david in sweden

Aha...when there is such a logical explanation ..why is everyone so upset ?

Total waste of time - these "awards". Wait till the end of the season, when they've continually ignored Saints / NA.... and Gus Poyet will get the award for the brave fight to prevent Brighton being relegated to L1..... whilst Saints win promotion to Premiership !! They know what they can do with their award.

Same tradition in Sweden (where everyone HATES Hallowe'en - except small kids)...where there's no bank Holiday, but it coincides with schools' half-term.

...or those fans living in another country... Can anyone recall some of the names who were on the list ?. .be nice to know.

I'm sure that I've seen him mentioned on another site somewhere (European)? ..apparantly he's a real star in Aarhus' junior side.

OK... someone's going to tell me that this has to be Saints-related...and so I have TWO points to make.. Firstly, being in the generation that (painfully) recalls our disasterous visit to Elland Road in March 1972 (lost 0-7) there still aren't enough plasters to heal the wound, not to mention that - at that time - I worked for a company with a head office in Leeds. Leeds were the team everyone loved to hate. Secondly..after Leeds reserve keeper ..Rabchucka ? ..let in three soft goals before HT, and Simon Grayson put on his Academy keeper in the second half (he only let in TWO). However, it seems that Grayson is now on the hunt for another keeper ...my suggestion is ..Tommy Fourpast (sorry) Forecast , maybe ???? Well it's only a thought.

'' the fact is that however much we like the Lambert's and the Lallana's...Guly is not English , nor does he play the " English way" , what we do see is a variety and turns, flicks from someone who is totally unpredicatble in front of goal. He just doesn't do things as one might expect the average player to do. His two headers in the Midd'boro game show his insight and just how to take an opportunity, and he makes " finishing" look so easy! The fact that he made assists for the 2 goals v. P'boro goes to show that he is not a " prima donna " and that he has definitely become a team player. Nigel does well to "take care of him " and we see that he has been subbed in at least 75% of his starts, which IMO is a great move (esp. as he is around 30 already) and it helps him retain fitness as not everyone has run 95 mins. and be a Chaplow, or a Lallana. I think we haven't the best of Guly by a long chalk and playing him at the top might prove to be the master-stroke in what is already a great start to the season - he may well end up as our top scorer, he'll certainly be high on the list of "assists" ..all of which will take the pressure off Ricky Lambert , who seems to revel in his versatile, roving role ala MLT.

This was the first (#1 post) on this thread..... Er ..would you care to re-phrase that Dibden, or ?

....what did I say ..what do you expect from DF?.....like father, like son .

0-2 at HT only 10 men left ..ouch ! can't you hear Darren Ferguson complaining already ...(just like his old man .....)

Saints 2-0 Guly 2 assists !!

If we follow that logic i.e. (accidentally hammered), then a lot of teams have had an accident in the last year when they came to SMS. Accident? ....Coincidence ?.... Bad day at the office? Their otherwise " brilliant side " had an off-day... and Saints were lucky ". well there is luck in every match, but let's face it...we were too good for them on the day...and they aren't as " brill" as they think ! ....which is why we are where we are in the League, and everyone else ..is below us !

Any player can get injured at any time. It's all down to how quickly they recover and whether they " stay fit " afterwards. The longer your career goes on, the greater the chances of a long recovery time. Alan Shearer was quoted as saying there is a world of difference between being " fit enough to play " and being properly " match-fit ". Players (however talented) who get injured often and are slow to recover each time get tainted with that phrase. Darren Anderton (Sicknote) was a prime example at Spu*s, and the older they get.... the longer recovery can take. David Connolly an example. Would anyone use the phrase " injury prone " about Lee Barnard whose played 20 mins. of competitive football in the last 6 months? Some injuries by their very nature take longer. ankle and knee / ligaments especially, but that's not the same as being injury-prone, and as Nigel Adkins would surely admit (with his physio experience) that the correct treatment is most important. If Sharp has had injuries in the past ...so be it, but if NA is still keen on getting him, he'll want to know that his (Sharp's) " mindset " is just important as his physical condition.

Many people just aren't used to a positive attitude coming from a football manager in such terms, and some of our own fans can't accept it . even Wenger, Dalglish and Ferguson don't talk that way and Adkins has been using the same vocabulary since he took over when we were in the bottom four of L1. Now we have made such a good start in CCC. Those same people think it's all bull*hit and he doesn't really mean it . Here is a man who has played the game himself, managed at non-League level, worked as a physiotherapist - then assistant and eventually manager of a no-hope club with no funds to speak of .....and still won promotion and kept them at CCC level. What better qualifications could anyone have to move on? In the true traditions of Lawrie McMenemy's " man-management " principles. He is now a physiotherapist turned psychologist with great success. and isn't afraid to hold a player back who is unfit, instead of forcing them to play on an injury, and maybe become worse! Can't believe he STILL gets so much criticism. Whatever it is he's on..there are still some of our fan base who could use the same remedy !

TNX, no big deal but it seemed only common sense to me. he must be the tallest / one of the tallest front men we have...and he can score goals. If we use Ricky as a CF /target man he'll get marked out of the game. His roving role creates far more problems than if he played at the top. Guly CAN score goals, and is so inspirational / unpredictable that even his best moves are sometimes lost on others who are expecting " standard " patterns of play. With him (Guly), Lallana and Connolly we have skill in abundance and hopefully much more to come. I'd also include Schneiderlin with that trio - just a shame he doesn't score more often, because he has a great first touch and lots of vision.

be calm! sit down in a darkened room and think about all the goals we've scored so far this season and if that doesn't work...drink a cup of hot milk and go to bed earlier. if all else fails you'll have to join Pom*ey Supporters Club ( YES... I know it's desperate remedy) ..and if the worse happens, you won't feel so bad as ONE of your sides will have won.

Absolutely, and they obviously watch the opposition a great deal and do a SWOT analysis depending on the other teams game plan, and pick a side to combat it. .....and he has a Plan B ...and likely a Plan C, too . What a manager !

..yes believe it or not, this is about a Saints player... after all the furore in the summer about " million pound transfers " and his wanting away, he can't even make the bench at QPR on a regular basis. Don't tell me he's going to end up like another Anthony Pulis....permanently on loan and eventually UNSALEABLE !

well, there a nice piece on page 71 of In that Number, including a pic.of Kirby's second goal (which they say was from 10 yards)...where were you standing that night ? ...and in fact. Middlesboro weren't SUCH a bad side that season. They finished 4th, whilst we had ended up mid table.(11th) the highest position all season. Though not that bad, when you consider we were bottom after the first 10 games, though things did look up after we signed Kirby, Burnside and Stuart Williams. Still you're right about the lack of film in those days. I'd love to have some film on FA Cup 6 th round, 2nd replay when we slaughtered Forest (then a first div.side ) 5-0 at White Hart Lane.

perhaps...compared with what they are used to ...it was ?

I actually saw that game. It looked deadlocked at HT 0-0, and then George Kirby scored a hat-trick in 4 minutes - still a Saints record. I think -

Brighton ? ...Brighton ? ..whatever happened to them ...?

Those of us with longer memories will recall how Lawrie Mac and indeed Brian Clough took a squad of / fairly good / slightly better than average / developing players and galvanised them into a tight, well-organised unit that plays well above themselves and everyone else's expectations and were, at times, almost unplayable. Well ....looks like Nigel is on the same road. Davis has become a REALLY good custodian, Adam Lallana is so good as never before - (and would surely be in an England squad were we in the Prem. already). After years of seeing Ricky Lambert scoring regularly in the lower divisions, he suddenly looks like a MLT clone, and plays all over the pitch and is also a quality dead ball specialist. Few people thought to see much from the " veteran " David Connolly - even if he got fit, but when he's in possession seems to have all the time in the world - and almost makes the opposition look like " slow-motion mime artists ". Chaplow must be the signing of the decade...£50K is less than an Academy salary...I hope he punishes Ferguson on Tuesday for being such an ar*e and letting him go from Preston. Our gain Darren, our gain. Guly, (whoever was responsible for his signing..Cortese?).. seems to be in his second childhood, and given a run-out at CF might well pass Ricky's goals tally during the season. Getting picked for the start eleven must be a real lift, but what about the excitement of sitting on the bench - waiting to get involved...! No wonder we get " impact performances " from the subs. They must be more wound up than those out on the pitch. GREAT FOOTBALL long may it continue.

you mean you skip page 3 ..and go direct to the horoscopes and the sport page ?

...suppose I must be in the queue , too I was closer to the mark with my contribition on #13 Good call Nigel, hard luck Guly, we're going to slim down the goalposts for the next home game