Legod Third Coming

Give me a dull three nil anyday!!! My heart can't take much more of that and I've only just bloody well got home!!!!

No, as I said above, the difference between us and the clubs you are using is that we don't have 22 internationals. I understand fully that managers rest players and prioritise. Chelsea are still taking the game against QPR seriously by dropping Ballak and replacing him with Joe Cole! They can still put out 11 players who are better than QPR. If we rest Hammond and Lallana....

I wonder what the team would have been if they had been playing Arsenal though? If we were playing Totton maybe we could go with 8 internationals and rest 8 others too...

I prefer the Chelsea approach. You try to win four cups and come up with two. Out of interest, what does Arsene Wenger have more of trophies or empty cabinets...? It's an approach that I personally think is flawed. You cannot determine when players might or might not get injured and the idea that footballers cannot play two games in a week is crazy. I understand the thinking, but I just hate it. When managers say 'now we can concentrate on the league' what does that mean?? Beforehand we were confused about which games we should be winning? Beforehand we didn't know how hard to try in the various competitions?? I'd rather win tomorrow and then go into Saturday with six wins behind us than go into a tough game having been stuffed because we played some kids. If Morgan gets a yellow tomorrow so be it. If he gets one on Saturday he'll miss the following game anyway. He might sit on the bench tomorrow and break his ankle in training on Friday. That's life. You can't dictate fate.

Nice one DD.

I remember the last time we rested players in a cup game. Against United in the FA Cup in our relegation season. The clue as to how that turned out can be found in the previous sentence...

Defeatist attitude... If we beat them Saturday then they will be a mere 19 points ahead of us with 72 remaining. They will be weakened and distraught, we will be drinking blood. I still think we might nick it.

Not always in their case. You can't play Eduardo, Bendner, Walcott, etc in the same team all the time... We have a great first team, then some good cover and then nothing. I accept eleven of theirs are better, but the remaing 11 are still better than many opponents because they are among the best clubs in the world. We aren't. We rest players, we'll get turned over and that does nothing for anyone's morale - players, manager and fans!!!

My bad, I don't dispute sports pyschologists have a vital role to play in coaching pressure management through visualisation techniques, etc. If you believe that it is the intangibles that make a difference, how do you think MLT coped with those intangibles?? Wouldn't that be reason enough for him to be involved? I simply cannot conceive why you think MLT has nothing to offer to penalty takers at any level given his consistency? You haven't answered the argument about the vast majority of coaches not having performed at the highest level? What you have done is engaged in a diatribe about MLT and his relative failings. So why could Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard learn nothing from a professional with a 99% record - whether MLT or any other for that matter? I, for one, would be delighted to sit and listen to contemporaries with better records than mine explain the secrets of their success.

Nineteen your argument is a nonsense. The idea that current internationals cannot improve their techinque us flawed. It suggests they no longer need to practice and have no opportunity to improve their skills. I would dispute this and I'm pretty sure they would too. Therefore there is every chance they would be willing to listen and learn from one if the world's foremost penalty takers isn't there? As to their mental coaching then I concur MLT might have less to offer but how do you know the secret if his success was nit a unique visualisation technique? You don't but your bizarre hatred of a man who saved the club's Premiership status prevents you from accepting he may have any value to senior professionals whose records are far inferior to his. And where have I ever questioned the validity of sports pyschology?

There is a slight difference with the managers in question - they have a squad of world class footballers....

Give up now. Matthew Le Tissier never held himself back. He was asked by the then England Manager to play for his place at the World Cup against Russia B. He scored a hatrick. And was then not selected. The man selected in his place was asked to take the final penalty against Argentina and missed. I wonder how Matthew Le Tissier might have taken that penalty... As one of the world's master technicians he has something to offer any player. Technical coaches do not train mental strength. I doubt anyone can. But only through technical excellence and practice can one hope to stand on the largest stage and then have the mental fortitude to succeed. I notice that Manchester United always fail on the big stage because their manager was a journeymen player... Please, if you want to lecture your trolling hords please do, I thought we might indulge in a grown up debate.

If we beat Leeds, we will be 19 points behind them with 72 to play for. I'll take that.

When you build a house, better to leave the decorating until the walls are up and the roof is on... And then worry about the stencilling when you have lived there for a few years. In my view.

The ground will be full. I too would like to see good football. Last year I watched loads of it. Now I get to watch Wycombe and Hartlepool as a result. Answer me this, four years in this division playing pleasing on the eye football? Promotion in five months?

Fat, lazy barsteward.

First and foremost I go to see us win. Over a decade we won fewer games than any team in the land - ANY team. Finally, we are winning football matches. Against Bristol Rovers we played great football and lost, and people moaned. Not me - because I had seen effort and applicaton which is and always has been what I ask from my team. The following week we played worse and beat the Gills 4-1. And no one moaned. Since then we have become the form team of the division - demolishing Wallsall (previously unbeaten in six) or grinding out 1-0 wins against Wycombe (also on a good run, 3 wins from memory). And then beating Tranmere (also having won three on the spin) 3 -0. What are you expecting???? 6 -0 and goals from the halfway line? I have one aim this season. Win the next game. If we do that we will be in the Championship next season. If we entertain we could end up anywhere, including the Royal Opera House for all that's worth. If you want a guarantee of entertainment, buy a ticket for Peter Kay. If not, accept that we will win pretty, win ugly and, I sincerely hope not, occasionnallly get turned over. Winning matters, all else is pointless. We are in the third tier, you're unlikely to bump into Messi any time soon... Were you underwhelmed when WGS ground out results against Bolton?

Although the players are obviously of the standard of the league in which they are playing and surrounded by the same standard of players....

Absofeckinglutely. What do people want? Beautiful football - you had a season of that under JP. It got us relegated. Winning football - we have that now (11 in 14 won - which must be bordering on our best ever results return). If you want both go and support Arsenal and even then you'll find the trophy cabinet has more cabinets than trophies. In case people have forgotten, we are still about 13 games old with this current squad... And yet we have a bunch of experts demanding that in the third tier of English football we play like Real Madrid. It's priceless, fecking priceless.

We cannot adjust our game plan for them. Let them bend to the MIGHTY SAINTS. They will be sat wondering who to put on Lallana, how to prevent Rickie from blowing Bianca through the back of their goal and how to dance with Papa or Antonio. They won't have much time to think about attacking!

What a totally incomprehensible argument. Technique is technique whether you are playing Acrrington or Argentina. And I'd wager if you asked messrs Rooney, Gerrard and Lampard they would happily take advice from Le Tiss - whom they (unlike you) might recognise as having something constructive to offer in advice about placement, power and precision. How, tell, do you think Tiger's coach was able to replicate the 18th Hole at Augusta?? So did his coach throw up his arms and say, sorry Tiger - you are now beyong coaching...

You should go and work for the football league show!

When Chelsea play crap and win it's the sign of a great team. When we do it it's cause for depression. How bizarre.

We won. Did anyone notice?? 11wins from 14 and people are complaining? Feckwits.

We are but if we beat Leeds, and it's a big if, we will have reduced their margin over us by seven points in three games.... Now that's worth thinking about!