polegategavin

That's clever considering even now it is only 83 minutes gone, and the subs have been on for nearly ten minutes now.

Pardew has just been nominated for manager of the month - would that happen if we were as poor as you are suggesting? We fans are so quick to knee-jerk reactions it is untrue, for most fans last sunday Pardew was almost a god for steering us to a win, now he is suddenly cr*p.

The team you need to look at is Swindon, look at their next 4 or 5 games. I believe the defeat against Tranmere was the final nail in our play-off aspirations. However, if Swindon and Huddersfield have a difficult March, and we put that defeat behind us and win most of our March matches then who knows......

Would anyone have believed on the day that Leeds beat Man Utd in the FA Cup that they would then go on a run of 1 win in their next 8 league games, but that is where they find themselves today (after the Brighton game). The pressure builds as the season enters the final third of the season. Strange results start to occur, i.e. Wycombe beating Millwall, Stockport beating Exeter away (first league win since October!). If Saints can go on an exceptional run of form, which wouldn't be too surprising considering our form is 11 wins from our last 19 league games, with a changing team, and in AP's words on friday, for the first time for 4 or 5 weeks the ability to now play his best 11 every game. If we can win our next 4 matches then I firmly believe the pressure will build on the teams in 5th to 8th position, as we will be close behind them. Tuesday - MK Dons v Millwall Saturday - Huddersfield v Leeds Tuesday 2nd - Saints v Huddersfield Saturday 6th - Walsall v Millwall Tuesday 9th - MK Dons v Swindon These are in the next 4 match days. So as you can see these teams can take points off one another, so they can't all win every game, and then they will be playing teams fighting for their survival. Let's just see what happens, but I still think we have a chance if we go on a strong run of form from now 'til the end of the season. Draws will be very hurtful from now on, it does require us to win 2 out of every 3 games from now on, this would give us 11 wins , if we then drew 5 of the other 6 games this would give us a further 38 points and 75 points for the season. This will be extremely close to the play offs, and could yet sneak in.

Using your theory we were -18 points, as we were on -9 points after 3 matches against Leeds/ Charlton's 9 points. What is your point? If we were to win all our remaining games you could argue similar to Norwich's current situation, but the truth is still that Pardew joined less than 2 weeks before our first game, and has replaced all but 3/ 4 of our first team squad from last season, and then had to start turning the ship around. Lambert inherited a squad that had mainly played and trainined together for 6 to 8 weeks before he arrived. Not the same situation at all. The trouble is fans can look for excuses and meaning wherever they want to look. The fact is, as another thread highlights we have lost 3 in 25 matches currently, which is a good as any team in this league. If we continue in that vain we could reach the play offs yet. Will you be disappointed if we did? I know for sure I would be delighted, like I am with the way my club is developing from a position of near oblivion in the summer.

One, because we started the season on minus ten points, and secondly we have only signed 4 players within the past two weeks and they take a liitle time to gel (see AP's preview interview today where he says just that), thirdly and finally, you can't always get what you want or expect in terms of results. In a one off game (which every match is in isolation) anything is possible. I still firmly believe we will be either one of the play-off teams or within 4 or 5 points of the play-offs at the end of the season, as we gel we will start to win most of our matches, and the 6 or 7 teams from 3rd place down to 9th have got to play one another during the remainder of the season.

Or more importantly that is his agent's job, that's what they pay them for. If he doesn't have an agent in this day-and-age then more fool him, he must be the only professional football who doesn't!!

QPR perhaps?!?!

As did a few thousand others, it was quite funny hearing the shoot request drift from behind the Chapel goal and around into the Kingsland stand, followed by Thomas deciding to do just that and let fly! It was just as if the crowd had forced the ball towards the goal. This did not come out in the ITV highlights, you couldn't hear this request from the crowd! Had us chuckling after the game when we talked about it.

I would expect the following line-up; Davis Thomas - Jaidi - Fonte - Mills Lallana - James - Gillett - Holmes Barnard - Lambert Subs - Bart, Perry, Harding, Wotton, Antonio, Waigo, Otsemebor

I am concerned that there is no mention of any signings today, particularly a central midfielder, as AP suggested in the Ipswich preview that Wotton would have to be rested tomorrow evening and we only have youngsters to replace him - unless Gillett is played in that position? I honestly expected a signing before lunch time today to make them eligible for Brentford away!

Spot on her, Chez is right that he didn't track back as much as some would have liked in the second half, but I think this was a deliberate tactical change implemented by AP. My nephew said to me at half time that we were far too narrow in the first half, coupled with the fact that we were too defensive. Second half you could see that Saints put Ipswich on the back foot for long spells by being more attacking and playing wider, and until Antonio came on on the right wing, all of our focused attacking was through Holmes or using Lambert's flick ons. Holmes had their right back (Rosenoir) on the back foot which hadn't been the case in the first half, and is why IMHO Keane substituted Edwards for Martin half way through the second half. IMHO Holmes will be a key part of our success for the rest of the season. It will be interesting what AP does with Lallana, but IMHO he looked jaded yesterday, and may well play one game per week with Holmes playing the other for the next few weeks. Yesterday was my first visit to St Mary's this season, I know I'm ashamed, but I shall be there far more regularly from now on, and I'm really excited about the rest of the season.

It is going to be an exciting remainder to the season, as we are going to be playing attacking football then. The only way we are going to win 14 to 16 of the remaining 21 games is to play attacking football, particularly at home. IMHO we need a creative midfielder and possibly a wide midfielder to add to the squad if we have a chance of doing this, and I feel we will try to make these signings before the end of the week to ensure we have them for as many games as possible, as well as the fact that we have lost Hammond for at least a couple of league matches. I am not in the know but feel we will see more transfer activity this week!

We still seem extremely light in midfield when you look at the subs bench, don't you think?

I'm not going to try and question your comments anywhere else, but surely this is the point that all the contributors are making is that because WE all thought he was going to be a resounding success because of his history, that they were so disappointed with losing in the play offs, and then struggling the following season. This doesn't make him a cr4p manager, as with the vast majority of sacked managers down the years, just that he didn't match the expectations of the fans. My feeling is that we have moved on from that part of our history, history will remain the same regardless of what is said or done afterwards. The king is dead, long live the king.......sums it up for me. I live in the present and all I care about is what the Saints do this weekend when we face Charlton.

Just to correct an error here - it should read 26 games and it would 1.35 points per game. It does make some difference to all the arguments here!

Can I turn this idea on it's head metaphorically. If Man Utd or Liverpool were in the same position in the Premier League, i.e. bottom having not won any of their first 6 matches, would anyone suggest that they would definitely get relegated. Of course not. In fact most football supporters would expect them to find form very soon and starting stringing an unbeaten run together and start climbing the division, and in fact would expect them to finish in the top 4 as a minimum. If you go back to the 2007/08 season both Man Utd and Chelsea had pathetic starts to the season, first 4 or 5 matches, but still finished in the top 3, with Man Utd winning the title. This near histeria reaction we get from some fans is incredible, and I realise that every club has a core that react this way, it is either champions form or utter cr4p and we'll be relegated. During pre-season the majority of fans were saying that they were delighted that we had a club to support, and they would give Pardew as much time as he needed to rebuild our club, and ensure long term success and progression. Suddenly a month later because the results have been disappointing, some of those same fans are now declaring that we will be relegated and that it is a tradegy what has happened. I firmly believe that we will start winning games soon, and that we will win more than half our games for the rest of the season, as the team gels and the confidence grows. If however after 15 games we are still struggling, and have won fewer than 5 games then I will have to re-evalute, but until then I shall be patient and let Pardew do his job and implement his style of play and implement his strongest eleven. From what I have seen, albeit the extended highlights on Saints Player, since the Swindon game, we have had the lionshare of possession, played some neat football, just not had the cutting edge, or luck/ bounce of the ball, when in the danger area. We have been more and more secure defensively. All this considered IMHO I believe things will become far more positive sooner rather than later, I don't believe we shall be concerned about playing Charlton, just well prepared and up for the battle.

And remember c11,000 of these are season ticket holders who will be counted within this number. I can't believe this is going to be the crowd for saturday, apathy can't have set in yet can it?

I think the season it is just been an unfortunate scenario, where the club had very little pre-season, but over the past week there has been a big improvement (beginning with Brentford at home) where we could have won all the matches and this will continue with Colchester IMHO. We will now be the stronger team, and with the further signings made this week we will be a winning team far more often than not. Part of the problem for us all as fans is that we have been so used to not winning matches for the past 4 of 5 years, that we can't believe that it will change. I firmly believe we are at the cusp of the change in fortunes and that a period of success will follow. I genuinely believe Pardew has been the best move for this club, and the more I see and hear about his methods the more impressed and excited about our future I become. He is the first manager since Pearson that seems to have his finger on the pulse and the first manager since Strachan that I believe can take us as far as we dare to dream, of course with the support of Liebherr.

Spooky how quickly I was proved right. I was not ITK however, just have felt with Pardew that he has identified what was needed and has been working hard since day one to sort it out. I still believe we will sign another striker/ winger in the loan to permanent method, and that Saga will leave on loan, but would be delighted to see Saga stay.

I firmly believe that 1 or 2 players that AP was attempting to sign yesterday, will still arrive in the coming weeks via a loan deal, with an option to purchase them at the end of the loan spell. One of them will be a right winger IMHO and another will be a striker, as I think Saga will leave on loan to a CCC as well.

It does seem convenient that he has signed "subject to WP clearance" on the day of/ morning following the transfer window closing. I do wonder whether he was holding out for other clubs from CCC to make an offer to him, and realised yesterday, through his agent, that this wasn't going to happen. I'm still delighted that he has signed and believe he will be 100% committed from here on in.

Selected as the NOTW right back in the team of the week. I realise we are talking about a tabloid paper however most comments for the match against Stockport highlighted a very good performance from him in that position, and he played right back for Burnley for the majority of his time there, and when we signed him as a "centre back" the Burnley forums were puzzled. So it is very useful to have him as back up for both right back and centre back. I would not be surprised to see a back 4 of; Harding - Jaidi - Trottman - Thomas and I for one will be delighted with this and firmly believe that this back 4, and Murty slotting in once fit, will keep more clean sheets than not for the next 5 months, giving us the base from which to start winning games. I heard last night, whilst watching the Newcastle - Leicester match that Leicester last season went 23 games unbeaten. There is no reason that we can't from mid September, lets say, go on this kind of run, and then find ourselves in the play off positions by easter next year.

Always scored against Saints though.....

If I were you I'd have the Samaritans on standby, if things in your world are so black and white. I assume from your comments on this thread that unless we had won at least 4 of the 5 matches so far you would be saying we are doomed. Remember even 5 wins would have put us on 5 points (just outside the relegation zone). If you are going to tell me that 5 wins would have been acceptable, what happens if we were to win the next 5 games, would that then be acceptable? No-one can tell what is going to happen in the future, and so we can't know where we will be in the league in another month, but I strongly believe on the basis of the last week (Brentford, Birmingham and Stockport) that there has been massive improvement in the performance in these games. Some people seem to be upset when we don't play flowing passing football, and then are unhappy when we don't grind out a result, well you can't have both throughout a game, but the signs in the last week is that we are becoming far more solid but are beginning to play good football, and just need to finish moves off more ruthlessly. We had 18 shots to Stockports 10, and we were the away team. IMHO we will start to win games comfortably, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if we were able to beat Charlton and Leeds in a week or two as we improve. Why oh why some of our fans have to make their mind up after only a handful of games is a mystery to me, yes we have been starved of success for some time now, but form as they say is temporary. Pardew said at the start of the season that he is breaking the season up into 6 game sections, and although he wont be satisfied with the first 6, it doesn't mean that the next 6 or the 6 after that will follow the same pattern. Lets just wait and see..... As others have said lets see where we are after 10 and then 15 games and this will provide a much clearer picture of the season ahead. Before tuesday afternoon, we will hopefully sign another player or two, and will have Mills and Holmes fit again, so we will be stronger and on the back of the last 3 games I believe we will finish in the top half of the season, and depending on the performance of 10 or 12 other teams that will finish between 3rd and 12th we could finish in any of these positions, particularly if Leeds and Charlton run away with things and take most points away from these other teams.