Wes Tender

You mean that apart from the two penalties he missed and the Lallana goal it wasn't D'Urso who cost us the game. And as you admit that D'Urso only turned round when he heard the crowd baying for blood, as he didn't see what had led up to the incident, perhaps he ought to have consulted his linesman, you know, the one who hadn't seen the Lallana goal.

You don't blame D'Urso on the one hand and then state that in your opinion he should have awarded a penalty to us and one to them. So perhaps you provide the ammunition yourself for agreeing that his performance in that game was sub-standard. He also missed the Lallana goal. And if he was wrong with those three decisions, why couldn't he be wrong about the Lambert sending off? Yes, there is the letter of the law regarding a player striking another player's face, but as I have argued before, cannot there be a situation of face to hand, in the same way that a hand or arm touching a ball can be deemed to be ball to hand? And isn't El-Adb's action in bringing him down and then preventing him getting up to be considered in mitigation? And how can you say what Lambert's conscious decision was? Can you read his mind? My reading of it was that his conscious decision might well have been to slap the ground in anger and frustration, but that El-Adb got in the way and massively exaggerated the contact to get Lambert sent off. Either D'Urso didn't see what actually led up to what he thought happened, in which case he is guilty of poor refereeing as he was with the Lallana goal, or his judgement was at fault for not realising that by his theatrical play-acting, El-Adb was faking in order to deceive him.

As I suggested earlier, there is a very simple test that the FL should implement for them to be satisfied that the new owners are suitable to pass the FAPPT; they should insist that the payment of the first installment of the CVA be paid immediately, rather than a few months down the line. If they have the funding available to buy the club, then they should be able to make that payment now.

Well, if they were, then that will be two divisions separating us.

You'll only be renewing rivalries with us if you're unlucky enough to draw us in one of the cup competitions. Because we will be in the division above you.

Firstly, the article is in the Guardian. Secondly, it is by Polly Toynbee. No further comment is necessary.

Interesting comparison with Grant Holt. For some time now I've thought how much they looked like brothers appearance wise too. Technically, I think that Lambert has more in his armoury than Holt, although that is not to take anything away from Holt, whose contribution to Norwich's success has been immense.

Perhaps he'd feel more at home living near Skatesmouth? And another thought; Being a Japanese national born in Korea, is his favourite fish dogfish?

So a rumoured takeover of the City's football club only rates a mention on the second page of that City's newspaper? As for the FAPPT, in view of the succession of dodgy owners that this particular club have had, this latest shower ought to have to prove that they have the funds available. Perhaps the way that could be done, is for them to pay the first installment of the CVA which is due soon anyway.

We should be a bit more ambitious than signing him. He didn't impress much last night. We're top at the halfway stage, so should cast an eye towards signing a striker who would help us get to the Premiership and shine there. Considering the financial returns for being there, we ought to make an investment of some of that Chamberlain money to help ensure our automatic promotion.

Given that Man Utd couldn't beat a team from the division below, when they were playing at home, the rest of their season is going to be a real struggle. At least, following your line of reasoning it would be.

Exactly how I saw it. I also thought I'd sleep on it too and perhaps that might have been beneficial for some of the wrist-slashers who couldn't wait to wail and gnash their teeth as soon as they got back to their keyboards. Let's try and get some perspective to this; it has been a fabulous season so far and very few people would have been confident enough at the start of the season to have predicted that we would have reached the end of the year in first position. And then they would have been dismissed as happy-clappy lunatics for daring to do so. And because of circumstances beyond his control, like Chaplow being out, Lallana not firing on all cylinders for example, Adkins has suddenly lost the plot according to some simpletons, who ignore the feat he has achieved in getting us to the top. Some also appear to have forgotten that the January transfer window is about to open. Do they not have confidence in the club to bring in the players that might make a real difference? Obviously not, as some idiots are already predicting that it will be a difficult second half of the season, that we might not make the play-offs, that we are headed to mid-table and all that before the transfer window has even opened. I feel pretty confident that if some internet warriors on here can tell us where we are coming up short in the team and where cover is needed, then the professionals employed by the club can see it too. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we signed a player or two who hadn't appeared on the radar. One benefit of the game last night was helpful though. It seems clear to me that Maynard is not up to the standard that we require.

Another rip-off I've just encountered; Just booking flight tickets for the family and when it comes to paying for it, there is a 2.5% charge for paying by credit card. That comes to £52.99 and bears no relationship to the cost of administration, especially when all the form-filling is done online. Apparently there is a campaign currently to outlaw these sorts of charges and also to make it clear at the outset what they are, instead of at the payment stage.

Ah. Didn't see the other thread. Delete then mods, as apart from the interest from Newcastle, this is all old ground. Pardew obviously believes that any player identified by our European scouting network is worth them looking at too, which could be considered a compliment.

Apparently, both us and Newcastle are after signing a young Dutch keeper. http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/newcastle-southampton-contact-fc-volendam-keeper-robbin-ruiter-2586431?utm_source=feed_newsnow

Based on the premise spouted by experts on the subject that players are just like Supermarket shelf-stackers and will change jobs for an extra £1 an hour, why is it then impossible for us to sign this sort of player, provided that we offer the metaphorical extra quid?

This. Nothing at all wrong with putting down a marker that this is the sort of player we want. The European scout Friis-Hansen says: OK, so this player will probably go to an existing Premiership club, but a clear indication will be out there that we are ambitious and that this is the sort of player we are after, furthermore, that we could afford both the signing on fee and his wages. If indeed we are after him but don't get him, then it will have cost us nothing to gain the free publicity that signals our intent to other players who might be targeted in future.

I suspect that thou doth protest too much as you have made yourself look a bit of an idiot for accepting the criticism of some Celtic fans as "evidence" instead of opinion. The sensible people who contributed to that thread, expressed the opinion that he couldn't have been that bad as he had played elsewhere at Champions League level. You had already decided that he "sounds pretty awful" but hey, you were magnaminous enough to be prepared to see him play. Perhaps in future your line will be the more circumspect one, that you won't pass judgement on a player until you have actually seen him play for us. That in turn will give some credit to the people at our club who make the decision to buy in or loan these players. As far as I can see, their decision making has proven to be pretty spot-on, Jos being just one case in point.

Cork by a country mile, then Schneiderlin, then Richardson and Hooiveld

Appleton bemoans that they were deprived of a point against Millwall, because N'Guessan pushed Mullins before scoring the only goal of the match. http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Sport/Football/Championship/Portsmouth Don't I recall that some Skate defender was guilty of a blatant push on Lambert in their box, where we had a decent shout for a penalty? You're right, Appleton, these things appear to even themselves out over a season, but you've already had your bit of good fortune against us and considering that it was the local derby, consider yourself lucky and stop bleating. Otherwise you'll look like a hypocrite, complaining about the Millwall defence doing something that your defence did the week previously.

This is as knee-jerk as a reaction could be. And just to correct you; it wasn't based on the available evidence. It was based on opinions expressed on the Celtic fans' forum. So only one poster said that he was sh*t, but others thought that he sounded rubbish, or hoped that he signed for somebody else. Could I perhaps paraphrase that as them thinking that he was sh*t, or is that taking comprehension of the language too far? Had he signed for Palace as rumoured, perhaps we wouldn't have scored the two free headers yesterday. How ironic would that have been?

But there is certainly an element of truth in it. I can recall several on here who were prepared to make snap judgements without having seen him kick a ball for us and I don't see many of them admitting that they had been too hasty. Probably not in their nature to eat humble pie.

Many have Morgan as the MOTM, but I thought that Cork was even better. He was responsible for some great ball-winning tackles and showed the same sort of spirit and endeavour that epitomises Chaplow. But with Schneiderlin beside him, he and Cork were winning the battle for possession in midfield. As Chez says, how did the Beeb have it as only 52% possession? I'd have thought more like 65% at least. Kelvin didn't have a serious shot to save, the defence was rock solid, the midfield dominant. It was only up front that we didn't flatter. Too often, the ball was played towards the box and when a good shooting opportunity arose from it, the player receiving, preferred to pass sideways rather than having a shot. Lambert did not have much fall for him, but proved to be effective in other ways with his strong holding play, positioning and movement causing problems for his markers. Likewise Lallana was also not at the races either, but both he and Lambert provide enough threat by themselves to tie up defenders and Guly is just one man too many to mark as he was today, where effectively because of two pin-point crosses, he had free headers for both goals. I can't remember another game this season where we had such an abundance of very accurate long cross field passes picking out a wide player in space. De Ridder was often the target, but although he had a decent enough game, I wish that he would take the ball to the byeline a bit more often rather than cutting in. That ability is something that we have come to expect from Richardson and his crossing from the byeline this season has been a potent weapon, resulting in more than a few goals. The result was good as a confidence booster after a few glitches in the past few weeks and good to get back to winning ways at home after the last draw. What a shame that we couldn't have won that match and continued the record breaking run, but there must be other records for unbeaten home matches beckoning too. Regardless of whether West Ham win, we are still setting the pace in this division and frankly it doesn't matter what they do provided we keep winning. It would really be nit-picking to mention that the referee was really appalling. We had occasion a couple of times to sing "you don't know what you're doing" and Palace were even inclined to chant that too. I liked the left side lino though; he didn't appear to know when we kicked the ball out, especially in the first half, much to the annoyance of the Palace fans. The past few home matches, the atmosphere has been very flat. Why is that? We're top of the league halfway through the season, playing some exciting football, looking eminently capable of making a sustained go at going up as champions on this form. Sometimes a reason for a flat atmosphere is that block 43 is filled with JCLs, or that there is an empty block between 42 and the away fans. But Palace brought good support which was right up against block 42. Perhaps they didn't make enough noise to get us to reciprocate.

That would be Kutis I would imagine. But for me the best curry within the Southampton area is the Coriander Lounge.

Surely the Football League is a type of club which is entitled to make up its own rules as to how it is to be run? Therefore I wonder on what grounds clubs could challenge any rulings that it makes. And if the rules are changed to prevent clubs having an unfair advantage over others, (as the Skates had) by spending money they cannot afford, it ought to be difficult to find a court which would favour not allowing those changes.