SaintJackoInHurworth

I was going to suggest something along these lines.

I was in the Saints shop today and they said they have not heard anything about a new shirt yet and they normally hear 3 or 4 weeks before it is released so I wouldn't hold your breath over this one people!!

I think there are some pretty ridiculous comments from some on this thread. I agree that whether or not we go up it is important that we strengthen - if we go up then we need to strengthen in order to compete in the Premier League, just as when we were promoted last year we strengthened to be able to compete in The Championship. If we somehow fail to go up, then we need to strengthen to make sure we don't make the same mistakes last time! However, to make wholesale changes would be foolish. We must maintain our team identity, so any changes need to be gradual and targetted. I would suggest that there are areas we need to strengthen and there are areas that are strong enough to hold their own in the Prem. Personally, I think our biggest problem weaknesses remain as: 1. Disciplined defending 2. Converting possession into clear-cut chances. For this reason, I would say we need to strengthen at right full back, centre back and right midfield: Left back: Fraser Richardson could yet be a revelation in the Prem, but Butterfield may not cut the mustard - certainly if he performs anything like he did on saturday against Boro. A quality left back would be a good investment. Centre back: Secondly, I hate to say this, but I think Fonte may struggle in the Prem. He struggled on Saturday and was done for pace when he conceded the free-kick that led to their goal. He has been great for us the past couple of seasons and would not want to see him leave as he would be great defensive cover in the event of an injury, but I just think being a regular in the Prem may be a step too far for him. Right Midfield: This has been a concern for a few years and I still don't think we have got it right. Chaplow did well on Saturday before getting injured, but he is more suitable when we need a player who will work hard for the team and pressure the opposition high up the field. He is not a right winger who can take players on, get to the byline and knock in a great cross or score a wonder goal from a wide position and I think we need a player of that sort. Unfortunately, the last one of those we had has had a great season in the Prem playing for Swansea. De Ridder looked like he was going to be that player, but it hasn't worked out. Puncheon has never had the consistency and is too lazy. Personally, I would go for Junior Hoilet, if we can afford him and if he would come to Saints. Realistically though I suspect he will get a move to a team already established in the higher reaches of the Prem. Pederson is also a good suggestion and would be quite an ironic signing as it was his brilliance against Blackburn in 2005 that did for us in the relegation season and destroyed our confidence. However, I actually think he is a bit too old to be signing - he is 31.

Sorry - I don't think I do - not by name anyway. I don't know a huge number of people in the village and it's quite a large village. Most of the people I know either live on the same street or have kids in the primary school and/or nursery that my daughters attend. Is he a Saints fan? If so, tell him to join Northern Saints (http://www.northernsaints.co.uk). They get block booking of tickets through the club and we all meet up before games, etc. It's well worth it for getting to know fellow Saints fans and it can save a bit of money in terms of booking fees, etc. which are divided between all who book tickets. Sometimes theer is a small subscription fee for the season, though they didn't charge anything this season as there was plenty of money in the pot! There are a couple of us in Darlington!

I have been looking forward to this match all season as I do a lot of work in Middlesbrough and have a lot of Boro supporting friends. A few weeks ago I realised that it could potentially be the match in which we are promoted. Unbelievably, that still looks a huge possibility!! Also, I am taking my daughter along and it will be her first ever 'proper' game (she's been previously to a pre-season friendly). I am absolutely buzzing about being at this match!!!!! :) :) :) Incidentally, with Reading already promoted and with them facing Brum in their last match, we could still go on to be champions if we win our last two!!! COYR!!!

A goal from Doncaster with none from M'bro would be great too!!

Apologies if this has been highlighted before, but with such a lot of poor results yesterday, it has really felt like everything and everyone is against us. I think this is an appropriate moment to highlight the lyrics of a song on Coldplay's current album. The song is 'Us Against the World' and it has the classic line 'I just wanna be there when the lightning strikes and the saints go marching in'. - 'The Saints Go Marching in...' bit is just after the 1 minute point, but about 10 seconds after it there is some weird TV advert flash thing on the screen which wrecks it, so you may prefer this other version: - This has a longer intro, so the 'Saints Go Marching In..' bit is at about 1min 50. Enjoy!! PS For those that are getting a little over-stressed by the whole run-in and declaring gloom and doom, etc., the message of the song is also a good one: 'Slow it down!!!'. We all need to just catch our breath, chill a bit and just wait and see what happens! COYR!!

A more current reflection of form is form over the last 6, which you can find here: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/CurrentForm/0,,10280~20117,00.html In terms of teams ending up on level points, etc., these would be an interesting (if rather unlikely!!) set of results: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td][/td] [td][/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]P'boro(a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Bristol City(a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Forest(h)[/td] [td]Lose 1-2[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]M'bro(a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Leicester (a)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Palace(h)[/td] [td]Win 3-0[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry(h)[/td] [td]Lose 0-2[/td] [td][/td] [td]Hull (h)[/td] [td]Win 1-0[/td] [td][/td] [td]Brum(a)[/td] [td]Lose 1-2[/td] [/tr] [/table] This would result in the following table: [table] [tr] [td]Team[/td] [td]F[/td] [td]A[/td] [td]Pts[/td] [td]GD[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td]79[/td] [td]45[/td] [td]88[/td] [td]34[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]WHam[/td] [td]79[/td] [td]45[/td] [td]88[/td] [td]34[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td]71[/td] [td]41[/td] [td]88[/td] [td]30[/td] [/tr] [/table] As you can see, Saints would be crowned champions by virtue of results against W.Ham. WHam would come second and Reading would finish third on goal difference! The likelihood of Reading also having the same points, GD and GS as Saints and Reading is so remote I won't bother showing what that would look like, though it would result in Reading coming first and Saints second.

Well, a few things are turning better - Brum have equalised and Cardiff gone ahead. Not so sure about Coventry's equaliser though.

Quite aside from the disaster of Brighton's failure to cope with a team that have not been able to win at home since January, a lot of the other scores are also not going too well on your assessment. To these I would add: Leeds v Peterboro match - we don't wish them to get confidence from winning. Glad with that in mind to see that Leeds equalised just before half time and have now gone 3-1 up. This could be an important scoreline for us! Barnsley v Cardiff - Cardiff winning could be in our favour if it knocks the stuffing out of Middlesbrough's promotion campaign. Forest v Blackpool - as for Cardiff above and if Blackpool win could put pressure on Brum. Oh well... things can only get better - and the Leeds comeback is good - would be even better if Brighton could do the same!!!!

I got bored of reading this thread before geting to the bottom of page 1. The fact is, we are still 6 points ahead of West Ham and they have not won at home since January and are playing a team who are looking to get into the play-offs. The chances are therefore that WHam v Baha will end in a draw or a win for Baha. If Baha win then we only need one more win. I still believe we could still win the Championship title though! OK, we would have to win all three of our games, but I think that is more than possible - Posh have little to play for and are more than beatable, while Boro could well find their season is over by next Saturday - especially if they lose away against Derby today. We should be capable of beating Coventry. If we were to win all three games then Reading would need to win two and draw or win the other. You would expect them to win their next two games against Forest and Palace, but their last game away against Brum could end in defeat. OK - it's fairly unlikley, but stranger things have happened! If we don't win the title (and to be honest I think it unlikely!) we can be justly proud of the team's achievements this season. Who knows, we could even see a repeat of this season with the team that came second having achieved back-to-back promotions ending comfortably placed in the Premiership while the blue-and-white-hooped Championship winners have struggled against relegation!

I think Rocha was very fortunate not to have already had a yellow card from earlier in the match. If you watch the Football League show on iplayer you will see that early in the match (5 mins 22 into the programme) he fouled Lallana by leading with his elbow. Moments later he then kicked out and fouled Sharp (5 mins 31). Finally from 7mins 33 onwards you can see the incidents mentioned - he kicks the ball into a fan and then hits Lallana in the face. IMO he should have been off and that could have made a significant difference to the match. Also, I think Allan should have been booked for his deliberate kick on Fonte (7 min 20). He tried to make it look like it was an accident but it was clearly deliberate.

Errr... I take it you have never heard of the song 'Oh When The Saints Go Marching In!'??? OK, other teams sometimes use that, but not with the same gusto as Saints. There is no question that it is 'our' song!! The song you have suggested seems absolutely impossible to sing as well so I really don't know how anyone would pick that one up! If you want another song than OWTSGMI, there are also the following: * The Saints Are Coming * Us Against The World - Coldplay (with the classic line 'As the Saints Go Marching In')

I agree with your sentiment, although your maths are a little wrong! If we win 3 of our last matches then that would leave West Ham needing to get at least 13 points (not 15 as you suggest!): 9 points gained from the 3 wins PLUS the 4 points difference that is currently between us and them. In other words they would have to win 4 of their remaining 5 games and get at least a draw in the other to equal our points tally. They would also need to improve their goal difference by 10 at least. So your suggestion that they must win all five is not far off... IF we can win three games (or win two and draw three others). Another way of looking at it is to consider West Ham's results first and then see what we need to get to be promoted.... West Ham's home form has been atrocious. If they continue with this then let's assume they draw both their next two games. Let's also assume they win both of their away games. Finally, let's assume they pull out all the stops and finally get a home win against Hull in the last match. In this scenario, West Hame would achieve 11 points. However, since we have a four point lead over them at present, this would leave us needing just 7 points from our remaining games to equal their points tally. Goal difference should be good enough to then see us past them! SO... wins against Palace and Coventry and a draw in of the other games could in fact be sufficient to get promoted. In actual fact though, my predictions for the remaining games are a bit better than that. I posted a predictions table a couple of weeks ago, which has been reasonably accurate so far. Here is an update to that based on how I now think those matches will pan out. The table shows cumulative points after each match. At the top I have also indicated their current points score: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]79[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]79[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]75[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]82[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]80[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]76[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]83[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Saints[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]77[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]N.Forest[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Bristol City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]80[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Middlesbro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]87[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leicester City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]83[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Hull City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]86[/td] [/tr] [/table] These results would place Saints top level with Reading on 88 points. West Ham would finish 3rd with 86 points. If we lose to Reading then they would finish top on 90 points, we would be second on 87 and West Ham third on 86 points (but that is based on them doing pretty well in their last 5 games relative to their form so far this season).

Why is it odd? It's team of the WEEK not team of the weekend. Leeds may have won this weekend but over the course of the week they also got thrashed by Forest letting in seven goals in the process! As for Reading, while they may have got back to winning ways at the weekend, they suffered their first defeat for ages during the week. Surely a stat for the week should be an average of all performances during the week, not just a selective statistic that chooses a player's best performance in a week! OK - I suppose there were not many teams that didn't lose at least one of their matches last week, so maybe that explains the inclusion of Pearce, but surely it only goes to back up my final point - why were there not more Saints players in the team of the week considering we won both our matches?! In fact, we evidently had a brilliant defensive display against Hull and kept a clean sheet in both matches, with Jos Hooiveld getting a goal too so I would have thought there would be a good case for putting him in that team.

I can't see this posted anywhere else, but I was looking at the link on the OS to the NPower Championship Team of the week. It's great to see Billy Sharp on there, but doesn't most of the rest of the team look a bit odd to you??! Alex Pearce is in the team even though Reading lost 3-1 to Peterborough and a lot of those players are with teams down near the bottom. Most bizarre of all though is the inclusion of Leeds Goalie Andy Lonergan despite letting in seven goals against Forest!! I can't understand why there aren't actually more Saints players in that team. After all, unlike most other teams we won both our matches in the week!

@adlallana1: Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today. Somehow lost a fiver out of car window by The Quays earlier. #freakgustofwind

I have posted this elsewhere (on the reaction to the Hull game thread) but thought it worth posting it here. The table shows my predictions for the three top teams in their final fixtures and their cumulative points after each match. At the top I have also indicated their current points score: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]75[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]70[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]68[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Doncaster[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]73[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Burnley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]69[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]70[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]74[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]71[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Pompey[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leeds[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Barnsley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]74[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]82[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]83[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Saints[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]80[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]N.Forest[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Bristol City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]83[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Middlesbro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leicester City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Hull City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]87[/td] [/tr] [/table] I have been a little pessimistic for the Saints results (I certainly hope that we can beat M'bro as I am going to that match and rather hoping it will be a bit of a promotion/champions party!) Nevertheless, despite my pessimistic forecasts, these results would still place Saints top with West Ham second and Reading third.

Ooops! Excuse my attempt at embedding some very poor html there! I shall try again using just bbcode. The table shows my predictions for the three top teams in their final fixtures and their cumulative points after each match. At the top I have also indicated their current points score: [table] [tr] [td]Saints[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]75[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]70[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]68[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Doncaster[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]73[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Burnley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]69[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td] [/td] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]70[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Blackpool[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]West Ham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]74[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]71[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Pompey[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leeds[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Barnsley[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]74[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]82[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Lose[/td] [td]77[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]77[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Reading[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]83[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Saints[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]78[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Brighton[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]80[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Peterboro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]N.Forest[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]81[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Bristol City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]83[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Middlesbro[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]C.Palace[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]84[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Leicester City[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]84[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Coventry City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]88[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Birmingham[/td] [td](A)[/td] [td]Draw[/td] [td]85[/td] [td] [/td] [td]Hull City[/td] [td](H)[/td] [td]Win[/td] [td]87[/td] [/tr] [/table] This would place Saints top with West Ham second and Reading third.

Err... Some dodgy Maths here - but not as dodgy as your prediction that we will lose against 'another team' by which I can only assume you mean Pompey! If we lost four games and drew another, that would leave us winning only three and netting just ten points, making a grand total of 85 - not 88! FWIW, my predictions are as follows: </pre><table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> Saints 75 Reading 70 West Ham 68 Doncaster H W 78 Blackpool H W 73 Burnley A D 69 Peterboro A D 70 Blackpool A L 78 West Ham A D 74 Reading H D 71 Pompey H W 81 Leeds H W 77 Barnsley A W 74 C.Palace A D 82 Brighton A L 77 Birmingham H W 77 Reading H D 83 Saints A D 78 Brighton H W 80 Peterboro A D 84 N.Forest H W 81 Bristol City A W 83 Middlesbro A D 85 C.Palace H W 84 Leicester City A D 84 Coventry City H W 88 Birmingham A D 85 Hull City H W 87</

I've finally got commentary again! BBC Radio Sheffield covering last few minutes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_sheffield

BBC Berkshire commentators thought that should have been a sending off. Sounds like Reading were fortunate there. Hopefully that will be the only fortune they have all evening.

I haven't got Saints player but have discovered I can listen to commentary on BBC radio Berkshire online! http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_berkshire 3 misses for Reading!! Haha!

lol@Skysports again: 90 Goal scored by Ricardo Vaz Te (West Ham) followed by... 90 Blackpool are in control of the match. Key player: Joey O'Brien. Still at least they got the player names this time!!!

Hehe!! Just hope ZZZZ can get a couple at the end.