david in sweden

I think Dom had an injury after the start of this season after scoring that goal and it took time for him to get back to fitness. Ironically, he came up to our U18 side at age 15, (alongside Morgan and Dibling) and had a fantastic goal scoring record at both U18 and U21 level, and was clearly the best goalscorer of the three youngsters at that time. Morgan left and joined the myriad of young players in his age group at Chelsea and has scarcely been heard of since, but had Ballard not been injured on last season's loan at Reading, I'm sure he would have been in our first team and Dibling would likely be on the bench. Now Dom is getting some experience of " men's football " at Blackpool, but I hope we don't lose him in some future clear-out of young talents. I feel sorry for the likes of Sims and Vokins who had very good Academy careers, but sadly "slipped through the cracks" whilst shadowing our more experienced first team players and ended up getting very little game time after they passed 21, and then had unsatisfactory loan spells.

as we will eventually lose Onuachu, we need to give BBD some game time he will surely score ..sooner or later.

Er.. maybe Liverpool then ? . VvD is 34 (?) ...now and can't last forever.

Er ... there were probably a goal or two from JWP in between those two.

we got 75 mill. for van Dijk.. what price THB? How would such a deal go down with City fans?

OK Ireland were down to 10 men, but they didn't give up without a fight. THB looked calm and relaxed at the back and took his goal chance really well. What start to an England career.

Agreed CB. I'm tired of hearing voices from " the big clubs" who always seemed to consider Saints as " a second class club ". Perhaps we always have been in terms of financing, but then they suddenly went quiet when we started taking points off them. We might be a stronger club - if we paid out 40-50 million for every new signing we made, but that is no guarantee of success either.

There are 9 games until the January "window" opens and clearly unless Onuachu starts to score he will surely move on - "somewhere ". The likes of Wood and Edwards have had just one League Cup game each, and a few minutes with the U21 for fitness sake, one wonders if one or other might be loaned out in order to maintain " match fitness" ?., and not sure that the loans of Cornet and Ugochukwu have been beneficial.? For my part, the real weakness is ín midfield. We have not been the same since Romeu left us, and despite those who disliked JWP, he did give us some MF stability, not to mention a decent supply of free kicks / corners (and the goals of course). Downes and Smallbone won the accolades last season , but neither has shown up this season ( injuries / form issues ) and although 60 minutes of Lallana is often productive, we need an experienced ball-winner and someone to show more creativity to service strikers to a better extent. Maybe a good time to recall Shea Charles who is showing up well with Sheff. Wed and as captain of the N. Ireland side. He is still young, and DAJFU albeit as sub. on many occasions last season. W have more strikers in the club than at any time I can remember, but still no goals and so I wouldn't be against signing one more with a decent goals record. RM seems determined to plough on with the his game plan, but he must learn to "tweak " the formation to allow more opportunities to have shots / score. We cannot continue to dominate with 60 even 70 % possession and only produce a handful of shots in a game.

....don't think I used the word corrupt - did I ?..., but clearly there are some individuals whose name is enough to anger fans and managers alike and clearly back in the day (you will remember) refs. often endured shouts of " you don't know what you are doing " along with those who had their parentage brought into question. Such behaviour does nothing to endear refs. to return to such venues and be continually abused, although some have their " favourite clubs" and one was seen to blush with pride - (famous photo) when Alex Ferguson deemed to smile at him. Some fans in the North of England are (historically) particularly aggressive towards some refs. and vent their anger after wards. I recall the story from the 1960's of the brave ref. who awarded a penalty against the home side - only to find that when he returned to the car park after the game.... there were no wheels on his car ! I believe there are a number of clubs who have openly " banned " various referees because of previously " contentious decisions ". Certainly we rarely had any favours from referee Dean, and one or two of his decisions caused us some embarrassing results in the past. " Favouritism ? " ...difficult to quantify, but I felt distinctly unimpressed whilst watching the Wolves game to see several home players - laughing and joking with the referee - during one of the " injury breaks " . Maybe they drank at the same pub on occasions - who knows? but we certainly got no favours on that day.

Referee Dean wrongly punished Saints on numerous occasions in the past, but now that he has (thankfully) retired, he seems to have relented and has actually defended Saints several times in the recent VAR debates that we have suffered.

He also has 8-10 years on some of the current England defenders, and in time his turn will come. Whether it be with Saints, or elsewhere... time will tell.

we used to be called " a selling club", but you can only sell those players that someone else wants ..Is there a difference ?

Oh you mean..that generation who had stuck to the club through several decades and understood what " the bad times " really were. I remember it well.... and I still despair of the " fair weather " fans who can even find time criticise a good result, let alone a bad one.

Of course (Whitey) we are lacking consistency over 90 minutes (or even 99 mins) and that is because this time around " Russball " isn't working, and clearly RM doesn't have a coherent alternative Plan B. whilst we regularly clock up over 60% possession, most of those stats. are often in our own half, and at a time when we have never had so many available strikers, we are toothless when play enters the final third. My comment about VAR highlights the fact that - in certain games - "we wuz robbed " by VAR, or in certain cases simply ignored by it. The two penalty incidents in the Leicester game were prime examples. One not given ( Onuachu) ..and Fraser's shirt tug on Vardy - which was. Fans, media critics and match officials clearly don't abide by the same criteria in judging " incidents ". I watched Saturday's game on TV here and noted two " fouls " that were ignored by the referee prior to the pass that led to Wolves second goal, whilst Manning's goal was disallowed for a coming together of two players who were not involved in the play. Wolves second goal could easily have been disallowed because the earlier fouls before the goal was scored, and the fact that it looked such a good effort seemed to convince everyone it looked like a " great goal ". On the basis of this- almost every other goal could be "cancelled out " as pushing and shoving and shirt-tugging occurs all the time (especially in goalmouth situations) and often goes unpunished. Clearly we are not upto the required standard for a Prem. side, and it is little consolation that neither Leicester or Ipswich are performing much better, but sum total of these incidents is having a psychological effect on a team suffering from all manner of ongoing problems; recurring injuries, stupid defensive errors and a monumental goal drought. Just now, looking at the fixture list upto the New Year. There seems no light at the end of this tunnel. This is Martin's responsibility, and passing the shi**y end of the stick onto someone else just now ...won't solve the problem any sooner either.

We got scr*wed again. Two fouls on Saints players before Wolves second goal and Manning's effort was ruled out. A collision between Fernandes and Wolves player (maybe) but such things occur with nearly every goal situation. Although we didn't show any real attacking prowess, we might have got one point - even on a bad day. Not sure that I would blame VAR every time, but the referee's judgement ( or lack of it ) has made a huge difference. The blatant pull on Onuachu's ..shirt in the Leicester game was totally ignored by the ref. standing 5 yeards away and not even referred to VAR, whilst a comparatively gentle shirt tug on Vardy.. by the shortest player on the pitch ..ranked a penalty and a red card (!) Where was the double jeopardy ruling ? The fuss over Everton's disallowed goal took almost two minutes to decide, when the first photo clearly showed two Everton players offside, but it took an age to clarify it. Have we fallen into the relegation trap in some eyes. " It's only Saints, they are bottom and never win anything -and so they give the opposition the benefit of the doubt.

worst performance of the season ? No shots on target, and most of the 71% possession was in our own half. Many times we had the bad bounce of the ball, and Wolves were harder in the tackle, yet we got the yellow cards, I wasn't encouraged to see several Wolves players... joking with the referee during injury pauses....and he didn't do us any favours either. The upcoming fixtures are mostly against top 8 sides incl. Liverpool TWICE. Needs a miracle of sorts now, so do we stick or twist with RM ? I wouldn't want to be a new manager taking over a team at the bottom who are already brainwashed into " Russ ball ", and not scoring goals. Don't think we can say that RM has lost the dressing room, but a new guy coming in and trying to change the formation won't have much time to reconstruct everything. Remember Nathan Jones.' chaotic attempts to improve on Ralph's ideas. The real question is : Are there any better quality, unemployed managers hanging around at the Job Centre? Highly unlikley, and if we end up with a former L1 manager trying his luck at the big time, we won't improve.

It mattes not...if the players like Russell Martin, or how we cares, or supports them , because sooner or later we must turn the corner ...or the Board will make that inevitable decision that all managers know is coming if they can't deliver results. Wolves are the next worse team to us in this league to date, and anything short of a win may see the departure of the manager and his coaching staff and in the two weeks before the League fixtures re-start... the whole world of Saints F.C. will change. Assuming that he speaks English(?) .. the new manager will need taxis everyday to find where Staplewood is hidden out in the forest, and start learning the names of players that he may never select in his squads, and further seek to buy in his own " favourite " players in the January window and to rapidly introduce a totally new playing formation that everyone will need to learn PDQ.... in the hope of saving us from the almost inevitable relegation that will follow if we continue losing games. This is not just " a six-pointer ", but the ultimate challenge for the club's future. IF we can't beat Wolves......we will be going " back to square one ", yet again.

agree totally Super SAINT. Very few of these lads are likely to.. " do a Dibling " ..and get into the first team squad at such a young age, but they will gain more experience with loan-outs to lower league sides before they get past theU21 stage. When the time comes to get a loan out, the likes of Woking will be first to ask about our best talents that they played against. Seemingly, our lads put in a good show and equalised by scoring two goals in added time. Woking will be a tad disappointed that the game had to go to penalties before they could beat a team of teenagers. Like the Premier League / Championship comparison, the difference between U21 football (where they play their own age group ) and L1 / L2 sides where they will get a real taste of "men's football" is enormous, and will be invaluable in their future development, regardless of the final score in such games.

to be fair, his first outings with us were nothing to write home about, but the rest of that season's team weren't very special either. His record in Belgium (not a bad league) was impressive to say the least, and although Turkey may not be above Championship level they found a way to get him scoring goals. So what are we doing wrong? The man is around 6'8" and he can be first to head the ball whilst most defenders are jumping to try and get there. I recall that many people laughed at Peter Crouch (at first ...way back then), but the enormous strides he took defied the fact that he only looked slow until he got going, quickly outpaced defenders and did score some important goals. There is no way we will recover the £18 mill. for Onuachu. (The Turks are flat broke and can't afford more than £ 7 mill.) ANSWER : there are around 10 games before the New Year, so give the man some decent game time and see what he is capable of. Let him be the " first striker change" and see what happens. In our present position we have nothing more to lose. IF ..he doesn't score goals, then maybe he is better off somewhere else, but what an asset he could become if we can find a way to give him some support and integrate him into the side. Moving onto another club maybe the easy option, but if he does move and continues scoring with them .......I fear we are doing something radically wrong by missing the opportunity to find out.

....has been playing better than some scorelines might suggest. A clean sheet this time, and one up for him on Pickford. Best performance issues; a clean sheet for the goalkeeper and a goal for a striker...then everyone is happy.

.We play dozens of close passes that foil almost every opposition attack, but as soon as we cross the halfway line, it's down to a one-man attack ( often Dibling ) who is marked by two or three of their " spare" defenders. For all these "wonderful" % possession stats. we are unable to mount a decent attack in the final third. We get few free kicks and even fewer corners (oh Prowsey where art thou ? )... and consequently we are only looking to walk the ball in from 6 yards. Positives from Everton game?. .a clean sheet....(for once Ramsdale came out ahead of Pickford)... and also we got help from the woodwork... and VAR. Let's hope we've turned the corner, because if we can't beat Wolves?....who else is left? . Oh yes, we play Liverpool twice inside a month before Christmas. That would be a challenge for any club.

With Stewart out... ( for goodness knows how long ) .....and no-one else breaking any records, we surely will see yet another striker. We desperately need some more creativity in MF. With Stuart A gone, we never successfully replaced Steven Davis, or JWP. Lallana is good for about 60 minutes, but neither Downes or Smallbone are anywhere near the form they had last season. It's good to see Dibling getting some game time, and he is positive as an attacking force, but is not the tough-tackling creative MF we need. We are well-covered at full back, and although THB and JB put on good individual displays ..I have to ask why we are conceding so many goals ? A lot will depend on WHO is manager come January 1st?. Hopefully we will have turned the corner and RM has made it worked, if not (?)... we will have " a new broom " who will want to change the formation, and bring in HIS favourites , and half the squad will be loaned out elsewhere...

Nonsense . I didn't write that. Clearly neither BBD, or Armstrong have found any sort of form so far but that is typical of a strikers life.. Most strikers (with rare exception) have spells when they don't score and the longer it goes on, the worse they feel and the more criticism from fans. The James Beattie storyline was meant as an extreme example, but others exist. Regardless of the final result, strikers only want to score. As for BBD, on the basis of 3 dubious starts, and a couple of sub. apps he doesn't look the part yet, but he is a proven striker with a goalscoring record, although if he is anywhere near double figures by May I will be pleasantly surprised. Strikers succeed best when they have a formation that favours them. I doubt we will see BBD getting much game time, until "whatever issue that is keeping him on the bench" is sorted. He will play eventually - and likely score , but unless he can quickly adapt to the "Russball" formation, and learn to play another role, he will struggle. Same goes for Unuachu. My mention of Armstrong is on similar lines. Top scorer last season, but without the creativity and service he got then, he won't improve at the higher level. Sad to say our midfield is as poor as it has been for several years past. Smallbone and Downes both DAJFU last season, but neither has shown up so far. We've dropped one MF to bring in Tyler Dibling (not a bad move), but TD has an attacking role and is not a creative midfield player (like Stu Armstrong) and he is already showing the strain of playing at this highest level. At best Adam Lallana is only a 60 minute player, and Aribo lacks consistency. RM has tried both Manning and KWP in some sort of midfield role, but they are not creative players, merely full backs who have a bit of pace. Few people have admitted it, but we do miss JWP, who had good creativity all over the pitch in various roles and goals in him.

Cornet and Ugochukwa are the only senior loans so far this season, but we did win promotion thanks to those 5 loans last season. Brereton-Diaz, and Cornet have lacked any real game and have been played out of position in other formations than they are used to. I won't seek to defend either of them, but am also aware of the " ketchup effect " with strikers, and the classic example was James Beattie who, in starting season 2002-03 failed to score until game 10, .and then went on a crazy spell scoring 23 goals in 27 games finishing just 1 goal behind Thierry Henry (who won the Golden Boot that season) . There are numerous other examples in club history. Of course I don't expect Brereton-Diaz to score lots of goals, (or Cornet for that matter), but at least Archer has settled in a bit quicker. Adam Armstrong has had a nightmare start for a player who scored so many last season. Strikers are very dependent on their suppliers and if their midfield / full back support isn't there they are down to taking snap chances, Who could deny that Onuachu wouldn't score IF.. he had a good wing supply of crosses from the wings....IF ..we had proper wingers.?. The adjustment to Prem. standard football has been difficult for all 3 promoted sides, and with a bit more luck, VAR calls and decent refereeing we might have had a few more points on the board. Our greatest achievement this season will be to survive, and short of spending another 50- 60 million in January, we are unlikely to get any real " game-changers " on board this time around. We have seldom had such a big squad to call upon, and so we can hope that in the remaining 29? games, some of them find form that will help move us up the table ASAP.