CanadaSaint

I'm with you, as usual, Dave. Harding got roasted on the first goal but he had a ton of real estate to cover because Lallana was I'm not sure where. We started chasing the game very early. Papa and then Antonio have saved James from a lot of dreadful roastings down our right side because they've kept opposing left-sided midfielders and overlappers very occupied. We desperately need Murty back. Desperately. We are slow and ponderous in the middle at the back, and that really shows up when James and Harding struggle. Jaidi needs some speed and decisiveness alongside him or he will really start to struggle - especially against two central strikers. I really like Lallana but he needs to stop being such a f*rt in a thunderstorm out there. He can create some great things but his lack of positional discipline really messes up our shape on a frequent basis. We'll never know our best formation for a given situation until he sorts that out.

Mine used to say that, too. "I don't know why you get so angry, it's only a game." That's why I bought her golf clubs a couple of Christmases ago. She's never said it since.

The whole 4-4-2 vs 4-5-1 discussion is redundant if: We make naive mistakes at the back Our middle-two are both slow and ponderous We sacrifice our width far too early by cutting inside We end well-constructed attacks with crosses from deep that often don't even beat the first defender What concerns me is that a lot of Div 1 managers watched what happens when a team takes it to us, and especially to the middle two at the back. We desperately need Murty back.

Dead right.

We may have needed this. You learn a lot more from your losses than your wins. We're not even out of November yet.

Every single time you've appeared on here with your dire predictions you've been wrong. Today might be the only day you're right but I feel more optimistic now that you've chimed in again. For pessimism you make Alpine look like a raving optimist.

I'm not sure what he can do. He's set up for width with 4-4-2 and we've just got to keep plugging away. The only change will probably be to replace like-for-like.

Absolutely. Width. Triangles. One-touch. Not aimless hoofs, although even then it's only a matter of time before we get a clean header. Lallana had one.

I don't like seeing Connolly playing so wide when he's part of the central one-two that can get us back in this.

Yep, we need to push the ball around and get them chasing. If we do that we can win this in the last twenty after trying to chuck it away in the first twenty.

The circumstances under which he left them. On the pre-game show he said he got a bum rap but didn't want to talk about it.

It's rather unfortunate, really, that the game is televised. That's a lot of managers in our division who can see that they would be better off to take the game to us and challenge our back four, especially the middle two. Those first twenty minutes could cost us some points before the season is done.

I've never quoted myself - it seems rather like masturbation - but: He's probably not finished yet.

I'm not sure there is one if we go 0-2 down. We've got to keep plugging away with width, pace and running off the ball. Brighton outworked us for the first twenty minutes on all fronts.

Honest to God, I'd fine any player that doesn't clear the first defender with a free kick or corner. Bloody pitiful.

I have 'faith' in the ref. I'm pretty sure he refereed the QPR away game last year (Wiltshire red carded, no call on a clear offside for a QPR goal), so it's obviously best if you're the home side.

Teams have done it ever since we left the Prem - it's a footballing mecca compared with where most of them normally play. They're taking it to us and we're not coping at all well. Now they'll sit back, I suspect, and we'll be all over them.

And you are now correct, benji.

As soon as he moves up the England tree he'll encounter the temptation - the stories that players tell eachother about their wages, their superstar treatment by the club, life in the big city and so on. I really hope he stays and I think he'd be much better in the long run to do so, but you can never tell how players will react to those stories. I don't think we'll let him go easily but he's really starting to attract attention.

By my reckoning we need to win 26.55 games out of our last 31 to average that 2.57 and end up as champions. As good as we seem to be in this league, I don't see that happening. But we can certainly make the playoffs. We need 20.56 wins (and no draws) to end up with 74 points. But I don't think it will take that many points to finish sixth this year because there seems to be more equilibrium in the top 2/3 of the division. Now look what you've made me do.

If it's any consolation, I slapped myself after posting that. Still, it makes a nice change to be doing that for the top of the table, eh?

Based on points totals over the past five years, we need 2.57 points per game from now on to be champions, 2.33 PPG to finish second, and 1.99 PPG to sneak into the playoffs. I had a spare few minutes! :smt053 It's gonna happen!

Brilliant picture that really stirs the memories. Jimmy Gallagher was a great guy. He was known for sprinting onto the pitch at incredible speed whenever a Saint was injured - moving at a far higher rate of knots than any of the players could muster. No new-fangled medical technology for him. In his hand was an old ball bladder with the top cut off. It contained really cold water and a sponge. That less than sophisticated combo had a habit of getting players back on their feet very quickly.

Lallana's looked a cut above.

If Charlton are another indication of the Top six, even if they haven't been playing that well lately, I fancy our chances even more of making the playoffs.