shurlock

Absolutely. But wouldn't have wanted to be at the receiving end of that. Surely selling high, buying low is good business not hypocrisy?

Nah, not really. Arsenal are mugs. We're not -or at least, trying not to be.

Admittedly from the little I've seen of him, he reminds me of a pacier dean ashton.

For me, Rodriguez is the most exciting prospect of all the strikers we've been linked to.

Agree with some of this but its horses for courses - it helped that Barnsley gave us so much time on the ball. As such, one more player that dropped deep rather than playing off the shoulder was a tad predictable. But just look at the Citeh-Swansea game: Swansea, a team that likes to get the ball down and pass, have come under pressure now that the likes of Toure have pushed further up the pitch. Perhaps, they could mix things up more. That's to say, a targetman/more direct style will have a role to play when midfields are congested and our defence is getting closed down. We went direct quite a lot last season, especially away from home. If you think lambert is good in the air (and I think his aerial ability is overrated TBH), he'll continue to be a v.important part of our plans. As I say, horses for courses. Will be interesting if we can get the ball down and play tmrw against a team that is hotly tipped and smarting from a couple of defeats.

More than Jordan Robertson?

Barnsley official site - you need a saints player subscription to log in, though.

From what I heard about Maynard's injury - it was a freak, one-off and not one that is likely to recur.

2nd half - 14m 50s if you're going to watch one segment.

He was alright -nothing special. Happy to bet he won't score many goals. The other lad -Tchoyi- looked much more dangerous and probably bought for a snip of the £7m spent on Long.

Cheers for the heads-up

Morgan has signed a new contract if you believe his interview with French media, so I can't see too many problems morale-wise. Most players can accept being left out if the team is playing well (as we are) and I'm sure NA's repeated calls that its a squad game must have some impact. At any rate, the door is a little bit more open now that Chaplow is suspended.

Agree its cork and deano all day long at the moment.

Yeh, posted something similar on the post-match barnsley thread -pace is a must as our play was crying out for the ball over the top (Connolly tried but got done for offside a few times). Still I thought we were wasteful rather than Barnsley being competent (they gave us acres of space down the flanks and were pretty square at times). Performance reminded me of our 1-0 at Derby in 2008 in terms of our passing and movement - hope that doesn't jinx us....

Agree, I haven't seen us that dominant for a long, long time - more one-sided than most of our away games last season. Its clear that confidence is absolutely sky-high at the moment while competition to make the starting 11 means that we we go into games full of hunger and intensity and hit the ground running. It will be interesting to see what happens when we do lose - how NA can deal with dips in confidence. Once it goes, it can be very hard to recover. But think that's one of NA's strengths - seems level-headed and knows how to keep wins and losses in perspective.

No, I am optimistic (see comments on the post-match match thread). Just interested to see what happens when the defense gets less time on the ball or the full-backs aren't allowed to push on as they were yesterday. Leeds were much better at closing down, though we still beat them. All I am saying is that we will come up against teams AWAY that get in our faces a lot more. Tues will be a good test.

You're talking about J-rod, right? Not maynard - Bristol C are in a position of weakness. They know that if they don't cash in on him sooner rather than later, he'll walk on a free.

We'll see - yesterday we were helped by a Barnsley team that gave us too much time on the ball. Would be a very diiferent story if one or two were put under greater pressure.

Agree, appears a decent bloke - spent most of the warm up, signing autographs, chatting to fans and taking photos while making sure his coffee wasn't going cold.

Back from the game- more comfortable than the scoreline and the final flurry in the last 5mins suggested. Many games last season were more challenging than today - perhaps there is some truth in the idea that as big fishes in a small pond, teams raised their game and played negatively against us. For me, the 40 or so passes (maybe not that many) in the middle of the 2nd half, involving the whole team, summed up the performance. Patient, incisive, fluid, proper team play. As the chants made clear, we really were taking the pi $$. Agree Seaborne had a massive game - stayed composed and bailed out Harding a few times. Richardson also had an excellent game - looks a totally different from the player last season who mi**** passes and looked dull and lethargic. Keith Hill's is basically to hit long diagonal balls behind the fullbacks and Richardson was equal to everything - the highlight was a 40 yard cross-field run to cut out a ball down the left. Lallana also had a very good game, though was perhaps a bit wasteful in front of goal. Connolly, notwithstanding a few dodgy offside decisions, was his busy, clever self. For me Cork was MOTM - if his form continues, he will be an absolute gem. Closed, challenged and never gave away a cheap free-kick and showed some Lallana-esque touches going forward. Cork allows for a proper division of labour between CMs, getting the best out of Hammmond. And where last season the ball seemed to bogged down in treacle in midfield, Cork ensures that we play at a high tempo and distribute the ball with economy. Hopefully we will bring in a pacey CF. Our patience in possession sucked Barnsley in on numerous occasions, creating space behind the defence that would have ruthlessly been exploited with a ball over the top. At times, it appears that everybody is dropping deep which can leave us a bit thin up top. Having a bit of pace makes the opposition think twice about playing a high line to counter the bodies in midfield. Otherwise, RM is probably our biggest headache at the moment. Guly looked much more dangerous when he moved to a more central position, often dropping deep to pick the ball up from the back 4 (similar). Given Guly isn't a natural RM, he seems to have developed a better understanding of his responsibilities playing with Butterfield - that rapport isn't quite there with Frazer. Hopefully, that's just teething problems. De Ridder is an obvious solution - and his first touch, an exquisite spin on the box to put in AL makes him a really exciting prospect; however, lAdkins played him as a centre forward. Some say that this is because Adkins doesn't trust the defensive aspects of De Ridder's wing play; for me, it highlights that once Connolly gets subbed and as long as Barney is injured, we're short up top. Most of the Barnsley fans were under no illusions that we were the superior side, though they were also pretty clear that Chaplow deserved a straight red (it happened in the other half, so hard to tell where we were). Only two games but all round, a great day.

Not really. Its a fair enough observation. 5 of the 7 games we lost last season were against northern teams, even though there were fewer northern teams (9) than southern ones (14) in L1. For me, I define the north as starting from the midlands (Walsall, Notts County, Oldham, Sheffield, Huddersfield, Carlisle, Rochdale, Hartlepool, Tranmere), so you might quibble with that. Of course, there may be other factors that account for this pattern i.e. quality of the opposition (the aforementioned northern teams were better than the southern ones - it is notable that all four relegated teams were southern) or the time of the season we played them (we played the northern teams towards the start of the season when we were sh*t, though that's not really the case - Rochdale being the perfect example). Nonetheless it is a useful point to raise - and certainly not daft to make it.

Didn't Wallace get a better one at Old Trafford? MLT's against Forest wasn't too shabby either.

They'll probably do us again and we'll put in an even more lacklustre shift.

So whose side will Maynard be on - neither I expect

Before his injury at Walsall, he was hands-down our best midfielder (on form). That night also showed that it is necessarily 2 of 4 as Adkins was quite happy to start 3 CMs.