Legod Third Coming

Brilliant.

I voted Man of the Match because he was - FACT ( as all these kids keep saying)! Gaston was good, but his billing earned him the MoM judgement on here, in my view. SRL simply did nothing wrong. Not a single thing. Every won header was cushioned for a colleague, every pass pinpoint. He is a class act.

Couple of brilliant passes from Ramirez. Lovely, lovely control. Just seemed to keep coming up with the ball even when he had players around him like a playground game!

You all laughed. But where is Torres in the scoring charts... Give me Sir Richard of Lambert over the whispy Spaniard any day!

It won't get one if we play like that second half performance every week. Puncheon got a deserved ovation when he went off. When he ran at the full backs they couldn't cope. Shame he didn't do more in the first half, but he linked up really well with Richardson second half.

Three things I learned yesterday... 1. As a supporter of Danny Fox, he simply isn't currently cutting it in this league. Was Darren Bent wearing Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility?! 2. Lallana is one of the most gifted English players in the league. And has added a yard of pace. Sublime control, vision and movement. 3. There is not one better English centre forward than Rickie Lambert playing today. The man has power, poise, control and placement. If he doesn't get an England call-up it's a disgrace. Think about it. Defoe or Lambert? Who would you have up front this season? Remembering that a striker's job is singular - TO SCORE GOALS. I know Villa are poor but some of the ball control by Clyne, Gaston, Punch, Lambo and Lallana was sensational. And Davis and Morgan did a sterling job too.

When we were last in this league, the economy was bouyant and the media were not hell-bent on demoralising the country with their misery and gloom. 30,000 people shelling out £35 to watch a football match is a fecking miracle with wage inflation at zero and real price inflation at about 5% when you factor in fuel. It cost me £1.51 per litre to fill up my car to get there! What do you want? Blood?!!

Only if that word is Rosie49

He's an attacking midfielder my friend. That's up front in my book I'm not worried yet. The Chairman won't let us go down.

17 million spent up front. Bizarre. Top scorers in the Championship. Where did we NOT need to spend money...

Le Tiss is my hero. But on this he just needs to man up. No-one likes a whinger. Either he needs to call Cortese and buy him lunch and bury the hatchett (I have asked him to do this on Twitter - no reply, either time...) or let it go. He knows what he means to us. A football club is not its Chairman. I firmly believe that every club should honour its past. No question. But that club, those people who Le Tiss is a part of - is it really the same football club today it was then? The only constant as far as I can tell, is you and me. And he will always be my hero whatever anyone says or does. Apart from him. He ought to know that.

If you want loyalty, buy a dog... One thing I like about Adkins is a ruthless understanding of a player's level. Barney helped us out of League One. Billy out of the Championship. In days when footballers hold all the trump cards over their contracts, I'm afraid it's the only way to be. I'm equally sure that Nigel would have been 100% professional in his dealings with it, as would have been the Chairman.

Looking at West Ham's opening run of games and ours anyone would think the FA had it in for us...

Really? And yet he was shaking his head coming off and had just been on a run that caused their defence havoc! Sorry, don't buy it. Not one bit.

Maybe I was missing it, but I thought with a two-week break ahead, and given the way AL and Puncheon were playing, there was no need for them to come off. And SRL is just too bloody good to bring off even at 90%. He's a handful. Defenders hate him. The more I think about it, the more I think we gave those points away. I stick by my original assertion, I can't see Fergie or Mancini or the other top class managers chaning 25% of their team in the last fifteen minutes when leading 2-1, unless there were injuries. It was a real risk and it backfired. Don't fault Adkins. He's only had three games at the top level. He'll learn. He'll have to!! And our defence needs work. The marking for the third goal was poor. Wouldn't have mattered who we played if you let the best marksman in the league have a free header!! Still, hope this doesn't knock the confidence. Onwards and upwards!

I don't really buy this. None of them looked knackered to me. They're professional footballers who are about to have a two-week break! Even if Lambert looked tired his positioning is still a class apart from Guly or J-Rod who is a kid in this league. And the new lad has no chance against the most professional defence in the league on his debut in English football. Look, my mum was here today and even she was baffled by the first substitution - "Puncheon's our best player" she said "Why is he going off?" And there's not a person on this forum who could answer that...

To be fair it should be 30 second per substituion I think so 6 subs = 3 minutes.

We don't need one! At least we didn't today. The guy was immense. Apart from the goal, Rio and Vidic simply did not like having him around. With Puncheon tearing Evra apart we really looked good going forward... Until we took 25% of our team off at once. The more I think about it, the more cross I get to be honest.

We have Premiership movement, midfield and attack. We don't have a Premiership defence - yet. I'm sure it will come but I'd gladly have forgone a striker for another CB and a left back on Friday...

Yep both looked proper footballers. Great to see Morgan get a goal. Hope that helps his confidence. Because confident he is a class act.

Agreed, Scholes is a class act. We didn't react to him coming on and to be fair we don't have anyone near his class even at 65 (or whatever age he is). However... I simply don't see any other manager with experience changing his entire front line in that situation and bringing on a guy for his first ever game in English football. I think what we saw today was 997. And if you can't work that out, it's the difference in Premiership/top flight games the managers have overseen... Or to put it another way, could you see Fergie pulling off his front three at 2-1 on 78 minutes at Old Trafford against Chelsea/Citeh? It's harsh on Adkins but this is a tough league and Puncheon, in particular, was giving Evra the runaround which in turn was reducing their threat. Still, you have to hope the manager is not daft and will learn quickly. And hopefully the CBs can learn equallly quickly - stand up, don't dive in and concentrate the whole game. Not downhearted just cheesed off.

A Very Busted-flush - not a chance.

DD, don't bank on it. This guy has ambition. If I had told you that Saints would spend £30m in a transfer window (even back when we finished 8th under WGS), you would have called me mental... Even now, I can scarce believe we have bought a £15m footballer...

I hope so, he is one of my football bets of the season: Jay Rod Top Scorer - 100/1. Others if you are interested (You're probably not): Liverpool - relegation - 80/1 Saints - League winners (each way 1/3 1,2,3) - 2500/1 QPR to finish bottom - 16/1

Donadoni is Italian for John Gregory. No thanks!