Wes Tender

I suspect that there has been some input into the psychology of the opposing players seeing greatly enlarged images of our players on the walls on the way into and out of their changing rooms. Intimidating for them and a boost for our players to see their images on the walls at the same time.

Go on, Daily Mail. You've correctly identified that Southampton have replaced all of the players who left, with others as good or better than them. All you have to do now to make the article complete, is to admit that Koeman is also better than Pochettino. Go on, I dare you.

The fact that there are such diverse opinions regarding whether Sunderland deserved a penalty or not, illustrates that it wasn't as clear cut as some would insist it was. Opinions have come from posters on here with refereeing experience, from those who have viewed it first hand from various vantage points and from an ex-Premiership referee who has the benefit of video technology. However, the decision rests with the referee on the pitch and his assistants and he didn't think it was a penalty. Now, he might not have had a perfect view, or he may have had a better view than everybody else. Maybe it wasn't given because Fletcher didn't make a fuss, or because it was the away player and their fans were too far away to make much noise at the other end. Maybe there was some doubt in his mind over whether Long might have had a claim a few minutes earlier and it levelled itself out in the referee's mind. There are any number of reasons why it was debatable and therefore disputed. But ultimately Marriner didn't give it, so end of story. If we were lucky not be penalised by the ref, then that just goes to balance other times when we have had stonewall penalties denied us, or had them awarded against us because of players diving like Moses did against Swansea, or Fonte tugging a shirt, which was as weak a penalty as there has been for some time.

This will be the same Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ward-Prowse who both lived in the Portsmouth area then?

I seem to recall that whenever earlier on it was suggested that Tadic might well be an improvement on Lallana, admonishment followed by some irate posters who would not allow the possibility. Lallana had after all been selected for the Premiership team of the Year, don't you know, so it was inconceivable that we could possibly pick up a player from the p*ss-poor Eredivisie who would be fit to lace his boots, especially not one who cost less than half the money that we got for Lallana. If there anybody out there who still maintains that Lallana is a better player than Tadic? Whilst we're about it, anybody favour any of the players we let go over their replacements?

It isn't as if Graham Poll was always correct in every decision he made and that he had an uncontroversial reputation. And it is easy for him to ruminate about the decision from the comfort of his armchair having watched slow-mo video replays. There doesn't appear to be much consideration given to what Marriner would have seen and the speed of the event in real time which determined his decision.

By all means compare our squad size to the top 4 teams, but also take into consideration that they effectively have two squads, because they are playing in Europe. When they overlap players with an extra game during the week, the result can be that those players are tired. Equally, running two campaigns simultaneously means a greater chance of injuries and suspensions.And when we talk about injuries to Forster and Pelle potentially being a massive problem, at least in the case of Forster, we could recall Boruc. And Rodriguez should be back in December, which if he's as good as he was, will equate to a new signing. All very well speculating on how we'd fare without Pelle, but aren't Di Maria. Costa, Fabregas, Aguera, Silva, etc prone to injuries? Last year, we didn't have good enough cover for Boruc, Lovren and Wanyama and suffered as a result. This year we have more depth to the squad in virtually every position, so the impact should be far less unless we are very unlucky.

There is no way to describe this match from our perspective without the use of superlatives; words like imperious and majestic spring to mind. Like many, I had been expecting a scrappy draw or a narrow win against a side that had been one of our bogey teams and which had this season one of the tightest defences in the division, having let in only 7 goals in their first seven matches. Anybody on here predicting pre-match that we would anihilate them 8-0 would have been labelled a delusional happy-clapper, a fantasist. And yet at the end, we Saints fans streamed out of the ground afterwards walking on air, aware that we had witnessed something special and historical and truly memorable. Match of the Day was especially enjoyable, the pundits informing us that we had not experienced a scoreline like this since 1921 and mentioning incorrectly that the next highest scoreline had been the "grey shirts" 6-3 Manchester United match. It appears to have passed into folklore that a scoreline like that against the glory-hunters could only be justified by such a flimsy excuse, but the grey-shirts match was the 3-1 victory 6 months earlier.The magnitude of the victory having been put into some sort of perspective we could enjoy the spectacle of the comedy value of some superb own goals, the systematic dismantling of a once tight defence and the subsequent ritual humiliation of Sunderland, whose manager and fans were praying for the final whistle to put them out of their misery. I can only imagine how gloomy and morbid the atmosphere on their coaches would be, making one of the longest away trips in the division. The match had started as a cagey affair, both teams evenly matched, maybe even with Sunderland shading it, but Virgile's comedy strike into his own net calmed our nerves and we started to gain momentum. Even after our second, it was still fairly even, although we were now starting to play with confidence and panache. Any plans that Sunderland had of parking the bus were long gone, because if they wanted a result, they had to come at us, but with the benefit of hindsight, had they tightened up the defence then and tried to salvage something by hitting us on the break, they might have avoided the humiliation of the final score. But this was a Poyet team, taught to try and play open, passing football, but also typically of his teams, capable of niggly fouls and players going down very easily in order to win free kicks, which certainly fooled the Ref. Luckily, our defence stood tall and their shooting was wayward. The pundits had worried that the number of our players who had been away on International duty could mean that they suffered from tiredness. Another factor might be the mental state of the team following their defeat in their last match against Spurs. Instead, there was nothing wrong with the mental attitude of players like Pelle or Tadic in particular, as they were raring to go and together orchestrated the passing and threat up top which was irresistible. As in many matches this season, one couldn't pick out a weak link in the entire team, so well did they play as a unit. Solid defence, strong midfield and a potent attack. Koeman again got his tactics spot on, making the substitutions at exactly the right time and urging the players on to score even more goals late into the match. Putting on two of the fastest attacking players in the division, Mane and Mayuke, against a tired and demoralised Sunderland was almost tantamount to sadism, and we were running them ragged by that time. We have to keep our feet on the ground and must not expect that we can repeat this performance against the likes of Stoke and Hull, but psychologically, we must have them nervous of playing us in this sort of form. Who do they mark in our team? We have players scoring from all over the pitch. We have some stern opposition coming up in a few weeks time, but again, our confidence could be sky high when we get to play them and some doubt and caution might creep into their minds. Apart from Chelsea, all of the other top teams have proven to be vulnerable. Our start to this season suggests that it is not improbable to come away with points against them. A top six finish looks increasingly possible and a top four finish doesn't look entirely out of the question.

That's almost as much as the revenue that the City of Portsmouth gains from every home match, isn't it?

HaHa! Nicola presenting his pubes!

So I didn't endorse Baird and Ostenstad as club legends? No, I didn't think so.

I implied nothing. If you wish to seek things in there like Fry, then that's up to you. Just because I express an opinion about one player doesn't mean to say that I have to write an essay on all the other players placing them into categories of whether they were fans' favourites or legends. Am I not allowed to pick one player from a list and express an opinion on him?

Did I say that they were club legends? No, I didn't think so. But I had mentioned that Amazon did. Perhaps you confused me with them.

Of course I was. I went to all the games at St Mary's on a ST during our progression from the third division back to the PL. He just seems to be the weak link in that collection of players who Amazon describe as "Legends" in their Foreword. He certainly isn't what I would describe as a club legend. He was an able servant during that upwards trajectory on the road back to the top, but then again so were several others like Fonte, Harding, Clyne, etc.

Is/was Jos Hooiveld a fans' favourite?

Read it properly. I don't recall Batman saying that we had to get excited/worried about the forthcoming fixtures, merely that they would place us in a good position for the run of harder fixtures that followed them. It also seems to have escaped your attention that Batman was merely echoing the sentiments of Nick Illingworth's article in The Ugly Inside, so why don't you have a go at him instead? Why aren't we? We fell short of the higher finish last season because of two or three crucial injuries and we have more depth of cover this season, so might well finish higher. Despite the turmoil over the Summer, most now accept that we have a better team and a better manager than we had last season. I couldn't care less if some have expectations of a mid-table finish, as that is their opinion. However, it is a bit sad that some are not excited by the prospects of improving on last season's finish, which begins to look increasingly tangible.

I tend to agee with you. Chambers was OK, no more. Clyne would have carried much more threat going forward out wide and if Hodgson had to play Townsend, then Clyne would have been a more potent weapon overlapping. The whole impetus of the game changed significantly when the Ox came on. I was amazed that Wilshere got MOTM. He was his usual waste of space self, continually running down blind alleys and failing even to find a way through the part time cobblers, taxi drivers and plumbers of San Marino. Wilshere epitomises the headless chicken type of style over the without frills but effective substance. But if Chambers is not as good as Clyne would have been, we ought to count our blessings that he is considerably better than Glen Johnson will ever be at this stage of his career.

I'm afraid that the real bullsh*t was what you posted when you went into an almost hysterical tizz during the summer. Being so drastically wrong in virtually everything you said then has rather devalued your opinions on the board now, so that few will take you seriously when you take cheap pot shots at them now.

Early nerves probably producing a dry mouth. But once he gets into his stride, his fluency improves considerably and he puts across the club's philosophy and plans very well. The attention to detail is somewhat reminiscent of that shown by Cortese. I wonder who was the instigator, Reed or Cortese?

You have a point if his quote about communication included the fanbase, but I suspect that it didn't. Circumstances were too complicated by the events to say too much at any given time, but he did say that monies received on player sales would be reinvested in new players and he urged us to be patient and wait until 1st September. Koeman had intimated that there were two or three players we hoped to get across the line by close of play and that did indeed come to pass. Certainly, like CB Saint, I have gained confidence from Les Reed's handling of a very difficult situation and what he has said during this conference session leads me to trust his ability to handle anything similar in the future.

This video proves that Les Reed is central to the success of the Club and that any doubts that fans had about him during the Summer departures were totally unfounded. Encouraging to hear how meticulous we are in our preparation and basic philosophy and that we have state of the art technology and equipment at our disposal. I also note that Benedikt Höwedes is a possible future addition, unless I misheard and he said Schalke 04 instead of Schalke's number 4.

You're quite right to be sceptical. Those usual suspects have that moaning disposition almost as an ingrown character trait. Regarding the media, they won't change either. They're already gearing up to make mischief over players like Clyne and even Mane, who has only been here 5 minutes. The more we build ourselves up, the more joy they will take in trying to destabilise us, in order to restore what they consider to be the natural order.