Jackie@home

Some people like to blame Kelv for everything! A point blank header from 3 yards! It was Fox's fault for giving the ball away in the first place and he just doesn't prevent enough crosses. He might be a better footballer than Harding but I think Harding would have made a better job of stopping the cross. All the goals went down his side. Fonte didn't cover himself with glory either with all 3 goals - blame the right players!

Shay Given's first choice for Aston Villa. The best chance you have of getting a keeper from a Premiership club is one that has been waiting patiently for ages to get in the first team, but gives up waiting. Still, I don't think it's a priority for this season - if Kelv gets injured, we should bring in a loan signing.

Martin had a decent game v Bristol City. Personally, I would put Harding in - he has bags of energy and works particularly well with Lallana.

Definitely Morgan - absolutely outstanding today - ran the midfield & always found space. He looked like a Premiership player.

Extremely satisfying win, especially Taricco getting sent off! He always was a dirty cheat - remember him getting Kevin Phillips sent off with some calculating play-acting some years back. Their shots on target - 0, says it all. Nige is awesome, tactically. Just amazed how consistently well we've played since he's been appointed. Great stuff!

Only 3 times today so far, but what's great it that just about everyone I know, even if they aren't really interested in football, wants to talk to me about it. Saints are certainly making a lot of people in the South sit up and take notice. I've been asked so many times how many games in a row we've won - heady days!

Back in the days of ooooh, Terry Hurlock, at the Dell, someone shouted to him from the East Stand, "Sell him some pegs, Tel!"

If we had been losing to Bristol City, Donny and Barnsley I would be more worried about our away form, but we've mainly drawn and only narrowly lost 2 games against teams that have both been predicted to be right near the top of the league at the end of the season. Some people seem to be forgetting that we've only just got promoted, and that the feat achieved by Norwich is being talked about so much because it is extremely rare. As for it being that the penny had dropped with NA at last that we need another striker - grant the man some intelligence - we made substantial bids for several strikers in the summer; you can't always sign who you want, same happened to Wenger. Luckily, the Oxo money is there if we find the right players to sign during the window.

Not too worried about tonight - the difference in intensity of the league games this season compared to last season is huge. We have to be really on the ball every League match, especially now we're top and teams won't under-estimate us any more - we can't waste too much energy on the cups. After all, last season we were the big boys; this season we're competing against lots of ex-Prem players & teams which big wage bills and managers like Allardyce who know how to grind out results. At least we know that the production line at the academy is still working, Barnard's on his way back, and Forte can be sent out on loan!

I see Cardiff have just had to make their last substitution because of injuries - what a shame!

We don't really know what Cortese said - this was in the Sun, don't forget, where they are quite happy to make stories up. As everything is going so well at the moment, they couldn't find anything else of a controversial nature. Look what the Sun said about Hillsborough. At first hand, I can tell of another instance - the Sun tried to portray Mike, the Welsh supporter killed at Wembley the other week as a football hooligan with a long criminal record - the truth was he got caught running on the pitch once when he was a teenager 20 odd years ago. If there aren't many stories around, the tabloids will try to create them. And it's not Jeff Stelling's job to poke his nose in either, when it's nothing to do with him.

Exactly - being one of the club's best ever players and getting freebies for life are 2 different things. I can perfectly understand Cortese's policy, having seen at first hand what was happening at Salisbury City. If you're not careful the world his family and his dog is getting in for free. The more people expect, the less likely I would be inclined to give it. Cortese is quite happy to invite ex-players, like Terry Paine and Nick Holmes, etc. but it is at HIS invitation. He obviously gets as wound up by emotional blackmail as I do! I would differentiate between Matt and MacMenemy on this also - 2 very different characters. Lawrie has the ego the size of a house and is still trying to earn a living out of telling the same old stories from the cup final days. Matt is a nice, modest, very likeable person, whose friends usually make the nasty digs rather than he himself. Only in football to some people expect freebies for life - it doesn't happen in the rest of the world.

You do wonder if we will really find out what happened. Unfortunately, people are too quick to spread unfounded rumours. The Welsh supporter killed at Wembley this week was my daughter's brother-in-law. The family are extremely upset about scurrilous stories printed in the Sun which have no foundation in truth. He was just a fanatical Cardiff City supporter who followed them home and away; with his wife he used to arrange coaches to away games. These incidents can happen so quickly, and nowadays you don't have to do anything provocative to be picked on. I'm sure that Dan is extremely physically fit, which is bound to help his recovery. Luckily, the outcome for him will be better than for poor Mike and his family.

Watched Salisbury City win (yet again) 4-2 - very entertaining second half (1-0 down at half time). Saints aren't the only team with momentum from promotion!

Could have done with Jaidi today. Still, in days gone by we would have cracked under that pressure, but we're really made of sterner stuff nowadays. All these wins in a row! Incredible - that's even without Lallana firing on all cylinders. It was really hot out their today and this league is unrelenting. Just showed how fit Harding is when he made a great run into the box right at the end of the match.

Corporate entertaining is the first thing to cut out in times of recession. You have to offer people deals to encourage them - we're always getting companies offering us 2 for 1 events - e.g. book grand prix, get free rugby or horse racing, but it's still ridiculously expensive. I've sat in the corporate area, but have to say my seat in the Kingsland directly opposite Cortese offers a superior view, and you don't get the sun in your eyes. It just doesn't seem value for money.

For all we know Arsenal may have offered only £2m. No other clubs have bid so there's no competition to up the price. Therefore, he can whinge all he likes, but there is no reason for Cortese to sell him at present. There will always be panic buyers in the January transfer window, or next summer if it comes to that. Seems like Arsenal are still treating us like we're desperate -by now they should know otherwise.

Same for me - it's not working!!

Absolutely fantastic!!! My second side Salisbury also promoted today after winning the play-offs in a penalty shoot out!! Nigel's previous experience was priceless - he got so many things right when it mattered, just great news!!

Exhilarating second half today. As soon as we got one goal back, I knew we were on our way. We've generally been better in the second half of most games and I reckon the man of the match today was Nigel Adkins - obviously the right half-time team talk and excellent substitutions. He's not afraid to make substitutions when it's needed and, unlike most managers, doesn't wait too long so that the subs don't have enough time to make an impact. Crowd didn't whinge as much as they usually do when things start to go wrong, thank goodness, and I'm sure this helped. The team retained its self-belief and the experience of players like Jaidi and sheer will to win of Lallana was great to see.

I get very fed up with all these posters saying motivation is the manager's responsibility. All good players are self-motivated. Does Ryan Giggs need a kick up the backside before he goes on the field? Come to think of it, did Franny Benali? No. They are responsible for their own actions, they are not children. How many of us get gee-ed up and encouraged every time we do something at work? We just get on with our job, and the kind of money they are on there are plenty of incentives to really go that extra mile, giving 100%.

Instead of always blaming Adkins, perhaps some of you might like to blame our very well paid squad, who should not need any extra motivation for giving of their best - winning promotion should be incentive enough. Adkins has done it before twice with players on a fraction of the wages and resources we have. If our team can't hit a barn door despite totally dominating the game, they have to take most of the flak.

They did try to buy another striker as we know - Charlie Austin and Craig Mackail-Smith were both bid for with substantial funds. However, January is never the best time to do good transfer business. Peterborough were never going to sell to one of their promotion rivals and Austin had good offers from Championship clubs. As even Arsenal and Liverpool found out with Oxo, just bidding for a player won't make the club sell, & it's even less likely when you're in League One. We're not the only club with money - Huddersfield have an investor worth £335m and Brighton's owner approx.£100m. It just isn't that easy.

I agree. Results with and without Lallana speak for themselves. if Adam had been playing yesterday I reckon we would have won 6-4!

Peterborough look like a Chris Nicholl side with that kind of goal difference.