supersonic

Having had pretty much nothing to do at work over the xmas period I read the case notes, wouldn't be at all surprised if the rape charge is over-turned. He'll play again

Peyton bottled it again, he might have the stats but really don't get the fuss over that guy. 9 times he's been one-and-done in the play-offs. He was found out massively last night (as he was in last year's SB). It's time for him to call it a day and go out on a relative high note. The Broncos won't make the play-offs next year. As or next season, will be interesting which team, if any, picks up Mariota ho certainly looks the real deal (I bet Oregon are so glad Manziel changed his mind last minute). Looking forward to the games at Wembley too

Awfully sad news, was a real talent. RIP - another one gone far too soon.

Correct. Placed their as per recommendation from the Police as best place to get away fans in/out

Winnable tie, SHOULD we get past Ipswich (which I think we will). A few decent cup ties there and a few upsets could happen (AFC Bournemouth)

Already a thread on this.

I like this idea, and I believe the club tried to do something like this a few seasons ago? There have been several people moaning on twitter since yesterday's game that they had to move seats because of the Ipswich fans, something which has happened ever since SMS opened. I've also suggested this to several people, the team seem to mainly shoot towards the Chapel in the second half (this could be because the away team choose to shoot towards their fans in the second half) but I appreciate it will be difficult to "swap" 2 whole stands of people. I'm sure the club could help with this (maybe offering discounts on ST for those displaced?). I do also appreciate that many people sit in blocks 41/42 because of the "banter" with the away fans, something which I can maybe understand in the PL as there are big followings, but in League 1 when there used to be 200 Oldham fans there it was a bit pointless. Also, I'd question, are you going to football to have "banter" with the away fans, or support Saints? It should be the latter, in which case it moving to the Chapel would be a great idea. I've been to Liverpool and Sheff Utd away this season, both have "kop" stands which are where the "hardcore" fans go to support and the team know this. Both are at the other end of the ground to away fans and it works. Anyway, best suggestion I've heard for a while, make it happen, would make SMS a better atmosphere IMO.

Our 4th best centre-back. Not bad in the air but extremely limited with ball at feet. Still find it astounding that an International footballer cannot kick a ball with both feet....

This is what I don't get, the Northam always gets taken over by away fans for cup games, always has done and always will be. Why people moan about it when they buy a season ticket there is beyond me. If everyone who wants to sing etc moved to the Chapel it would solve a lot of problems

Very poor again today - absolutely no link up play with Pelle. We've been well and truly mugged off with this signing.

Ipswich are looking to make a few changes, with us putting out a fairly strong side we should go through comfortably. Nice early goal will do. Forster Alderweireld Fonte Gardos (begrudgingly) Targett JWP Reed Wanyama Davis Tadic Pelle

Just a thought, if Harry Reed continues playing and developing the way that he is, where does that leave Jack Cork? Not for one minute suggesting that after 2 PL appearances this season that Reed is better than Cork, but thought came into my head during the game today.

Thing is with Jones is that today isn't isolated, it seems to be week-in week-out. Not saying that refereeing is easy, as it isn't, but you have to feel that a player who made those level of mistakes so consistently wouldn't still be in a job right now...

Our problem was not signing Austin when we were both in League 1 instead of persisting with Average players such as Barnard and Sharp. Austin is a natural-born goal scorer, and they will score goals in whatever level they play at. May be a bit of a ****, but would rather we had him than Sharp who people idolise for some reason.

Retrospective punishment is the only way forward for any form of deliberate cheating (blatant foul stopping a goal etc) first offence for diving e.g. Cahill v Hull, 1 game ban - next offence 2 game ban etc etc. If a club gets to more than 5 games missed through suspension for diving then they lose a point. Players will soon stop diving/clubs stamping down on it.

Much better than Tuesday, much needed too. MOTM Yoshida. Would have preferred much more of the ball but we defended well, even if it was 11 men behind the ball for a lot of it. We took our chances when they came which is pleasing and restricted them to very little in the mean time. Yoshida is so much better than Gardos it's unreal. Ratings below. Forster - Didn't really have much to do, but did his job well when called upon (7/10) Clyne - Solid. Played the wing-back role well and kept Baines fairly quiet which isn't easy (7/10) Fonte - Much better than Tuesday - looks a different player with Toby/Maya alongside him. Great challenge made in first half (7/10) Alderweireld - Very decent display, lead from the back and helped keep Lukaku quiet. One of his best games so far (8/10) Yoshida - Deserves more playing time. Took his goal well (9/10) Betrand - Another who improved massively on Tuesday's performance. (6/10) Reed - What a debut. May not need to sign another CM in Jan based upon that. (8/10) JWP - Looked knackered after about 20 minutes, passing as always immaculate, looked a bit naive going forward (6/10) Davis - Most under-rated player in the league. Superb (8/10) Long - Busy and caused a few problems for their backline, unlucky not to get a penalty (6/10) Pelle - took his goal well and lead the line well, not easy against their defence (7/10) Target - Didn't really do much, or have much to do, solid (6/10) Gape - Nice few touches, too little time to make an impact (6/10)

****in blind referee....lino flagging and everything. CLASS A CLINT!

Expect us to go back in again for Classie and, as others have mentioned, Memphis Depay as it looks like we can't rely on J-Rod. Would like us to go out and get another striker as well. Surprised we didn't go for Adam Le Fondre, would do a very good job for us coming off the bench and grabbing a goal. Would certainly be a better option than Mayuka

Fully appreciate that players may not be able to play 100% of the time, but this isn't one game, it's been a few. Plus lack of leadership and attitude is what is worrying me.

Got back at stupid o'clock after travelling what seemed like forever to get there and back, made a lot worse by the complete abject performance. Fair play to United, they wanted it a hell of a lot more than we did and rightfully won. Yet another decent cup opportunity squandered to a team a lot worse than ourselves. We missed Pelle, no doubt about it, we're geared up to play with a big man and are lacking of ideas when we don't have one. As was shown in the Championship without Lambert. Rodriguez can't come back soon enough IMO. Anyway here's my honest ratings for the match. Forster - Few decent saves, felt he was a bit unlucky with goal as he did well to get down to initial shot [Haven't seen the replay mind] (6/10) Clyne - Seemed reluctant to go forwards, and when he did his end product wasn't great. Ok performance but could have done better (6/10) Fonte - Lacked of leadership is worrying, head didn't seem in it. Looked shakey at the back and got caught out far too many times. Please stop letting the ball bounce (4/10) Gardos - Find it unbelievable that an International footballer cannot kick a ball with both feet. Might just be me but that worries me. Mistake lead to sending off (3/10) Target - Felt he looked ok - Didn't do himself any harm and looked hungry going forward. Unless he was injured, very unlucky to be subbed. Looks Promising (7/10) Bertrand - Awful, truly awful. Didn't look interested and got skinned far to many times. Too conservative to play as a winger. Miles off England level. (3/10) Wanyama - If he could kick a ball he'd be world class, harsh booking didn't do much wrong, but nothing of note stood out. (6/10) Schneiderlin - Our most talented player by a mile, need to keep hold of him, lacked match sharpness (6/10) Ward-Prowse - Passing ability is superb, went close with a free-kick, made himself an option and looked genuinely upset at end. Lacks match sharpness (7/10) Mane - Stealing a living as a footballer (0/10) Long - Felt he did well with what he had to work with, won a number of headers and made some good runs. (7/10) Isgrove - Relatively lively, but lacks end product. Probably last appearance in a Saints shirt. Will do well in lower leagues (6/10) Mayuka - Why do we still employ him? Probably contributed more sat on the bench (3/10) Alderweireld - Didn't really have much time to contribute, a few good passes but he's a centre-half not a midfielder (5/10)

Been a great player and servant to the club, but I have serious doubts about his ability and attitude at the moment. This is likely to upset a few as he is, quite rightly, so well liked by fans for his contributions over the past few seasons but this is just my opinion and they way I see it. He isn't playing very well, has he peaked? or has is he just going through a rough patch? I'm not sure, I'm thinking it's more the first one, he certainly isn't part of our plans if we want to move forward as a club and move into Europe - he just doesn't have that ability. Mistake lead to the goal v United, that was more an unfortunate mis-judgement rather than a lack of ability. However, his performance last night (along with many others) was appalling. The most worrying thing for me is his attitude and body language, he isn't stepping up to being a captain, was just stood with his hands on his hips looking down when they scored last night, not once did he look to motivate the players, or get things going. His first reaction at full time was to head towards the tunnel, only begrudgingly coming over after a few others had done so. JWP showed more leadership than he did last night. Does he need a kick up the arse, yes IMO. Both as a player and as a captain. Still maintain we need another CB in January to partner Toby.

Finally some sense. He is tactically very conservative and this cost us the league. Also stand by what I said all along that he inherited a very good team from Pardew, not many of NA's signings turned out to be decent (Clyne stands out as a very good one though)

I have no issue with Adkins - I just think he's not as good as people make out. My issue with the blue line thingy is that with Saints, and Reading, there were issues that the team had that needed addressing, drawing a blue line under it and pretending it doesn't need fixing clearly doesn't work. Average manager at best.

Why take a huge step backwards? The guy, as nice as he is, has an awful lot to learn when it comes to tactics and all this "draw a blue line under-neath it and move on" mentality doesn't work.

Poor defending - 3 men going for the same ball leaving 2 free men at the back post unmarked. As much as I like them, Yoshida and Fonte need to be replaced as they have gone as far as they can. Thankfully we have a very, very good goalkeeper othewise this game would have been dead and buried about 20 minutes ago