S-Clarke

I was confident before this as I felt Barnsley could frustrate WHU, but an early goal has killed it IMO.

This will be a cricket score.

WHU's team looks pretty potent (kick off in 5mins) Vaz Te and Maynard in attack, lots and lots of pace....come on barnsley.

As you see with us though, it's not about individual talent - it's about getting the right sort of players and the right attitudes to build a team. Swansea know how each other play, Leon Britton isn't a world beater at all - but he knows his job and his team mates trust him. Having a proper 'team' is much more important than having loads of overpaid stars, IMO. I'm sure to opposition fans we have quite a few average players in their eyes, but we all function as a team which counts for more.

That sort of relaxed attitude can sometimes bring out the best in players..... It could go 2 ways. WHU could win comfortably without breaking sweat as Barnsley didn't get a s hit, or Barnsley could really throw an upset by relaxing and playing to their maximum - whilst catching WHU off guard.

I totally see your point, but being top most of the year and being within touching distance of winning something is too good to just shrug off. Promotion is obviously the important thing and the end goal is the same in either position, but to see us lift a proper championship trophy would be magic. We will probably never ever get the chance to win a league again. (not in my lifetime anyway!)

Oh and on the debate about us coming 1st or 2nd, of course I want us to come bloody first. I want us to be the champions and I want to see us lift up the most attractive trophy in English football, I don't want to see us lift some micky mouse 2nd place trophy. I want top. I'd never seen us top a league until this season and winning championships isn't something that'll ever happen regularly here - so let's do it when we have this chance. People shouldn't play down how big an opportunity it is, coming 2nd would be a bit of a anti climax.

Just seen that Readings gaffer has won the manager of the month award, ahead of Adkins. Cue a timely blip.

That was a bummer, Leeds held out for so long and then contrived to miss the chance of the game. Still a fully expected result, especially with a depleted Leeds team and the fact they were down to 10 men. Bit of a ****ter it came in the last 5 minutes though.

Bugger. That's that then.

This has confused me as well, he's not had a chance at this level for anyone to decide he's not up to it - yet quite a few have decided he's not up to it. Bizarre. He will score goals at this level if given the chance and the service, I am 110% sure of that. He hasn't turned crap overnight and he was bought with an eye on the championship too.

Alot of the Guly criticism is unjustified too, especially the lazy comments. He worked harder than most at the weekend. But as i've said, some people have made their mind up about him....and that's that.

He makes a huge difference to us, and it does increase their chances of getting something by a large % if he's not fit. Our entire game plan is focused around him and our attack does not function correctly without Lambert, not a single bit. He's got a terrific relationship with the full backs, Lallana and Guly when he plays - it's kind of telepathic at times and as he's barley missed a game for us we clearly don't have a clue what to do when he's not in the team, as we haven't really prepared for that eventuality too much - which is fair I guess, why waste time preparing for worst? Hopefully though as we're at home we can get the ball down a bit and pass it, we shouldn't need to hit it long - although you'd have to say that alot of our success comes from that long ball held up and laid off by Rickie... 10 assists and 28 goals in all comps tell you that he's involved in almost half our goals this year. Scary.

Bit of a ****ter, he gave us that pace and movement in behind which we didn't have earlier in the season. He gave us an additional option in our game plan basically. We should still be ok though (providing Lambert is back)

Nah, we'll be ok. I thought the same after the game but looking at the sequence of results that need to happen for us to fail makes me much more confident. WHU realistically need to win 80-90% of their games, as we'll still pick up 6 or 7 pts minimum. The title is another kettle of fish though...

Whats your problem with him? He's been excellent since he's been on sky.

You're quite clearly on some sort of sad wind up. You've been saying we're going to lose before we've played any game this season, so far they've proved you very wrong. You're looking a bit of a prize pillock btw.

Good stat. Norwich also lost 3-0 that weekend, away @ Swansea.

Do you know who would look excellent and give us that drive and threat from midfield? Gylfi Sigurdsson. On loan at Swansea, who don't have an option. There will be a bidding war in the summer for him, I hope we show an interest.

He needs to go otherwise he'll continue to pull them down the league.

This stage last season and the infamous thread: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?29466-Rochdale-2-0-Southampton-Post-Match-Reaction&highlight=Rochdale

He tweaked it in training on Thursday, and from that moment he was out for the weekend.

The crap about him having to play ''as it's in his contract' is almost as bad as the rumour of Arsenal buying Morgan for us, and we're just looking after him until they want him back. He plays because he gives us a good option and he offered a shed load more than Sharp did by the way. He drops off and allows us to play a couple of different systems, his versatility is why he's in the team. He wasn't great yesterday, but he wasn't the worst at all - he actually made an effort and was positive with the ball. Some of the criticism that is directed at him is just vile and pointless, some fans have made their minds up and that's that - they'll never have those views changed.

Just an interesting few predictions These are just based on my predictions for what it's worth, and I've gone for pretty much worst case scenario for us and best case scenario for WHU. These are the points hauls I calculated from the final 6 games: I predict we'll get 10pts WHU will get 16 pts Reading will get 11 pts. We still finish top, WHU scrape 2nd and I've seriously overcooked WHU's results as I wanted to see what they'd have to do to overhaul us. Realistically they need to win all their games and we need to switch to relegation form. Saints - 88 WHU - 88 Reading - 87

Conners is injured too though. Injuries are hitting us at the wrong time.