Saint Without a Halo

Agreed but not only is the fans an issue, don't think Southampton city council or indeed citizens of southampton would look forward to visits by Pompey fans every two weeks! Interesting idea from an economic stand point but I believe it is a non starter!

Err Markus is the fourth richest owner doesn't necessairly mean we are the 4th richest club! Depends on how much HE wants to spend! I hope he will spend wisely and slowly in line with potential growing income! The club needs to grow income in line with spend if it is to have a long term future. See what happened to Pompey when their spend quick new owner got bored!

Wow, am I glad I got qualifications in the sciences rather than English! I thought this was a forum about football!

He is not banned from playing, his club have just asked us not to play him! so in theory the suspension should count! Full time 3-1 come on!

Merrington you twit Trottman is not cup tied his club just dont want us to play him!

Trottman getting booked good thinking as he cannot play on saturday anyway!

Get in!

The number of goals we are conceding even to the likes of Torquay and Orient never mind Brighton! If we put this right we will soar up the table!

Yes over 6 games and equal with Hartlepool and Yeovil! We need to look at where we are after 17 games without the 10 point deduction and we would be 11th in league 1 behind Walsall! That is the real situation! Should we be happy with that? Yes we are improving and making progress! but is it wrong to point out where the weaknesses are that need sorting? Teams who conceded 2 or 3 a game will rarely do better than mid table as most teams concentrate on shutting out good forward lines! the league tables of all divisions over the last 30 years will generally bear me out on this fact! We need to be good throughout to make progress not just in parts!

True! However look at the records! throughout the years the top teams invetibaly are those built on a solid back 4 and a mean defence! teams with poor defences rarely do better than mid table irrespective of how good the forward line is! A league 1 top team would not concede 2 or 3 to the likes of Orient, Torquay and Brighton look at Leeds at Brighton today! A Man u Chelsea or Arsenal would not be expecting to let in 2 to 3 goals against the likes of Wolves, Hull Stoke or even Portsmouth! Neither would a Tottenham, Villa or even an Everton

it is worth noting that even without the 10 points deduction we would currently be equal with Southend and Hartlepool and sitting 11th just behind Walsall! Unfortunately the table never lies and shows our real position in this league! we cannot make good progress whilst conceding 2 or 3 goals a game so without sorting out the defence, progress will remain very hard work!

3 clean sheets all season 1 against Northampton, one against yeovil at home and a 0-0 against 10 man Colchester who were holding on to a draw. Every good team is built from the back! We have a good midfield and a dangerous forward line but the back must be sorted as a top priority!

You forgot to mention your Dad was 158 years old at the time and hence the heriditory ageing gene! I think the fat guy was Fatty Foulkes or similar!

Great we might win then! As a record on sky is not to good at present!

Saints fans voting?

Was it Delgado?

Sign of a good team is solid at the back! We are still a little weak/disorganised there, letting in 3 against Brighton Bristol and Huddersfield and 2 to the likes of Torquay and Orient. A bit of work still needs to be done on the solidity of the back 4 who need to get a few clean sheets behind them. Apart from that, which is work in progress, everything else is coming together! so onwards and upwards!

Ahhhhh but cant honestly ever see them losing to a small near neighbour like Samoa at home in front of their fans!

Basically We are still to fragile we should not be conceding 2 at Orient 2 to Torquay and 3 to Brighton and drawing with the likes of Stockport and carlisle these are teams that Leeds charlton and Norwich will put away safely! We are just not solid enough or consistent enough to ba a contender for the play offs! All great teams are built from the back!

Errr Brighton home?

All I can say is things must be improving on the football front if all we can argue about on the forum now is spelling!

Loan with an option to buy at the end of the season at a price fixed now is the best bet!

And even that was holed below the water line and sunk away to oblivion!

It is also the case that with two or three exceptions (Leeds Charlton and maybe Norwich) the rest of the divison is "much of a muchness" this means they will take points of each other and bunch up over the season with the distance between the playoffs and relegation zone being less than the normal average. This will mitigate the effect of our minus 10, making it a much less effective penalty! all we need to do is keep up the good form and the play off's should be there for the taking!

As MK Dons are in fact the Wimbeldon of old! The words "pot" "kettle" and "black" come to mind!