OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

I also thought Jack was ok for much of the game. When Sulemana was on the pitch, he gave us an out. Not a good one, but it was something. Bring on Dibling, whose value is decreasing by the week, and Smallbone and the game is lost. Watch their second goal and in midfield there's a massive Smallbone-sized hole and then look for Smallbone and you'll see him jogging back. Even among our team he looks really really shit.

That's what I thought. Let's put a £100m price tag on him!

So what would happen if we won say, four/five of our last games? It's highly improbable even if we still have Leicester & Fulham to play, but would Rusk then be considered for next season? I can't see it, but hey, it's SR in charge so anything is possible.

I agree. Actually, looking back, it could have gone either way. The players came over pretty quickly and started clapping us. At that point, it would only have needed a few people to start booing and there could have been a chorus of boos. Instead people started clapping back. Can't put my finger on it, but our away fanbase seems to have changed over the last few years. Seems to be getting younger (or maybe I'm getting older), so there's something ironic about them all singing "I loved them as a nipper"....

True party atmosphere stuff. In fact, I find nowadays when going to games, the football has become incidental. It's more for the day out which could explain why our games are nearly always sold out.

Towards the end we had two beanpoles in the middle and not one person could put in a cross. I just don't get it. Fire crosses in and things happen. Pass the ball from to side to side and eventually we lose it.

It was all a bit weird. The whole team came over and started clapping at us and they wouldn't go away. A few gave their shirts to kids which is always a good touch, but you did think what are they doing? I did laugh, though, at the nods who waited for them to start walking away and then shouted 'you're not fit to wear the shirt'.

I saw three people today wearing Manning No 3 shirts. Has he bought a job lot and given them out to unsuspecting passers-by?

Half way there. I didn't realise there was so much riding on this game!

'No Derby fan expected anyone to come close' - will Saints make history? Article on the BBC website today. With Fulham & Leicester still to come, we should be safe...but I do like the idea of resurrecting the "Let's pretend we've scored a goal".

So would I. Him coming back in to the squad would represent a backward step if we're trying to build a team to get back in to the premier league and stay there. I want another striker who can show his worth in the Championship and move up with us, not someone who's going to hang around, occupy a place, then not be in the premier league team.

I can't get my head around this either. I remember when BBD was one of our first signings last year, people on here were more or less saying, he's only £7m, you can't go far wrong. Well, you can...and we did. Arguably Archer could also be included in the list and the £7m on BBD + the £15m we spent on Archer ++ means we could have spent more on a better player - provided we could have persuaded them to come here!

Based on his last performance, it is a pain as is Onuachu probably not being fit to play. They only played yesterday (Thursday) so could be knackered and with their fans turning against them, it would be brilliant to see them lose again. I'm looking forward to checking out their beer glasses!

One of these must be wrong. 9 games x 90 minutes mounts up to 810 minutes. Reckon he's played more like the nine games (and not all them either). Fact is, you need a striker and we've only got Archer, previously AA, and a non-playing Stewart - so TP needs to play.

Agree with last night's player assessments but particularly the last sentence. What's in players' heads is so important. How many matches do you see when a game turns on its head? Same players. One minute they're under the cosh and the next they're world beaters. I went to Woking Rochdale the night before and the first half was all Rochdale and the second all Woking. It wasn't substitutions, it was just a change of attitude. We know our squad isn't the strongest but a motivational manager and a positive mental attitude (for 90+ minutes) could have kept us up. Downes played yesterday like he had something to prove; Big Les was solid and with a functional midfield we looked so much better. Add a target man in the penalty area and we were better than them. Still think 4-4-2 is the formation and we should cross more when we have a beanpole in the centre but build that resilience. It counts for so much.

Can we get one point and beat Derby's record on goal difference? We don't want to set sights too high!

Both are having their better games today. Downes is actually getting involved today

While I agree these three players aren't the most talented, there's a lot of dross in the Palace team. The difference is they have talismen/match winners in Mateta and Eze which we don't have and their players are distinctly fitter and better schooled than ours...but they've got their Mannings and Smallbones. Clyne is playing for them FFS. I see Juric has come out with a stirring 'come on lads, let's not be the worst team ever' speech. Hopefully, he'll play a striker today! And a Back 4!

Yeah, this is something I really don't get. There are literally millions of footballers out there, so why is that if you take each premier league team has a squad of 30 players, there is such a gulf between the top 600 (20 x 30) players and everyone else? It's almost like once a player gets in to the elite group, they automatically become better than the rest. Take Palace. They're fitter, they're stronger and they've got a couple of really good players. Our players are sluggish, look defeated and have been poorly managed and we haven't got a stand out player. But are they less skillful? I don't think so. But I can't see us getting a point in this one.

Don't know what SP means but I just remember walking away from there thinking about how far we'd sunk. In my eyes, Palace have always been the yo-yo club and they were miles better. From memory, the main difference was speed, but hey ho, that's a recurring problem.

Financially, we're ok at present, so what we get for Fernandes could be used for player investment. I would also think £30-40m for Fernandes sounds about right, and that should get us a couple of top championship players. But if they're putting a £100m tag on Dibling, crikey, they should be asking £150m for Fernandes!

Just seen Meslier on TV do a couple of howlers against Swansea. Is he their secret weapon so that they almost get promoted but not quite? Actually think he is worse that our Baz.

I've got to the stage where I know f**k all about tactics but genuinely think I could have done a better job of managing this mob than Juric (or RM!). Juric tries man-marking. Don't have a problem with that but it doesn't work so move on. Juric tries a back five but it doesn't work, so move on. He then goes for a back four at Liverpool and strengthens the midfield (like it) and for a while it looks ok so then he shouldn't move on. But he does....reverting to a back five! And all the stuff about him being the tough guy who would add metal to the team hasn't materialised either. In the situation we were in, there was no way we were going to bring in a Moyes, but once again, I feel we missed a trick with Juric. Yes, it was always going to be a tough ask to turn our fortunes around, but I was hoping for a fitter team with a more positive approach and have seen neither.

Appreciate this is going away from the Tyler Dibling thread but did like reading your views on the merits of going to lower league games. For me, it's no longer the football, so I couldn't necessarily follow a non-league team. I go to Saints for the day out and connecting with son, brother and nephews, so away games are still special and when you see a win like at Ipswich, it's just a bonus. Back to the TD, it looks like my £20-£25m is on the low side given the clubs £100m (hoping for £50m!) price tag, but that's just on old timer not keeping up with today's valuations!

And looking back over the last few years, isn't that what's happened? For years, this forum has been asking for money to be spent on a striker. For whatever reason, that's never happened. Now, I'm not so sure financial rules and the sale value of our players will allow us to spend the money needed to buy the required striker. What the betting on Toney coming back? Probably out of our price range but he may want to come back soon.