CHAPEL END CHARLIE

I'll bet a whole English £1 that this player will play regularly at a higher than L1 - as soon as next season very possibly.

I so admire the ability of some on here to neatly pigeonhole players as if some vast and readily identifiable difference in class exists between L1 and NPC standard players. For what its worth I have always seen this young player as possessing the potential to play at a high level, as long as his development were to continue on its relatively slow, but steady upward trajectory. I stand by that. As for the suggestion that pace is his only asset - well that really is nonsense isn't it.

Oh I didn't say you were unintelligent, although your misinterpretation of what I did said does tend to confirm it. As for my allegedly calling Ricky Lambert "a lumbering oaf" I have never said any such thing of course. So stupid and a liar then.

Where do you park your brain when you're not using it ? Back to the question, we should all know by now that Guly will start of course regardless.

We might have evolved so far from our primitive beginnings as to have a stab now at measuring the awesome scale of the universe, but measuring and truly comprehending are quite different things. In a way I find almost impossible to explain the only way I can contemplate eternity is through artistic expression rather than grappling with a level of science that is quite beyond me frankly. Percy Bysshe Shelley 'Ozymandias'

Aye I thought both Cork and Lallana were outstanding yesterday, and the criticism both have come in for from some on here is a travesty of justice.

St Marys was sure loud enough when Sharp's 2nd went it, but overall I too must say the occasion lacked a certain something compared to other recent times this fixture has been played - the 2004/5 season FA Cup game for instance. Blame the bubble for reducing everyones adrenaline levels a tad perhaps ?

We all know it was a blatant dive and Adam deserved a yellow card for it. Had the ref given the pen however I might just have found room in my heart to forgive him for his lack of sporting ethics.

Yeah sorry about that - I threw away my Wherters, forgot the thermos, and got embarrassingly overexcited at times. As the big ugly bloke unfortunate enough to sit behind me will doubtless confirm .......

A few thoughts on today's match: The ref was bloody awful, his ineptitude going a long way towards ruining the game. Apparently it is now withing the laws of the game that any SFC player can be elbowed in the rids, or receive a forearm smash to the face, without fear of punishment from the officials. SFC not anywhere near our best (yet again) but clearly the better team and we easily created enough chances to win this game 3 times over. PFC keeper (Ashdown) had the game of his career, while Kelvin won't be happy conceding twice from outside the box efforts - however well struck. Jack Cork, Billy Sharp, and Adam Lallana all had good games I thought. Ricky Lambert I must say looked very off the pace, Fox was terrible, and as for Guly do bloody Prado ..... I was massively disappointed with the result to be honest but its gone now, so take the single point and move on to the next game.

I see there are still a few die-hards left trying to defend the indefensible when this players utter lack of form has been painfully obvious for months now. So I will say again that it should be abundantly clear to any observant Saints fan that Guly do Prado is not contributing anything very much to our collective team performance of late, and frankly my dear, I don't care how many goals he scored before Xmas. It's silly however to think he solely to blame for us dropping 4 vital points to that Noddy Club down the road, or that he is our only problem. A few weeks ago someone on here made the unlikely claim that it was in his contract that he must play when fit. Now I don't believe that for one moment, but sometimes a fan has to wonder why NA seems quite so inexplicably wedded to him.

Not another thread about todays big match but ITV4 are about to reshow Nottingham Forrest v Southampton from back in the day when I had considerably more hair on my head than I do now. Also George Best debut for Bmth - now there's a novelty.

An in form Lee Barnard would be a real asset for us this season - unfortunately due to his injury problems this season I not sure we have a in form Lee Barnard at the moment. As for those opining that he's not very good anyway ... well I can only take that as confirmation that some on here the memory faculty of a concussed goldfish. Nevertheless, as long as he's fully fit then I'd take a chance and start him alongside Billy Sharp - if Lambert is out of course.

A infamous quote From the funnest film ever made of course - not necessarily my view you understand

It's got nothing to do with the symbolism of our waning military power. The recent discovery of oil reserves in the waters surrounding the Falklands, while politely and financially significant, is also entirely immaterial to the principle behind the argument. It's not even a question of what some on here might want to see happen in regard to the future nationality of the islanders. As far as I'm aware the Falklanders hold UK passports and are living perfectly legally (under both UK and international law) on what is our sovereign territory after all. Thus they have a legal right under the law to all the benefits and responsibilities that go with that status - including the protection of our armed forces against the threat of foreign aggression if need be. Now if any individual, or political party, wants to propose that HMG should unilaterally withdraw their right to a UK passport or coerce them into some unwanted form of independence (presumably in a attempt to make the job of the Foreign Office a little easier) then I can only suggest that they put that policy forward for the approval of the electorate at the next general election - and see just how far it gets them. The Argentinians are clearly attempting to have their way via a campaign of intimidation and bullying - I say they should be resisted.

I'll match your full stop with a period - the period in question being the first 4 months of 2012. This player has done next-to-nothing (in positive sense anyway) for this club all this calender year. To point out that obvious truth is not to scapegoat him - that is how many SFC fans genuinely see the facts of the matter. Now this seems to outrage the massed ranks of his fan club for some reason - but you can't talk him into being a better player than he is fortunately.

You've hit the nail on the head here. I think you can almost divide our season neatly into 3 distinct phases: We got off to a superb start when we very often just blew other teams off the field with the speed and quality of our play, in fact I've seldom seen this club produce better football. A predictable, if rather disappointing, mid season mini slum followed unfortunately, which itself was superseded by a period of what we might almost describe as 'winning ugly'. The trouble with winning ugly of course is that, sooner or later, you are bound to 'lose ugly' too - as happened yesterday in front of the bloody BBC cameras alas! But 'nil desperandum' my south coast friends ! We're still top of the league and fantastically placed to secure automatic promotion - if only we can keep our nerve that is. ... oh and if we could see just a little less of Guly do Prado please Mr Adkins that would do very nicely thanks.

Ha ! I can't tell for the life of me whether you're a optimist, or just a typical Saints fan !

If George Galloway and Beelzebub himself were the only two names left on the voting slip, then I'd vote for his Satanic Majesty the Rt Hon Member for Hades South before giving any support to that vile pox ridden excuse for a human being that is George Galloway. That is all.

Ordered a extra ticket from the on-line booking system yesterday, and the order clearly confirms that it will be 'shipped' via the post.

In the deranged world of football finance what a bargain we were for the Liebherr's. For a mere £33m ML (bless him) bought himself a sizable football club, all its infrastructure, a promotion and the 'paint pot'. What is more remarkable is the fact that our late owners family could probably get a return on that investment when, and if, they opt to call it a day. All for less than Liverpool paid for bloody Andy Carroll ..... who let's face it, is not quite worth today what they paid for him.

Teamsheets can be amended in these circumstances I understand.

The OP is overreacting to a perfectly understandable response from Dean Saunders. Without wishing to get too far ahead of ourselves, it's quite possible we all might be saying exactly the same kind of thing if Theo Walcott, Alex Chamberlain, or Gareth Bale do it to us next season.

This ....... is a very fair comment. As for SDR, as others have already said he needs to work on his final ball but I think this lad can play a bit and pace is such a vital asset in tight games he's surely worth a place somewhere in the squad I'd have thought. He's no Michail Antonio however ......

Looking beyond the obvious vote for the excellent Billy Sharp and his match wining performance, I thought that Jose Fonte had one of his best games for quite some time. In what was (at times anyway) a pretty dull game in all honesty our defence led by Jose made pretty damn sure that Kelvin was very rarely troubled indeed. I thought that SDR merited a well earned 'mention in dispatches' too.