Badger

Perhaps inevitable there’s interest, especially from Germany. Or his agent hurrying up that improved three year contract.

He doesn’t have to be a jocular wisecracking manager on the interview rounds for supporters to warm to him. After what we’ve seen over recent years it’s a welcome change to have someone who seems enthusiastic and dedicated to the job and club.* *for the time being anyway.

St Mary’s. Sorry if that offends anyone in the ‘Keep apostrophes out of sport’ campaign.

Perhaps no great surprise, but find it staggering that adults went to the Coventry game (Dec 20th) dressed as Santas and elves !! Just wanting the cameras to spot them for a moment of fame.

ITV shouldn’t be allowed near the Six Nations that’s for sure. Adverts during scrums the other week.

If we drop or rest Azaz, then Jander seems more suited to playing an advanced role. Charles much better defensively, or as you say box to box.

Have found this, so far the only footage of the Downes incident. the incident is about 8.40

This was noticeable. I’m a miserable old bastard and often come away cursing the bunch of … but we did go for it yesterday, so despite one or two individual moments of “ffs” you accepted the result without criticism (well not too much anyway) of the team or manager. This was a welcome change from seeing the final 10 minutes ‘chasing’ a winner with the CB’s passing it between themselves for most of it.

Among other reasons I suspect there was some agreement in place between Edozie and club that he’d be leaving, something it seemed both sides wanted. Mystery for me is why Edozie was not in the squad for so long. Can’t recall any injuries for the most part. Don’t agree that he’s a better option than Fellows. Think we’ve wasted him for much of the season as a wingback which might have dented his confidence.

He provided a fresh attacking outlet when he came on and looked good. I think he can be an important player for us this season but mainly as a sub attacking and stretching a tired defence. Despite the pace and all the stopovers, I don’t recall many crosses into the box. There seems to be a bit of a fashionable undercurrent to have a down on Fellows at the moment. Appreciate his finishing has been poor when chances have come his way, but he’s probably the best crosser of a ball we have.Look at the cutback for Scienza yesterday. If we’d had a decent CF since August Fellows would probably have a dozen ‘assists’ to his name. (Don’t Scienza and Edozie both play on the left ?)

Might be a question to pose on Everton or Forest forums.

That would be 80 points if continued over the course of the season, which would be good, even if not a great return. Solid play off form and finish. Making allowance for this being a first job, and what appeared a squad low on confidence and belief, it’s not a bad return. I suspect many would have been pleased had say Dyche or Carrick come in and achieved it. (Yes there were some poor results in there as well, Norwich, Oxford, Hull at home.).

You’re preaching to the converted where I’m concerned.Been crying out for a Ball or Case for years. Said whilst we were in the EPL under Ralph that the best way to see the young players we were signing develop was to put a few experienced heads around them, rather than just throw them together and hope. One of the themes of Lawrie’s era was mixing old heads and young legs to great success. A recent success showing this work has been Xhaka at Sunderland. But doubt we’d have the foresight to see what he’d bring. One problem though is when we signed Alan Ball he was 31, and was playing for England about 18months before joining. If a player of that calibre was leaving Arsenal now they’d be looking for £30m plus, and he’d probably rather end up as a squad player at Chelsea sitting it out on the bench with a few League Cup games.

My recollection is that it was said we’d agreed a value of £250,000 with Reading if we wanted to sign him at the end of the loan. Reading upped the price given how well he’d done with us, and thinking we were flush with our Swiss owners. I thought the asking price was £1m when we went back, and Cortese walked away as he wasn’t going to let Reading renegotiate the terms. Agree it’s a shame we didn’t sign him as things turned out, but at the time supported Cortese’s stance on it.

Might be a fair point about not changing things during the match, but very few managers have that insight. He’s not alone and by no means the worst we’ve had. As for yesterday, by my recollection we had two cleared off the line, hit the bar in the first half. Suggests that the tactics were working if we were creating chances. Some cooler heads when chances arose, Bree getting his header on target and Matsuki not ending up on his arse might have helped as well.

At the time I thought Jander was seen as possibly offering more going forward. Bragg in his limited time on the pitch though slotted in well and was impressed given his age.

What would your view of the manager have been if Charles had pulled up again as he did at Blackburn and out for another two months ?

First one was about fifteen seconds in! Immediately after we scored the crowd lifted, but not an OWTS but the Nathan Jones song …. Terrace muppetry at its finest. In fairness to Jones when he did come on the pitch at the end I saw him being very sportsmanlike to our players, without any gestures to the crowd. So who’s the biggest knobhead out there Jones or Lampard ?

Sometimes it seems people are watching different games. Thought Charles quality shone through in the first half, less involved in the second, although was a bit surprised he went off. At the time I wondered if the thought was Jander is more creative going forward, although a couple of people thought he’d slowed down after taking a knock which might explain him going off. As for being “ruthless” this might cut the other way, leave him on and see him pull up as he did at Blackburn and out again for another two months.

there seemed to be a skirmish between a few players. Most separated but from where I was - opposite end of the ground - Downes appeared to lean his head in towards the Charlton bloke. Not a close up view by any means but I was half expecting a red card to come out for him( possibly a Charlton player as well)

Yes, the spurious argument of “on another day…” . Naive and over optimistic in the extreme. As you say if you’ve watched Saints long enough,or just in recent years, you know that other day seldom comes. If anything, ‘on another day’ someone slips in their arse in the last minute and Charlton or whoever sneak a 2-1 on the break. At least that didn’t happen.

Some may have lapped it up on the back of his appearance with Carragher , and a French journalist praising him but several - me included - thought it ridiculous and a huge risk at the time.

No, although those Christmas results haven’t helped, the failure to go up (let alone reach the playoffs) will be due to the ridiculous appointment of Will Still. Then keeping him in post over a month too long

A Blackburn win would be good at both ends of the table

I don’t share the spite towards Jones. He was a poor appointment but the blame is with the dickheads who appointed him for a job he wasn’t suited for.