david in sweden

If there was ever a match for us to raise our game - this is it ! ....and we'll have 20 players trying to get on our team sheet..or even get a place on the bench. Head feeling says even MU res. ought to be be good enough Heart feeling still remembers 1976 We can win ..providing MU don't get too many penalties.

it only gets better.. shall we see another red in 2nd half ?

I guess you're about right. The days when there was much competition for places seems long gone..whatever you think about Beckham..at least HE has a little ambition left.

Cue for the after-match manager comments; Holloway: Of course I hate to lose, but it was only our reserve side, and Saints are far too good for the league they're in . Adkins: A win is good, but it's hard to judge our real quality when playing against Blackpool RESERVES !

Oh well ..that makes it alright then.. I suppose (?). All my sympathies for out-of-luck footballers, sitting on the bench is obviously misplaced!

NIce to hear that Gingertiss. Some postings can be a bit misleading, and I wondered why this one was generated in the beginning..I think NA is top grade!

.yes it is Saints related as he's a former local lad, and a well-respected, star player in our 2000+ Premiership days...even 90K a week (it seems) won't necessarily make you a happy man. Reports say he's on the move again ..to a struggling Villa side, and it seems that he's had a difficult time ever since he left. At Chelsea, he was up against two team-mates ; Ashley Cole battling for a team place and an international spot. then a devastating injury and then John Terry for " previously over-publicised personal problems." - not to mention a manager who didn't like his defenders "attacking style" of play. (Gareth Bale had the same trouble at Spurs with a similar manager - before Harry arrived to give him a proper chance). Now Mancini is likely to get rid of him, too. If Wayne moves ..again, he may hopefully start to get a change of footballng fortune. Good Luck Wayne.

even if true, it's good PR for a manager who wants to calm troubled waters by " hinting" at a new signing. How many clubs (besides Spurs) have hinted they want to ´" borrow " Beckham ? I don't think Seabourne will go anywhere!

..and has ANY player who NEVER made the first team created so much mail on a thread ? Chala maybe (at least Delgado did play a few games before he went to the World Cup 2002)

....and on a day when we sealed a 3-1 win over the Aussies ...IN Australia - it's double celebration!!.

I'd like to think so , especially if he's still here when this contract runs out.

I'm well aware of the Churchillian quote about statistics, but just to set the record straight.. in 2002-3 ----of the 19 home league fixtures -----12 had gates in excess of 31,000 , 3 around 30K and only 4 games with less than 30K. Considering wind, weather and holidays that's about as good as capacity gates every game. There are no easily available stats for cup gamess, but in my 50+ years as a fan, I seem to think that FA Cup games drew lower crowds than the average league games, exceptions being when we drew a top side, or got as far as the 6th round. Some fans seem to ignore Cup games, or regard them as unimportant, which to some extent they are if you are gunning for promotion, too. As for relegation... the dog fights, we had in the late 1990's would surely have had bigger support had we not been limited to 15K at the all seater Dell. If you look at my original post , I posed a question rather than making a statement but clearly players attitude, things that happen on the day have a big influence and you cannot disregard any opposition. If we play badly we don't deserve to win , I just hope we have more luck in today's game than Sunderland did recently. The " stats " for that game showed Sunderland had ...33 shots on goal ...and yet they lost 0-2 ... to Blackpool.

we seem to be in a minority Saint Charlie. Considering that it's a few decades since our club stood in a promotion place - in any league, I'm quite pleased. My fan-ship with Saints goes back to - a 3rd round FA Cup tie against Blackpool ..in January 1959 ! Through all those years of dedicated management from Ted Bates, then the northern enthusiasm of Lawrie Mc Menemy with associated honours and a string of less memorable successors..I find Nigel Adkins' style very refreshing. Pity so many of our fans don't share his own manner of enthusiasm !

Cup games are historically lower -especially against lower league sides, unless we get as far as the 6th round, then they improve. Of course the Pompey fixture was a local derby, too..and we deserved a draw at least, but their Premiership strikers were sharper than our L1 strikers...which explains the extent of the defeat.

probably not but one would think that reserves in the average Prem side ought to be a match for an L1 side, so the question is ..do they have strength in depth or are we better than the average L1 side. Answers: a bit of each ...and they won't be a walkover !

oh ! I thought it was another football manager getting the push without a parachute....

OK ..you're just saying it's a coincidence, then ?

I wasn't meaning they had to dip the pen in our ink in SMS Boardroom, but isn't it traditional for players to at least look at the ground / facilities before agreeing to join?

I know that, but I was referring to SAINTS home games with low attendances.

it's not so long ago that we were inundated with reports of people seeing Prem.stars parking their Ferraris at SMS and similar rumours, but now since NC's quieter approach to buying players (or however ii was that NA described his bargaining style,) NO-ONE has come forth and witnessed these potential new signings visiting SMS or luncjing with the manager.) Does that mean that these future "secret" signings will put pen to paper without even seeing the stadium..or do they come in disguise now ?

-but only for a month !

Forest TRACKING Lambert..they'll need a good GPS, he'd only ever consider a move to a Prem. side - I'm sure !

Don't be deceived Nick G...as someone pointed out we were in diff. leagues for several decades. But in the post war period they were League Champions a couple of times when we were in lower leagues, not to mention that they were a much superior side in the whole of the 1920-39 period..and even won the FA cup in 1939. Still I agree with the sentiment, and records book mean little when they refer to things not in someone's living memory.

of course they do we all say, but looking at some stats. I noted that 3 of our lowest gates have produced three of our worst performances at SMS. 19641 lost to Brentford 0-2 18169 lost to Rochdale 0-2 17857 drew Colchester 0-0 compared with 26289 Bournemouth won 2-0 26237 Brighton drew 0-0 (surely we were worth all 3 pts). 24483 Huddf'd won 4-1 22465 Exeter won 4-0 22177 Peterboro won 4-1 can this really be coincidence, or do the extra 4-5000 make a difference?