benjii

Game, set and, as it were, match.

I would bring Dickson in for Chambo (who looks a bit knackered and could be brought off the bench to terrorise them for the last 30 minutes if needed) and Hammond back in, probably for Morgan, but if we feel Daggers are weak in CM then maybe bring him in for Chaplow. I wouldn't bring Barney in unless Guly has a knock. It's no coincidence, IMO, that Lambert is looking more like his old self now Guly is finding his feet and settling in. His presence means that the opposition can not afford to double up on Lambert and he gives us an aerial alternative. Fonte's partner is a question of horses-for-courses IMO. If they have a big lump upfront then it's Jaidi, if they are more subtle then it's Seaborne. One thing I hope we don't do is change the starting formation. Adkins switched to a diamond in the second half with good effect on Saturday but I think those sort of changes are best employed once we have a foothold in the match. We can't afford slow starts and we can't afford a poor half like we had at Carlisle when we changed shape from the off.

We have ten home games left. Let's say we win 8 and lose two (although I would hope we actually do better than that). That would give us 58 points (when added to what we have already). To finish top 2, 85 points will probably be enough. That means we will need to take something like 21-27 points from our away games (depending on home form). 21 points from 14 matches should be very do-able but 27 would be difficult. What is my point...? Well, I wasn't sure to begin with but I guess it is that I'm not too worried about the discrepancy. I'm confident we can average at least 1.5 points per game away so if we can take maximum, or very near maximum, points at home then we should not be too worried. Home form is still key.

Quite. If I had been relying on getting a bus yesterday I'm pretty confident I would've taken the small trouble of appraising the service available first.

I guess when one sees other clubs desperate to stir up a rivalry with one's own and when a point is celebrated by an away team as though they have just won the Champions League then it may go to one's head somewhat.

Why would anyone want to sign Utaka? He is complete ****e. A cracking bit of work by Redknapp and Storrie.

Well, you're wrong. That is all!

Not closely enough I fear. That was his best game for us by some distance. As someone has already pointed out he went on a great run and played Lallana in one-on-one in the first ten minutes. I usually find Butterfield to be the better of the two on the ball but Richardson was very accomplished today.

Agreed, he was given a specific job to do and played well. As one of a central 2 though he doesn't perform well anywhere near often enough. As for Hammond, he is massively underrated.

Yes agreed. It has been a mad ten years. The Dell to SMS to the Cup Final, play-offs, no more Lowe, more Lowe, JPT, ridiculous managers and now loadsa money from a reputable source.

Shut up Deppo.

I know.

Yes, what is your point?

Have you been drafting this post for the last 364 days?

Good shout! Mods, don't want to do your job for you but let's have nominations today with a poll opening tomorrow. So, if we're talking the 2000-2001 season onwards its from Hoddle-era. Three obvious shouts are Pahars, Bridge and Beattie. No doubt someone will nominate Michael Svensson but he only played about 70 games for us so, in my opinion, there is no way he can be the player of the decade. Can we do player of the 90s next week, and 80s the week after and so on?

Have had some really good ones but they usually involve some sort of party organised by friends rather than going to a club or pub.

Shouldn't you have put "NSFW" in the title? FFS.

As a statement, a mass stay away is certainly a lot more striking than getting beered up and having a sing and a march with your mates and then turning up at the match as usual. The latter has all the impact of the student protests in London; it just looks like a bunch of ill-informed people enjoying themselves.

Unless they can get the away fans to participate in a stay-away I fear the impact may be minimal.

Let's see if Chris Martin signs...

If we want to know more should we PM you?

Agree completely. Hammond looks a lot more relaxed with Chaplow in there instead of Morgan. I think Hammond can concentrate more on his own game (which is massively underrated by a lot of Saints fans IMO) when he has a partner with the dynamism of Chaplow. This isn't an attempt to slag off Morgan, I just think Chaplow complements Hammond better.

Would rather have Martin or Seabourne to be honest.

Why were you slagging Jason Dodd off? Would've got some England caps if he had a better hair cut.