david in sweden

CAREFUL , Old Nick, Bacck aaat the New Year, when I suggested that we needed to strengthen the squad there were widespread insults from many who said; we were good enough, don't bring in new faces and upset the prima-donnas, don't waste money on sub standard players, we've already got the best team in the league...etc Well, now we've suddenly got a lot of injuries and the prospect of a couple of players on the verge of a 5 card suspension and the same people are panicking...why doesn't NA ..do so-and-so... The truth is, a lot of people can't see beyond the next match and judge the team's perfromance on the last one. Hopefully we won't have any more injuries and the walking wounded will recover soon. ME ..I still want another striker! ..(not that I disatisfied with Lambert & Co,) but we still have a dozen or so games to go and we need to win at least 9 of them to be certain of CCC football next year, and we need goals in every game to be sure.

Of course you're only projecting this on the assumption that they are still in business..!

I was expecting this thread to turn up, but in retrospect I asked myself..what is the reasoning behind glorifying a player who clearly doesn't want to be with us and who (last night ) scored a meaningless goal when his team was already 0-3 down? I know he had one good game (Millwall) and scored a hat-trick, but after many decades of supporting (Saints) I came to the ultimate conclusion that the most important goals .. are those that win you points. Looking back at previous (big) goalscorers one can see that many times goals scored were merely for the record books and didn't affect the eventual result a tad. Nice goal maybe, but I'm sure Punch will settle for one club or another next season, but it won't be us.

to be precise we have lost 5 league games under NA, and had 4 goal-less draws, (3 of which were home games, so you can make your own judgment on those performances). of the aforementioned " goalless games " ..One was 0-1 v. Plymouth(H), and later a run of 4 goal-less games after Pardew was sacked - but before Adkins was appointed. Can't really blame him for all of those games - can we? **At present we are the fourth highest goalscorers in L1 and have the second best GD.

Agreed B'Mouth have kept their place, but most of their opposition has been lower teams in the league. They scraped two wins v. Swindon and two v. Plymouth (which will be 6 points expunged from their record- if Plymouth can't play out the season.) They are good at home, but only got a single goal win over Brighton and a draw v. Huddf'd...apart from that they haven't showed any real class in games against poor opposition. Saturday will really be the battle of the South Coast because the side that wins will have one foot in CCC for next season.

Surely the reason for promotion is the best team gets to go up, not just the highest goalscorers. A couple of bad results in a season could sink a team right off, even if they do win most games they still might not go up. If that were the case that "goals scored " was the decider, then Peterborough would go up straight away, despite having one of the worse defensive records for goals conceded in League 1. Clubs who produce the " best overall performance " (i.e. scoring goals and keeping a tight defence) are surely the most suitable to go up. I don't know if Peterboro can tighten their defence (unless Ferguson junior gets a season long loan of 3 MU defenders from Dad) because they are unlikely to keep Machail - Smith after the summer and another defensive disaster like this seasons will see them back down again to L1 ..together with their 7,000 gate every home game. Goal difference does play a part - if two teams are equal on points won - and then GD is the deciding factor. That is surely just.

the play-off idea is really a extension of the " 6 pointer games ", when one win moves you up and the loser is gone. Swedish football uses a method with the bottom TWO going down and the third place (from bottom team) in play-off against the third placed team from CCC. (the top two being automatically promoted). In the English leagues you can see that the 3rd-6th teams are continually overtaking each other /or falling back according to results and there is often little to choose between them, so IMHO a "sudden-death" type match is a good answer. It only causes concern to some when the 6th team is 8-10 points behind the 3rd, but you often see that the these teams are very close on points /GD. Of course there is money to be made in every game, but actually seeing how good you are against other promotion candidates is more satisfying to fans, not least those who get to a Wembley play-off game. Of course I'd be disappointed if we finish 3rd and still don't get promoted, but the top six this season have already created a gap above 7th place and must be the best in L1. It's good that they get to play each other " one more time ".

people often say that finishing 6th and maybe 10 points behind the third team is unfair. However, teams that may have a good late run and get 6th place in the last few games are on form, whilst a team that was in the top two most of the season loses form and drops to 5th.. so who is most likely to go up?.... Any team finishing in the top six has had a pretty good season, and the top two will go up anyway, so teams 3 to 6 are fairly evenly matched and have played good / bad games during the season. It seems unfair to the losers, but like a cup final, there is a winner / loser and no-one complains when David beats Goliath, I think it's a good way to settle things. I can't agree about us losing the play-offs . We were better than Derby in the home tie, but conceded two soft goals, and our performance at Pride Park was superb..just our hard luck we didn't have any penalty takers to finish the job. As it was we should have won over two legs. Derby went up and were the worst team ever to get promoted to the Prem. with the worst record ever. I think we'd have survived and they didn't.

You REALLY didn't expect him to get 30+ goals again - or did you? Even Ron Davies only got more than 30 in one season..after that everyone caught onto him and the same is true of Lambert. PLUS Lallana was on great form last season, both as a scorer and a provider. He's been out for extended periods twice this season already (11 games in all), and although he scored v. Swindon, he didn't look a patch on his former former self. No-one is a one man band, and Ricky is already on line to reach 20 goals, our problem is that he doesn't have a consistant partner.

Mmm, I looked at that result. Skacel scored after 12 mins...and was subsequently subbed. then Rangers scored twice in the last 10 mins, and won 2-1. He may have been what you said, but at least he scored one more than the rest of his side.

Uh ..two short sub.appearances, and now he's injured. Do you think that's enough to make a decision like that ?

Agreed. For some people nothing less than a debut hat-trick is good enough! .....otherwise they are called sh*t and written off.

IF ..he were to go to Barcelona..his price would be more ...than a paltry £10 million !

Les Reed ? ..Er... wasn't that ...LOU REED ?

I think he was there as " window dressing" to encourage the Saints fans and frighten the opposition. As it was we didn't expect (or did we deserve to be) .. 0-1 down with fifteen minutes to go, and it was a desperate measure.

well it is a bit more than the " odd goal " Barry, he's in the top pack this season, but last year Lallana was on fire and prompted lots of attacks and picked up some goals. We've been without him for two extended periods this season, and the results show it. I know he scored on Saturday, but he looked short of match practice, and a long way from his good form of last season. Whilst everyone is expecting AOC to be our saviour, he is a long way from becoming a 46 match player, and reading between the lines, also carrying an injury (acc. to NA). We are too dependant on AL to inspire the team, and Lambert's "low" goal tally is merely another example of that. I'm not saying " I told you so " NOW.. because I said it two months ago during the transfer window (and was heartily criticised by many), but now we have a longer list of key injuries, and one or two out of form and it shows, and their is no adequate cover on the bench as too much of it is on the treatment table.

...but not so with Charlton, though Alpine. Normally it does take time to adjust to the new boss ..Newcastle fans are still a bit unsure, I think.

....was a much-quoted phrase some years ago when his delay in signing from Hearts was the headline for many a humourous link. He eventually signed for Saints under manager George Burley, but when Burley left for his short-lived reign as Scottish manager, Rudi disappeared from the Saints bench along with other former names, and headed back north. Scotland, it seems, still had a soft spot for Rudi and ..surprise, surprise..he returned to ....Hearts. A quick look at the current SPL table shows that Hearts are having a go at breaking the monopoly of the " Old Firm's " dominance north of the border, and are a healthy third place in the table, and their leading league scorer is ..Rudi Skacel. His time with Saints was controversial. Some saying he was total rubbish, and those defending him, claiming he was talented but continually played out of position..(not the first time we 've heard that one). However, old soldiers never die (not in Scotland at least) they merely return to their former clubs. I don't think many would want Rudi back, but one or two others seem to have made new careers elsewhere and continue to embarrass us ..like Brett Ormerod at Blackpool, and the latest being Ollie Lancashire playing in the Walsall defence. Who would you like back ..given the chance?

I'm just glad that too many people didn't harp on the fact that the Walsall defence included one...Oliver Lancashire !

your original post was 1st feb...what does the table look like today ?

I think thats the point...to toughen him up. Playing ..pardon me ..youth football isn't the same as L2 ....or even Conference. It's what football is about in the lower leagues. shi**y ground, read ditto for dressing rooms and pitch quality. That's where you learn. Playing at SMS (which he hasn't done much yet) is almost the same as Premier League (except for the opposition) and it's a lucky few who come on at the right time and move into a good team who are doing well. If he can cope with that, he'll learn a lot.

I'd be inclined to go with that... Alan Ball Steve Williams Jimmy Case David Armstrong but would also include Chris Marsden

Exactly my thoughts on #71

about right Alpine, but a lot of people are forgetting that Danny was an out-and-out winger, and didn't score so often whereas Rod was more of a striker - as his record shows, but we are not really comparing like with like. I still rate Danny as the better Saint.