John McGrath's Jockstrap

Average minus. Doesn't keep hold of the ball and when he passes almost always sideways. He doesn't put his foot in like Spiderman either. Spiderman will shine next season.We could buy better then Stephens and we will.

Very simple. Rochdale wanted it more , had done their homework on us, and did a good job on the night. Agree with the comments re Davis near post defending. At the risk of being repetitive I stand by the opinion that Richardson is very average when compared to Butterfield's reading of game and interceptions. Jury is out for me on Adkins signings.....Forte will be exposed next league up and Dale Stephens is nowhere near Spiderman. Golden rule on signing players is to always find better than you have......Forte?, D.Stephens?, N'Guessian (even on loan)?. A very long (and expensive) journey.........

What a pointless post !. I don't care about Brighton, and they will be laughing at us congratulating them. As for Poyet, like Adkins, like anybody in management in a winning club they will f**k off soon as soon as more money is waved in front of their faces. The only thing that matters is Saints fans getting us back into Championship. For the rest.....let's turn up Saturday and sing your hearts out for the lads......!!!

DC would be fine but the tartan rug keeps getting stuck in the wheels when trying to get on the pitch.

Drunk = Unconscious probably - hope you wake up soon.

Great player, in the past, move on. He should respect what his body is telling him and look to the future (which isn't playing).

The key point here is that the Executive Management of Saints will not take the bullet if we do not get promoted. There is one person that will have to take the bulletand that is Adkins. He knew that when he came to the club and he has done a half decent job since coming here.It is not about fairness - it's about business, and the one thing that Cortese will not accept is losing face personally about not getting promotion. I think the point about what happens if we DO go up is just as interesting. The club will need a serious amount of investment in new players to build around the nucleus of some of the players that could be regarded as top 6 Championship players (eg Fonte / Llalana). The issue will be - does Adkins have enough credentials/"kerb appeal" to attract players of a similar level to come to play for us?. Have to say I am not sure about that and I suspect that if we do go up Cortese will be itching on the trigger pre Xmas 2011 to make a change to a "higher profile" manager if results are not good. The indicator will be how much money he gives him close season if we do go up - too little and I think the writing will be on the wall for Adkins - who'd be a footie manager eh?.

A mixed bag tonight. Only a few glimpes of Forte but to be honest he looked,well, clumsy....he did lack conviction running at the keeper, almost looked like he knew he was bricking it. Slightly worrying as a genuine Adkins signing??. CM still our weakest part of team. Hammond started well, went missing, but came back in to it once game was won. I do worry that he disappears when it gets tough. Chaplow OK but although yellow wasn't deserved, he does have a tendency to leave his foot in/up on 50/50 balls, and he picks up a lot of yellows. Barney worked his socks off tonight and deserved MOM IMO. Llalana good at times but disappeared for parts of the game. Running Barney close was for me Butterfield - thougt he had (another) great game tonight.....for me best signing this season on a free.

Has to be Butterfield for me. Reads the game much better than Richardson, and doesn't get caught out of position as much as a consequence. Distribution from Butterfield also better imo, seen Richardson have some shockers passing wise. But as mentioned lucky to have such good cover in a position where we were so weak last season.....ie Lloyd James (was very average for Col U on Saturday).

Being objective, I agree with last post we did lose our way a bit,and I have to say that we should really ignore last 20 mins because ST looked shot at that point. What does worry me still is the lack of bite and passion in CM. Hammond for 20 mins either side of HT was a passenger.He was jogging back, not tracking back, couldn't even get a challenge in at this point and spent most of his time shouting at others. Chaplow then seemed to catch his disease which coincided with Swindon scoring. Llalana was remonstrating with both of them at one point. This lack of bite in CM has been a worry all season - Spiderman comes on, and plays very effectively so credit to NA for changing it.....but what is our best CM set up - not sure Gobern is the answer either.....slightly worrying is that I don't think NA knows either. On the plus side Llalana awesome, Lambert back to somewhere near best, Butterfield was sheer class today didn't put a foot wrong - v.composed and MOM for me. Crunch time is upon us.We have to make the games in hand count, and putting our foot in away from home and "wanting it" more will be key. Hammond/Chaplow take note !!.

Col U fans I spoke to today after the game were amazed by Hammond's physical condition. They say he looks a bit lumpy compared to what he has like there. His performance today was let's face it - off the pace. Perkins of Col U buzzed all around him. BTW he is 34 and wanted away from Col U in the summer. I'm not saying sign him (far from it) but when a 34 yr old bosses midfield for the opposition - what was Hammond doing?. We need a different solution in midfield - play 3-5-2 if we can't change players until Jan - we have to work with what we have !!. 4-4-2 with Hammond and Schneiderlin too slow and predictable......we have been sussed in midfield.

Have you noticed the header on this website?. In one year from where we started last season he is a legend. RL is patently not fit. He did not jump for one header today ( I watched). The reason - if you have a chronic groin injury you do not have the power to jump. The chance he had midway through 2nd half was also a pointer - given that chance last season he would have buried it. So - you are the manager - with no other forward options do you play RL with a chance he might get a good free kick position or pen and bury it.... or play who???. He needs a 3-4 week fully rested break and then intensive work. We have a loan period for these reasons. NA - get NC to get a good reserve prem striker and wait for RL to do himself justice.

Very apparent that Dickson and Holmes played to Adkins orders when they came on in contrast to who they replaced. Agree with harvey - I too was hmmm but I sense Adkins is a "do you want to be part of the steamroller or part of the road" manager. Col U fans I met today really rate Adkins - they said they will be amazed if we don't go up based on what they saw today !!!?.

You would have been really useful in the Battle of Britain. Pass the revolver.

We have to face facts. The plus with Antonio was that he had pace with strength and scared defenders.....and knew what he was doing some of the time. Waigo didn't know even know what he was going to do most of the time which scared defenders even more. Add in no Lallana so far = no flair in team at all. Lambert needs flair around him to score. Lambert is still not fit and head not right. Connolly is an AP signing and knows he is now on the arse end of his career. Mix in Barnard out for 3 games...... and we wonder why we aren't scoring goals. The real sense of disappointment is the pre season hype, AP not doing what was need to respond to the Antonio/Waigo loss, and the 125 years.....the fact is that we are a mid table team right noe and Adkins will need Jan + next summer to put it right.....I hope he is up to it.

The most important thing is to give a good performance in the post match interview. NA is a step up from AP, hence the reason he is in the job. In all seriousness it was was an abject 2nd half performance vs MKD, and the real sense of disappointment is accentuated by the pre season hype about " we will walk this league " when in reality we are not mentally even ready to run out of it.

Another person who probably gets the plot .....on 606.... BBC THE MASTERPLAN Does ML daughter actually like football? Pardew was sacked as the first stage, next NC will quit and move back to Italy then the Liebherr family will pullout as they have no interest and judging by today's performance I can't really blame them.

Obviously unfit but being pushed to play with no obvious plan B in evidence. Didn't win any high balls today because he is injured and not able to get off the ground - especially second half....could see it in his body language nobody more frustrated than he is I think......the real question is with whole of the summer to have a plan B in place for a long term Lambert injury why don't we have one?.

Not one for conspiracy theories....but having worked in 2 Italian companies at senior levels and understanding the mindset that operates......I do wonder about Cortese's motives???. We all look at this with typical English logic, ie why get rid of Pardew??, but that it is not how the Italian mind works. Is the whole Pardew episode convenient for him ?. Is there a bigger agenda he might be working to - like how to get the Liebherr family out of owning this football club....?. I presume SFC had strong grounds to get rid of Pardew- the speed of action and the lack of any public comment from those involved is compelling in itself....confidentiality agreements etc notwithstanding. The appointment of next manager will really tell. Is it an agenda for exit, or a real plan to continue the undoubted good work that Pardew put in place in the last 9 months ?. Adkins for me is not that answer, neither is Brown. We will see.....

Thought we looked very ring rusty overall. Lambert still looking like a lack of a good pre season is affecting him and also needs some work to lose a few pounds. Barnard very lively imo and unlucky - also visibly frustrated with the lack of quality service - hoofed balls and 45 degree crosses he will not win. Lallana very quiet second half, as was Hammond who just dropped out the game. Puncheon - seems to choose the wrong option most times - when he hit the roof lol !!. Spiderman was fighting in midfield on his own and losing in second half. In fact this second half was similar to Plymouth - we seemed to lose the plot in centre mid again and concede to the opposition. Thought Harding (bad miss aside) had a solid game as did Fonte......but Butterfield allowed too may crosses into the box, but the main worry is Jaidi. He really is starting to look pedestrian on the turn, distribution was awful, and you can see Fonte worried about leaving him in 1:1 situations.......time for Martin (but not Seaborne) to step up in my opinion. AP summed it up well - 4 "senior" players off colour, and lack of a drive to win. We do need some more fight in centre mid allied with a lot more creativity.....but most desparate is lack of forward options - we would have won this last season by injection of either Papa W or Antonio or both. I sense AP is frustrated by lack of progress in getting replacements for these.....is the problem Cortese??.

Agree with CB Fry that a period of reflection needed as emotions run high at such a sad time. For sure his impact on our club should never be underestimated despite the time he was at Saints. The Ted Bates era was different, but no less impactful, but we live in faster paced and financially oriented times now. Without Markus we would have no club....simple. Perhaps the most enduring legacy we should leave is renaming the Itchen or SMS once the promised land of PL football is reached. It's what he has left as his legacy and as a businessman he would like the focus to remain on the end objective.

Saw the big man with the biggest smile at Wembley.....he needed a big heart and not just a pocket to save our club......it really was not about the money. I hope that the team reflect his wishes in getting us to the Premier League so that he can give us a big beaming smile from up above when we get there. A big message to all at the club - now is the time to pull together and make his dream a reality !!. My sincerest condolences to his family - if he cared this much about Saints he loved you even more.

The point is that there were no pies - period - even BEFORE the game !!!. Carrot cake goes down well with a pint of frothy Carlsberg.Not.

It all looked a bit amateurish......typewritten price lists etc - you would have thought they had time to sort this out?. But the big thing is how can you got to a football match and not be able to buy a pie......why no pies on sale.....??!!.This needs to be sorted out NC !. Can only assume NC bought them all to throw at AP in anticipation of the 2nd half......

I was at the game today,,, but thought David Armstrong summed it up well - a) too intricate - 5-6 passes when 1-3 passes would do , b) lack of a killer pass (Llalana has the promise - COACH !! him to play to them, c) need to hit the deadline and cross.....Missing ingredient - neither Mcg or Robertson are the real deal to apply the finishing touch.....Rasiak and John are not either (maybe last season but not now).....time for a trade in Jan - there must be forward talent in lower leagues at cheap wages ??(eg Doyle 2-3 seasons ago). Frustrating coz the basics are there.....