Rasiak-9-

He fell off the wall! He fell off the wall! Bryan McDermott, he fell off the wall!

This match is part of us 'making that next step up'. We've been promoted, survived, know how to grind out wins at home and go toe-to-toe with the big boys. The next step? Going into certain away games against Premiership opposition and actually being charged with expecting to win. Lets do it boys!

Pointing out that West Brom, Norwich, Hull, West Ham, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Swansea is an easier bunch of opponents than Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, Newcastle, Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea again and Arsenal again isn't spin. Its common sense. Some of our fans really do have such a Southampton-centric view of the way football works. We're up in arms when the papers report our creditable draws against the big guns as down to our opponents playing poorly and yet we put down the fact that we're no longer in the top 3 down to a drop in our form, as if staying there was ever within our level of ability. Honestly Its our second season in the Premiership, we're in the top half and have won more games than we've lost. Here's a league position graph of this season and last season compared to one another. http://guardian.touch-line.com/?CTID=11&CPID=4&TEID=236&pStr=League_Pos&t=3

Haha, mate you really cannot blame Yoshida in the slightest. He was goal-side and got tight to his man, which is precisely where you're supposed to be as a defender. The problem was that Arsenal's centre-forward received a ball to feet in our 6-yard box...(and even then Yoshida did reasonably well to force Giroud to actually have to execute a pretty skillful finish.)

Ask them again in 10-15 years when they haven't had a sniff of promotion and have zombied their way between the champo and league 1.

Definitely don't think this is an easy tie, and personally don't think it'd be a bad idea to box clever and take it to the replay at ours a few days before your cup final. Not saying we should play for a draw, but if the game does peter out towards the end I don't think it'd be a bad idea from our point of view to just take it to a replay. If it did go to a replay 3-4 days before your cup final I must say I'd be extremely confident of us winning that.

Think Clyne is a bit better defensively (don't forget the start of the season when we had the first choice back four). Not totally sure about Chambers' positional sense (Sunderland's first goal the other week was largely down to Chambers playing everyone onside IIRC) and still a little apprehensive about him facing a really, really top quality winger. Both are great footballers though and we have our right-back slot totally sorted for many years to come.

I don't think its an exaggeration to say that Morgan Schneiderlin, Jack Cork and Steven Davis are not just three of, but literally THE three most underrated players in the Premiership.

Incapable isn't a word I'd use but our recent record doesn't look good, despite the fact we played them off the park in both of the league games (which we actually cared about) However, with the added bonus of big teams running into each other, this is a fantastic draw for us, and a great chance to realistically make the semis if we can do Sunderland (possibly via taking them back to St. Mary's for a replay) and hopefully get a good draw for the 1/4 finals

*slow clap*

Put your money where your mouth is. £10 from me for each team below us that finishes above us at the end of the season. £10 from you for each team that doesn't. (This is a great one to bring up each time that Dalek pops up on a thread - he of course never responds to the challenge and disappears. Pretty much confirmed WUM rather than genuine pessimist)

This is Parkour/Free-running. Its impressive, looks fantastic, requires athleticism and I certainly can't do it myself. Hanging from a crane is something I, and most other people can absolutely do; but choose not to. This is the equivalent of the kid in the school playground who eats worms. As for this James fella being free? He's risking his life in the hope that people will watch and give him money. Sure. sounds like wonderful freedom.

Where's the rumour that he brought a sword to training come from?

Always better to see strikers who get chances and miss (amongst their goals) than ones who aren't getting chances at all and for whom you wonder how and where they're possibly going to get the next one (Rickie). However, Jay Rod. as you say has missed several really quite easy chances to score and as such I can't for the life of me understand the credibility of this list.

This is such a tragic example of how far entertainment has fallen. Its in the same category as Jackass and Dirty Sanchez; a freakshow where someone completely talentless does something extraordinarily stupid (that literally anyone else could do if they wanted to) for attention, and the public gawp at him. Words can't express how unimpressed I am.

Hm. There's always a bittersweet twinge of "yay we scored but why do those never fall for me?" if you're a striker going through a goal drought. Saints looking very shakey at the moment. So much riding on the next goal and Sunderland very obviously feel like they're playing on a complete freeroll, whilst we're playing to win something that we know should have been ours anyway.

We need a more ruthless streak. We look quietly confident, but you get the impression we need a bit more of an arrogance about us. We still play like a confident underdog rather than a cock-out, swaggering champion. Ready not just to win, but to beat the opponent. Fergie's United were probably the best example of a team that knew how to assert themselves this way, without ever slipping into complacency. Teams would go to Old Trafford, go a goal or two down and be desperate to get off the pitch and for it all to be over. We're not deadly yet. The JRod chance at 1-0 summed that up.

Should really get the next goal and stick the knife in here. So so much better than them its unreal.

No need pal. Already hilarious!

http://www.globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/grandpa_simpson_yelling_at_cloud.jpg

I have been Lambert's biggest critic this season but I didn't think he was too bad yesterday. Held it up ok-ish but (as has been the case for a while now) he didn't look like scoring.

"We are sleepwalking towards a relegation battle." "Ramirez is crap." "We should think about replacing the manager." "We will be overtaken by Hull, Aston Villa, Swansea and Stoke." "If we finish on 40 points I'll be delighted." In all seriousness, good to see us win when not playing well. You could tell the players weren't exactly bristling with confidence when WBA started hoofing it into the box towards the end and we did very nearly concede when they got their first and only real cohesive attack together. Although having said that, we didn't look in any danger at all for a good 80 minutes and completely dominated the midfield. That win will do us the world of good, the top-half finish beckons, as does the bonus target of winning more games than we lose.

Ramirez has changed the game completely. Terrific player.

Lets just all calm the **** down.

This.