eelpie

Fair, because all four clubs have a 1 in 4 chance of winning the play-off lottery, bearing in mind that all the teams, including Saints, are more or less equally inconsistant. Compares with the current four clubs in the play-offs, plus the team in second place (assuming that Brighton won't be overhauled on current form), have a 1 in five chance of finishing in the second automatic place. Then factor in consistency of wins, and that gives Bumpey the second automatic place - as things stand now..... Has to be fair, if not what we want to dwell on.

We are the biggest bigheads and think the league owes us promotion because we are very big, Skates are the biggest bums and Bumpey are the biggest success rate (so far).

Cup overfull on Devon ale Otters? I wish I could agree. We're hardly playing to our full potential when players' form remains inconsistant, our forwards are missing too many chances, and we concede possession as we did at Walsall (according to the BBC website). And we are weakened so long as Morgan remains injured. I have to agree with FF that something is missing. When Dean is at his best, as he was yesterday, we usually do well. His role in midfield is crucial to our success. When we secure more 1-0 and 2.0 wins I will heartily agree with you.

Another unfriendly attempt to destabilise Saints by R*****'s pals in the Daily Mail. And the Star was their source ffs.

Don't be mean to Rupert. He did sign George Weah's cousin after all......

I think Hammond is the key to success. FF was quite correct when he analysed our weaknesses and the lack of direction and organisation. Our defeat at Walsall seemed to follow a similar pattern to last Saturday's game. We start well, pepper the goalmouth without too much accuracy and fade. Adkins's subs including Morgan gave the team renewed energy and shape, and the goals followed. Unfortunately we don't have Schneiderlin now, so a lot rests with the inconsistent Hammond driving the team as a captain should. The bottom line is that the team needs sharper shooting practice.

Strikers of our quality should not be missing so many attempts at goal as they are creating. I've said it before - shooting school is not doing its job. And not offering that extra million for CMS is hurting us badly.

Millwall were promoted with lots of tight 1-0 wins and a secure defence, if I remember rightly. That would be ok with me, much as we all like to see goals. A 1-0 win tonight would be good.

Until Schneiderlin came on Saints were clueless and had conceded the centre to Swindon. Morgan sees the bigger picture and spreads the ball around quite successfully. It is remarkable that you have not noticed his improving, maturing strength and confidence, not least his positive tackling where it matters. It would be great if he added goalscoring to his qualities, and he will improve in this respect, but he does not need to score if he provides the fluency for others to get into scoring positions, which is why we ended up 4-1 winners. For me, I haven't seen enough of Fonte to comment, but have not been over-impressed so far.

I did say 'crop out all the non-players'!

That's the one. Twas you. My hat donned to you sir. Brilliant Now for FF to arrange for Ron Davies to do caricatures of the players in colour, crop out all non-players, and we have a brilliant cover design!

How about commissioning Ron Davies to do the cover design?

Who was it that designed the brilliant Seargent Pepper spoof back in Keith Legge's forum? There you have your designer, and (updated) design. And for title, simply The Saints!!

+ 1 for the first bit. But NA might have had no choice about signing F & N if there was no additional money, and we needed that off-the-bench pace. NA has had no real money to sign players since he arrived. He did however persuade Adam and Ox to sign invaluable extensions. I agree our weakness compared to Brighton (and others) is that we did not significantly add to our striker strength, with a Noone-like signing. And that may be our downfall.

My gripe about January is that we failed to buy a sharpshooter. It may well prove that the extra million being asked might have been a bargain if we miss second place. Back to shooting practice boys. Or we're doooooomed.

So Kelvin is tonight's hero. But for his fantastic save we would have LOST. Kelvin may bashers apologize if you wish.

That's why they're called Pool. Saints in white I see - seem to have shrunk somewhat in the rain, as have their supporters.

At times like this I would prefer that postponed Saturday matches were postponed to the following day on the Sunday (as waterlogged pitches could well dry out by then - I bet Rochdale's pitch is playable today). Terrible inconvenience for us traveling fans who would have to chance staying somewhere overnight, but we really can't afford more than four more postponements, as we would then have to play TWO midweek games as well as the weekend before the end of season.

I do find the Benali/Liebherr owned club's 'symbiotic relationship' bizarre being that Frannie is so close to MLT and by association to MLT's consortium that failed to buy the club and so frustrated the Liebherr negotiations. Presumably there must have been attempts by both sides to mend matters which at some time must have gone wrong. This is a tragedy for all parties - and the club - and us. A cooling down period is needed. I'm not sure that this thread will help in that respect. Do we need to know the details? For what positive purpose?

Daily Mail stirs up another anti-Saints rumour - shock revelation. What will be the next one?

oooo, handbags

An ex Saint will rob us of our second place if he can, you bet. We should have signed him.

Maybe. But a team gets easy goals by putting themselves in positions to score - and not missing. Unfortunately Saints are ballooning too many shots at the moment. When you compare the number of shots on and off target we should be scoring for fun. This is why we are not currently in the top two.

In all honesty, on current performances over five matches, I feel we will lose in the play-off final. Not because I do not think that we are not good enough, but because the team is underperforming. Without Lallana and Morgan in the side, as in the first half yesterday, the team looks bereft of ideas and mission. Our shooting skills are quite abysmal when it matters. If the team do not improve in this basic technique we are going to miss out. It is easy to score against Posh who leak goals but we should have had several against Carlisle. Get it sorted, Nigel. Sunday morning shooting practice until corrected, is Doc Eelpie's prescription. Does it matter? Yes, we are back to relying on Ricky for goals (and thank goodness he's found his goal-scoring self again) Our rivals, Charlton, Bournemouth and Huddersfield are finding form at the right time. BWP (who we should have signed) is free scoring at Charlton and they are our main threat imo. Our two matches with them towards the end of season will define our season.

8 points from 5 games is 1.6 points per game. Not good enough.