shurlock

And on this one it sometimes seems...

Maybe they're due a significant bereavement.

A few gormless if harmless japs -no more embarrassing than singing about eating dogs and thinking its witty or original.

TBH, the central pairing of Hammond/Schneiderlin stayed the same. Cork moved to the right of the diamond, so anything changed, it was the Guly's role and our impact down the right.

Depends what you mean up top. If it means leading the line and playing the furthest forward -as he does when he partners Lambert- he's not fantastic. He doesn't move or stretch teams enough - and he's better in midfield. If you mean playing as the second striker, then yes, he's much better. But apart from the cup competitions where hes played behind very poor Forte, he's rarely been given a chance to shine in that role. And you're having a laugh if you think he's lazy -he puts in a better defensive shift than the untouchable Lallana who doesnt make it easy for Fox - one reason why, quite sensibly, he doesn't bomb on as people berate him to.

Barnard in his current condition....no chance whatsoever.

But Warnock is a proven manager and Leeds underperformed under Grayson. Yes Bates tied his hands; but they have some decent players and were more inconsistent than most NPC teams (remember how they almost conspired to blow their promotion chances in L1). When you're regularly conceding 4 or 5 at home, it doesn't take much to turn things around by doing the simple things right.

Thought he was less effective today -both him and Lambert got quite isolated. And not sure if his runs were genuinely on in the sense that anyone could have picked them out. He also made the wrong decision at times -was in a good position to shoot on several occasions in the 1st half but ended up passing the ball and the play fizzled out- maybe its the fear of making a mistake. Still he defends from the front, stretches teams and alone made the crucial second goal.

He's not featured a great deal since Xmas through injury or illness. Give him that at least FFS.

Guly doesn't fit in many positions - I don't think he's brilliant upfront. But he does work in the diamond/just behind the strikers as he showed to an excellent effect in the 2nd half. Question is whether we would ever make the sacrifices necessary to accommodate there. If we did, we would probably have to play someone like Cork on the right which has its own problems.

Agree - nobody covered themselves in glory for the opening half hour. He's never going to bomb on down the wing - we rely on our the fullbacks for that - both of whom sat quite deep at times. If there's a problem, its with the system. Had a solid 2nd half and was disciplined as usual- can't think of many of our forward players who track back 40 odd yards to make a tackle in their own box.

Sanchez is so over-rated- put any kind of pressure on him and he bricks it.

Connolly looked just as good and hungry as Sharp when he came on. Think it says more about the circumstances in which they came on -Barnsley's heads had dropped- than necessarily their play.

Nothing wrong with sideways passing if it means we keep possession and the oppo is denied the chance to attack us. Its just an extension of getting men behind the ball albeit when the team has possession. And we're a championship side for a reason - its not as if we're not blessed with such talent or movement that we can pick out defense-splitting passes at every opportunity. Even playmakers/matchwinners like AL have a tendency to dwell too long on the ball. Its one reason why Cork was such a breath of fresh air when he arrived, though he hasnt subsequently hit the same heights. That said, there were times today when an easy forward pass was available; yet we missed it. Its all too easy to get stuck in a groove of playing the ball backwards and do a Peterboro (the home game earlier this season) which then makes it hard to step up a gear. The main problem first half was that both CMs and fullbacks sat too deep and allowed Barnsley to come at us while we had no width. The exception was Fox who defended high up the pitch and showed what could be achieved by pressing his man. It didn't help that both forwards weren't particularly effective. Lee's runs, usually v.intelligent, looked tired and headless today and Lambert's control was poor and seemed like a hangover from Tuesday.

He didn't have a great game tuesday tbh - touch of a rapist came to mind a few times today. We were cruising after the second, so it made sense. The more relevant question is not why Lambert was subbed but Connolly was given the nod ahead of Sharp - today out of all days would have been a perfect opportunity to bed the lad in. Perhaps we should have loaned him out to Donny for the day instead

Good pre-match with Keith Hill http://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/articles/20120308/video-hill-on-saints-task_2264416_2641013/0,,10309~2641013~1,00.html

Collins is being drafted in as a CB to replace Winston Reid who's picked up an injury. A temporary solution. Nothing more, nothing less. Makes sense as he's probably played with Faye quite a bit before.

Been excellent of late - nips in with tackles without crashing in and doesn't give possession away. Can also speed up the tempo when necessary in a way the likes of DH can't. And to those who thinks he only passes backwards, he put Lallana in with a lovely disguised through ball on Tues and also released SDR on the wing for the goal. Pretty sure that his involvement has something to do with our pick up of form on the road where possession is key. The idea that you have to go into scrappy or tight away games with a Hammond say is boll*cks. No point having a bit of extra bite or fight if you're going to surrender the ball cheaply.

Hopefully we don't start Chaplow - still off the pace IMO. At home, especially, would rather have Punch, SDR and Guly ahead of him.

Out of the 15 league games we've gone behind in, we've lost 7, drawn 6 and won 2 - in other words, we've got something out of more than half those games. Not too shabby. Have heard some moronic things on here but the idea we don't win enough when we go behind -in large part because we rarely go behind- takes the biscuit

F**K me - go on you hornets.

Still, he doesnt exactly inspire confidence- for every clean tackle he makes, he'll give away a needless freekick in a dangerous position.

If anything, 10K isn't enough once you factor in the fines/penalties - ask James Harrison Lets not be coy and ignore the elephant in the room - football is a brutal sport - wins determine players careers and players are paid millions, so the incentives to target players are already there. The bounty system just provides a slightly more formalised, sensationalistic and arguably gratuitous twist on all this. And the key point -if you believe the testimonies etc- is the bounty system was just available for clean hits. If that's the case, I think its easy to get carried away by this story.

Top of block 4 is decent - always a good atmosphere and compared to the Northam has slightly older, more knowledgeable fans. Still, it probably sounds sh*t from any other part of the stadium. What I don't understand is why people need to be on the p i $$ to get fired up for a game - the main reason why midweek fixtures are poorer than saturdays.

Bad but not as bad as spygate IMO.