S-Clarke

tbf he was/is convinced that Gillett will become an england international.

Agree with you, he's so bright and aware and is a breath of fresh air in the world of management if im honest. I doubt he's really active on the player recruitment front, i don't think it's right that he is anyway - he needs to learn the players he has before he adds more to it, then he can learn and understand the weaknesses better (and get more out of the players we have). In a way, isn't it good that we haven't seen signings yet.. as it suggests to me that they'll be decided by Adkins and when he wants them. Not by anyone else. And also i think the playoffs are a certainty, if we can get on a run the auto's are still not out of reach but time is running out.

Sorry, but that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read in my life. i know he's a bit hot-headed and has a slight ego, but what you posted there is pure fabricated fantasy.

Why does nothing ever go to plan/normally with this club? although i'm not too sure on the Cortese wants out rumour, as it's not really his investment - it's in the hands of the Liebhers and the rumour seems to have started from a taxi driver. I think you'll always see stories like this popup when things aren't going well.

it is, he's in his last year now...i think.

i guess you missed his point blank save early in the 2nd half? and then also his 2 quick fire saves in the last 4 mins?

We did walk all over them tbf, they couldn't get the ball. They were very lucky and should be thankful to their GK. We just lack a cutting edge at the moment, that's all. On today's 2nd half there really isn't too much to worry about.

We played some nice football in the 2nd half, really controlled possession from the back to the front. We still didn't work the keeper enough, but the days of a long punt by davis may be over.

If im honest, they looked far happier today than they did against Rochdale and Swindon. NA knows what he's doing and he's already made a big impact by the sounds of things.

i think he could do with a few weeks out of the starting 11, see what he's like coming on as a sub - but we need a loan in first before we can try that.

I wouldn't say 500k for a full back in L1 is low price.

I'd like us to go for someone like Patrick Agyemang. Powerful, tall, strong, pacey - just what we need up front at the moment. Supplement that with a pacey winger on the flank and i think our season may turn around.

The criticism Puncheon is getting is unfair and it's not helping the situation, he's been no worse than alot of our players. When he's fit and on form he's one of the best attacking wingers at this level, we saw that last season. He's going through a barron spell at the moment and the last thing he needs is the crowd turning on him. If anyone is likely to do something magic and out of the blue, it's him.

lambo, deflected free kick.

Holmes was very lively, and Dickson was good as well - Dickson had one fantastic run right down the left, from left back to left wing - i loved that. I just hope holmes can stay fit, that's his problem - too injury prone and he can never cement a place in the team because of this.

he was yep, he's getting better and was more like last seasons lambert in parts of the game. but he was still pulling up and he is still struggling to jump, so i think fitness is still an issue....he is improving though, so good things to come from him hopefully.

Well that was better, for the first time this season I've come away from St Mary's feeling slightly lifted, rather than down after a dull-pointless performance. There was only one team in this game, Colchester didn't play at all - they were so bad. The first half was ok, nothing special and we weren't enough threat, we had so much possession but did so little with it. the 2nd half was more like it though....pace, energy, drive and we shot at goal! The keeper pulled off 2 fantastic saves in the 2nd half, one in the last second of the game and also pushed away a corner that was destined for seabornes head....and we possibly should have had at least 1 penality, although i couldn't see it that clearly. They'd obviously had a talking to at half time because it was much better, probably as well as we've played all season for a consistant amount of time as we had them penned in all half........but christ, that one break away colchester had in the 86th min felt like hell, we would not have deserved it and it would have been seriously hard to swallow...thank **** they were **** though. Lambert looked a bit better, brought players into play like last season but is still cleary way off match fitness (As you can see when he keeps pulling up). Barnard improved our attack, much more livley than we have been and was full of energy and running, it kept their back 4 pushed right back and helped us dominate as much as we have. The goals will come, we cannot play as well as we did in the 2nd half all season and fail to score again. Unfortunatley these results aren't helpung us, we're dropping off now and auto promotion is possibly almost becoming a distant dream. Once we get a goal though, i can sense the confidence will flow through this team. We just need a break and we'll start ticking again, i think we may need a little help from the loan market though.

i wish they'd **** off and realize that we don't actually give a **** what they think.

there are some great talents in there, ward-prouse is one of them. holder-spooner is a good talent too. We just need to be patient as alot of investment has gone into this area (check out the coaching and structure to the academy now, it's a premiership structure in L1). If Cortese's ambition is that 50% of our first 11 are academy kids by the end of the 5 years, then we must have some gooduns down there.

Great post, agree with everything you've said. It does beggar belief how everything has imploded within 4/5 weeks, not just on the football side but we even lost our owner. I've never known a start to the season like it, totally shell shocked by it all.

You obviously didn't watch him too much last season then. He was pivotal in our success, take him out and 60% of our goals are flushed down the toilet. He provided 22 goals, as well as scoring 38 in all competitions himself. I believe only 10 of those were free kicks and penalties. We're not scoring as many because lambert isn't fit, we don't have the pace in the wide areas and lallana is injured. Other than that, everything is fine. *cough*

Why is it a silly thread? posts like this offer nothing. The general consensus is that promotion is going to be harder now than it was back in august. Not impossible, no, but a hell of alot harder. What makes you think that this team will all of a sudden win 6/7 games on the bounce? We will now need to win over 60% of our remaining games if we're able to recover from this bad start. We can also only afford 4/5 more defeats all season, we're only in September. If we get up automatically now Adkins will be a bloody hero in my eyes.

I think you will be alone on this one, and you will never ever get a explanation as there are gagging orders and NDA's all over the shop. What happened, happened. Time to forget it, move on and support NA. He's a good manager and he needs our support now, we've got to stop living in the past. We've always done it!

I don't think he's fit, simple as that. He's playing because we have no other options and i hope we're not causing him more harm by playing him. Get a loan in, drop him for a few weeks so he can get fit - and I'm confident we'll see a different player when he comes back. But don't be silly, he's not a one season wonder. He's proven in this league season after season, but at the moment he's playing like he's had the worst pre-season of his life.

It is looking very difficult now. We're only just in September but we can really only realistically have 4/5 more defeats all season if we want a top 2 finish. We're going to need some never seen run of from from a Southampton side to even get close. I reckon we'll know end up sneaking the top 6, which isn't really good enough with the team we have. I'd love to know what's happened, everything seemed to be in place before our last game against Southend. It's the stuff if nightmares!