S-Clarke

Used the ball well once he settled into the game, was one of the main reasons we were so free flowing in that first half. He was pulling them all over and using the ball well. Good player, he's had a couple of good games on the bounce now for me.

People putting the goal on him are stretching really, I think for some fans every single goal we ever concede will be his fault. He has been such an important figure in this run, pivotal in fact - we'd have lost at Preston had he not scored!

Let's worry about it when we're there, so much water to go under the bridge yet. Let's just enjoy the second half of this season rather than worrying about how we compete next year.

I think disaster is pretty strong to be honest, we had moments where they created some openings but we also had chances ourselves. You sometimes have to credit the opposition, it was never going to be the same in the 2nd half - no pro team would be allowed to play like that again. We didn't concede, fairly comfortable in the main. No away game is going to be perfection for 90mins, but it was pretty solid for the baulk of it. The last 20mins maybe a bit ropey, but we were never really in any huge trouble. I think some of our nervousness as fans comes from what we've had to deal with for so many years, but there was no way this team was giving up a 2 goal lead.

What am I missing with this Tony love-in? He was caught breaking rules, served a punishment, yet his return is being treated like some sort of greatest-ever-return. He's not even good enough to be getting the attention everyone is giving him.

That first 45 was ridiculous, but we were aided by Swansea sleep walking around the pitch. The spaces they left and the lack of pressure on the ball made it an absolute doddle for us, there was no challenge and we could just do whatever they hell we wanted with the ball. It was a travesty it wasn't more than 3 to us at HT, we were that dominant and they were that bad! The second half was a different game though, as I expected it to be. Swansea did what they didn't do in the first half - pressed us, got tighter to us and were much more engaged. It was harder for us to find space and we didn't have as much time on the ball for this quick movements. We did still have decent chances in the 2nd half, but no where near as dominant because of the change in approach by Swansea - they were much more aggressive. Overall it's the sort of performance where everyone comes away with credit - the attack were electric, the midfield ran the show for a good portion of the game, and Bazunu when required was there. I didn't expect it to be as easy as it was in that first half, but you take them however they come. After September I didn't see this happening I've got to be honest, the recovery from the entire team (everyone in the squad has been part of this) has been epic. But.......let's make this season about promotion and not just beating a club record. It will be a very hollow and pointless club record if we don't achieve anything from this season, we need to keep going and I'm sure we will. There will be bumps in the coming months of that there is no doubt, but we will be in and around it until the end - so let's make sure we finish it!

Not everything is totally set in stone though, the club have opened the doors for fans to have a debate and discuss their opinions/thoughts on how best to approach it. They're welcoming suggestions. What I will say though is that there is simply no other alternative location to put the away fans. You mention Kingsland next to the Northam - very tricky to police. How do you funnel the away fans out of the stadium and keep them segregated? Either side of them are home fans. The current position allows for clean segregation and a quick exit to the main roads and coaches, moving them to the Kingsland would lock the away fans in. It would be a nightmare to police and would cost far more to organise. The only place you can really relocate the away fans, if you are going to relocate the away fans, is to the Chapel corner (family enclosure). 1) It already has a concourse dedicated to 2 or 3 turnstiles. 2) It's located next to a stadium exit path through the industrial estates and a coach parking location. You can easily funnel the away fans in and out of the stadium without crossing the home ends, much easier to police in the 'higher profile' games. So firstly I don't think the club have just pushed ahead with this without asking for opinions - they are doing just that if you read the article. and secondly the fact is that in terms of away fan positioning there is simply no other viable location for them.

Strong teams at this level often have a really good loan game. Burnley last season were excellent at it. The key is making sure you have agreements on the key ones though....or some sort of understanding of how to make a deal happen in the summer.

''What we did with Tella'' - what, held out for what we thought was too good to turn down? We weren't selling him for a packet of crisps and a fag packet, not our fault that's all Burnley have to play with financially. It's like they're entitled enough to think we should just give him to them. They're Burnley, they need to have a quick look out their windows at their town and bring themselves down a peg or 10.

Long time coming, not sure why previous regimes have said this is so difficult to do - it has always seemed quite straight forward, Family zone in the Chapel - they already have a dedicated concourse and easy access back out away from the home fans via the industrial estate for the coaches etc. Not much needs to be done Chapel side to make this work. It's the only place logistically you could move them to though, so it was either the family block or keep it as it is. Will need some work in the Northam though to great a stand-wide concourse - long overdue though, nice to see there is money for things like this and stadium improvements.

Anyone can spend someone else's money, which is what he was doing. A very divisive character, the cheer in the corridors when he left St Mary's was audible. Still can't believe he got himself on the programme for the first game in the Champ, says it all really!

Don't get me started on FFP, it's absolute nonsense and a way to protect the big clubs under the illusion that it's to help fair play. But basically we spent a shed load in 2022, ABK, Lavia, DCC, Aribo etc - I think it was over £100m. Then we splurged another £40m odd in January on Onuachu and Sulemana - and we were relegated, so I think that's why we're sailing close to wind. For a club of our size in terms of revenue/incoming, we're not going to break even on that (especially with relegation) so we're not able to really spend at the moment - even if we brought in what we did in the summer. Loans are the order of the day for the time being. It's not that we're skint, far from it.

Adds genuine depth in an area I thought we were short in in the summer - if we lose Downes then we just have Charles, who is pretty inexperienced to be fair. Given Downes health concerns it makes sense to get an experienced body in to lighten the load a bit in that area.

That was a potentially tricky game which we just swatted aside like it was no bother. That second half was as good as we've played all season, just too good for them. It doesn't matter how good teams at this level play against us if we play like that, they just can't get near - it's game over at that point. We're playing like a PL side in the wrong league right now. No one had a bad game, no one had a 'good' game either - everyone was 9/10 without doubt. I was really impressed with Smallbone today, his use of the ball was superb and he was everywhere on the pitch - a real presence in there. In fact the CM area was just heads and shoulders above them, they were truly dominated in there. I never really understood the negativity towards Fraser when he signed here. He was always someone, as an opposition fan, that I dreaded coming up against and he's showing us exactly why you'd dread a player like him if you were on the opposite side. He runs all game, tackles, chases, hassles and he's got genuine quality - he's a proper old fashioned throwback type wide man, really love those sorts of players and there aren't many if any as good as him at this level. Another PL player at the level below. Since September what we have done is nothing short of incredible, I didn't see it coming. It's an historical run that has clawed ourselves back into the automatic promotion debate, and this run has meant that we will likely be in and around that debate for the entire season now. It's going to be a really exciting second half where we genuinely have something to play for now. There will be bumps and dents along the way, no doubt about it, but all I can say right now is bring it on - play as we are and no one can handle us at this level.

Other departments underneath the first team will sign players, this is not a signing that's anything to do with the first team. All clubs recruit at all their levels, but social media means that even the most random young kids names get leaked and it's published as ''Southampton sign x'' - but it's not like that, we've just recruited a kid. It's always happened. Signing a kid for the academy is not linked in any what to what we do with the first team today. They're two separate streams.

FFP is the biggest load of bollocks the football suits have given us. I totally understand why we are constrained, due to our massive outlays in 2022 and Jan 2023 - but we've pretty much recouped all of that through sales, so it should provide us some flexibility. It's only 'fair' for the big clubs as they can continue to spend as their commercials will generate their shortfalls, whereas the smaller clubs - which this was supposed to help - end up more constrained than they were previously. Go figure.

Oh yeah no doubts, it will probably trigger a bigger rebuild than this year given the loans we'd lose as well as our remaining permanent players and out of contract guys. Will prob end up needing to build an entirely new 11, with less money and a lower rep. Certainly won't be easier. We'll worry about that in May should it become a thing though!

Absolutely, it's fun when you're a big fish and have the muscle to compete at the top end, but 2 more years at this level and that advantage will have evaporated and we will transition into a Stoke, Swansea Watford etc quite quickly. This league is a bitch to get out of, that's why we seriously need to take this season by the horns as the options we have at our disposal are ridiculous for this level (KWP being one). We're giving it a good shot now though, really looking forward to the 2nd half of the season. I don't want to think about what will happen should we fail this season though...!

You're on your other persona today then. Hard to keep up with you. Who will you be tomorrow?

I do remember seeing some calls for him 'as a name', along with shouts for Gerrard and Lampard. No idea why as none of those have ever showed anything in management.

Birmingham getting what they deserve, perfectly stable under Eustace but their owners wanted celebrity coverage over in the US, so they picked a celeb manager rather than an actual manager. They'll go down imo, Rooney won't be there by the time they do, but he's killed them.

Walsall just destroyed last season's giant killers, Grimbsy, 6-1 at their place. Not one to take lightly!

He did take a bit of a knock at the end of the first half during a corner melee - poss a hit to the head, not 100%

We only got 10. Martin out.

Definitely take a point at the start of the day, no matter how dysfunctional Norwich are this season they do still have flashes of high quality for this level. We pretty much bossed the ball as expected, but we weren't very penatatrive with it. We didn't seem to take many risks in the final third and played it safe quite a lot, it was a really drab game if i'm honest. We may have edged it in terms of deserving to win it, but I can't be too upset with a 1-1 either. 10 points from 12 over Christmas is absolutely insane, these lads have pulled it out of the bag during a brutal run. These periods are the periods where either your season dies a death or it's breathed into life - and we certainly breathed genuine life into it for the 2nd half.