Legod Third Coming

Christ you are an addict - backing at Kempton. What was it some class 6 handicap, trained by Gay Kellaway??!!! lol

I haven't looked mate as I mainly back horses, but if they're playing teams they should beat on form, I would.

Nope, shorter horses often lose though!! (Zaynar 1/14, Denman 1/7...) Obviously some favourites get beaten, so don't back those ones...

I heard about Huddersfield!!! I'm mightily cheesed missing it. Bale is a great full back and I think Harding could do more of what Bale does. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against width, but that's wasted if you don't have players like Bale with superb delivery. Tbh, as long as we score, I don't care how. Seaborne is the only signing I've yet to be convinced about, but Waigo, Lambert, Harding, Puncheon, Fonte, Barnard, blimey we don't know we're born!!!

You shouldn't bet on first goal-scorer. Bookies make more profit on this than anything!!!! The variables are terrible. You're basically backing a 19/1 shot (there are twenty outfield players) at skinny odds. Back teams to win, lose or draw and follow the form. You'd be surprise over a season how often form comes out in football games. The returns are smaller (the odds are obviously less) but you can always double or treble the games. Bookies hate this - it's costing them a fortune that people simply double United/Arsenal/Chelsea etc... If you'd backed Southampton to win every home game since December you'd easily have cleared a decent profit. Some fella asked me the other day why I backed a horse at 1/2 - and I asked him where else in the world today he could hand over cash and less then four minutes later get a %50 return on his money? I love backing long price winners but above all, I love backing winners! I don't think Saints are value now at 4/5 in a cup game that is not at St Marys. But if Saints are 4/5 to win their next home game, back them. And keep backing them at those odds at home. Thankfully betting is not my only living, but like Tesco says... every little helps!! (the value of your investment can go down as well as up and this is in no way to be construed as advice under the Financial Services Act 1984)

Sadly I missed Huddersfield because I was away working, but against Hartlepool we were not narrow to Pardew's intention. Puncheon simply refused to go outside, Waigo did. But it didn't matter, Puncheon created a goal when he cut inside. I think you old timers are stuck in the past. I couldn't name a single team that plays with wide men who hug the line and swing the ball in from the bye-line. Most modern managers like wingers/wide players who play on their wrong foot and cut inside. Don't ask me why. I watched us tear Wallsall apart with both Lallana and Puncheon playing inside and swapping sides. I don't remember them getting to the bye-line once. But the point is still, we are winning more than losing. On eight game form we are the second best team in the division. Pardew won't get it right every game but the idea he is negative or tactically inept is cobblers. He has made more successful substitutions than any manager I have seen at Saints since Lawrie.

Tsk... punters can put their heart in a box and bet with their heads!

With the Tote - I backed Saints the day we played Charlton mind... I don't think you'll find the old nanny being so generous now

He's 36 games into his career with Southampton. And he's expected to win every game? His tactics at Wycombe were not wrong. He started with Antonio out wide - the width we apparently crave. Antonio played like a dog. We had no midfield control, he put another midfielder on the pitch. Sadly it was Paul Wotton. The guy next to me bet me a fiver we would now improve, I wish I'd taken his money!!! We were woeful. Lallana missed a sitter, everyone played crap. What is Pardew supposed to do about that? I didn't see Swindon so can't comment. But this idea Pardew can get it right every game is madness. The sooner people stop believing it's possible, the better for them.

See above. You're obviously a football fan first and punter second, hard luck! Some of us will make a living from betting...

Haha... apologies, that's the punter in me... I will of course be gutted but my tickets, train fare and dinner will all have been paid for... It's called hedging. While I would love to follow my heart and just back Saints, I can't help guaranteeing a profit after all these years.

I have Southampton at 13/2 and Carlisle at 13/8... I love days like Sunday when whoever wins you make a thumping profit... although I'd like it to be Saints naturally!

That's right, that's why Brighton are top of the league, thanks to tactical genius... For a bloke who claims to know football I hope you have some other hobbies.

We are in promotion form. We haven't won every game. Who has pray? And how did they fathom beating luck and guaranteeing every decision and result? The results say Pardew is getting it right more than wrong. Give him some credit. And also give some credit to other players and managers who, funnily enough, are also trying to win football matches...

Tell me why Exeter beat Leeds, Brentford beat Norwich and Wycombe beat Millwall. Could it be because football is not a fecking science?

I love the fact that people laud Ferguson for playing 4-5-1 as 'attacking' but Pardew playing 4-4-2 and scoring something like 18 goals in seven games is negative. Totallly bonkers, never read such total crap in all my days.

They're both going up. Does no one notice these things any more...

Second highest scorers in the division. Yep negative as hell...

Bugger - now I know why I drove to Wales... You know what I meant!!!

Good points. Personally I think we've done well to stay as focused as we have - but on Tuesday it was evident that one or two were looking after themselves so the sooner we get there, taste it and want a bit more the better!

I agree Alps - it was obvious on Tuesday we were in second gear!! As to Pardew keeping them focused. If I sat you down and told you that I had lined up Scarlett Johannsen, Angelina Jolie and a tube of raspberry love lube this evening for you, I wonder how effective your working day would be... Under WGS we went into a match with Arsenal at Wembley on the back of a 6-1 hammering by Arsenal...

Don't knock it till you've tried it...

The week before playing us, Wycombe beat Millwall 1-0. That is football. I was at the game it was appalling with a capital F. But Lallana missed a sitter to win the game and all this talk would be hot air and lost in the wind. That is football. When we are in the Permiership paying £60k a week, I will be pretty cheesed off if our strikers/midfielders miss sitters. Until then, we're a League One club moving in the right direction. Sure, we will take a backward step once in a while. I wonder how many Norwich fans were baying for blood after we stuffed them at home? Look at Leeds! We're not the best team in the league on season-long form. We are: Second highest scoring team in the division. Third best defence. Second on last eight game form. Second on last five home form.... For pete's sake man!!! If that's not enough to get you excited can I suggest Viagra???

This is the kind of bonkers mentality that infests life. No one or amount of money has a divine right to be or do anything. Not only that, but sport (like life) is 90% work and 10% luck - possibly even more in the luck drawer. Gary Player might have thought that the harder he worked the luckier he got but he wasn't in the aeroplane the day Payne Stewart came down in it was he? Geoff Hurst got a linesman's flag his way. What if the Russian has signalled no goal? It wouldn't be 44 years of hurt, it would be 80... We should beat Tranmere because we outplay them. We might beat them because we get the rub of the green. On the day we should have beaten them because we were the better quality side. We should have beaten them because we worked hard enough to justify it, just. We didn't. That's football. That's life. Sometimes other teams win - either with fortune or without. But above all, it's 30 games into the manager's career at Southampton. It's what ten games into Jason Puncheon's? Lee Barnards's? 30 into Rickie Lambert's? And guess what, we will STILL LOSE football matches. Ask Mr Ferguson or Mr Ancelotti - how is that £700m investment in winning the Champion's League coming on? How did United fair at Burnley - a team they 'should beat' easily on any given measure. This team is in promotion form. It could still get promoted. On Sunday we could win our first tin-pot trophy for 34 years... After ten years of being the most beaten football club in England. After two relegations. After the complete bollix of a season I was forced to endure last year, can people please just let me enjoy it?? Or is that too much to ask for al those suffering from premature promotion fever...

Thanks to all those who bid, the winning bidder is welcome to come on and disclose themselves - I'm not really sure that's my place. He has been informed and has promised to send me proof of donation. Tbh, we've all got Photoshop so I am relying on him being a true SAINT! Apologies to those who did not win, good luck in your search.