S-Clarke

free kick right on the edge of the area for colchester

sounds like a different team this half, much better

Antonio really has the beating of their full back, he just doesn't seem to know what to do after he's got past him...

Brentford 1- 0 Charlton charlton to drift away in the 2nd half of the season IMO.

Sounds like one of our worst away displays of the season so far, nothing from us at all - all the efforts coming from colchester. i'd be inclined to stick Papa on, in place of one of the 3 CM's - so we can go for 2 up top.

first corner to us...we have life!

should be 2-0, we're not there today sounds painfull

1-0 colchester it's been coming tbf, they've been the much better side.

4-5-1 it is Saints: Bialkowski, Thomas, Trotman, Jaidi, Harding, James, Schneiderlin, Hammond, Antonio, Lallana, Lambert. Subs: Davis, Perry, Wotton, Gobern, Holmes, Papa Waigo, Connolly. Mills must have really upset Pard's then, replaced by Holmes on the bench...

Papa for me, a better all-round footballer. Antonio at the moment is more of an impact sub (i'd keep him for the season for that reason), but he's not quite ready to be a regular starter.

IMO the team will be - Bart James - Jaidi - Perry - Harding Antonio - Hammond - Morgan - Mills Papa - Lambert Subs - Davis, Goborn, Thomas, Mellis, Patterson, Wotton, Connolly Lallana has a dead leg - if we were playing on Tuesday/Wednesday then he'd still be 50/50 , he hasn't got enough recovery time unfortunately. He'll be out for sure imo. the left side is still an issue if Lallana is missing though, i've put Mills in there as he's the obvious option...

Was rested, and makes complete sense too. Colchester ahve a big powerful forward and it makes sense or him to be fresh for that game. Perry and Trotman were always going to be good enough to do a job y/day hope it pays off tomorrow!

He's won plenty of MOTM polls before, he just seemed a little quiet yesterday thats all ...but he still managed to hit the bar with a 20 yarder!

ok, if he was dropped today we would have lost 1-0. managers play him because he is an honest guy, gives his all anywhere on the pitch - every team needs players like that and tbh i don't think he's as bad as people make out. He gets done for pace at times, but he's come on so much since the start of last season. He's still only 21...

Kevin-Prince Boatang was ''ill'' today apparently. well either that, or he's being flogged to other clubs. but i can't see that happening

the interviewer said ''so what are the plans for January, do you plan on spending?'' cortese then responded with ''well we have a plan, i speak with Alan every day about this issue'' im excited.

Antonio is a funny player, in some ways you can see why he starts, because his direct running style opens up space and creates chances. but that's all he seems to offer (erratically)...and once teams suss that out (i.e by doubling up on him), he'll be invisible.

I admire the ambition - but if we just miss out on the playoffs i'd still be pretty satisfied with this season. If you think back to the game against Swindon and what we had back then it's been a very quick turnaround. This season has always been about ''rebuilding'' and any bonuses that come along - let's hope that the playoffs and the JPT are those bonuses...but it certainly isn't the end of the world if we don't quite manage it.

that's what i felt as well, they seemed to just want to ''walk'' through the 2nd half though and we lost a bit of our professionalism. Good that Jaidi was rested, we will need him more on Monday as they have Platt who is a big ****er...

Happy with that, obviously lost our way in the 2nd half (i think we just took our foot off the peddle, and Exeter sensed it) but i always felt we had more goals in us on the break as they pushed forward. We've gained on the top 6 again (albeit some of the teams didn't play today) but Monday is a massive, massive game - that's the real test over this xmas period....and i think we've got it in us to win.

Lambert for me as well, but i also think Morgan offers us alot more than we realise and we did miss him against Leeds.

[Comment From Steve W1Steve W1: ] So have you got proof that Kaboul and Boetang are being offered to other clubs? if so that is truly worrying and all that has been said by the owners that all will be ok is far from the truth? Neil: It's something that has been told to me by someone extremely well connected at the club. I am inclined to believe it too. Apparently several agents have mentioned it to this person. It is very, very worrying.

I love the way he talks, he's a good guy. I also love how keen he is to install a winning mentality here, that's all he wants to do. He's right as well, it's the key to everything. Once you get a winning mentality at a big club it steam rolls, look at Leeds for e.g. - when they get promoted this year they will go on and push the top 6 in the championship next season, guaranteed. I honestly cannot see us in another relegation battle until we're back in the premiership.

Good thread DD. It's certainly been an interesting decade, that's for sure. Every season has involved some sort of drama or event....it's not a boring club to support by any means! It also goes to show how quickly football can change around (for e.g. - Hull and Swansea were languishing around in the bottom half of L2 10 years ago...) I have no doubts that whilst we have Nicola and Markus at the helm, in 10 years from now we will be back as a top 10 premiership club. - That’s our ''sustainable'' level IMO, but who knows...their vision by then may be even more ambitious. From here it looks like it will be another interesting decade...with many more highs on the horizon.

Fabian Delph went to Villa from leeds for £8m in the summer. He was a very good AMC at this level - if Lallana goes, surely he would be the same price range? 1.5m is just a laugh. (the article is prob a load of rehashed garbage though)