up and away

Perhaps Lambert is in because week in week out he is by far and away the best player in our team! Again he worked his balls off on Tuesday and rarely put a foot wrong setting up Guly; Lallana and Chaplow in turn for chances they really should have put away. His frustration was obvious. Ricky's job is our front man, not some creative on the wing or far deeper. He must be getting really frustrated because he can't pick out that front man to pass to? Ricky has to do his job and let the others do theirs. What we have seen from Ricky in February is what I expected to have seen from him all season. He should have been dropped beforehand and other options tried, but not now when he is actually doing what he is meant to be doing. He got a bit miffed the other week when Guly grabbed the ball for a free kick after he was fouled. Guly's shot was poor, but Ricky should not still be claiming every free kick when your return this season has been one scored by deflection. I looked at the comments from those at the Hartlepool game and their opinion was not impressed by Ricky, just Guly in the first half and that from a bad lot. It's no good wandering off and doing a nice job of ironing the kit when things are not working up front, he's there to lead the front line and score goals when sometimes we don't really deserve to. We need a front man, a striker, a goal poacher doing the business, not a wing man or occasional provider to the midfielders or wingers. I would put our chances of automatic promotion relying on Ricky scoring as he has done in February. Go back to the Ricky from the first half of the season and it's not worth considering. Our fate and Ricky's form go hand in hand now with little other option but to stick with him. An on form Ricky is a scoring beast this league cannot handle, not to be confused with that effigy we saw in the first half of the season.

I'll go along with most of that. Morgan and Lee did well when they came on, but to go on a run we need players to step up to the plate consistently. I have lost count of either Morgan, Hammond or Chaplow being the difference in midfield, only to go off the boil and wait for one of the others to pick up the challenge. Not knocking Lee, but when was the last time he went on a decent run? One thing that Adkins keeps forgetting or the players keep letting him down, is that teams get too much possession in the midfield when they put an extra man in there. Guly did not help a great deal here today, but having two out and out wingers in Lallana and Oxo is part of this problem. A couple of very pleasing and important factors, Ricky scored and goals were very well worked. That alone can be a very important over the next couple of weeks if we keep it up. I did not rate Swindon very highly and I am not anywhere near sure our form is up to the next batch of away games. After these games we will have an idea if we are good enough for the automatic spot. Our results are good enough, it's just some of the times you are wondering if the same performances will keep yeilding those results.

And what happens when that 30 goal new striker goes off the boil for a while? That's the problem, away goes the chances of automatic promotion. We have been missing that 30 goal striker for half the season, the games against Carlisle and Exeter show the difference a decent striker can make. You can count all the penalties, but in reality that would give you about a two goal difference if one of the other top players had taken them. The game last night is where I would expect that 30 goal striker to sneak a win, when maybe it was not totally deserved. The games against Carlisle and Exeter led me to believe Ricky can be that 30 goal striker, because if he is not we are in the play off lottery. This does not mean that Ricky won't deliver the goods, but the fact I believe automatic promotion and his form go hand in hand. We have really been far from convincing in recent games and I can't see the fixture pile up and away games helping us any. It's in times like this we need someone to step out of the sheite and mediocrity to give us an advantage that takes us forward.

If this is Lawries way of offering an olive branch, I am all for it. The bit that intrigues me is why they would they need any input from Lawrie? Then if that conversation or cup of tea never materialises, are we back to the previous charm offensive that reaped such reward? Happy to give all sides the benefit of any doubt and see what develops.

We need a 30 goal striker, simple as that. Results like Carlisle and Exeter are the sort of games that show why we need that striker. Hopefully Ricky will get back on the goal trail asap, but the lack of that striker is why we find ourselves in this position.

If there is to be any legal action, I really doubt it will be against Cortese directly, the club possibly. As Franny had to move out of offices within Saints because of some issue, it would not surprise me for something going on here in relation to Franny and the club. He's had more than enough time to get this to court and if it's not got there by now, I doubt it will! If any of the players were staying in his house, there is no way he would be directing anything personal at the player for recompense, but the club.

There was an original paper put out for the development of St Marys before Liebherr bought the club. Since then the club have been in discussions with the council and that includes development of the gasworks and the waterside frontage, along with increasing the capacity of St Marys. The capacity can be increased by 8000 seats per main stand at a go, giving the option of an extra 8 or 16k as desired. The costs are heavy and only look viable going hand in hand with the remainder of the development. The council are very keen to see that any project involves the club staying where it is, along with the planning permission such a step would require. I get the feeling the planning guidelines would be stretched to whatever is neccessary, with innovative transport and procedures used to bridge the gap. I can see no way a railway station would be on the cards. This is only viable if Saints are in the Premier, so whether that means waiting until we are established there you can only guess, but certainly no earlier.

I firmly believe we will get an automatic promotion spot, whether 1st or 2nd will depend upon Brighton's ability to keep putting in the performances. Why, for the following reasons Ricky Lambert, a poor first half to the season, but go back and add the effect he showed against exeter / carlisle and you are in different terrotory. The effect of the poor pre-season and the points thrown away at the early stage of the season. Very lucky to still have matters fully in our own hands but when you consider those awful early season results, we should be quids in. With the exception of Fonte, we have defensive back ups that many would argue should be selected first. Oxo and Lallana, an attacking pair that will get you goals, just having one of these players would be seen as exceptional for any other decent league 1 team. We know the issues with midfield and we can be very positive when all are fit, add Guly to the equation and the defence / midfield looks far better than the first half of the season. I am pretty comfortable with Adkins decisions even though we have not been tearing up trees of late. His substitution of Chaplow yesterday could well have been decisive but there seemed little he could do about the poor performance. I am really concerned about Kelvin and his communication issues, but if the rest of the team are playing well, he should be spectating more than playing. Just look at all those extremely poor performances at the start of the season that we can put down to pre-season and look at the position we were in after half the games played. Everything is starting to come right and there is no reason we cannot do better than that first half, giving us that automatic spot.

Ricky Lamberts form will be the deciding factor for an automatic promotion spot IMHO. He has been a disappointment for what we actually needed this season, his ability to influence a game has been limited. His scoring from open play and free kicks for the first half of the season has been extremely poor and although scoring several penalties, you would only reasonably mark that up to a couple of goals different for another of our forwards. When you look at the difference in the results Ricky has provided at Exeter and at home to Carlisle, that is a difference that can give us automatic promotion. All the physical problems I identified with Ricky previously are fading away and if he keeps this up we should be well in. Go back over that first halve of the season and throw in a some exeter / carlisle contributions from Ricky and we could well be looking down on Brighton. We have not played well of late, but Ricky has provided more points than previously and that makes a very big difference.

Incidentally, Steve Godwin and Um Pahars are one and the same person, so the list of "sensible" people is reduced by one. There weren't many "others" thankfully. I wonder whether they will have the good grace to retract their remarks and apologise? Well maybe now they would like to inform us all as to where all the money from this goes and the "expenses", but I will not be holding my breath. We just have Cortese on one side and part of our history on the other. The damage has now been done and the divide is now too big, best just to give merits to either as you see fit. I am not going to agree with MLT and Benali over this, but that in no way detracts from me what they have done for the club. Lawrie is another matter, I just wish he would **** off and sew his lips up. This sort of thing is never far away from him and if he really had the clubs interest at heart rather than his ego, he would never of got embroiled with most of the issues over the decades.

When you continually transport sheite from one point to another, it's not difficult to understand why some would view this as a sewage truck. If you then throw in the odd interflora delivery it may well come as a surprise, but your view of a sewage truck is always going to be the over whelming reflection. Especially when you claim persecution, only to find it's the Echo themselves that have broken the FL rules over image rights and incurred the wrath of Dataco.

Incidentally, Steve Godwin and Um Pahars are one and the same person, so the list of "sensible" people is reduced by one. There weren't many "others" thankfully. I wonder whether they will have the good grace to retract their remarks and apologise? Well maybe now they would like to inform us all as to where all the money from this goes and the "expenses", but I will not be holding my breath. We just have Cortese on one side and part of our history on the other. The damage has now been done and the divide is now too big, best just to give merits to either as you see fit. I am not going to agree with MLT and Benali over this, but that in no way detracts from me what they have done for the club. Lawrie is another matter, I just wish he would **** off and sew his lips up. This sort of thing is never far away from him and if he really had the clubs interest at heart rather than his ego, he would never of got embroiled with most of the issues over the decades.

I don't believe anyone hates Davis, they tend to get wound up when they see a consistent problem and I fully agree that staying on his line creates more problems for the team than himself alone. He stayed loyal to us when times were hard and he deserves respect for that, but that does not extend to a starting place. Davis is good enough for this league but I would want another goalie brought in if we made the Championship and Bart was not up to it. Davis was and is a poor goalie at Championship level, you only have to look back at how fans rated him against Richard Wright to figure that out. I was disappointed with the first goal by Peterborough, but in all truth I would not pick that game to heavily criticise Davis and trying to say he should have come for the second is ludicrous. Although I would like to see Bart given a go to see if he can solve this problem, I readily accept that if Adkins views Kelvin as the best option, then there is good reason.

You are going off at a tangent as to why the club should be involved with this? If anyone wants to get the support of the club in any event such as this, they need to show exactly what is happening to monies generated. This is not a two way street, this is some organisation wanting to use the Saints brand for their own purposes. Whether this be under some charitable status or whatever, they need to give far more definition than a charity number for many businesses to get involved. But it still does not explain why this has to be blown out into the public arena. The show is a sell out, what more do they want? I don't think Cortese is perfect and wish some things had never happened, but I cannot fault him on this one. Why should he get the club involved with people who continually snipe in his direction, yet expect unfettered favouritism? When your negotiating tactic is to slag the guy off at every corner, then wonder why he is not lending you his full support, are you really surprised? Cortese does not twig that those having a poke in his direction are nothing more than extending a well worn British pastime, especially when he sees the devastating consequences some of these rumours can have. The damage is now done and they just have to go their own seperate ways, I love Matty to bits for what he has done for the club and his continued support, but he really is as thick as **** on occasions. His addendum to his book in which he claims his take over would still have been able to afford the likes of Lambert is just preposterous, along with his hastily adjusted betting scam. Did he really belive that FA cup mark II was the real deal to provide finance to buy out Saints, did he really believe the FL would suddenly turn their rules inside out halfway through when difficulty was finding the funding? I will always appreciate what Matty has done and he is still a hero, but Cortese is doing things for this club I never thought I would see again. Every couple of months I will watch Matty's goals for a pick up, but If it comes to a choice between the two, Matty does not get a look in.

What is their exact definition of charity? All time and services given completely free, or do we have "expenses" in here? Under Wilde we had people taking money out of the club that we could not afford. Unless the club knows exactly these details, they are well advised to stay well clear and do their own thing. No company gets involved with a charity, unless they are sure of what is being done and what costs are being levied. Do you know and would you like to share this information? I have seen one do at Eastleigh supported by ex Saints players which I could only describe as pyramid selling. Another at SMS in one of the suites which was promoting some miracle product, again with an ex Saint in attendance. Miracles don't seem to last as long as they used to, especially on the evidence of that ones duration.

Go and talk to Lawrie's son or the Bournemouth physio and they will confirm they know who I am. While you are at it, also go and talk to Benali (often found at the David Llyod centre) and MLT (often found doing work for organisations such as the BBC including epsiodes of a Question of Sport). If you are serious I am happy to give you my name via PM if you want to go and contact these to confirm that they know me and that I have had conversations with them. If not then STFU. You could have chapter and verse tattooed on yourself and you would still misread it. Just why should Cortese let club employees attend a function where you cannot identify what is being done for charity and what is personal gain? Does anybody know for sure any monies go to charity, what people are paid for taking part? Do you then think it's not a bit much that you should bolster such an event with club staff, for people who continually snipe in your direction?

So basically, you have no idea? I am pretty sure there is some form of dispute over costs to put the property back to it's original condition. Who's fault is difficult to tell, but I relly doubt Cortese will be the one sued. I would be pretty sure this would all be handled by the club and as there appeared a disagreement between the club and Benali over the rental of office space, this could well have an impact that would impact any final sum?

Do you actually know what is going to charities? If the club were doing it I would expect 100%, along with any time given by contributers. I would expect if the club are unsure of any of this they would be wise to stay well clear.

This is the problem that spreads to all areas of the defence. Under Burley they tried forcing Kelvin to come and claim balls in his 6 yard box, but that proved expensive so he stayed rooted to his line, occasionally straying out. This puts a lot of pressure on the defence because it is very difficult to work in unison with the goalie to come up with the best solution. This extends to through balls where sometimes Kelvin will clear decisively, other times not bother and it has cost us. Against Posh was poor I felt, but not the biggest problem I feel we have with Kelvin.

The major issue with this being that Posh had given up to a certain degree. Seaborne had a simple job of getting his body in the correct position between ball and attacker and this would never of happened. It's only then does an imaginary switch flick over and Posh and Saints are completely different teams. Kelvins part in this is less, but he has a major weakness in this league in that he is physically limited and intimidated to the extent he is a liability in the box under certain conditions. I am pretty sure the vast majority of Saints fans had no issues with Richard Wright being picked before him previously, but as stated at the time and subsequent history, he is not that good a keeper. But that physical presence in this league is vital, something Wright had in spades. If Adkins does not think Bart is good enough, get someone else in please!

You can't put Jaidi in against a team like Posh at home. Seaborne deserves to be dropped and I would rather have Martin in there. Kelvin goes from bad to good like a pmt possessed in a shoe sale. I can't believe how easy things looked until we gave away the first goal, it just was so nicely comfortable with a 2 goal lead until we gave them something to go after. Seaborne far too many errors, same with Kelvin. Just who do you have to screw over to get dropped?

From a stroll in the park to clutching at straws in the matter of minutes. Seaborne started it, ably assisted by Kelvin. Will no one ever get dropped for such errors and the boot starts with you Kelvin. Richard Wright was not that great a keeper, it was all comparative.

Whilst I agree with the praise for Nick, I would really like to see him get his season ticket back. For me the guy makes a lot of sense if he keeps away from his chaos inspired theories. I forget the original events that led up to this but I do remember Nick trying to get an answer from Cortese over an issue. It then comes about that Nick was refunded his money and the season ticket withdrawn. The unofficial line that came back over the reason, was because Nick could not get an answer he emailed Liebherr direct. I would be interested to hear from Nick whether this is true or not, as that is the only thing stopping giving him my full backing.

I like Nick, think he is very fair minded and treats events and actions on there merit, irrespective of who it is. I don't like to see this happening and the only rumour that gives this any validity, is if he went over Cortese's head and emailed Liebherr directly

The reason I have never rated Kelvin is because his command at the back is so poor. You only have to go back to when Pearson was manager and we had Wright in goal, I don't think there was a Saints fan who wanted Kelvin in place of Wright. And as was stated at the time, Wright was not that great a goalie either, but one thing he did was to command the box. It's up to Adkins whether he plays Bart or Kelvin, I am not going to argue with his experience in ths area, but Kelvin will be a liability in the Championship.