St Marco

The thing is Puncheon is a good player. Was in the PFA team of the year twice if i remember (once with us). If he was like how he was in the first year then he is exactly what we need on the wing right now. But the problem is his mind. One day he could be a good lad and the next a total mong. Those days could cause problems which fracture the team spirit. Is it worth risking that? The other thing is Adkins himself. How does he get on with him? There have been a few times recently where players have shown a bit of lair towards Adkins i.e Lambert and Fox. Which leads me to believe he is a guy players can clash with if they don't share his footballing decisions. For someone like lambert to be subbed is obviously going to **** him off. But the point is that it isn't personal. An hour later they will probably be cool again. Is Puncheon the same? If he does not agree with Adkins will he let it go or will he throw his toys out the pram? From what we know of him it is deffinatly the latter. If he can sort his head out, say sorry to the team/manager and fans then i think he deserves a second chance. But he has to realise he has to earn his position in the team not have it simply because he is Puncheon. Meaning if he is dropped for some kid nobody has heard of then he has to take it on the chin and try harder. If he can accept all those things and concentrate on playing football then he could become a very good player for us. But if he can't then we need rid of him asap. No point having someone who thinks they are better then they really are. Especially if they can't be controlled by the manager.

If you had said that on the first match day this season we would be top at xmas i doubt many would of believed it. We have done very well and the players/manager/chairman/staff etc all deserve huge credit for it! However.... Regardless of where we are in the league, no matter what league we are in. Going 3 weeks without a win is not good. The next 3 games are massive.

Xmas sale started today, time to be even poorer again

To be fair he was moved to the right wing. At that point he should of been taken off for De Ridder. I am not having a go at Guly as i actually agree with what you said but at that point a fresh fast paced De Ridder either on the right or up front would of been better then a knackered, not confident, not wanting to get stuck in Guly. Personally i think Adkins got that wrong. Why he didn't make that change who knows but we missed that pace and fresh enthusiasm which could of given us better options in my view.

All in all you have to say other then a good 10-15min spell by us it was a pretty dire match. I felt our support was decent. Their support was a bit ****. When we scored they were very silent. A steward told me it was around 20k in there, didn't feel like it at all. First half was **** and i think both sides were just hoping not to lose. Both playing long ball and hoping either Kitson or Lambert got it. Second half was an improvement and i felt we dominated . They didn't look a threat at all. We tried to create chances and when they came we couldn't put them away. We deserved to lead and when Lambo scored that was one of the best momments i have had following Saints away anywhere. Suprised the stand didn't fall down! After that goal i think Adkins totally ****ed up. He should of brought on De Ridder because Pompey would of had to push people forward and we would of got them on the counter. We were in control and that outlay would of helped loads. Seeing Lambert on our left trying to run at 2 defenders was so frustrating. You could see he was not pleased either. He should of been in the middle for the crosses not on the wing, same goes for Guly, why the fook was he moved to the right? Guly should of been off after the goal and De Ridder on with Morgan pushing back into a sweeper for the last 5-10mins. By keeping a knackered and totally un-confident Guly on was just baffling to me. The same goes for the Fox sub. I thought he was doing well and don't get why he came off. Someone said he saw Adkins and him argue or something? They didn't threaten us at all and i think it was Harding who came on and caused the corner. Then nobody was picking up the pompey **** from the corner. We should be clearing those situations. Guly should be throwing himself at it, that is why he is paid like 8k a week or something. We were the better team and deserved to win. We showed some great football but like in the recent games it has been patchy. I think that this game shows we need to bring in a proper striker i.e Sharp to play alongside Lambert and we need a proper winger out on the right who can start every game because obviously Adkins doesn't rate De Ridder. A draw is not a bad result. But we have failed to win a game this month. They still have to come to ours and i think if we play like we did for that 10-15min spell we will destroy them. I just can't believe they scored as i thought they were ****.

I think you missed the point Nick....the point being that they were consistent home and away. Saying we don't need to match that is laughable. Norwich were 4th at xmas with 36 points as you say. But if you look at the OVERALL Points per game they had for the entire season 1.95 ppg. We currently have 2.05ppg. Let's assume we continue to lose the rest of the away games and win our home games. That would mean an additional 39 points from our home games and obviously none from our away. Meaning we would have a grand total of......82 points. If we put that into the table last year would see us 3rd and Norwich ahead of us. Again saying we don't need to match them or be close is not quite right is it. 13 home games left with 13 home wins on its own will not get us promoted.

Of course they did. But they actually only lost 4 away games all season. To match that record we would not be able to lose anymore away games. If we are serious about going up then we need to start picking up away wins. One win in nine away is not good enough no matter what league your in. A win tomorrow could/should really spur us on. A loss could be really really bad for not only the teams confidence but the fans too. That is why i say it is a must win not because of the rivalry or anything like that but because we need to get out of this away rut we find ourselves in. And what better place to do that then at the **** hole down the road.

Norwich seemed to do alright didn't they?

At the start of december we were 9 points clear of 3rd place. Now only 2 points. Have to win tomorrow no excuses.

Got my email yesterday to get in early so have now managed to get to lvl 10. Have to say thus far it is a really great game. Excellent story which makes you want to keep playing. Unlike other games when you start out you have a sense that you are one bad ass mofo. As a sith you can plough into groups of 4-5 enemies and have that feeling they are going to get their face mashed in, sort of like Batman Arkham City. When you finally get your lightsaber and your hacking through people you know it doesn't get much better then that

As it is the last game before xmas aren't we supposed to go in fancy dress? If we got a whole load of us to wear those kinda suits it would be pretty funny. Would wind them up bigtime

Got my copy today Just a pity got to wait like a week now....

Not much of an mmo player as prefer traditional online games ala fifa, battlefield etc but have to say the Knights of The Old Republic games are up there with the best games i ever played. The same goes for Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Bioware are probably the best story tellers out there. So this is a must for me. If it keeps the feel of KOTOR then i can see this one taking up a lot of my spare time! Especially now FM12 has sort of got ****.

I think a lot will depend on the West Ham and other games. If we go into the game still top with 3 points clear then pressure will not be as bad. But if we are joint top on gd then the pressure could become huge. Our recent form is not great, our away form is dire. In theory this is the worst time to play them. However i got a feeling Adkins will get it into them how important this game is. Lose it and our season could fall apart. Adkins knows a defeat here will get people on his back. A win however really could kick on our season. The confidence from it would be sky high. The main concern i have though is for the last 5 games we have turned more into a longball side. We don't want to play like that as it will suit them fine. They will be like other physical teams who we seem to struggle and run out of ideas against. If we go back to our slick passing and moving we could rip them apart. So i think we will show why we are top, best place to end our bad blip is at that ****hole, it will give everyone a boost. 1-3 to the mighty Saints

Personally i think De Ridder is not really up to this level. The lad tries and will run down the ball and has to be praised for that attitude. However he can't dribble, can't keep control of the ball, has a poor first touch, can't cross and can't shoot. Running fast in a straight line will be fine in the lower leagues but in this one you need more then that. The whole technical ability comment above just does not fit him at all. He got totally blasted by the players today when it was 4 on 2 at the end and he ran it out. That is his problem, he can't control the ball, he loses it or knocks it against his own shin and it will then go out of play or to the opposition. That said i think he needs to start a few games. By doing that will give him the chance to learn more then he does in the 30-15mins that he get's. If after that he can't play on the wing then we have to buy someone in the window. I want to like the lad but he makes so many mistakes. Lambo blasted him for some poor crosses today. As i say maybe a run in the starting line up will give him the chance to learn and adapt. I would rather risk that then keep playing Morgan on the right which just hasen't worked. Morgan should be in the centre with Cork imo.

Bart is a good keeper. He had an off day, everyone does.

Some people must be on a serious wind up here? Both games are massive! Minimum of 4 points from the 2 games or the team has done **** imo. Losing to the skates would be terrible considering the mess they are in right now. If we still can't beat them after their issues and key players leaving whilst we have added top players and at the top of the league then that will go down as one of the worst defeats we have had against them. It is alright losing to them when we have -10 points in a division lower to them but doing so while we are top and they are something like 6th to bottom would just be too much to take. Could not care less about how many home wins in a row we have. Soon as we lose we will forget it anyway. Would much rather beat the dirty skate ****s then have a wins record at home. Especially when our away record is so dire. I seriously hope our players do not go into that game with the same attitude that 3 points is a good return on the two games.

Looking forward to this one. If we are winning and the fans start chanting "Championship your having a laugh" then that will be fecking epic! What is worrying me right now though is that we have gone from slick passing into a punt it up field team. We need to stop doing that. Need to get back to passing it around and looking for spaces. I would go with ---------------Davis----------------- Fraizer---Fonte---Jos-----Fox --------Hammond----Cork--------- De Ridder----------------------Lallana --------Guly/Connoly-----Lambert---------- Last few games having Morgan out on the wing has ruined our width, like-wise i don't think having Guly works there either. It is time to let De-Ridder have his time there from the start and if he can't do it then we need to bring in someone in January who can. De Ridder needs to start taking his chances or he will just end up another DMG type player imo. Can run when he wants to and in one game will do something decent, the problem is that you have to wait another 8 games before he will do it again.

If we are looking at a period of form i.e the last 8 games then West Ham actually are above us. I wouldn't say we are choking but our recent OVERALL form is worrying. To put it into context we have only got 2 more points then Bristol City over that 8 game period. The difference to us and West Ham is that they are plodding along. They lost at the weekend but they actually have a very good record right now. Won 4 of their last 5 away games, and lost 1 of their last 5 home games (the one at the weekend). Where as we are relying on our home form to keep us where we are. It looks good now but we have to go away to a lot of the teams we beat at home i.e West Ham, brighton, Middlesborough, Forest, Leeds, Hull and so on. If our away form continues into those games then we will not be top for much longer. The thing is we are new to this league but so many other clubs come up from league one and go straight up to the PL. Look at Norwich now, joint 9th. There are many reasons why teams do well but i think the main one is momentum. The players have been there for a few years and know each other, they add a player here or there and it takes the team up a level. In my opinion this year is our best chance at going up. The last thing we want to do is become one of the teams who struggle to get out of this league ala Leeds, Cardiff, Borugh etc. So i wouldn't say we are choking, far from it. But i think even the most biased fan would agree throwing away a 9 points lead on 3rd place would be a massive **** up. I think that is why it is frustrating for some because we have chances to pull further ahead but have not been taking them. But a long long way to go and personally i think in January we will strengthen and start to pull away again. Every team has a blip, even the good ones like Man Utd. It is how you bounce back from them that is important. That is why the spotlight is on Adkins right now because that is what he is here for. He has to come up with the game-plan. Getting it wrong can make people turn on you very quickly ala Burley.

Agreed, i think the whole "because we are top" thing is pretty sad to use as an excuse. By that logic if we are say 4 points clear and we need to travel up to Hull why bother sending the lads up for the game, or at least tell the fans not to bother going. I couldn't care less where we are in the league, bottom, middle or top. What i care about is that the team goes out there and plays to the best of it's ability. That the manager and the players put their all into it. If we lose after doing that and are bottom of the league then fair play at least they tried. The reality is that the players and manager are not doing that in a fair few games recently. They are top of the league so should be playing with the confidence that goes with that. Some of the players look like they can't be arsed. We no longer play silk passing football and seem to have gone to a hit it up the field and hope attitude. The way we are playing needs to be looked at. Just because we are top of the league does not mean we should ignore those things. By doing so would mean we wouldn't be at the top for much longer for sure.

Just another one of those "celebs" who can only be noticed by saying something controversial. Sort of like a few people on here I do find it kinda funny though that he likes to attack people but yet when it is returned (his affairs) he runs to the courts to try and keep it hush hush. Bit of a hypocrite really.

Couldn't care less what happened in the other games, only care about our games and right now we are playing dreadful. Our away form is terrible and needs sorting out. We have lost 3 of our last 4 away games. Only won once in our last 8 away games. The only reason we are top is because of our home form. But eventually we will have to play those teams away and if we lose then it cancels out the home result. The last two away games have been pathetic results and Adkins needs to sort it out.

Yep totally noticed that too! It looked like Adkins told him to come deeper or something like that and he waved his arm as to say "**** off". Then he got subbed and went straight down the tunnel. I didn't see him get helped down there at all. Looked really ****ed off! Of course i could be wrong but i was sat right in like with the dug out and that is how it looked to me.

Pretty crap game and think we were lucky to win. Even when we had an extra man they looked lively and created chances. What is worrying me is that Morgan should not be out on the right. It isn't working and has never looked like it would. If we are struggling to put someone there then why not put Fox at left mid and Lallana at right mid? I want to like Shteve i really do but he has become one of those players who really frustrate me ala BWP, DMG etc. He has bags of pace and enthusiasm but he clearly lacks some of the basics. I wonder if he was given more starts would he learn and improve? When you compare him to the 17 year old who he replaced he is nowhere near that level. I think it was the 80min mark or so and he got the ball, poked it round their left back and could of run 1 on 1 with the last defender. But he ran over to the right side and passed back to Richardson who was then under pressure and had to try and make a pass which was intercepted by Mclean and he then ran at the two defenders and almost got a ball across the goal line. On another day that mistake could of cost us. I admire his energy to try and run down the ball but really you have to say our right wing continues to be a problem since Chambo left. I think Nige is obviously not starting him for a reason, instead rather playing someone who lacks experience there. But we have Holmes and De-Ridder who are natural wingers. Either start with one of those guy's or bring someone in who can start games there. It really is a shame we didn't keep Alex for a further season. He would of been tearing teams like Hull a new one. But a win is a win and we will take that every time.