Wes Tender

People who aren't very computer literate aren't necessarily stupid. It would be stupid to assume that they are.

Thanks. Firefox works fine, but the browser with the problem was AOL. Could it have anything to do with Anti-malware or Spybot progs I now use? And I also get the tree logo now, so can try out the pic upload instead of using Tinypic. Here goes... Wow! It works

Whilst we're on the subject of helping those whose computing skills aren't comparable with your average 8 year old kid, (you know, the sort that can hack into the Pentagon's computer) can somebody assist me? For the past couple of weeks, I can't get anything from clicking the "Reply with Quote" thingy, except the round thing on the screen indicating that it is trying to download the new quote posting window. That can be there indefinitely without opening it. I can only get the quote reply thing to work by right clicking it and selecting "open". Why has that changed for me after all these years?

The Yanks produce some half-decent GKs. There is Tim Howard, Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Kasey Keller and this one:- Hope Solo. What a name for a goalkeeper; Hope springs eternal.

Good shout. If it had been scored for us instead of against, it would have been goal of the month. That combined with the penalty miss means that Best probably cost us promotion that season.

Well, I'm pleasantly surprised that despite three key players being absent through injury, we dominated the most expensively assembled team of superstars in English football for the majority of that match and I'm disappointed that we didn't get all 3 points. Having gone behind after just 10 minutes to a soft goal, I suspect that most would have expected that we could take a hammering, but we steadied the ship and didn't let our heads drop and came right back into the game. My biggest worry before the start, was that we might do without either Schneiderlin or Wanyama, as Cork could deputise for one of them and make a half decent pairing with the other. But I had my doubts that with both of them out, we could be effective enough against City to cause them concern. How wrong I was. Cork had a storming game, arguably a better one than Wanyama would have given us. He was like a terrier, relentlessly harrying the City players and then when he gained possession, spraying around a succession of effective passes to keep play moving. For me, it was one of his best games in a Saints shirt. Davis and Ward-Prowse were solid alongside him and Rodriguez' pace gave them some problems down the right flank. But the other two stand out performances came from Shaw and Lallana. Lallana in particular caught the eye with some superb runs at their defence, dribbling past them with the ball seemingly stuck to his feet, he was a real threat. Shaw has grown in maturity so much this season and much of our best play went up the left side through him. Chambers was a capable deputy for Clyne, but not with as much pace or forward momentum as him, but he carried out his defensive duties well enough. City possess World class players capable of running on to delightfully weighted balls over the top and on more than one occasion we could have been punished but for a mix of desperate last ditch defending and some poor finishing. But we also had at least as many opportunities to score and it is surprising that the score was only one apiece. Their keeper was the busier, thank goodness, because Gazzaniga worries me. There were a couple of balls early in the game that he failed to come for, leaving it to our CBs to deal with and apart from poor defending for their goal, Lovren and Fonte were again reliable. The Osvaldo goal was an incredibly skilful strike and must have done his confidence a lot of good, but he also missed a couple of sitters where he would have been expected to do better. Lambert offers something different, but the jury is still out on whether he and Osvaldo can play together in a Pochettino strategy. I think that today Pochettino got it right tactically. It was good to see a little cameo of Harrison Reed in the last few minutes and he showed some good skills and didn't look at all overawed by the calibre of the opposition. A few dodgy decisions by the ref and linesmen, but that is what you come to expect, especially when playing a glory club. But we can be justifiably proud of our team today and it will be an enjoyable watch on Match of the Day. And another point ahead of Manchester United after 15 games. Who would have predicted that at the start of the season?

Before this run of difficult fixtures, I would have expected a win against Aston Villa and maybe a point or two at least from the Arsenal, Chelsea and City fixtures, largely from optimism generated by our position so far and the 4 points taken from Liverpool and Man Ure. However, that would require us to have the best players all available and with key players like Boruc, Schneiderlin and Wanyama not available and having undergone 3 defeats in a row, I don't think that we will get anything from this match.

Isn't there any way that ALL posts by people on ignore can be hidden, even when quoted? Otherwise, there really is no point at all in the ignore function. Another thing I wouldn't mind having is a "like" or "dislike" feature.

I think that we need to raise the intellectual level of the forum. The one word should be changed from "Discuss" to "Debate"

Barry Sanchez - the last of the Flat-Earthers

186 posts and still it remains that it is pretty well only Barry, (apart from a smidgeon of CB Fry), who is doing his best St John the Baptist impression - the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

My response lumped you and Barry together (The Chuckle Brothers), so part of it was aimed at him and part at you. Your reference to the top four? Ollalana picked it up well enough, from your withering sarcasm questioning that clubs like those you listed weren't supposedly interested in the League Cup. His point was valid, that they had the wealth behind them to be able to afford the dpeth of squad enabling them to pick a squad strong enough to give them a decent chance of beating most teams they would encounter in that competition. If Southampton decided that they presently did not have that squad depth to make a realistic attempt at winning it this season and the priority was league position, then I respect that judgement. The other thing I'll throw right back in your face. You've got numerous years to look through, but find me some of these numerous moments when I have remorselessly slagged of the Daily Mail. About as funny as you are; funny peculiar.

What is really telling is that pretty well everybody is impressed and complimentary about the article and what it tells us about the club's management and ambition. All except Barry and CB Fry that is. To them, the important thing is that we haven't yet achieved the depth of squad of the top five clubs to enable us to win the League Cup, or it is an irrelevance the way that the club treats its players and their families, as the really important things that attract a player to a club are solely how much they are paid and the possibility of winning trophies. On past form, I'd say that the more that the Chuckle Brothers bleat about the way things are done here under the Cortese regime, the more I believe that they are going about it in exactly the right way.

If the Scots vote "no", then it is long overdue that the West Lothian question is addressed and Scottish MPs be disallowed voting on purely English matters. If this rampant Nationalisation by the SNP has some benefit at all, it will be that issues like this are placed firmly under the spotlight. I'm fairly ambivalent about the outcome provided that if the Scots and Welsh have their own Parliament/Assembly, so do we English, whichever way the vote goes.

I'm not altogether surprised that JW-P is mature beyond his years and erudite in interviews. His father is a Barrister, albeit in Portsmouth and despite them and him being supporters of the Skates, he otherwise will have had a good upbringing and education. Thankfully for him, his family decided to send him off the Saints academy, like fellow Skate Oxlade-Chamberlain before him.

I think we need to know more about his Pizza business and how much of his time it commands. http://www.moneyhouse.ch/en/u/pizzeria_vecchio_da_nicola_cortese_co_CH-130.2.011.271-0.htm

Spurs are a club who were massive many, many years ago and are now just quite big. The gap between them and the top three historically of Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool and the two more recent glory clubs of Chelsea and City is growing. The sightings of people wearing the shirts of those clubs largely indicates the volume of plastics there are supporting them, so they derive a considerable income from sponsorship, TV, merchandising, etc. In most of the countries around the World that I've visited, Spurs shirts don't feature that strongly compared to the others. I'd go as far as to say that probably Newcastle are better represented abroad than them. As you say though, things could be very different in 20 years time. If we were able to have a sustained run of top 5/6 fininishes over the next few years, beating those top clubs from time to time, we would raise our profile significantly and begin to generate the support of more plastics ourselves. It is the volume of plastics' support that really makes the difference, more than stadium capacity. It is early days this season still, but it is beginning to look as if Spurs without Bale are not the force they were, even with all of these costly replacements. It increasingly seems as if they are a team we could potentially finish above this season unless they improve or we falter and that is a scenario that wouldn't have even been contemplated by most at the start of the season.

Agree with this. Lallana was better than a 5, being lumped together with several other players whose performances didn't match his. Walker in particular was very poor and Cleverley not much better. Hodgson praised Lallana's performance and said that he was now in contention for a place in Brazil. Hart was good in some parts, poor in others.

The News :- So they report that there were over 800 who bought tickets, but only "scores" attended. Now, as a score is 20, then technically you can realistically only have enough scores to make 100, which next becomes hundreds when over two hundred is surpassed. So 800 is well and truly hundreds, not scores. This is the sort of innacuracy we have come to expect from the Skates whenever they bandie figures about.

I've never been impressed whenever I've watched him play and he's certainly not shown enough in any England games. As I say, he's only chosen to placate all the Man Utd plastics and only gets talked up in the media because of that. As you say, Lallana is head and shoulders the better player, more flair, more imagination, a better footballing brain, better attitude, etc.

I seem to recall reading somewhere in the dim distant past that Sotonjoe was a she. I might be wrong and it doesn't make any difference either way. But as Trousers illustrates, Sotonjoe does have form when it comes to posting this sort of rubbish.

Any poll that asks for people to vote on a Southampton player against a Man Utd and Liverpool player is generally going to be stilted by the votes of all the plastic supporters of those two teams. People who don't have the mental capacity to decide that their allegiance ought to go to their local team instead of the glory teams, are not ideal candidates to vote on polls which include players from their teams. But surprisingly at the moment it seems that there are enough neutrals voting who recognise that Lallana is the better midfielder than the other two. Cleverley in particular is absolute dross and only gets considered because he is a Man Utd player. No way would he be in contention if he played for a bottom half team, which is his level.

As others have pointed out, Micah Hall comes across as a bit of an idiot by indulging in rather feeble ripostes to a bit of prodding on Twitter. Which 4-1 victory of the Skates is he referring to? Is he harking back to some halcyon past glory 8 1/2 years ago, when Harry (freedom of Portsmouth) Redkrap's Saints team capitulated to them at Krap Nottarf? Presumably, as their other more recent one was a 1-4 scoreline, their illustrious FA Cup victory 3 1/2 years ago, when they as a Premiership team stuffed full of internationals beat the third division Saints who dominated 70% of the match? Just to refresh the memory the Skate team was:- D James, N Belhadj, H Hreidarsson (R Hughes, 89), P Diop, J Utaka (F Piquionne, 72), H Mullins, J O'Hara, M Wilson, H Yebda, A Basinas (Q Owusu-Abeyie, 58), A Dindane Subs not used: D Webber, D Tosic, N Kanu, J Ashdown As I recall, the then England Goalkeeper James made a series of wonderful saves that if otherwise conceded would have produced quite a different result. Also, they had a couple of players who shouldn't have even played for them because of some shenanigans or other, both of whom scored if I remember rightly. But what is even more interesting about that match is the sombre reflection that the idiot Hall ought to be undertaking, that those players that earned them Cup glory left them flirting with extinction and reduced them in such a short time to a fourth division side capable of being thrashed 4-0 by Wimbledon. We on the other hand are currently third in the Premiership with a team paradoxically that includes three players who featured in that Cup match. While Hall w*nks over his old DVD of whichever 4-1 victory it was, he should also acknowledge that it was truly a Pyrrhic victory.

I can tell you four nothing that they won't be very happy

Sums it up pretty well. Clyne would have to have done a better job than Johnson, who was caught out of position too often and he was the weak link on that flank. I suspect that Ward-Prowse would have added something beneficial to the midfield too. Townsend was largely ineffectual when he came on because he was closed down immediately, much as Saints close down players quickly. That wasn't surprising to see Chile play that way, once I'd hear the commentator mention that their manager, like Pochettino, was a disciple of Bielsa's. Roy had witnessed how we play and our league position is testimony to the effectiveness of our style of play against other teams who play the old English way. He is an intelligent man and must realise that if he can get England playing that style of football, it would be effective, but it requires the personnel capable of playing it and disciplined drilling. If he decides to change in the direction of that style, then it bodes well for our youngsters' futures.