Clifford Nelson

Poor buggers. Nobody deserves it, but the way the Premier League is bleeding the rest of the Football League dry this is no surprise. Market forces are not going to help, and there are no strong forces in the FA or elsewhere who are remotely likely to change things before it all goes to pot. Because it will eventually.

We need players who can compete for a place with the starting eleven for a place, or better, since we are looking for players with at least top CCC ability. Drew was one of our better players last year, but I can't see who he is better than in the positions he could play. He should be aiming for getting himself a starting place with Wolves and fight for it rather than retreat to L1. He is firstly a professional footballer who play for money, not a Saints supporter. We are all moving on. He has, and so should we.

I think it may be worse than that and we may have to pay up their contracts. Any saving on that is a bonus, but let's not believe we can just ship them out, because we can't. We have undertaken to pay them a wage for a number of years and can't just get out of it.

You've got it. I've been arguing for some time against the naive idea that you can just get rid of players when you've had enough of them. First of all you need somebody that is interested in them, which is not easy if they can't even get themselves on the fringes of a League 1 team.

Can you tell any current wingers who cross from the byeline? I have started to question that they exist anymore, and that one of the reasons for that is that full backs these days have got more pace than they used to. Anyway I think that the call for width and wingers is a bit of a dream. If they are there, then well and good, otherwise we have to organise the team to suit the skills we have available. I rather think that AP has done a rather good job of it.

And why would Molyneux and the others leave on a free? Who wants to pay the salaries they are earning? So why would they walk out of the club when they are earning perfectly good money here?

No, he wasn't. There was another player who was inactive who caused the offside. There was also another three occasions when Waigo wasn't offside when the lino flagged. He is very deceptive and sometimes looks very offiside unless you keep an eye on him, and not the ball, all the time. If you look at the ball first, when it is struck, and then at Waigo, he looks yards offside, but he isn't always. Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting in line with the offside and am, I'm afraid, at variance with a very biased or semiblind lino.

Good observation.

In the last five league games, since we changed to a 4-3-3/4-5-1 we have scored 13 goals and won four. Before that we could neither score nor win. Two of those 13 goals has come from Connelly picking up two bad back passes. All the rest from playing this lousy, foreign system which we ought to get rid of as soon as possible.

I was in a perfect position to judge yesterday, when the linesman waved three times for offside when he wasn't. He is so desperately deceptive so he seems to have stolen yards at times, and the lino can't keep up. There were other peculiarities as well when the same lino gave throw ins for Dons and free kicks against Papa, neither of which reflected what had happened. Maybe he was french speaking and understood when he was called a w****r. Nevertheless he didn't have a great game yesterday, but he has had a few to date.

Memories are desperately short. Papa actually scored yesterday, although it was ruled out for offside. Similar goal to the two which rescued us against Torquay. Signs of a player with a burning desire to get the ball in the back of the net, and the only one in the squad who naturally gets himself in with a toe poke where all the boots keeps flying. The upswing in our fortunes coincided with two things: Papa playing, which only a few seems to remember, and AP changing the formation to suit the playing staff available. Since Bristol Rovers (with the exception of Torquay) we haven't been able to stop scoring. It's therefore difficult to understand the view that Papa's place now should go to Antonio, who, whilst having a good game as a sub yesterday, hasn't shown himself to have any of Papa's qualities. It is even more difficult to understand the belief in the 4-4-2 system which borders on a religious conviction. We've scored 13 goals in the last 5 league games since changing the system, mind you, two of them by Connelly. Isn't it good enough? Or what laws or morality does it breach? Isn't it British enough? AP should play whatever system he has the players to play in the most effective way, and the rest of us armchair critics should enjoy winning.

Maybe "comfortable" might have been an exaggeration, but there are people here on the Forum considering that Lewington was Don's best player, so there is certainly a spread of opinion. In any case Papa seemed to have plenty of trouble dealing with him, which Antonio didn't. He also on a few occasions did something really old fashioned by knocking the ball past Lewington and then beating him to it. Memories of line huggers of old, myself, for instance, who didn't have any tricks in the tool bag apart from pace. I last saw MA against Torquay, when I thought he was woeful, but yesterday was really encouraging, and given more confidence I think he may become a very useful player. Another success for the scouting network.

It's easy to forget the flat performances before AP changed the system. What that did was to release Lallana and Waigo and offer two centre midfielders as runners. Lambert looked like a pig in the proverbial and we were all happy, apart from a grouping who just can't accept football to be played in any other formation than 4-4-2. Today it didn't work as well as previously, and AP had the nous to change things. The ineffective Waigo especially was replaced by a much more direct player and their left back, who had looked comfortable was suddenly struggling. Connelly was enthusiastic, but let's be honest, he also looked positionally rusty, and Lambert had to shout at him more than once to get him in the right place. It pleases me no end to have a manager who isn't a rigid follower of a system (remember Branfoot insisting on playing Le Tiss as an orthodox left winger, because he didn't know what else to do with him) but is comfortable to change things to suit the players he has got available and the situation they are in. What he has done in the last few weeks has been a master class.

Southgate and Lowe shouldn't really be compared on the same page. Whilst Lowe was an exceptionally toxic personality, who couldn't tolerate any other leadership but his own, and loved sycophancy (Andrew Cowan) Southgate merely lacks charisma/personality. A football manager these days is the clubs face to the supporters. He must come over as a leader and not merely a manager. Southgate may well have listed, sorted and controlled things from his office as a manager, but he couldn't make the public believe that he lead anything, and certainly not them into a brighter and more exciting future.

I don't think many people here are wrong, and that must be a first. AP added something in common with all signings and loans, except possibly Mellis, and that is character. They never come out to have a half hearted performance but will give everything every time. I'm sure that has rubbed off on Lallana and James, both of which are playing better now than they have ever done. Maybe my favourite is Harding, but it isn't a lot in it.

Jason Dodd was a right back!

Will all of you here who feel motivated to work harder and better with a more positive attitude, if you're kicked up the arse repeatedly and blamed for the boss's shortcomings, please raise an arm!

I think you'll find, Phil, that this is one more legacy from the old regime which hasn't been dealt with yet. There are a number of players in the club who clearly will never see even the subs bench in anger. They were signed because they were young and cheap and not for great untapped potential. To them we have some players at the end of their career and/or form who are on big money. In either case there aren't clubs out there who are interested in them at the kind of money they're already on. Forecast, for instance, has 3 1/2 years left on what must for him be a lucrative contract. The nettle will have to be grasped when it comes to several of them: THEIR CONTRACTS MUST BE PAID OFF. Keeping them at the club as uncompetitive hangers-on will not benefit either them of the club.

Absolutely right, but he is also a completely different player. What we haven't got in the squad is somebody else who can play the role of a defensive CM. I think that the reason that many of us questioned Morgan's abilities was that he was played out of position. He is not a defensive player, and shines when some of that responsibility is taken off him. What we need next is to recruit a younger player who can do what we're asking of Wotton, but better, and in the meantime let's be grateful to the old man for putting his heart and soul into the cause whilst getting mainly derision from the fans. He doesn't deserve it.

It's a bit of a pity, don't you think, that british forwards seems to be so unadaptable so that they can't fit into more than one system. Or is this a dis-service to Conolly. Maybe he could fit into a 4-3-3 as well if he was asked. We know what he can do when fit and on form in a 4-4-2, but has anybody ever asked him to fit into something else?

Your post is silly! The issue was about whether AP would take an offensive or a defensive CM off to leave room for Conolly, not a 'good' or 'bad' player. For ... sake!

Conolly will hardly take a wide role, so I imagine Lallana and Waigo are both very safe. Like when he came on against Oldham AP will sacrifice a CM, which looks like Morgan or Wotton. With the massive success we've had with 4-3-3/4-5-1 I don't know why we should be in a terrible hurry to get back to 4-4-2. For some people it seems to be some conviction close to the religious kind. When did anyone see Saints produce the kind of entertaining football we've seen since the Bristol game?

If it is self-righteous to think that street fighting doesn't belong to Saints in specific and football and society in general, then I must be big-time self-righteous. I can imagine times when it is time to hit back against those who exploit us badly enough, but that has never in my mind included a couple of blokes from Yeovil (of all the places in the world...) bigging themselves up after losing against us. Join a trade union; demonstrate against society; become a revolutionary socialist to fight a class war; or whatever you feel will will improve life for you, your family, and those in the same situation as yourself. It can all make a lot of sense if you feel an excess of energy and want to do something in some kind of noble cause. I might even consider not grassing on somebody who have done something illegal in such circumstances. But beating up Yeovil fans??? "Slapping" people for supporting the 'wrong' team or for being a bit uppity? How on earth have we ended up here?!

In last years team he looked a world beater, chasing around everywhere, but not this year. That could mean that the way we are playing at the moment doesn't suit the qualities he has, and that we are looking for a more disciplined display. When I'm thinking about his style of play I'm not sure anymore where he would fit in. He isn't defensive by nature, he isn't a great passer of the ball, but sadly he isn't a danger going forward either. I'm led to believe that he had a good game for Doncaster last week, although ended up responsible for letting in a goal. I hope he will do fantastic there and have a long and successful career.

If James can play the role of defensive midfielder as good or better than Wotton, than you're right. It seems clear on AP's team selection that LJ is a certainty in the team, so letting him replace Wooton would allow Murty back when fit.