T.REX

This is immense. Not just great defensively (closing united players down, hunting in packs yet still maintaining their shape) but some terrific link up play when they get forward. They're making united look shiiiiiiiit.

20 years old and currently at university in liverpool but southampton is my home. First game was in '98 - lost 2-1 to coventry in a midweek game at the dell. Le Tiss scored a penalty. Second game was home to nottingham forest - lost 2-1. Le Tiss scored a penalty... Think in my next game i might have finally seen a win (!)

Hmmm... isn't piquionne due to play against us for doncaster as well?

That's good news about leicester winning, be good if they could stay in play-off contention as they've got a few games against our rivals still to play. C'mon you saints. Think positive folks.

Looked like a groin injury. Not sure how long he'll be out, get the impression we're being very cautious about these things - bringing the players off straight away instead of risking them aggravate anything. A lot of games to play in a very short amount of time so it makes sense.

Amazing. Didn't think individually the defence were even that good but we kept throwing bodies in the way and Kelv was outstanding! Cracking result.

C'mon Nige do your magic. Lets get this team passing again.

I'm too much of a wuss to fill in the saints scores but i make it we need 88 to beat birmingham to second and 91 points to pip the hammers. I tried to do the occasional random championship result but its hard to tell how much fatigue will kick in at birmingham yet given their amount of games over the season. I do think our remaining fixtures aren't too bad though all things considered. Reading, Cardiff, Blackpool were a fair way off Birmingham in the end. Interestingly even without playing our remaining games we were still safely above 17th... Pompey survived ):

Great result and that's good news with regards to Billy and Jos, would have been a shame to lose them with momentum building. I know Sharp hasn't quite hit the ground running yet but these things sometimes take a while. He was Donny's main man and had a real affinity with the club and fans so it might just take some adjusting. With so many fixtures over March and April we're going to need the fringe players to make an impact so it bodes well that Lee and Martin left such a positive impression on this game. Could be a big couple of months for the likes of SDR, Butterfield, Harding, Falque etc and i have every faith in the squad and NA.

Good stuff. "They're back!" says Mark Bright on final score.

Surely Fonte's due one now. Scored for fun last year!

Top scorer twice in a row (and soon a third time), a goal in the JPT final, three hat-tricks, a PFA fans player of the year award and two goals against the Skates.... What a hero. Happy Birthday Rickie!

As i can't edit... just like to add obviously i'm not condoning play-acting but by modern standards what Sharp did was absolutely nothing.

Ha. I had been really eager to see this incident because of the 'cheat' stuff being labelled at us - really annoys me for some reason. If anything Sharp could have done a whole lot more to get him sent off than he did! The Hammers were all claiming he was rolling around on the floor etc etc. Taylor raised his arms (as we can more clearly see from the photos taken from the opposite angle), Sharp went down and got back up quickly after. The way some of their fans have been criticising Billy is totally out of order in my opinion. Have they not played Brighton this season?!

Yeah fair enough i was cherry picking it to suit my argument, but i still think it raises legitimate questions about his candidacy for the England job. Is just letting the players get on with it going to be good enough when we come up against teams who are more technically gifted. Surely then we'll need a bit more tactical nous.

The lack of balance to the debate in the sports media dissapoints me. Ex-players, current pros and journos all proclaiming Harry to be "the people's choice" etc. Tactically he is way behind many, as another poster made reference to; Van der Vaart said of his management style "There are no long and boring speeches about tactics, like I was used to at Real Madrid. There is a clipboard in our dressing room but Harry doesn't write anything on it... It's not that we do nothing - but it's close to that." (http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/11/17/2217867/tottenham-midfielder-rafael-van-der-vaart-harry-redknapp) Then there's the popular myth that he has done well 'wherever he's been'. Well we all know how he got on at saints... He had two jobs to do: sort out the defence and restore confidence. He signed Davenport, Bernard and son Jamie whilst criticising players in post-match interviews further damaging morale. Pompey have been left in a perilous situation (coming close to extinction twice), which although may not be solely his responsibility; his wheeler dealer attitude was certainly one of the catalysts. I can't comment on West Ham but i don't believe he's that popular there. He's done a good job at tottenham but as others have alluded to they have spent a lot of money and he has benefited from the presence of Daniel Levy who rebuffed Chelsea's offers for Modric and helped orchestrate the Van Der Vaart deal. Of course i am biased...

This kind of thing annoys me (like with the Lambert thread a few weeks ago). As fans we bemoan players and managers for showing a lack of loyalty- but it works both ways. Adkins won us promotion last year (which is something i hadn't experienced in my lifetime) and this season got us producing some of the best football i've seen saints play. I know it's a 'results-based business' but doesn't that count for anything?

Interesting... How was he getting on at Yeovil? Anyone know?

I wouldn't be too hasty, i think Frazer needs some game time to get himself sharper and back into form. I remember earlier in the season thinking Richardson was going to struggle this season (after the game against Millwall in which he struggled against Abdou), but after that he was outstanding in much of our run up to xmas.

Disappointed the game went ahead and would have been devastated if we had lost for the folks that went and the players who generally applied themselves well. Kelv made at least one very good stop and handled some awkward back passes pretty well i thought. Shame Sharp didn't get off to a flyer but it was an extremely difficult game to make a mark on though i was very impressed with Puncheon. All in all we gained a point more than Cardiff and stopped Birmingham's winning run so not a bad days work.

Decent first half from Saints considering the conditions, keep playing like that and the chances will come. We're doing the basics right at the moment, moving the ball well and showing good movement. Hopefully a cameo from Sharp in the second half.

I'm not convinced by the whole "if he was white..." argument. I do actually think he works quite hard in matches but his body language lets him down (too many apologetic shrugs etc.) added to the fact that he can be pretty inconsistent. If he was in top form all the time though he probably wouldn't be in the Championship.

Strong looking team. No SDR in the squad, still struggling with injury do we think? or just Adkins' choice.

Worst half i've seen for a long time from saints. I know we're missing key players but that was very disappointing. We need a MK Dons style turnaround.

Love the paragraph on the OS about real madrid and barcelona playing the style of passing game 'saints also promote'. Sounds an exciting signing, even if it is just a loan.