S-Clarke

My favourite part of that interview.... "I remember the first day Nigel Adkins came down here and he was so impressed with our facilities, but I just said to him wait until you see what we're really going to do here. "It's also true that the first moment that I stepped out here and even before we even bought the club, Markus and I said we were going to build some new facilities. Our temporary facilities are deemed good enough by the FA who thought they were the finished buildings, so we had already improved things, but this work is going to be the masterpiece."

Not sure why we ever had so much of a hatred against him. Was it because he said something slightly negative on his departure from the club...? It didn't really happen for him here, that's all he was getting at. The partnership between him and Beattie never took off, and where we were when he came to where we were when he left speaks volumes. It wasn't a happy club to play for with the shoddy managers we had going through the door. He's a goal scorer though. Right place, right time - he'll always popup. 16 goals this year I think and he's 38/39? Pretty impressive to say the least.

That's rubbish though. He wasn't, he was part of the reason we were solid at the start of the year. I'm baffled by peoples views on him based from the start of the season. In L1 he was questionable at times, but the start of this season was the best he's ever played for us - so why on earth that's being held against him is beyond me.

Theres an 8min video on SaintsPlayer if anyone has access to it. The drive from Cortese is so noticeable though, this is going to be one hell of a facility when it's finished. Very exciting.

Maths has never been my strongest point

I want QPR to drop, they've done it all wrong and their panic buying in January made me cringe at times. It doesn't work. Wigan - because they do my head in. Such a boring team who offer nothing, no fans, no support and they lose most weeks. They really shouldn't be playing at this level and it's amazing that they still are. Wolves will go because their board cocked up, and sacked a proven manager with no plan a, or plan b. They deserve to drop. I'd expec to see us (obviously!) WHU and Blackpool in the prem next year.

Win this, and the other 2 drop points playing eachother and we're as good as there IMO.

Oddly, some people seem to have taken West Ham's result to heart last night, and are reacting like we lost a game.... They're 6 points behind us, they have 18 points available to get. It will take an almighty dip in form (probably slightly worse than in January/December) for us to fail now. The bonus things for us is our GD, which isn't going to be caught, the fact we play reading at HOME and the fact WHU and Reading play each other. Oh and we are also at home on the last day against Cov, whilst Reading are away at Birmingham. I would not swap our position for anyone’s, we have had an amazing season and sit in an amazing position. Let's just enjoy it, there's no reason to look at things negatively or prepare for the worst.

You're certainly true to your avatar!

Nope, I would never want to go into any game hoping for a defeat. Silly attitude to take. As long as we get promoted I couldn't give 2 ****s about what happens to them, as we all know that they're destined for years below us anyway.

Why? why is everyone all of a sudden so downbeat about Saturday? You'd think we've lost our last 3, not won... What are Blackpool, have they turned into barcelona or something???? They're incredibly beatable.

That was always going to happen though, there's no way WHU would have dropped points tonight. We can't have results go for us every week! they've been amazing the last few weeks.

That's that then.

Surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet, but Fonte is pretty pivotal to us. He gives us ability on the deck at the back which allows us to play out from the back. When we were without him it was so noticeable how little football we played, and how the distribution from the back was no existent. I think he's an outstanding player tbh and someone we really miss if he's out.

I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised by the outcome and performance. I remember most were fearing the worst prior to Birmingham away, WHU away, Hull away.....those games brought some of our best displays of the season.

Almost...

Exciting. He doesn't speak too often, he likes to keep in the background, but when he does speak he says things that make us stand up and listen - because he means what he says. Will be interesting to see what he thinks now, as we sit on the cusp of executing the 5 year plan within 3 years.

I reckon we'll see a young keeper come in from abroad, someone we've not even speculated about. He'll be here for a year to get the odd game, but will in time turn out to be as talented as Krul. You heard it here first.

People didn't trust this squad at the start of the season, and people underestimated how important a 'team' is - rather than big name individual stars. I think we've all had a lesson in that this year. Leicester's squad is expensively assembled, so is West Hams, much more than ours - yet they struggle, Leicester especially, because they haven't that bond and team ethic which breeds success. The lads we have here have been used to winning every week for 3 years, that is huge - don't underestimate what a huge psychological advantage that provides, and it gives players who aren't world beaters an extra 10% which makes them winners. The spine of this team has been together so long, and they're all at good ages too. We've intelligently supplemented the spine with additions such as Jos, Cork, Sharp.....not spending megabucks, because we didn't need to, but buying 1 or 2 players that create competition but don't harm the team spirit. Adkins got the balance spot on and the people jealous of the spending Leicester were doing in August need to have a look at the table now, and appreciate that we did it the right way.

As someone said above - he's the sort of player who is a cult hero at his club, but the ptomaine villain for the opposition. Football needs characters like him (spitting aside) as it creates that rivalry and atmosphere - which was evident yesterday. I thought he was decent too. They had a lot of experienced players in that side, but they're not a team - just a bunch of ex-big names put together and it quite clearly isn't working. Interesting concept though.

Most people have a better first touch than Harding.

It brought back some great memories, even though it's a pretty unattractive competition it was a terrific day out and I'm certain that the win at Wembley gave players like Lambert, Lallana, Fonte etc that extra bit of spark and drive to win more and more with us - the whole day kind of put us back on the map and showed everyone that we were on our way back. The last 3 years have been unbelievable really and I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I look at the league table. A fantastic rise which has stemmed from terrific management all the way down the club. I reckon next year 'could' be quite fun too.

There's no reason why Kelvin cannot do a job for us if we get to the premier league. He deserves his crack and he will start the season in our team, almost guaranteed. We will sign a new keeper as Bart is out of contract, I'd imagine we'll look for an up and coming young talent. p.s - you're tempting fate slightly.

Not where their new owners expect them to be though. They've thrown some serious cash into players over the last 6 months for a club of their size, they should be doing much much better.

This has been his problem all season, lots of promise but not much else. He's had a couple of good games where he has made an impact and made a difference, but they're few and far between. I agree with one of the posts above - our priority in the summer is to sort our right side out and bring in a really good winger who could potentially play in the premiership.