PokingFun

Crikey, that is a huge difference if that was to continue. Shows how tight and competitive this division is really and that Saints form has been quality by comparison.

The problem is some posters / fans think we should win EVERY game whether home or away and cannot accept that there is nothing wrong with a short lapse of form here and there when injuries / suspensions occur. Now we have everyone available and fit to choose from our form has returned to normal and 2 pts per game should be the target. That will secure 1st or 2nd spot, particularly this season where the division is so tight after some of the biggest teams went up last year and the other big clubs have financial issues. Sheff Wed are potentially a threat if Mandaric splashes the cash but I cannot see any other teams that can reasonably strengthen their sides and gain momentum.

Nope, I really don't think that is true .....

Brighton equaliser

There ya go!!

Some of you guys seriously need to have a look at yourselves. Its difficult winning away from home. It requires good play, patience and a bit of luck to break these teams down. Even commentators AT THE GAME are saying Saints are playing well but need to be patient and keep chipping away. If we keep playing like this and remain in control then the goal will come unless we are extremely unlucky. Too much knee jerking on here even before the game had ended!!

No need to worry about Lambert Alps, he is getting better and fitter in my opinion and is now having the confidence again to take on shots where a few weeks back he might have looked for another option. He had a decent game yesterday and with a bit more luck would have got on the scoresheet. Unfortunately for RL teams are virtually doubling up on him now but that does create space for others and his link play remains excellent.

I think our recent performances would suggest its not a massive error of judgement .... would we be doing better with him in the team?!

I have posted below the away records of the top six in the PL and it highlights that most teams have away form that is worse than their fans might expect. It is simply not that easy to win away games even for the very best teams in the country. If you look at our away record this season its thereabouts with everyone else so as long as that continues and St Marys continues to be an absolute fortress under Adkins then that suggests we will be in the top 2 come the end of the season. Team P W D L F A W D L F A GD PTS 1 Man Utd 18 9 1 0 27 6 1 7 0 12 11 22 38 2 Man City 20 5 3 2 13 7 6 2 2 19 9 16 38 3 Arsenal 19 6 0 3 22 11 5 3 2 17 11 17 36 4 Chelsea 19 7 1 1 19 4 3 3 4 14 11 18 34 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Tottenham 19 5 4 1 16 9 4 2 3 13 14 6 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Bolton 20 5 4 1 21 12 2 4 4 11 14 6 29 1 Brighton 20 6 4 0 18 8 4 3 3 14 8 16 37 2 Sheff Wed 21 6 2 3 16 7 4 1 5 18 14 13 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Charlton 20 5 3 2 11 11 4 3 3 21 15 6 33 4 Huddersfield 21 6 2 3 18 10 4 0 6 14 16 6 32 5 Southampton 20 6 3 3 19 9 3 1 4 11 10 11 31 6 Bournemouth 20 7 1 2 25 9 1 5 4 11 14 13 30

This is exactly my view too. Hit and miss which frustrates fans sometimes but the only taxi required here is for the original poster. Guly does pull the opposition about a bit and links play quite well, I just don't think Lambert is his ideal partner and kind of agree that attacking midfield is right for him although it's unlikely NA will play him in a midfield 4 as he is a little bit of a luxury in that sense and would unlikely do the necessary defensive duties required as well like Chaplow or similar. I guess Guly will be one of those players that you either really like or really hate. Personally I prefer Lambert / Barnard but can see Guly has some ability too.

Or if you argue that the new manager is achieving in the region of 1.85 pts per game then you would have to say that we should achieve around 78 points which would put us in the play-offs. The facts are that our poor start (which Adkins had no influence over) has put us on the back foot yet still well in contention, but if we can do some decent business in January and some of our players start firing again then we will climb the league as there are no dominant teams this season that look capable of achieving 90+ league points. Even Brighton have started to slide a bit as their squad is not overly strong once injuries and suspensions hit. I'm still confident we will make the play-offs at least and very hopeful that we can achieve top 2 status.

Adkins Out! ;-) Hard luck lads, sounds like a decent show but no end result.

I am not really in disagreement just that I can see both sides of the coin on this one and dont think it means Adkins necessarily got it wrong.

Looking at what we had available on our bench Saturday I'm not surprised there was a lack of ideas in the change department. Maybe changing it could have actually made us worse in Adkins eyes given what was at his disposal. My only gripe is that Connolly maybe did not come on sooner but given hes hardly played this season I'm not totally surprised he was left until very late.

Yes, but for all strachan's quick quips and sense of fun, what has he ever really achieved. He has been found out himself as an average manager that tries to be clever in his interviews but in a different way and it has got him absolutely nowhere. Not quite sure his answer is overly clever or class in this situation. What exactly did it achieve in context of the result of that game or later games? Are you suggesting that Adkins becomes flippant and sarcastic in his after match interviews? I'm not sure what the point of your post is here.

Interesting one as I thought he was one of the few to do alright on Saturday and for me the problems came through the middle and down our right. We missed Richardson and Fonte in a big way. Also, the loss of Barney and Chaplow has left us with a big problem as I don't think its a coincidence that our best form has been with those two in the side. That aside, it was still a couple of basic errors by players that should know better that caused us to lose a game against a team that have an exceptionally good away record.

He'll have dug himself a big tench

No, I think Oxo was struggling with a bit of cramp or similar in his calf muscles as he was stretching them out at a corner not long before the change was made.

I'm with FF on this one, they are the best side I have seen at SMS this season and felt we defended well and created big problems for them. Very unlucky not to be ahead at half time. I'm sometimes not sure what our fans expect! Do we really believe an average of 2 points per game against the likes of P'boro and Brighton is poor? Yes, six would be lovely but lets get real. Brighton came to get a point and set up their stall as such which is a huge compliment to how good they think we are and how big a threat they think we are! They are correct to think that.

Sorry but were you asleep when we battered them in the first half? Second half other than the very debateable penalty was fairly even. Not a scintillating performance but decent against a very well drilled side.

3 of 8 as we cannot play ourselves .....

Brighton, draw after dominating and unfortunate not to win, Bournemouth won at home, Sheff Wed won away, Huddersfield lost away, Colchester draw at home, Oldham won at home, Carlisle lost away, P'boro won at home convincingly, so top ten we have achieved 4 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws, 14 points from 8 games is a decent return against those around us in my opinion. Tonight we threw a lot at them and they defended very well indeed with numerous last ditch blocks. We will make automatic promotion places before January in my opinion.

He has to deliver and is doing so. 2 points per league game since he has come in is evidence of that. So long as that continues for the rest of the season then we will comfortably get promoted as I cannot see any other team achieving that level of points per game with the exception of Brighton maybe but even they may have their bad patch to come. It's a results business and NA is getting results.

The team has achieved 20 points from 11 games including MK Dons where NA had no preparation time. You cannot expect much more than that as most teams that WIN this league rarely average much more than 2 points per game. Unfortunately, too many people are looking simply at our league position and getting upset. You need to look at the trend, which is an upwards trend for sure. Players at this level are here for a simple reason .... they are not as consistent as those in higher division top teams and therefore the odd poor result here and there is inevitable.

The goals were flukes for sure but you had to be impressed by the way he breezes past opposition defenders down the sides of the 18 yard box and his delivery of crosses was excellent for a young kid. He can fizz it and stand it up and seems to pick the right option a lot for someone so young. This boy is going to be a Premier League player within three seasons, hopefully for us.