Lighthouse

Seriously? If he ends up staying because of this... I'd give him away for free to get him off the wage bill. I think it's the only way a Championship club can justify £70kpw for the next 18 months, by offsetting it against a lack of transfer fee.

I don't really get it. Even if we pay all of his wages, surely it's in our interests and his to loan him out so that he gets game time. We're never going to sell him if nobody ever sees him play.

I agree, it was a classless thing to do. I also didn't like Tadic waving an imaginary card a few years ago to get some (Whittaker I think) sent off for Norwich. I would actually rather they didn't beat Fulham TBH as I can't see the latter staying up, regardless of Saturday's result and we're level with Palace in the table.

He did say Hughes wasn't going anywhere, a week before he was sacked. He might know something but I'm not taking it as Gospel.

I don't think they will; They came for a point and they got it. Sitting back and playing on the counter suits their players but no system is perfect. They let us have plenty of the ball in the midfield and didn't put a lot of pressure on our back three. Breaking them down was always going to be a struggle but we did it and scored a well made goal. Playing like Palace is also going to mean chances are limited and when they come, you have to take them, which they didn't. They didn't do much other than 3 corners; Sakho's header, one he put wide first half and the disallowed goal. I'd agree with him on Targett and Stephens. Vest I'm not sure on yet. Not Yoshida though, him and Jan are our best defenders now.

I'm not sure how people can say we didn't deserve a point. It's not as if our goal was a dodgy penalty or lucky deflection, or that Palace had a goal wrongly disallowed. We both scored one each, fair and square. Palace came for a point. They sat back, waited and played on the counter. In a way it's much easier than trying to press and open up a defence through good technical play. It's not as if they battered us in terms of overall play and they didn't really have that many chances. Sakho's header was the main one they wasted. If ever a performance missed Tadic (on a good day) it was last night.

Yes. If anything I'd consider playing him RWB but I wouldn't have a midfield of him, Hoj and Romeu. The goal aside, I thought he did very little tonight.

I fancy us for a point in this and I think it suits us more than Palace. Tonight was everything we dread really; must not lose, at home to a relegation rival, home crowd watching, organised defensive team with dangerous players on the break. Burnley are a different prospect but I think we can get something. Would play Armstrong instead of JWP though, the line-up tonight was just too lacking up front.

I wonder if he has stopped clapping yet.

You mean Milivojevic? He was a bit rough but I don't think he was involved in the Bosnian genocide.

I thought Valery was the better of the two fullbacks. Targett played his part in the goal, which you have to credit him for, but was otherwise terrible and couldn't get past Wan-Bissaka all night. Hoj and Rom I thought were decent an covered a lot of ground, the trouble was there wasn't much going on around and in front of them. I think we were one light up front and looked better when we brought Moi on; simply by having an extra body not because he was any good. I've never thought Stephens is good enough for this level and tonight highlights my concerns about him. Switching off at critical moments, ball watching and losing his man or making sloppy misplaced passes. Having said that Vest also had an off game. Redmond tried hard but wasn't having much look and got little help from Targett. Ings was just nowhere all game. I'd like to defend him by saying the service was poor but even in possession he was wasteful, other than one decent shot second half. A quick note on Palace; Zaha and Townsend who everyone fretted about were pretty poor all in all. We did a decent job of keeping them quiet and their goal was hardly a piece of Zaha magic. What a princess he is though. It's not like we kicked them off the park and he seemed to lose his sh*t when JWP was shepherding the ball out for a throw for some reason, unless someone closer than me saw differently. Anyway a point will do and I'd taken not losing against Palace and Burnley, if we beat Cardiff. We do need some better players though. I was pretty confident we'd stay up and I still am... sort of; however we're betting big on Cardiff being gash for the rest of the season. Would be a bit sh*t if what keeps us in this league ends up being a plane crash.

It's actually quite a nice place to visit when you're from Southsea.

Why would we need to do that? If he's half as good as many seem to think, he'll be the first name on the team sheet. If he doesn't actually start and barely gets into the team, it pretty much proves he is nowhere near Premier League level and that he just needs to leave. I do agree that I'd sooner lose Austin but that's not saying much.

Because that would be a ridiculous thing to say and wouldn't achieve anything.

Zero.

Because there’s that much sh*te posted on this forum and I have many better things to do with my life than trawling through every thread trying to find ALL of it. Just trying to keep threads readable.

Let's discuss transfer news/rumours please, not Cabbage and Heisenberg.

Was just about to post the same thing. Cardiff losing was the big one today and Fulham dragging Brighton into it a bonus. Really need to do our bit now. Mixed bag I reckon. Newcastle was the big sh*tter but a point for Burnley isn't the end of the world.

Phew! Come on City!

Newcastle losing to City. Is that bad news for us in the title race, or am I overdoing it now?

Good point.

Norwegian Arabs tend to work out quite well for us, as do Norwegians signed in January, so I'm optimistic.

Udders and Fulham losing within 3 minutes.

Mainly that hardly anyone we play for the rest of the season will be as sh*te as Leicester were.

A tough set of fixtures for our rivals this week, a real chance to put daylight between us and the bottom 3. Cardiff, Burnley and Newcastle playing Arsenal, Utd and City respectively.