S-Clarke

I find it hard to pick many good players from that rabble tonight, it was so disjointed. KWP tried, but himself was guilty of giving up the ball too much. The pick of the worst is certainly the two CM's though - Smallbone and Charles in that first half were a disaster. The midfield is certainly a bit of a conundrum without Downes, we don't seem to have one.

Critical player in how we play, the holes throughout midfield tonight have been glaring and they wouldn't have been there if Downes was available. I felt a bit sorry for Charles in the first half, it was like seeing a kid thrown into the lions den - so out of his depth trying to play the Downes role it was untrue.

It really is the worst way to end our run, but let's not forget how we've put ourselves in this position to start with. Tonight in isolation is bad, so, so, so bad - inept in all area's, not one good player out there - but they have credit in the bank and it's important they bounce back on Friday. We cannot end 25 games unbeaten and then lose two on the bounce, it simply cannot be allowed to happen and I can assure you the players will be focused on making sure that's not the case. Tonight has been bad, make no bones about it, as bad as we were at Sunderland - but the key to our season will be how we react to this setback. We had set backs just like this in our promotion seasons previously, I remember a 3-0 drumming at Brighton and we didn't let that impact us. All teams will lose games, no one is invincible - the fact we've gone on as long as we have is pretty incredible really. The chinks were showing in the armour on Saturday it has to be said. To coin an old phrase, not too down when you lose, not too up when you win. We've still put ourselves in a good situation.

How odd that we get that run of 4 again, certainly an opportunity to put right our wrongs there.

Where are you hearing that? He's done wonders to get them anywhere near the Top 6 in my opinion. If he does get chopped then the fan reaction to their ownership would be so toxic and would totally end their season over night.

I keep thinking we'll have a wobble or do something odd, but we keep turning out results - different sort of results too. You've got the really comfortable and professional jobs against the likes of Swansea, Blackburn, Wednesday etc, then you've got the 'dig in' until the last min against Millwall, Hull City etc. Then you've got another way we've won - 2-0 down, 3-2 down and still win the game. It's something we haven't associated with our team for many years, but we seem to be mentality monsters. They've got the sort of relentless momentum which can be hard to shake.

Sounds like Downes is nowhere near as bad as first feared, will certainly miss tomorrow but should be back thereafter. Still checking Che, touch and go for tomorrow - but still nothing long term.

Great story for Haller though. Weird tournament really, I remember watching Ivory Coast get trashed by Guinea, everyone despondent, their coach sacked etc. Strange game is football!

I think people may stop twatting on about it at the end of this month. Look at it this way, we win two games, Leicester lose 1, and we are 5 points behind them and have to play them. If that scenario has played out at the end of the month then it's game on as far as I'm concentred - if that hasn't gone the right way by the end of this month and we're not within 5 points of them then yes, it's over.

Jan Bednarek took over the captaincy.

I dunno, failure to go up this season will equate to a bigger turnover than what we saw last summer. The team we have now is only our team for the future if we go up, it's going to be mass change otherwise. We will potentially be left with a nucleus of Lumley, Stephens, Charles, Smallbone, Fraser, SAA, Dibling, Edozie, Aribo, Bree, Mara etc. Not bad, but no where near the level we have at the moment. I'm sure we'd invest, but we'd pretty much have to start again which will be a shame as this group we have has so much potential to grow into a PL group.

Could be saying different come that game though. If we win our game in hand (which is the tuesday before they play Leeds) we're 7 points behind them, if Leeds do them on that Friday night and we beat Millwall we're just 4 points behind them - and we have to play them. Not giving up just yet, but this month will confirm it all I think.

I think it's harsh to criticise how many points we have, in most seasons we're top without any hassle. This is just a weird year. We're performing exactly how an auto/champion needs to perform. We have 10 points more and a better GD at this stage than we did when we last got promoted from this league. Leicester have just set a crazy bar, but it doesn't mean we've been poor or not done enough ourselves.

Also, not seen anyone mention this...in a couple of weeks the Friday night game is Leicester v Leeds. 'If' we can keep it up until the Millwall game in a few weeks, we could potentially go into that Saturday game either closing the gap on Leicester or pulling even further away from Leeds. This is a huge defining month imo.

In Extra Time though, in a league game that would have finished 1-1.

Yep absolutely that as well, although Boro were bottom 3 when they beat us (their first win of the season). Being beaten by Ipswich, Leicester and Sunderland did make a dent. We'd be setting records with Leicester had we not had that September, as in any normal season we'd be pretty comfortable in 1st place by now. We already have 10 more points than we did at this stage when we last got promoted in this league.

Scored against Chelsea in September of his first season with us, got injured in the same game and we didn't see him again until December. Not sure what the injury was, but yes - he seems incredibly injury prone, which is a shame as his talent is sky high - but you just feel that injuries will stop him ever achieving any of his potential. He needs to leave Chelsea for his own good though, could head off like you say to a slower pace league and play out his career there.

I find it hard to think of many teams who'd want him. He was so, so bad yesterday. I think he may have had a knock so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but my curiosity is that exactly the same happened in September with him when the window closed. I wouldn't really want to count on him too much in the second half of this season - Mara and Armstrong with Che as third option for me. We've got real quality on the right wing now so we can move Armstrong back to the 9.

Tough place to go to, but so was Coventry, Hull, Norwich, Watford etc. Leeds 'only' won 1-0 at their place a week or so back, but by all accounts they absolutely destroyed them and just lacked a clinical edge to put away their chances.

That is definitely his strength and what we need to make sure we get from him, but only playing as the 10. You don't want him driving forward and leaving Smallbone as the deepest midfielder, that is a recipe for more 5-0's, 4-1 defeats etc. We'd get destroyed on the break by good sides.

Mentioned this yesterday, they keep chattering about our run only coming against the poor sides. But we've played and beaten Leeds, WBA, Hull etc in that period, drawn away at Coventry and Norwich. You don't go 25 games unbeaten by having only done the poor sides, it's daft to think that - they're just scrapping around for chinks to focus on.

I notice people saying that we've had this long run, but we've not played anyone decent etc etc. During this run... Southampton 3 - 1 Leeds United Southampton 2 - 1 - WBA Coventry 1 - 1 Southampton Hull City 1 - 2 Southampton Norwich 1 - 1 Southampton Watford 1 - 1 Southampton Millwall 0 - 1 Southampton I'd say the above are a pretty tricky bunch of games in any season, and they've all been part of the run. Not sure why some neutrals are trying to down play it by saying we have a tough run coming up. That tough run includes Millwall, Bristol City, WBA, Hull - we have already beaten all 4.

Charlies second account?

Another pearl of wisdom from Charlie.

Block 34 myself, there are probably a couple of old farts dotted around! Some of it is because they set their stall out at the start, they didn't want Martin because of x and y etc etc, and they will not be proven wrong no matter how stupid he continues to make them look. Must be a nightmare to live with.