Wes Tender

Well, it had to happen sooner or later that our record breaking run of home wins came to an end and there is no embarrassment that it came at the hands of a team playing in the Premiership last season. However, but for the comedy blooper from Bart, we would have had the three points and still been in the hunt for the all time best home wins sequence in British football. Where we have had a couple of blips during these past few games, undoubtedly we would have been better today had Kelvin played and Lambert's presence showed once again why he is so vital to our cause and how we missed him the last game, but I also feel that we miss Chaplow too. Players like these represent the difference between an average team and a good team. For me today, the stand out players were Guly and Richardson. Apart from Bart, the rest of the team acquitted themselves quite well against well organised opposition who could have scored a couple more goals had half chances been taken. However, it must be said that there were several opportunities for us to have scored perhaps two or three goals ourselves. Hammond managed to scoop the ball over the bar from virtually underneath it and there were a couple of superb balls across the face of their goal that only needed a touch to convert them. Schneiderlin had a clear opportunity that he had carved out for himself, but hadn't the guts to shoot for some reason. And yet in the last match against Doncaster, Adkins had him up front for a while. The referee was also dire and there were a couple of decent penalty shouts we had. He also seemed pretty keen on punishing any contact with their players, whilst ignoring far worse fouls committed by Blackpool players. On the plus side, at the 70 minute stage I thought that we wouldn't get anything from the game, so a point right at the death was a giant relief. I understand that Hollow Way was incensed at the five extra minutes, but then he should tell his players not to waste time unecessarily when taking goal kicks, throw-ins and strolling off the pitch nonchalently when substituted. Great to find out later that whenever we stumble, West Ham do also, but their loss today actually widened the gap over them by a point I sincerely hope that Kelvin is back for the match against the Skates. After their win today against Burnley, they must fancy their chances of a win a bit more. If Chaplow was back too, I'd feel a lot more confident of a victory.

I thought that it was against forum rules to start multiple threads like this. There is already one that was started by this poster within a few minutes of this one and the same debate is being covered by both. Isn't it time to close one of them and tell the OP to behave himself?

Can you please stop quoting Dorkish, as I have him on ignore? I don't wish to re-read him regurgititating the same old crap ad-nauseum. As you rightly say though, if Cortese decides to expand and is backed up by the Liebherr family, then Dorkish can cough and splutter all he likes about what an idiotic waste of money it all is, but it will all be p*ss and wind against something that is a fait accompli. If it doesn't happen, then he can console himself if he likes, that his opinions were instrumental in Cortese's decision.

Well, we couldn't beat bottom club Doncaster, so why so confident we'll beat them?

Whilst doing my grand tour recently, I passed through part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to visit an ancient city called Prague in Bohemia. It seems that they play football over there too and for some light relief, I went to watch a local match. They had a pretty decent and skillful player on the wing. I am led to understand that his name was Rudolf Scacel. I wonder whether he might be pursuaded to join our beloved St Mary's team? I do believe that his involvement could be mutually beneficial.

Agree entirely. With luck, the little lad will be taken away from her, as she is clearly not fit to bring him up.

How ironically amusing that somebody who advises on the wisdom of taking one game at a time (FFS), was prepared last season at a similar or earlier stage to state that we had blown our chances of going up a division.

With luck, all of those teams will later on be looking at their fixture against us with a mixture of fear and trepidation.

Great news. He and Fonte have the makings of a very good partnership which blossoms match by match. A very good bit of business.

I'm certainly with you in wanting them to be playing in the Conference as punishment for their cheating. Whereas the way that the authorities have allowed them to get away with it these past few seasons is certainly no laughing matter, their current predicament as a result, is. Only the Skates could come up with such a pantomime collection of baddies and this last lot are almost the funniest of all. I have business contacts who support them and was astonished last year, that when asked whether their club coming so close to oblivion was worth the trips to Wembley and the FA Cup they won fraudulently, they said yes. What I want to happen, is that they will be forced so far down the leagues, that when asked that question, they will admit that the damage caused by their criminal overspending to buy that Cup and their few years in the Premiership was not worth it.

The Skates current parlous position regarding the succession of comedy owners they have had to endure of late and the match against them shortly, are two distinctly different entities. You infer that if they beat us at FP on the 18th, we will look pathetic laughing at them. Regardless of the outcome of that match, I'll carry on laughing at their position. In fact, if we lost, their current plight and what will follow on from it, are what would console me.

No doubt the Palace fans didn't think that they'd beat United away either. Last season we dominated United for 70 minutes, albeit at home, but then we were in the third division. If Palace are a better team than we are, why aren't they top? Cup competitions are sometimes a bit of a lottery, especially when the big teams underestimate their lower division opposition. I'm not saying that United fielded a weak team, what with the number of Internationals in it, but it certainly wasn't anywhere near their strongest team and what benefited Palace, was that most of the United players were not as used to playing together as the Palace players.

What a lovely result. It gives me a nice warm feeling inside, imagining all those United fans today waking up with long faces, in Tunbridge Wells, Margate, Taunton, etc. Not to mention all those in the Far East asking themselves "who are Crystal Palace?"

People who paid their hard-earned cash are entitled to express their opinions. Yes, we have had an incredible run this season and generally everybody is over the moon at how far we have come since Adkins arrived on the bus. But put simply, the game is an entertainment event and if the players seem not to be trying their best, then it is fair comment if people shout at them to pull their finger out. Rather than individual comments, I was more concerned at how flat the whole stadium was last night.

So let me get this straight. To justify a 44,000 seat stadium, we would need to fill it on a Tuesday night in the second division? Right.

The first half the atmosphere in the stadium was as flat as I've ever known it. It wasn't helped by Hull having only a small fairly quiet contingent and block 43 being our fans next to them. It was almost as if most of our fans were somehow nervous that our home record was going to tumble, accepting that Hull are a decent side and we came into this match on the back of a poor defeat by Bristol City. It wasn't helped either by a slow and seemingly languid start by the players. As others have said, Chaplow with his gutsy effort would have given a lift both to the fans and to the players around him. He's becoming a talisman, producing the spark that lifts us above ourselves. It was almost inevitable that Hull would score sooner or later, playing neat passing football in a similar vein to our normal game. They had a couple of decent opportunities before they scored at the worst possible time, just before half-time. But whatever Adkins said to them during the break produced the desired effect, together with the tactical change of bringing on De Ridder who added pace and some urgency to our game. Two early goals in quick succession, their sending off, the crowd rocking and the the whole game was turned on its head. But then 15 minutes later, the impetus seemed to leach away again and the atmosphere went flat again. But thankfully we kept that lead and gained the three points that kept us top, frustrating WH who for a brief spell were top of the league. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do to them what we did to Huddersfield last year; match them point for point. So we equal the achievement of the mighty Liverpool in having the best run of home wins in post-War history and do I understand correctly, we stand just four more wins from the greatest ever home run in British football history? It is achievable and would be something to be really proud of. But rather than the nail-biting stuff that we endured tonight, couldn't we do it with a bit more style? Perhaps we could with Chaplow back.

It's useless trying to get anything to penetrate that thick skull, Sue. Save your breath for somebody capable of intelligent debate.

Turkish is now on ignore, so I won't have to endure his childish, inane witterings any longer. I should have done it ages ago. It was amusing feeding the troll for a while, but I tire of it. Facing his taunts has been like being savaged by a dead sheep.

It's a marvellous scheme, this "Care in the Community" Do you enjoy, it Dorkish?

Ultimately, whether we have a stadium of 44,000 capacity, will have a damned sight more to do with whether Cortese gets the green light from the Liebherrs to go ahead with it, rather than whether Dorkish thinks that it is viable or not. I am sure that Cortese will be happy to consider all of those points that Dorkish has made as to why it is not practical, but if he does proceed with it regardless, then no doubt we will have to endure Dorkish telling us what an idiot Cortese is and that he knows nothing about football, the history of the game, etc.

Kindly point out anywhere where I said any of those things, troll? You can't, because I didn't. Dave, Dorkish will tell you, and you have to believe him or else you're delusional, that the hierarchy of the top four clubs, ManUre, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelski can never be overthrown. Who is this Manchester City you talk of? And where were Chelski before Abramovich? And nobody has told Newcastle and Spurs that they should know their place either. I think that he considers himself to be the natural successor to Deppo, but he doesn't have either the wit or the intelligence to carry it off. To be fair, Dorkish only accused people of daring to dream about such a future. I'm sure that most of us have our own little fantasies about our club. Sensible people might consider it extremely unlikely, but only somebody with a blinkered mind would rule it out as being impossible.

What a shame that you're so far away from realising that ambition. Never mind though, you're way ahead in the better fan stakes, as you went to Walsall that night, whereas I, with a family life, only mainly attend home matches as a long time ST holder. Yes, I do dream of better things for my club. Heck, they're already much better than they were a year ago when you were so pessimistic about us. Quite what a sense of reality has to do with age, I don't know. Your sense of reality was way wide of the mark last year and how old are you? I can imagine the tirade of juvenile abuse I would have got from you then, had I forecast that we would not only be in the second division next year, but also clear at the top at the end of November. But then this illustrates nicely why you have a long way to go to achieve your ambition to be a credible poster.

When is your mental age going to catch up with your physical age? If I didn't know otherwise, I'd have guessed that you were about 12. I never said anything along the lines that we could treble in size, or that we could be the new Barcelona. But you certainly said that we had blown our chances of promotion last season. I can't be arsed to dig it out, but I'm sure that most on here will remember the egg all over your face when they were reminded of your prediction recently, so your credibility is pretty low when it comes to predictions as to what is possible or not for us.

I corrected it for you Phil.

Yes, you can always rely on Turkish to add the square root of f*ck all to the debate. Mind you, he has been known to be wrong sometimes. He predicted on another thread that we wouldn't achieve promotion last year, so what would he know about the potential future of the club?