Lallana's Left Peg

Nigel Adkins clearly likes a cliche in front of the camera but whatever he says to the players on a daily basis they are responding to very well. I suspect he is very much an 'arm around the shoulder' Manager who attempts to instil confidence in his players. They certainly haven't been paralysed with fear at all the past few weeks despite the situation were in being new to the club and many (if not all) of the players.

I live in Manchester but I was born in Southampton! Tend to go to all the away games I can - furthest South I travel is Coventry. Don't get to St Marys too often.

Bookies are amazingly confident in us - never seen us this short playing away from home against mid-table opposition: http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/league-one/brentford-v-southampton/winner

Very attacking team, hope we get the early goal to settle the nerves as worried what any team might be able to do to us on the break with that side. Still, very positive, and I like that.

Absolutely elated, superb character to come back and I said Connolly would get a vital goal and it appears he has. Nice to shove a win back in Brighton's faces (played their best team as well). The whole team must be buzzing now. A fantastic result. Was jumping all over the place when I saw that Fonte scored!

I agree with your first two points but more confusing than your fans manufacturing a bit of a one-way rivalry with us is the mini-obsession some of your players have with us (indeed, referencing it both in the media and in your own matchday programme). It seems a bit silly.

I love how wound up the Brighton fans are over Adkins. Have they always been this touchy? I suppose in lieu of a proper rival they must try and manufacture something each season for their own amusement but the vast majority of Saints fans I know are utterly apathetic towards them and Brighton. What a peculiar set of fans.

Not that I think Brighton will play a weaker team, but do the Football League have a similar rule as the Premier League regarding playing your strongest team?

Guly against Blackpool and Chaplow against Oldham are two that spring to mind.

As frustrating as he can be, in some ways his unpredictability is quite an important asset to our team because it prevents us from always being one dimensional. Now I am not defending him for ignoring the simple pass at times because I groan like the rest of you, but the fact he isn't so obvious is a very handy thing to have because whether meant or not he can often quickly make space for himself or others which is hard to defend against. He's an enigma for sure but I'd prefer him to Papa Waigo any day of the week.

It's not realistic just to go out and buy loads of established players and then expect many of them just to stay in reserve apart from when needed in a few games a season. Look at how Puncheon reacted when he effectively lost his place in the first choice 11 to Oxlade-Chamberlain. While I agree squad depth is important the blend needs to be right - we can't expect players of the same quality to just be waiting on the sidelines as they will get impatient eventually. Despite his injury concerns Connolly is a quality player to have in reserve and had he not been injured I imagine he'd be on loan elsewhere right now as I couldn't see him just wasting away the last moments of his career in our reserve team.

Because if neither team win it may allow him to go with a more conservative midfield / not risk anyone who is carrying an injury than if we needed the 3pts just to maintain our position. Especially as we have a game 48hrs later.

The injuries aren't good but this is why we have the squad we do. I've a sneaky suspicion that somewhere over the next few weeks Connolly is going to get a very important goal for us. No game for a week now, and Adkins can plan his team for the Brighton game based on how Posh and Huddersfield do on the Friday - both have challenging away games. Looks like we had plenty of shots on goal, so long may that continue!

We were not bossed in central midfield tonight. There was a lack of understanding and structure, and that was not down to the ability of players. In fact I thought we dominated in the air in all areas of the pitch. In the second half when we went 4-4-2 for a period the passing was crisper and players seemed more comfortable with what was expected of them. Guly is a frustrating player, the players would visibly show this as well. He is trying too hard and attempting silly flicks and turns when he is a much more effective player when he moves the ball quickly. Plenty of areas for improvement but I am not moaning - the end is in sight and the second half performance means we should not have a hangover from this game going into Saturday. Lets start positively and decisively and put the game to bed early.

That first half was terrible. Second half was much, much better but by then the horse had bolted. Mistakes for both their goals (would have been nice for Kelvin to make an effort to save a looping header, and the second one O'Grady was embarrassed to celebrate) but both came from not hold the ball well enough in midfield. Losing isn't an issue, we've still got a game in hand and much better run-in than Huddersfield, but I don't like the idea of giving other teams encouragement as we'd just about broke the back of what we had to do in terms of making up ground. Would love for Forte to get a start at the weekend now - lad tries his heart out. Oh, and no more diamond ******** please. They just seem to get in each others way and it provides too much width for opposing teams fullbacks. A short-term blip, the bigger picture is still looking very good.

The thing I like most about Adkins is that his decisions seem quite logical. Not to say they aren't well thought out, but rarely does he do something that makes you scratch your head. That also must help in building confidence from his players (assuming they think like the rest of us!).

Will be delighted to see him go - didn't look like he responded well to the pressure of playing for one of the bigger clubs in the division, mentally fragile to say the least (can't respect any player who says they are not "mentally prepared" to play for the club), and clearly Adkins wants nothing to do with him. Talented guy, but lets pass him on for a profit and invest wisely.

They are trying to make the automatic promotion race as interesting as possible, despite the fact that results yesterday were very significantly weighted in Saints favour. It's just poor editorial work.

Adkins post-match: - excellent victory - defended well and comfortably, dealt with crosses very well - credit to all the players - magnificent support, a joy to have them at the game - their goals rightly ruled offside - we could have had 3 or 4 goals in the first half - feels good to be 2nd, we just need to keep going - we know the supporters are behind us and will drive us on - players talking in the dressing room about how good the support is - Dickson done very well again, runs himself into the ground for the team - Rochdale will be tough - Lallana was good to go for 15mins today, but not needed - we'll make a judgement call on Tuesday but we won't risk losing him for rest of season - Happy that even with injuries, other players can come in and contribute.

If money was an issue for this club I doubt we'd be paying £125k for 17 year olds from other Academies. Cortese clearly feels he has the backing from the owners and the medium-long term plan is still being executed. A loss like this is only an issue for the owner of the club, and they would know about the figures well in advance of them being published today.

Come on Alpine, I'm only on here occasionally and even I know that even though sometimes you are misinterpreted, you do rise to it as well. I appreciate you do care and that manifests itself into negativity and anxiousness at times, but trust me, it's much more fun supporting Saints when you are positive!

Some Managers just like everyone back because a crowded penalty area means less room for the attacking team to move - that is why you see some teams try and line up the players attacking the ball behind one another so it makes the run harder to track (a bit like a basketball screen). It's a bit like the question 'why doesn't someone always come for a short corner even if we don't play it short?' - it drags one or two players out and frees up space in the box. Even better if the player coming short is no threat in the air.

Absolutely delighted with that. I wasn't raging and writing off our promotion hopes after MK Dons went 2 up, but I certainly didn't expect us to come back and win the game. More than happy to be proved well and truly wrong. The manner of this comeback, although not desirable (you'd prefer to win games by dominating throughout), does give us a great deal of momentum which I think is very important and with the games coming thick and fast now, it really does give us a fantastic platform to get the job done.

Barry Fry has just been on Sky and said very firmly that Saints are favourites for second but he hopes (in a joking way) we get injuries and suspensions due to so many games to play in such a short time.

I don't know if the lack of news coming from the club is comforting or worrying! Although I do recall Adkins at several times throughout the season being coy on players coming back from injury so as not to give the opposition any advantage in preparing.