pingwing

Gaston burnt himself out with some amazing ON THE BREAK turn of pace about 3 mins before he was subbed, looked SHATTERED after that from the international game and the coming back to fitness. Davis did his role very very well thankfully

Took the gf for her first game of real football (being an Irish gaa fan she needed to be shown real football) and what a great match to show what is so special about watching Southampton. We dominated and all they had was SHEAR PACE as an attack, kept having to explain to her (and the shouty bloke in front) that where we killed the pace out of the game was giving us everything as they couldn't play slowly, string a decent set of passes together or inject pace into their play. Outstanding performance overall. For me MOTM was Lambert and Cork, between them they showed up how clueless Hughes is. They had 3 guys on him and couldn't touch Lambert for 90 mins, that was amazing to watch. Cork is the messiah, he's winning the ball in front of the back 4, he's getting it in the middle and he's pushing it forward. If Cork smashed that shot in he would have been the hottest property in England after that performance. Thought Gazza had an alright game, wasn't sure how their goal happened but his general performance was nice and assured, put himself behind the ball, made some good catches and made some essential touches to keep us in the dominant position. No way Kelvin would have done that and Boruc seems to be out of favour so stick behind him. No idea how people think Punch was MOTM though, first 40 mins he was TERRIBLE, lost the ball, was in the wrong places and couldn't be bothered to run about. When he scored though it all came good. Sometimes people are too impressed by chances and not by overall performance. Gaston was good, but still isn't really match fit. Davis coming on for him was a master stroke, taking the deeplying defensive duties from Davis and giving him the forward going midfield duties makes him into an excellent player that I always thought he was. Can't praise his second half performance enough pushing QPR hard. Other notable mentions to Shaw and Clyne who were both quick, decisive and generally good at the back. Shaw isn't 90 mins ready yet but will be there soon enough and it seems cruel not being able to give Clyne a rest sometimes as he was the only counter to Hoillets SHEAR PACE. Overall for us, every player gets an 8/10, with Lambert getting a 10 and Cork getting 10 for just being so important to us. For everything to make sense in football Hughes has to be sacked tomorrow as QPR were awful, no tactics, no plan, lots of disjointed hoof and a lot of utter failure. Their best player was Cesar who kept the score line respectable (Green in goal would have made it 6-7) and Hoillet would have been a nice alternative to Punch, but not an upgrade. They have to go down though. Can't stop smiling Finally the Adkins support was great to be a part of, from the off all our fans were really singing for him and the team which was brilliant. Exactly the thing that needs to keep going for him, just looking at the booing of Hughes made me smile that at very least we see the sensible thing to do for the best manager we can get at the moment. Can't see who could turn QPR around or keep them up when our Nige is our Nige and should remain so.

The stuff on the walk into West Brom was amazing, £3 for a 1/2 pound steak burger was amazing! Got decent chips for £2 and the possibility of hog roast or bags full of sweets. Probably one of the best football food places in ages. Agreed that St Marys is also rock bottom for food, expensive, rubbish and severed by the most depressingly angry people. Even the stuff outside that should be alright has hit a new low (and a terrifying refusal to cook onions) makes me cry on the inside. Singha beer is a good in ground alternative though, few places offer a better choice of lager.

Quality mine have turned up in the post!

So loaning a bunch of United kids that get no where near the first team is a good way to bolster a team that very much was the measure of United for most of the home game earlier in the year? (for the first 60 mins till Scholes turned up) Madness. Frimpong could be good if he's not crocked but he's only worth it if he's cheap...

Perfectly reasonable to say we have to beat the other two teams in the relegation zone otherwise we are going to struggle to get back into the rest of the pack. Plus QPR are a complete mess at the moment and Reading really haven't bought all that well either, couldn't have a better time to face them both.

6 will do, have to beat the other two teams in the relegation zone though. 9 would be great going, Norwich should be beatable to get to that target. Newcastle and Liverpool anything can happen and a result against either to take it into double figures would be a dream right now! Just have to beat Reading and QPR more than anything else, can't get dragged down with them.

He's at Ipswich now

"used to cry in his pillow when not selected for the Palace youth team" Sounds like a right child defiantly don't get him.

From what I'v seen I thought he would be a step up, mostly Fox is let down by a lack of pace and low work rate (opposed to a massive lack of defending ability) when Olsson would be a decent for just wanting to get back into position more (similar to how Clyne plays). Might not be the most solid reasoning for getting Olsson in at LB but ones who are great defensively tend to be a struggle getting forward anyway (which key in the way we want to play) so having one who is just quicker and with a higher work rate would get round the deficiencies in the squad at the moment. If he doesn't work out he'll command a massive resale value anyway, home grown and quick are always the best way to ensure £6m (for a guy who has either 6 months or 18 months left on his contract) becomes more like £12-£15m for a guy with a 3-4 year contract.

Leaving at 80 mins is just maddening! (especially as they always walk down in front of my view!) Nipping down on 40 mins though is just being sensible, we never score or concede in those few mins and the queues in the concourse in the itchin north corner are horrific! For some reason it takes 9 people an age to serve 3 queues for a beer, considering there are only 3 beers to choose and only a few people mad enough to get anything else from that line it should be a simple operation but I have no idea how it can take so long. Skipping a couple of mins of football (that used to be on the tv's but they seemed to have stopped that) is just sensible considering the ball ache a beer at half time is.

Olsson at his natural wingback/left back (I see him as the Swedish Clyne) but he would also be ideal to cover for Lallana as well taking the pressure off his performances/giving him some competition for the left wing spot. Just pray we don't much it up and get the other one, Marcus who's the left winger and no where near as good. Eitherway Martin Olsson would be a dream signing and should be our number one target. Punch has had some good moments but he's annoyed me one too many times dribbling the ball into nowhere and giving possession away for no reason. His performances have almost lived up to him being a first team player but he shouldn't be given an improved contract, maybe a cheap year extension, but it would just be more sensible to offload him and get someone of real quality in.

Same with last months poll, stick it out with Gazza. Best distribution of the 3, least maddening goals gone in through him, seems to generally have the best set up with the back 4 as well. Some of those positives really reflect the frustrations of Kelvin and Boruc though, Kelvin is great at getting behind the ball for an initial block (probably best of the 3 but not by a lot) but it always goes to an opposition poacher so at this level he gets torn to shreds. Boruc is shouty and decent at most general keeping, but isn't consistent with his organisation. He can make some good, athletic saves, but had poor decision making and did the same as the other two rushing out for things he either needed to commit too or not go for. I don't like how many very poor goals he's been apart of, only West Ham's 4th and the first Spurs goals were acceptable one to go in, the rest (pen excluded for general fairness) were dominated by averageness from Boruc (doesn't look interested more than anything else for me). So yeah, bar the Swansea goal, Gazza has easily the best distribution and kicking (better than some of our outfield players), getting the defence organised seems to be happening more now and he's generally getting to things that are coming at him (positioning and reactions are good). Would rather we left him in to develop quickly instead of get relegated with an under performing Boruc or a just not prem material Davis.

Martin Olsson from Blackburn, sign him up for £6m now he's fit again and Blackburn aren't destroying the champ. Dawson for no more than £3m or Toby Alderweireld for that dream £9m signing. No idea who else at CB, just someone seeing as we have 3, all top end of the champ sort of area at the moment (just under 33 and not completely broken or Gallas will do). Get someone in on the right, Zaha we won't get, everyone will fight over him at Arsenal because he's a. English and b. SHEAR PACE. Just get Tom Ince in when he doesn't sign a new contract in January or Phillips in after he puts in a transfer request.... Or maybe that bloke from Holland we were linked with over the summer that was amazing, sign him up. Sell Puncheon for nothing as there is no reason to give him another contract at the end of the season. Also no more keepers, 3 new ones this summer is enough! Gazza and Boruc are both better than Kelvin and will do for the rest of the season.

Got my 2 sorted this morning, took a lot of shouting at my computer though as the stupid queue system "was suspended" till about 10 this morning, aka it wasn't working after someone at the ticket office forgot to feed the internet hamsters. Cheap drinks in Liverpool should make up for the price plus the restricted view option is hilarious! Selling out the initial 2k would do for this one is it is a long trip on what will be a cold day...

That's pretty much the real term view of the game, should have won, encouraging we didn't loose, Cork played very well, should be able to beat QPR like that. No horrific defending, one mistake cost us a bit too much though we should have made it 2 or 3 really to compensate.

Isn't one of the rules of the internet that if you make a thread on something you do more than provide a link to the article?

Steve De Ridder

Will take 1-1, Cork was a tank, Gaston had a few good chances, Lambert set everything up, punch was nowhere, their goal was just poor form us but what can you do. Have to/and should win at QPR, it's ok

No because the two percentages aren't inclusive. So the 47% of teams that were in the bottom 3 who haven't been relegated don't reflect on the 50% of teams who were bottom after 10 games and avoided relegation. They are two separate events for the statics and can only be compared as separate events (ie we can't create new statics from them) The interesting thing between them is that being bottom means we are slightly more likely statically to survive than being 2nd or 3rd bottom. Potentially this indicates that being bottom either creates a better impetus for beating the drop or (in our case) reflects comparatively harder fixtures (amongst other possibilities).

Clyne didn't take his shirt off he was just booked for leaping the barrier and celebrating in the crowd at the bottom of block 3

shennanegans!

It's been good to watch, no one wins games of football with 10/9 men on the pitch or with half the first team squad out with suspensions. Also encourages us to play proper football instead of the bitty nonsense that teams like West Ham peddle.

All look surprised! Lawro has predicted us a win!!! 2-1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20228221

He was poor in L1, can never forgive his monumental lack of awareness with any attacking player being able to hoof it over his head leaving him confused and left him out of position. CAFC are way to high a level for him and I fully expect that when his contract is up he ends up back at Exeter where he pretty much belongs.