Fitzhugh Fella

Niaive?

OS article is confusing as it says he is still on the books of Juventus and then that Spurs have signed him permantly. Happy to have him on the bus - even temporarily - but sincerely believe the squad needs a boost by a marquee "better than what we already have" signing and not sure either Lee or Falque meet that criteria. Hopefully that big signing will happen but not sure it will.

Sorry don't agree with your last sentence. Barnard we can forget this season what with one thing and another, Connolly is good but brittle, Doble simply not good enough and Do Prado blows hot and cold. Look how we all panicked when Rickie picked up a 3 match ban - too much rests on his availability for us to expect/hope for automatic promotion.

As for turning the lights on at the start of the day and off at the end has no one told him all the light bulbs down at Fartton have been set to automatic dim for a few months now. Steve - seriously have you thought about making this thread into a book - all the profits could be used to buy them and finally put them out of their misery.

Hooiveld cannot be included as a new signing as he has been in the team since September. I am sure NA and NC are working hard behind the scenes because they KNOW what we have at present is probably not going to sustain an automatic promotion slot. I think they may have to push the boat out more than they want and there's the rub. Will NC be prepared to do that.

Hooiveld was not signed in the window

If Butterfield and Richardson are injured it begs the question why let Dickson go on loan to Yeovil?

Waitrose was horrible Interestingly only Charlie Wayman would have got to Lambert's total (74) in less games. Charlie had a 72% goal scoring record. The only others to get above 50% were George O'Brien 64%, Martin Chivers 57%, Derek Reeves and Ron Davies 55%, Bill Rawlings and Fred Harrison 53% Of course all Ron's goals were in the top flight

You got it in one

No - the clue lies in something that happened last month (18 Dec to be precise) which dislodged James Beattie from that list. Just off to Waitrose I expect a correct answer by the time I get back

To take minds off the transfer window - I will pose a question. What fact links the following 15 players but not for much longer Mike Channon, Matt Le Tissier Bill Rawlings, Terry Paine, George O’Brien, Derek Reeves, Eric Day, Ron Davies, Arthur Dominy, Martin Chivers, Tommy Mulgrew, Steve Moran, Fred Harrison, Danny Wallace and Charlie Wayman. To give you a clue James Beattie left the above group last month

Always a good idea to watch a player a dozen or more times before a) writing him off or b) hailing him as the new Mesiah.

AA's use of the word "fairly" throughout shows he is far from convinced.

I am struggling to move on from yesterday and think we lost because D'Urso made 4 really bad decisions in the first 51 mins. 1. Booking Harding for a really good tackle on C M-S. There was nothing wrong with it, it was hard it was fair and it was not dangerous - so why the booking which then led to more problems 2. Lallana goal that wasn't - just bad incompetance - if you can see a bad tackle that wasn't how come you can't see a goal that was? 3. The penalty when Lambert was pushed - as blatant as I have ever seen and D'Urso had a perfect view. Lambert was about to connect and got a massive shove that was impossible to simulate. 4. A few mins later Lambert was grappled to the ground and then stopped from getting to his feet; he did what anyone would do and stuck his arm out to fend off the pincer movement and the B+HA defender put his face in the way of Lambert's palm and did a dying swan act. I accept point nos 4 was dependable on what was seen when but how can you assault someone when you are lying on your back and trying to stand quickly. D'Urso's decision was so terribly wrong. Add those 4 decisions up and you have the reason why we lost. Personally can't see the point of football any more if you are robbed by poor ref's decisions. I wouldn't mind but is D'Urso going to held account.? Sorry just letting off steam. Normally I am a critic of saints but imo we would have won if anyone else but D'Urso was in charge. We must move on - the next month's transfer activity will reveal true intent.

Just back Re Lambert’s red. I don’t mind refs who make mistakes but I do not like refs who are cowards and D’Urso falls into that category. Minutes before the Lambert sending off he (D’Urso) denied him an absolute stonewall pen. It was right in front of D’Urso and the Saints fans but he chose to ignore it because he didn’t fancy the fuss. Lambert was quite rightly furious and his frustration probably made him push the Brighton def when trying to legitimately regain his feet. I don't think he "raised" his hands because he was actually on the ground when the incident happened. Also D’Urso’s treatment of Harding was scandalous. First booking was a brilliant tackle. I am still seething about him getting booked. OK – positives and negatives. POSITIVES We were the better side up to the Lambert sending off and, even after that, held our own until Brighton profited from a Davis fumble (again), got a wonder goal (shows it pays to let fly sometimes) and a lucky ricochet from a corner. Lambert is going to get a much needed rest, he looked jaded before he got sent off. It must be obvious by the fact we had to use Reeves and Forte that WE DO REALLY NEED TO BUY’ AND BUY SIGNIFICANTLY. Someone from Japan may be one for the future but we can’t expect him to shine straight away. Connolly had a good game, worked his socks off and was full of enterprise. Martin did not let himself down at all and nearly scored towards the end. Reeves and Forte were not too bad either. Hooiveld Saints MoM. Thank Christ we got him when we did. NEGATIVES Lallana not good again although he scored a goal which the coward D’Urso missed. Needs a break (welcome back Puncheon?) Davis spilled another – no point making great saves from shots if you can’t get the basics right. Cork missed an absolute sitter at 2-0 which would have put B&HA under pressure had he scored. Cork worked hard but he is SO goal shy (as is all our midfield Chaplow excepted) and that is a big minus. His form recently has not been good. Summary. Overall we were unlucky and having a coward as a ref caused our downfall. However I have a feeling we will all find out in the next 4 weeks how committed the Liebherr family are to getting their club and us into the Premiership. Throwing money at a club rarely makes sense but right now that is exactly what we need. A statement of intent we can all rally around and a boost to morale? We are running on empty after a fantastic year - time to add new blood. Finally their ground looks a lot better from the outside than it does from the inside. It is half finished although as someone has said they are planning to do more work.

Just back Re Lambert’s red. I don’t mind refs who make mistakes but I do not like refs who are cowards but D’Urso falls fully into that category. Minutes before the Lambert sending off he (D’Urso) denied him an absolute stonewall pen. It was right in front of D’Urso and the Saints fans but he chose to ignore it because he didn’t fancy the fuss. Lambert was quite rightly furious and his frustration probably made him try to shake off the Brighton def when trying to legitimately regain his feet. Also Lambert did not raise his hands as such because he was lying on the ground trying to stand up and imo was merely trying to free himself from the defender's clutches. Also D’Urso’s treatment of Harding was scandalous. First booking was a brilliant tackle. I am still seething about him getting booked.

Just back Re Lambert’s red. I don’t mind refs who make mistakes but I do not like refs who are cowards and D’Urso falls into that category. Minutes before the Lambert sending off he (D’Urso) denied him an absolute stonewall pen. It was right in front of D’Urso and the Saints fans but he chose to ignore it because he didn’t fancy the fuss. Lambert was quite rightly furious and his frustration probably made him push the Brighton def when trying to legitimately regain his feet. I don't think he "raised" his hands because he was actually on the ground when the incident happened. Also D’Urso’s treatment of Harding was scandalous. First booking was a brilliant tackle. I am still seething about him getting booked. OK – positives and negatives. POSITIVES We were the better side up to the Lambert sending off and, even after that, held our own until Brighton profited from a Davis fumble (again), got a wonder goal (shows it pays to let fly sometimes) and a lucky ricochet from a corner. Lambert is going to get a much needed rest, he looked jaded before he got sent off. It must be obvious by the fact we had to use Reeves and Forte that WE DO REALLY NEED TO BUY’ AND BUY SIGNIFICANTLY. Someone from Japan may be one for the future but we can’t expect him to shine straight away. Connolly had a good game, worked his socks off and was full of enterprise. Martin did not let himself down at all and nearly scored towards the end. Reeves and Forte were not too bad either. Hooiveld Saints MoM. Thank Christ we got him when we did. NEGATIVES Lallana not good again although he scored a goal which the coward D’Urso missed. Needs a break (welcome back Puncheon?) Davis spilled another – no point making great saves from shots if you can’t get the basics right. Cork missed an absolute sitter at 2-0 which would have put B&HA under pressure had he scored. Cork worked hard but he is SO goal shy (as is all our midfield Chaplow excepted) and that is a big minus. His form recently has not been good. Summary. Overall we were unlucky and having a coward as a ref caused our downfall. However I have a feeling we will all find out in the next 4 weeks how committed the Liebherr family are to getting their club and us into the Premiership. Throwing money at a club rarely makes sense but right now that is exactly what we need. A statement of intent we can all rally around and a boost to morale? We are running on empty after a fantastic year - time to add new blood. Finally their ground looks a lot better from the outside than it does from the inside. It is half finished although as someone has said they are planning to do more work.

Micky I take your point but those who were "there" are always going to have a more "valid" opinion than those that weren't. One reason the "just back from the game" thread is eagerly awaited after away games.

Yep

Just goes to show you should not base your opinion on a radio commentary - they were the better side and deserved to win. We were average and they were better, end of.

Solent are reporting we are not interested in maynard or Sharp so for me it will be Jute from Coventry, a wide man plus a Danish goalkeeper

Luke is featured in today's Independent as football's hottest prodigy. Still 16 he is a left-back noted for his pace and strength, for those unfamiliar and apparently Arsenal (who have a close relationship with Saints according to the article) are already taking a big interest (that bit sounds very familiar). Saints hope to tie him down with a pro contract in July according to Sam Wallace just before the new Elite Player Performance Plan comes into force.

Robbie Keane on a 3-month loan from LA Galaxy anyone?

IMO he had his best game of the season for us but I remain unconvinced