or in the vicinity of SMS, rather than where fans live/work.