M271

Having supported Saints for over 40 years I rarely have confidence in them due to too many let downs and mental scars. The most recent being Saturday in the 94th minute, I just knew the equiliser was coming however late it was in the game. However twice this season I allowed myself to be confident these were just before Bristol City away and the run of potential easier pre-christmas games and again after the recent Hull away and a 9 point gap to West Ham. I should have known better !! Am I nervous ?, of course I am, however tonight we could be either 7 points ahead of West Ham or 1 point ahead, a huge difference to our promotion prospects.

How ever long he is out for (at least for Monday according to Adkins ) will we need to re-think the subs bench not having a goal keeper, wasn't Spiderman supposed to be our on field sub goaly ? with him not playing will Bart be on the bench or will Adkins risk it ?

I listened to Adkins on Solent and I didn't hear him say that he would be out for the session I remember words like this - that it was a bad challenge and has a stud mark on his knee, it wasn't looking good and the knee had swollen up but they'll assess it later, he will definately not play on Monday v Palace.

We shall fight by taking one game at a time, we shall fight by controlling the controllables, we shall fight by drawing a blue line under and taking 4 positives a 1 negative from the Blackpool game, we shall fight by having a superb squad of players who work hard in training and for each other, we shall never surrender but if we do we'll learn the lessons and review the video tomorrow. Adkins circa 2012.

I wondered if he really meant bobbly rather then boggy, but got his worms mixed up.

That was more by luck than judgement. My original statement was more about his obvious lack of goal keeping skill rather than the result on the day, and hoping that we now have an outfield player with some goal keeping aptitude.

I hope that he is better than Blackstock was at Newcastle !!!

We've had a number of matches without a sub Goal Keeper, do we have a reasonable out field player back up Goaly which gives Adkins some confidence in this decision ? Hope this doesn't catch us out at some point.

Not too high when we win, not too low when we lose.

Careful I thought that just before the Bristol City away game and an 'easier' December.

COYS you can do this, 20oC at 2.30 in the morning here in Pune India.

20oC and dry here in Pune India, 2.50 in the morning.

Our bad run started against Bristol City hopefully it finishes against them, I had a horrible turning point of the season feeling when Chaplow went off after a few minutes against Bristol last month. Maybe we'll be better for having the wobble now before the transfer window so that strenghtening can be made. I must admit in early November I didn't want new signings to risk upsetting the team spirit but now I think at least a new striker is required. But what a great 2011 I doubt as Saints fans that we will ever see such a good set of results in a calender year again, we need to make sure that we do it over a Season not 2 half seasons.

Last 2 away matches seem to have followed a similar pattern, pretty even first half with OK play from Saints without threatening much, but second half after some tinkering Saints have been second best with hardly a threat in the final 3rd (even with Lambert against Brizzle). May be Adkins shouldn't change things too soon, I know that he wants to win every game (don't we all) but may be he needs to be a bit more patient while things are even before changing things. Still a great start to the season and "not to high when we win or too low when we lose".

Very biased, result fitted with them bigging up the improvement under McInnis. Only showed Bristol good moments, no Saints play moments.

Pity Cardiff didn't draw, a part than that not a bad set of results for us from the chasing teams. Now need Derby to do us a favour. Couldn't get to the match today but it sounded like one of those days when we created very little and couldn't pass the ball to each other or get it to our forwards in threatening positions, a bit like the Reading game but without the last 15 minute push, if De Ridder had got the predicted goal on 73 minutes rather than skying it it could have been so different.

Is buying on the day up there an option ?

From an economics view point the decision to expand the stadium is fraught with risk. If as previous poster stated that it would cost at least £3000 (old figures) per additional seat even if the seat was 100% used by a £500 season ticket, or equivalent pay per game, it would take take 6 years just to cover the cost of the additional seat, this is without even considering the extra other overheads such as stewarding. Would my beloved Saints sell out games for at least 6 years I'd like to think so but it's a hell of an investment for an uncertain payback.

I see this as a big dilema in the January window, as it currently stands we are 5 points ahead of second so our squad can't be too bad, so would additions to the squad increase our ability to get better results or disrupt our togetherness and team ethic coupled with new players needing time to settle in. Any good player we sign (better than we have at the moment) should be good enough for the Premier League and would expect to play from the start of matches in the Championship, so who would we drop ?. On balance the only signings that I would make would be to sign Hooiveld permanently, and a striker to partner Lambert (although the way the Gully has played recently I would also hesitate to change that).

I thought that he looked very useful today (for the amount of chances that we gave him), that coupled with his connections with Southampton may make him a useful addition to the Squad. But that is the problem he would be an addition to the squad ahead of who ? I see this as a big dilema in the January window, as it currently stands we are 5 points ahead of second so our squad can't be too bad, so would additions to the squad increase our ability to get better results or disrupt our togetherness and team ethic coupled with new players needing time to settle in. Any good player we sign (better than we have at the moment) should be good enough for the Premier League and would expect to play from the start of matches in the Championship, so who would we drop ?. On balance the only signings that I would make would be to sign Hooiveld permanently, and a striker to partner Lambert (although the way the Gully has played recently I would hesitate to change that).

Barnsley finished in 17th on 56 points so only 23 points from 31 games needed !!!!!!

I agree that the lack of a proper Reserve League is ONE of the reasons why Managers use the Carling Cup to try out fringe players. If these players were regularly playing competitive football their performance would be already known and give the players (fringe, injury returns and youngsters) more chance to get more fully match fit. However other reasons include: 1) Only 5 on the subs bench restricting Managers options and experience for players during games, for example with a 7 man subs bench youngsters could be brought on if a game has been won i.e. 4 - 0 Watford and more players coming back from injury could be on the bench and brought if required. 2) Cramming so many matches in a short space of time and then having an International break which means that clubs don't play for 2 weeks, maybe International breaks should only be for the Premier League where they play less League matches anyway. Although I may not think this if we lose 3 or 4 first teamers to U18, U21 or other Internationals i.e. Lallana, Schneiderlin, Guly (Brasil !!), Fonte (Portugal !!)

According to NA in his post match interview some fringe players didn't seize their chance (Butterfield, Forte ?) but the youngsters stepped up to the task. He talked about the January transfer window more then before, if we can stay near the top of the league I can see us attracting good players and NC releasing sufficient funds to make the push for the Premier League.

Its never nice to lose even if it means we 'can concentrate on the league' Starting line up made sense because of injuries, suspension and resting players who had played 3 games in a week. The mistake was not bringing on Lambert, Barny and Guly after 60 to 65 minutes while it was still 0-0, waiting until after 70 minutes is just a waste of talent.

I would have thought that he will start in the cup at Palace.