Village Saint

The whole point here I would have thought is that there was no panic and indeed we won the game. Dagenham had defended stoutly throughout the game but were very unadventurous with 1 up front. When they went 2-0 down they had no alternative but to lump it forward and get bodies in the box. Inevitably that is going to lead to the possibility of chances. They scored one and nearly got another when that free-kick came back off the bar (although it would have been criminal if that had gone in!) but they had no other clear chances (the back pass that hit the post was well covered by Kelvin!) and Saints defended stoutly in a way they wouldn't have done last year and then coolly went forward and scored again. Overall it summed up the difference between last year and this - in particular I compare it with the Wycombe game (although to be fair Dagenham were a bit better than Wycombe) that we got 1 point from last year.

And of course Dickson's characteristic lack of concentration in defence led to their goal.......

Excellent point but then that is the sort of nonsense you get on here. Ryan Harley isn't a bad player and at 25 is at the peak of his career. He has done nothing in that time to suggest that he is significantly better than a League 1 player. Morgan is much younger and still developing. He has excellent games but shows the inconsistency of his youth and needs to kick-on in the next year or two. Harley does not represent a clear advantage over Morgan. Why would we want to change them? Hammond isn't quite so young; he could do with a rest as it looks as if he has been run into the ground this season. Getting Chaplow in to allow that to happen seems sensible and if we could get someone in - like Norris or Stock - who would definitely add something it would be worth getting one more in in the centre of the park but players that are that likley to work dont grow on trees. Just changing players for the sake of it is not how you build a club or a team.

You won't like it but the very simple fact is that since the team has been under Atkins' influence we have played 15 games; won 9; drawn 3; lost 3. That form from the start of the season would put us 2 points clear at the top and sustained over the season would make us champions. Good enough for me. Some crisis.

Morgan is already one of our best players and at his age is simply going to get better. We have more than enough midfield players who hustle and bustle but who don't contribute enough quality. Morgan seems able to rise above that. As well as his role as a ball winner and passer, he performs a role that every good side needs that of the recycler - he picks up broken ball and ensures it stays with us as useable ball. We simply always play better with him in the side and that is a key reason. It is sad that some people almost seem to prefer Chaplow - that actually shouldn't be the choice - which is odd. Chaplow seems enthusiatic enough, as he is when he first joins any club, and some people seem to simply like players who run about but having two enthusiastic/mindless (depending on your point of view) runners in central midfield isn't a good blend and in the end Chaplow's stays at all his recent clubs have ended with misgivings about a lack of consistent quality.

At last someone without tunnel vision. To compare Ricky with the hapless Guly is absurd. Lambert was excellent in nearly every department against Brighton, for example, holding the ball up well; playing nice little switches with Dickson and Lallana. What is true is a) that he'll never have exceptional pace and b) that he isn't scoring at the phenomenal rate he did last year (and yes that is disappointing for a centre-forward) but his all round play is one of the reasons why we have the best record in the league currently (9-2-2) and it really is fractions that make teh diffrenece. Again against Brighton there was one brilliant bit of movement where he completely lost his marker and gave himself acres and acres of space to reach Richardson's cross and guide it in. Sadly he marginally mistimed the jump and got under it. All strikers go through these phases and I would bet on Ricky to get through it but maybe he wont and then we can look at it again. No need for panic yet though and I rather think he has done enough to be worth giving a chance to.

Over the last 12 games our record is 8-2-2. It is the best in the entire league. For god's sake get a sense of proportion. If over the next 24 games our record is 16-4-4 we will be leading the table with 5 games to go. Basically it is difficult to see how CURRENTLY we could be doing any better! There simply is nothing to moan about

I am confused here. Okay left-back certainly isn't as articulate as Mark Dennis and indeed most of his sentences are not coherent but he clearly has some computer skills or he wouldn't be posting on here!

No not in the past. He has scored 6 this season - instrumental in putting us where we are. He was the class player on the park on Saturday and he will undoubtedly be amongst the top 3 or 4 scorers in the division at the end of the season but heh why don't we just drop him for the hell of it and make winning this league that much harder. Absolute madness.

Intertesting defintion of no activity in the transfer market. Since the END of the transfer window by when we had clearly the strongest squad in the division In: Nigel Atkins (not cheap!) Chaplow Bignall but of course we haven't bought anyone permanently. Could that perhaps be because that would be against the rules!

Indeed also probably these are the same people clamouring for Ricky to be dropped;he wasn't and on Saturday we saw why - a sublime performance worth every single penny of the cost of getting there and getting in. Harding did make a couple of mistakes very early in the season but not since and I have seen no reason at all to prefer Dickson. It would be stupid beyond measure to ruin a potential gem like Chamberlain. How he is being used at present is just right.

We are the second top side in League One on current form. There are some weirdly pessimistic people on here I know but by no definition is that struggling. Why on earth would we want to disrupt the side to bring in someone who, despite his obvious talent at his peak, is over 36 and was the type of player who relied on the asset of his pace. He has shown nothing in his career so far to suggest he would do what Paine or Ball did, for example, which was to become a different sort of player when over 30 - someone who sat in the middle and orchestrated things around him. I personally hope that our management team, are not wasting their time in even thinking of signing this irrelevance but are concentrating on getting the strongest squad the division has playing better together and in the style that the manager wants.

Like you I just dont get the idea that some people have about Healey. Frankly I am shocked he has scored as many as 6 as he has probably only played about 80 games in that time and I would have expected his strike rate to be nore like 1 every 20 games. He is frankly pants and I have just never been able to understand why some many managers have been prepared to pay so much for him. Bringing him in would simply block a starting place that could be used by Lambert to work his way back to his best form, do Prado to continue his adjustment to English football or Barney to finally show he is worth a starting place.

As indeed I pointed out at the time this really was Rupert's masterstroke - getting 1.3m for a player who was never likely to play seriously again! Although didn't he also negotiate £8m for Dean Richards or was that before his time? So even the evil duckhunter occasionally did something in our interests.

Actually it is pretty well ALWAYS because they failed in their previous jobs indeed - exactly like both Strachan and Pardew before they joined us. A lot of c£$p has been talked about the difficulties over the Adkins appointment. So far there haven't really been any. Saints have interviewed a few managers. They offered the job to Adkins and almost certainly no-one else (he would certainly always have been my first choice - given that MON was never coming here). At that point compensation had to be agreed (no point in agreeing it before offering the job as their were too many being interviewed). No doubt his current Chairman is making a last ditch effort to get him to stay; he might even be swayed. We will find out in due course. Very straight forward and sensible behaviour by all parties but not instant enough for the 10 second concentration span generation and also not something that wouldn't make a good story in the papers or even on this board hence all the silly stories; pretend controversies.

I can't believe I am defending Alpine but no 'news' was reported only a made-up rumour in which the OP has mistakenly put 'mouth' were he meant 'arse'.

Has he signed yet? Stock that is.

You mean pedants!

I actually presumed that that was some sort of absurdist joke. Having been an avid reader since the Forum's inception I think it pretty safe to say that there has never been a consensus in favour of Lowe - the very idea that there was one anywhere (except perhaps in the Lowe household) is itself absurd. As for whether it is 'representative' or not does it actually matter?

You would be entirely wrong of course. Indeed not only are players proven to be more likely to be injured in training - I know they shouldn't but they do in reality relax a little in training which increases the likelihood of injury - but it is dangerous for players to not fully concentrate/not put in full effort etc as that also puts them at greater risk. If the game against Bournemouth is to go ahead (and we have after all entered the competition) we should demonstrate to all the players that it needs to be taken seriously and played at full out effort (thus lessening the chance of injury) by playing as full a side as possible.

More worryingly still it does after all prove definitively that Cortese has absolutely no idea about football - not unlike some previous Chairmen. If this deos happen look forward to a season with a new manager wanting a totally new squad who will inevitably take some time to bed in and indeed maybe wont! It will be touch and go in thsoe circumstances as to whether we could then make the playoffs even without a 10 point penalty. Swapping a pretty certain play-off spot and probable automatic promotion for a gamble - total madness.

Er yes. We are still in with a chance of the playoffs. We would be securely in the playoff places without the grossly unfair 10 point deduction and I rather suspect that by the end of the season we will have made up the one point that will mean that we would have gone up automatically without the deduction. Nice judgement.

As always winning in the Cups can only ever be a huge advantage. It helps develop confidence; gets the team gelling etc.

Who could blame him. He doesn't have Cortese's support and what a doddle of a job - managing one of two League One standard sides playing in front of huge crowds in a Blue Square premier standard league. Its difficult to see how it can go wrong..........

Given their current run of form 8 points seems very generous for Huddersfield. They have also given the appearance of being bottlers. Perhaps it all an attempt to give us confidence but I predict that they will get 6 (1 win and three draws). There is little doubt in my mind that the playoff spot is there for the taking. It is OUR team we need to be worried about. Can they actually manage the 17 points we would need.