S-Clarke

I think this is a good point. I don't think it's any suprise that his best performances have come when he's playing with Morgan and Hammond in an advanced CM position.

I can only think Chappers is carrying a knock of sorts, he's lost that edge to his game which took him box to box and he seems to look laboured to me. These 11 days off may come as a real blessing.

Those last day fixtures are bloody frustrating, I think whoever is in 2nd on the final day will stay there. We possibly have a great chance with the plymouth game to do that.

Not true at all. I want promotion as much as anyone and we will get 2nd, I just don't go over the top when we drop points in games and situations like last night. It wasn't the end of the world in the grand scheme of things. If we don't get 2nd that will be the time to start the moans, not now when it's still ours to lose.

I think you may be thinking of Dale Jennings at Tranmere - the young 19 year old kid, top prospect.

This rumour is all over their forums from an oldham fan who is ''ITK'' They need to raise cash for the close season apparently.

Perspective doesn't mean going ott and suicidal after 1 game, in which we dropped 2 points.

I think the term happy clappy posters should be renamed to ''realistic posters with perspective''. I think it's better to look at the bigger picture and previous results, rather than condencing it into one game which alot seem to do. It's not the end of the world, it's still in our own hands, the other teams (p/boro and hudders) have to play eachother, mk dons and Brighton before the seasons end so they will not pick up maximum points. We really haven't bottled it.

I think he was subbed because Adkins felt we needed some pace in the team and with Oxo going off we didn't have any. He probably felt that Charlton would go for it in the final 10mins, so we needed a threat on the break to relieve that from time to time. Unfort. it didn't work, but it was the right thing to try and do.

Previous results mean nothing towards the outcome when the play us. Charlton have good players in that team but have underperformed massively for some reason, so they were always going to be a threat as such. P'Boro lost 3-2 there a few weeks ago.

Brian Stock?

What the hell are you on about now?

Now we're not, 20/21 points should do it. I can't see why we'd need 28 points (93 in total). It's too tight this year to require a massive points total for 2nd imo.. I think 20 points is a realistic return, seeing as over the course of the seasons that has been our consistent return.

The stats without Lallana are misleading, as the majority of games he missed came when we were rudderless under Wilkins.

We're pretty consistent recently tbh - 21 points from 30 in our last 10 games. Replicate that in the last 10 and we'll finish 2nd.

I think Adkins comments on Puncheon say alot.....nasty dressing room influence by the sounds of it.

Adkins: "It's a big disappointment we've lost Alex Chamberlain and Adam Lallana, who are two excellent players for us, through injury on the evening. "We just tried to immobilise Alex as best we can. It looks as though he's just gone over on his ankle a little bit, but we'll have a better diagnosis tomorrow'' "The big thing is we've got a ten day break now before our next fixture. "Hopefully they will recover sufficiently in that time." That doesn't actually sound too bad then....

I feel sorry for whoever lives with you.

This thread has actually made me really, really optimistic. I've just gone back through our results in blocks of 10.... from today's game, back to the P'Boro 4-4 game, we've grabbed 21 points from the 10 games before that...we got 20 points and from the 10 games before that....we also got 20 points. Basically, if we continue as we have been all season we should finish 2nd. We will need to have an awful dip of form to miss out...let's hope we don't.

unintentional...!

I think 85 points should do it. All teams going for 2nd this season have been a bit up and down form-wise, no one has quite got hold of it at any point. Those set of results you posted above look very realistic too and you also ave to take into account that Hudders and P'Boro play each other in a couple of weeks, so points will be taken off one of the chasers (maybe both). We're in the driving seat and I honestly think we'll do it as long as we are in 2nd going into the last game.

I still think we need to tbh......we've left it pretty late though.

I do agree with that, there's nothing worse than letting a lead slip in the final 5 mins! As other's have said though, it's the saints way... But I think this break could now work in our favor, we've had alot of games recently - and have alot of games coming up, so they all have a chance to take a collective breather and hopefully more time to get Lallana and Chambo fit. If we go on a run in April similar to our run in March then we'll get 2nd.

I'm pretty worried about Chambo. Sounds ominous, not much recovery time between now and then end of the season.

They're first because they're a good team. They're not going to be caught and will be named champions by easter. I wish that could have been us this year. So let them get on with that, we've got our own battle to fight for 2nd.