benjii

Hardly. We had bucketfulls of chances in both matches. Add that to beating Bournemouth and outplaying Bolton's second string and it's clear we're not being contained in the slightest.

"Well done, Professor" would be better.

Exactly right. What does the country need to do - cut public spending. Who benefits the most from public spending - the "poor". Therefore who is, correctly and justifiably, going to be "hit" hardest - the "poor". No more Sky Sports, bookies and fags. That last bit was a joke. I know most people are responsible and brilliant and hard-working. It was a joke, just a joke. Seriously though, the main problem facing the country is over-spending. It is inevitable, natural and sensible that those who benefit the most from this spending will lose out a bit. And if you're going to say "why should the poor pay for the bankers' mistakes?", then it (notwithstanding whether it's a silly question or not) is just as valid to ask "why should the rich.."? One is no fairer than the other (most "rich" are not bankers, never will be and had nothing to do with any bad banking practice) and there is, frankly, a logical disconnect there anyway.

Why do people assume that if a striker fails to score he, or indeed the team, must have a confidence problem? It doesn't follow. It might be the case but there's no evidence to suggest that at the moment, in fact the contrary is true. The reason we've only scored one goal in the last two matches is down to misses, mistakes and good goalkeeping. Simple as that. We've been "unlucky" in as much as a few players have committed these mistakes at the same time (for example, Lambert missing a fairly easy header on the same day Barnard hit the post twice and Orient's keeper had a blinder). It is quite clear, however, from our ever improving performances that confidence is not an issue. Barnard's performance against Orient was one of the most confident I've seen from him since he joined us. Some of our play was superb at times. We couldn't have played the way we did without confidence. Granted, if we continue to fail to win then confidence might become a problem but it's not at the moment. Based on our play we could have won our last two matches and scored five or six goals in the process and no one would have thought it unjust or undeserved. Thankfully our team and manager have sufficient backbone and emotional maturity (unlike some of our fans) not to naval gaze or throw the toys out of the pram after a couple of annoying results.

I saw some Villa fans hanging around near where the Dell used to be the year after we moved to SMS Tartan - just telling it how it happened. All stereotypes were well and truly reinforced that day. 'Twas just like the Hovis advert.

Maybe he was going to deliver a tracksuit to WGS's house as well? Or King Kev? Or Cosimo Sarli? God, I'm excited.

Saints legend! This article is worth a read too: http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2010/01/harrys-game.html

As always, the idiots have been proven to be idiots.

Some funny characters round Hills+brough way. We walked up a big hill last time I went there (it was raining, obviously, being the north), and popped into a pub about half way up to catch the early footy on the telly. "Skkkkyyyy spoooorrtts??? Nooo, don't 'ave it". Ok, toodle-pip. Goodluck with the evolution. Got to a pub at the top of the hill which was fine. Rammed full of Saints by 14:00. Some people had obviously had a wee bit too much to drink. Included in this category was a lad in red and white striped Saints shirt (in common with many others) who decided to ask the barmaid for directions back to the stadium. Off she went, "yar gooo ooopppp here, and tek a riiigghhhte theerre... etc". She was talking complete rubbish so I interrupted and told the guy that actually you just walk down the hill and you'll come to the ground eventually. I asked her what she was directing him to and she said, "Ahhh thought yerr were talking about't'shopping centrrrreee". Not the brightest.

- what a nobber!

Given that any "Plan" will end with "player kicks/heads ball into net" and is essentially about how to get in those positions; given that we got in loads of those positions; given that a few players failed to kick/head the ball into the net; it is clear manifest poop, smelly mushy poop, to ejaculate forth, on and on, about plans, tactics, the right signings (unless you think Lambert and Barnard are no good at scoring in League One) etc. The plan worked fine. In the first half we played some of the best football I've seen us play for ages and created loads of chances. We also had loads in the second half. Lambert should've scored with a header. Barnard hit the post twice. Their keeper made two or three top-class saves. Harding missed a sitter. Yep, get a new plan. One that says "don't miss sitters and try and make the opposition's goalie play bad - maybe slag off his mum or something in the tunnel or sommit?". Yep, that's what we need. Our brilliant new plan. What next from the planners? Probably move on to criticising a lack of "passion" or "effort". That's the inevitable default resort of the clueless whinger. Oh and FF. Wowsers. CEO and scouting team have a say in who we sign!? Well **** me up the arse with a fire extinguisher! There's a Machiavellian intrigue if ever I heard of one. Keep em' coming. I'd be interested in finding out if the groundsman's involved in pitch maintenance - got any insights? Cheers ol' bean.

That's not clear at all. Actually we're better as we have improved at right back and the rest of the team is the same. I'm just glad our management and players have more bottle than many of our fans.

Javier do Prado?

Never heard of him but he sounds good and if we don't sign him I'll go crazy ape ****.

Disagree completely. We all know that Markus is not the kind to brag about putting £x million in trust. I've got no idea why you interpret the statement that way. On a pure commercial level, taking the analysis away from Markus, the man, it would also be folly to declare "we have £50m in trust". It would be just stupid. Let's just take this at face value. Cortese wants to continue. The Liebherr family want to see his vision realised. Between them they have billions of pounds. Even if they don't want to plough money in directly we now have a stable set-up and unencumbered asset base that would be the envy of 90% of clubs. The statement is 100% positive. Thank you again, Markus. Thank you so much.

Basically all the drama queens were talking ****e and things will turn out fine. Who'd'a'thought it. Quelle surprise.

27% of grades were at least an A or better. Utterly silly. Well done though.

Are you talking about Chris Nicholl?

Quality, forgot about this. I'm out tomorrow night so will keep an eye out for ****ed up rat.

Spot on post.

14.5k is an ok number of home fans for a bottom-half division 2/top half division 3 team on a Sat 3pm untelevised match. Basically, they punched their weight on attendance as we all know that the club is a bottom-half division 2/top half division 3 team. Funny that the mighty Hull got more. I can't imagine Swansea took more fans than Reading did? Redkeith - re your post about transfer regulation: I'm pretty sure FIFA are bringing in a new system although it might not be public knowledge yet. If you do a bit of digging (I can't be bothered!) you might be able to find something.

Not remotely concerned.

You're not cheats because you haven't settled your debts in full, idiot, you're cheats because you: a) continued to increase your debts when already manifestly insolvent; b) lied to the authorities; c) used an unregistered agent; d) spent a hand-out (ludicrously given to you in contravention of the rules and yet still some of you morons think you were hard done by by the Premier League) on more players in January when manifestly insolvent; e) spent years racking up costs that you never, ever, in a million years had any prospect of ever being able to service; f) managed to become insolvent when in the Premier League - when you have an ex gratia guaranteed income of tens of millions for doing absolutely nothing!; g) had an owner that doesn't exist; h) are alleged to have engaged in tax evasion over player transfers. And if you think we're all now sheepishly going away with our tail between our legs you still haven't grapsed the reality of what's ahead of you. It will be funny.

Every debate on private education in this country descends into absurd mypoic proselytising by those who espouse egalitarianism without neither the ability to see its manifest injustice, nor the conviction to be anything other than a crass hypocrite. That, and the fact I am no longer a full member, is why this shall be my sole contribution to the matter. Toodle-pip.

That's a normal bathtime round my way.