Raven on the wing

If we are to be contenders to win league 1 outright we should have a shadow squad with enough quality to beat the bottom half of L1 downwards in Cup comps.

"David in Sweden" rubbished the "hordes of Saints" fans on the train. The (10 coach )train from Poole/Bmouth I was on for the Johnstone Paint final was about one third full of Saints fans by the time it reached New Milton , so there are a lot of Saints fans in this area. At the pre season friendly we outnumbered them by about 3 to 1 at the Fitness first stadium. I dont suppose we will play them this pre season - hopefully some Prem teams ( West Ham ???) instead. Only recent competitive fixtures was a two legged defeat for us in the old league cup over 20 years ago.

First half he barely gave us a throw in and second half missed a stonewall penalty ! Just seen it again on Meridian - the guy has moved his arm to the ball and clearly deflected it massive appeal by the whole stadium and 3 Saints players standing within a few yards - but not given - Puncheon shoots powerfully well parried by keeper to Otsemaboor who heads weakly in to goalies arms - summed up our night. I also didnot agree with Echo that we looked tired last night - we gave everything it was just the ref who gave us nothing (again ! )

Swindon are a competent side no more no less. One of their best strikers didnot even play yesterday !! We cannot console ourselves with the idea that they are really good etc etc. They have done the double over us with virtually zero rescources and that is not acceptable. We have to have sufficient quality that our full backs can overlap and provide a potent threat when the wide mid fielders are heavily marked. Harding seemed to sit back more at the start and some of Thomas crossing was absolutely woeful. Earlier in the season Yeovil and perhaps even Exeter played in a similar fashion to Swindon and we were perhaps fortunate to get the three points each time. As for balanced reporting on Solent - to me every goal the opposition score is lucky and I am not interested in how well they are playing. It still haunts me to recall the commentator on Solent bellowing what a great equalising goal Bent (?) had scored for Everton against us in the last minute of a game at St Marys ( after Crouchy should have taken the ball into the corner ) in the season we went down !!

Back to the incident in question.I saw one chap must have been in his forties take a big swing at a youngish lad after some mild verbals - then a bit of a scuffle ensued - after which said young lad invited "Mr Haymaker" outside to sort out their differences. He declined it would appear. Several of the young lads mates called up some stewards who seemed to do nothing apart from look , following which several of the lads seemed to disappear down the steps under their own steam. I believe "Mr Haymaker" may have had a Saints crest on his jacket but said youths didnot have any noticeable colours. Storm in a tea cup - but a bit distracting at a crucial time in the game though !!

The worry I keep on returning to in my mind with Kelvin is the opposition shots on target to goals ratio. Yesterday they had 7 shots on target to our 10. The number of times we concede against the first on target effort is disconcerting. Kelvin had a great season last year and made one great save against O Hara but seemed to get a hand on O Hara's goal and a leg on their 2nd, without stopping it crossing the line. Is that a failing or a credit that he nearly stopped them ? He is I think ample for LG1 as a keeper and his loyalty this season is admirable.

Nick G - You know irony doesnot always go down well on this forum - just wait for some abuse !!

I remember Danny Wallace - blistering pace, often crossed into the crowd but was a good enough player for Man Utd to pay good money for. Sadly injuries/illness curtailed his career. If Antonio turns out to be half as good a player I'd be happy.

Alan you can do no wrong in my eyes, but you did make one remark that upset me when you first took over. It was that you never felt intimidated as a visiting player coming to play Southampton. Watch and learn on Feb 13th/14th Cup week end. Cheers COYR !!

I thought I heard AP say on Solent that "we couldnot match Doncasters valuation for Stock who is their captain and best player". Sounds as though he rates him to me !

If the guy has real pace then he is just what we need. Signing on a free/ 6 month contract has also got to be better than a loan ( as suggested in the echo before ) from a fellow Lg 1 play off contender, which would leave him with split loyalties I think. Well done AP.

Sky seem to be writing that we wanted to recall him from Torquay but we arenot able to ? Unusual that there isnot a recall in emergencies clause ? We would want him on the bench, but I wonder if we should get an older experienced pro on loan instead ?

I wonder if this FA Cup game counts as his suspension wether "Trotters" will be deemed to be "Cup tied" regardless ?? I would expect the Fa to deem it as such.

krissyboy31 - I mentioned last week that Charlton have very poor away support for a recent Prem team with the benefit of London rail links etc. Last season they were one of the lowest in the Championship - even at the start when they were towards the top ( eg 413 @ Preston on Sat 30/08/08 when they were 6th having won 2 of 3 games ). I would be suprised if they took 500 to Norwich.

From the Northam I thought Saga definitely made a real meal of it, but that is no doubt why he has made International appearances - he has the "nous" to make something out of nothing in those situations. But on one viewing on TV it looked a stonewaller without looking at any slo-mo. I would have been livid if we had conceeded a pen for the 2nd incident but was too far away to judge. Did we actually create any real chances in the first hour, and perhaps only two after that ? We were lucky from that point of view but "Yeovil were woeful" around our penalty box, and never really troubled Kelvin.

Sad reality of being in this outpost of football in L1 that we see little other than the goals from our games. From Saturdays coverage, it looked that both pens hit raised arms in the box, with the Stockport guy waving presumably to his missus in the stand ! It certainly seemed that Saga's goal definitely was not offside.

May I say how childish it was for some of you posters to suggest we were after the late Fanny Craddock. Her husband Johnny was a much better player, even though he wore a monocle I believe, and was often drunk when seen on TV !!

I feel sorry for Leon as he no doubt has always had Saints at his heart, but he could have inadvertently sent us to the wall. I dont suppose he will gain even a freeby ticket from the current regime as he was instumental in them dipping out first time of asking ! With his business experience you would have expected LC at least, to not take people at face value, and MLT was just used to give pinnacle a leg up.

There are alarming similarities to 2 seasons ago when we had nothing in the centre of our defence and lost to the long ball game of Palace 1-4. I hope and pray that we get players in for Saturday to change that !!

Agreed. I challenge anyone to name a productive piece of play he made in any game last season for us.

This has worrying similarities to last season when we (fans) hoped to keep at least one of our top 3 strikers ( John , Saga and Raziak ) and instead we left ourselves with Mc G only who was awful at the start of the season. As for loans from higher leagues - that certainly didnot work for us either.There is only a relatively short time as we are already at a huge disadvantage on minus 10. AP is on a team bonding exercise - dont you have to have a team to field first before you worry about the gimmicks ? In fairness I think AP will think SJ has kicked him in the goolies with this one.

Noticed last season that Charlton, from day 1 had just about the worst ( numerically ) away support in the ccc. Considering they benefit from London transport links it just about says it all. We also saw more Aldershot supporters in our pub visit to Charlton last year. Did they really deserve to have a premiership team ??

Like others it took a while for it to sink in. He is typical of many of the managers we used to look out for at Saints with a lower profile but get the job done. Hopefully it will proove to be an inspired choice. Good luck and welcome to the mad house Alan !!

Anybody know what gives with Bmouth not selling beer in the stadium - presumably that is just to Saints fans ? I seem to think 2 seasons ago they closed our bar early but it would seem to be very insulting considering they were happy to take our money at the gate. If we ever play them at St Marys we should make sure they are not sold alcahol either. It was also interesting that the "friendly" attitude to refereeing towards Bmouth's players which was not shown to Darren Powell 2 years ago ! A poor game with Bart playing like a polish clown ( not Tomashevski !! ). Thomson looked bright at the start and Mills shows promise, but a great turnout of Saints fans in the rain.

Count me in. Seem to think they closed the bar at the ground early last time we were there and Powell got sent off - cant think which was more annoying !!