CanadaSaint

Thanks for spoiling the ending for me.

I'm far from confident that two goals are going to win this. Keep pushing, guys.

Well, actually we've been lethal at creating clear chances from corners but rather sh*t at taking them.

We're lethal at these corners.

Fine for me, touch wood.

Just twenty minutes in - this could be a record for "What Saints don't want to do ..."

Enough of these free headers, Fonte!

Jeez, if Jos hadn't missed a bunch of easy chances he'd be second-top scorer on about 15 by now. A centre back!

Anyone ready for a 5-4?

No kidding. What a ****. Media people have been banned for less!

Mind you, the Posh lot might be drooling over ours!

True, but I was talking about the last 15 minutes, after he took another knock and looked quite uncomfortable.

To be honest - and I think Fonte has been average-to-poor for some time - I wouldn't even blame Fonte for it. By luck more likely than judgment, the ball was hit into that "soft spot" between keeper and defender - one can't get back fast enough and the other can't get forward fast enough. Fox and Fox alone wears that one.

I hope you're right. He showed every dimension of his game yesterday, and the other thing that struck me (as it has before) is that he's the ultimate team player - encouraging the guys around him, commiserating with them on misses, saying the right things post-match and so on. In a lot of ways, he - for me - is the captain of that team.

It all happened so damn quickly - too fast for Kelvin to react IMO. No, he's not good on crosses but that ball was whipped in so fast that I don't think any keeper would have had time to react. If it hadn't been right in his "flight path", I don't think Roberts would have got his head on it, either. There were two big mistakes on that goal but they both belonged to Fox.

There's something that's been really haunting me since yesterday, apart from the defeat and the manner of it (God knows, that's enough on its own.) I think Rickie has been "playing with a knock", as they say, for several games. About 15 minutes from the end yesterday, one of their guys caught him just outside the box but no foul was called. Rickie got up rubbing his hip and walked around uncomfortably, just as he did before he came off against Donny. He did very little after that, after having been superb for the first 75 minutes. I'm hoping it's just the nervousness that goes along with the two bad results out of our last three games in a high-pressure run-in, but my biggest fear is that we might lose him for a game or two. Until we hear otherwise, I'm in the foreboding camp.

I'm still fairly confident about staying in the top two but, for all our possession, there some realities to face: We played against a team that made fewer big errors. We made three (four if we count two for Fox - one for the intercepted pass and another for letting Kebe get the cross in), and they resulted in three goals. Clinical. The one we made for their second goal was exactly the same as the one for Pompey's tying goal - not picking up the late-arriver, which is very troubling. We played against a team that gets the ball forward much quicker than us - it's not one of our strengths. We played against a team that is more willing to shoot from the edge of the box - we don't do it anywhere near enough. Nigel is great at working the positives but he's going to have to lift this squad back up again quickly.

He looked pretty good going forward and gave us width, but he needs to make an earlier decision to attack the byline. He's got the speed and skill to do it. Still, after what he did to them on their ground, they had 2-3 guys on him right away. His best contribution for me, though, was actually defensive - when he caught Roberts from 10-20 yards back when we looked dead and buried on their counter-attack.

Absolutely.

Mistakes mean the better team doesn't always win. Le Fondre's first goal came from the same mistake we made against Pompey - not picking up the late-arriver. And Fonte hasn't been the same player for a couple of months - slow, ponderous, indecisive.

Just like Pompey - don't pick up the late man and pay the price.

Our shape has been pretty good, with width on both sides, but Chappers needs replacing. I'd be inclined to go with De Ridder because he'll keep Harte occupied, but he needs to remember his defensive role. That was one lousy 30 seconds from Fox - the dire crossfield ball and then he let Kebe get the cross in.

Alps, please don't go anywhere near a mountain top.

I have a feeling that set pieces, rather than open play, will decide this. In our favour. Fox needs to get back to quality delivery because we can be almost un-defendable at corners when we bring Jos and Fonte up, and then Ricky's due on a free kick. But we have to defend against Harte's efforts.

You say hilarious, I click I'm sure this forum could get into a knock 'em down, drag 'em out handbag-barney over who won the toss at the start of the game.