Charlie Wayman

Dream on sunshine, dream on! Meanwhile we'll leave the coffee brewing for when you wake up!

It is all very tiresome isn't it but to be fair who amongst us can remember more than 25% of the teams in our own division this year? Go on, try it! I can't that's for sure so not knowing about Bournemouth will not change anonymity of the other 75%. They'll come up here once, so we can all avoid that weekend and - end of story. I don't even know where they play and I'm in Bournemouth every week.

I don't remember you being quite so philosophical and magnanimous about his performance earlier on in the season, isn't this what politicians call positive spin?

1-0 eh? It'll do. Listening to that on RS was not good for the old ticker. I agree, Merrington was off colour today but the other bloke was utter reeking horse turd personified, took him about ten minutes to spot we hadn't started with the blond mop-top up-front and when the cavalry arrived I thought we must be playing with 13... wonder if the ref noticed?

Obviously a quiet day Stu. Even Liverpool's owners want out after only three years so the thing we should wish for most over 5 years is ownership and management stability. There are unfortunately far too many unforeseen hazards in football to feel easy about planning 5 years ahead. What we must not do is get carried away by a couple of 5-1 results in the Third Division, where half the clubs are semi-pro, on the verge of being stony broke and just glad to survive from one year to another. Putting it bluntly, we shouldn't be down there in the first place and with our money, set-up and players we ought to win EVERY game 5-1. Rather than worry about battles yet to come with the great and good of world football we should anguish over the fact that next season we will likely be entertaining Aldershot & Bournemouth (WHO TFAT?) teams that only a year or two back didn't even show up as a smudge on the radar of Saints fans.

I'd like to hope that you are right and I am wrong, of course but cannot Millwall achieve that objective irrespectively of what happens on Friday? I think so. Believe you me if the announcer says Huddersfield 2 Millwall 3, I'll be the first to the bar.

Chances are Millwall who are safely in the play-offs will not bother against Huddersfield simply because they'd fancy their chances against them in the play-offs more than they'd fancy playing Saints. So the best strategy for Millwall will be to make sure Saints don't get there and they can do that easily by letting Huddersfield win. I'd say it's 95% certain Huddersfeld will win 2-0 or 3-0 on Friday for this reason - of course nobody could ever prove it was fixed - so don't bother staying up late to catch the score.

Not sure your optimism is fully justified Stu. We have some very good players for this division but they are not world beaters otherwise the likes of the lads you mentioned would not be wearing Red & White and sitting on a park bench in rural southern Hampshire. And, we are likely to lose one or two in the summer as Dave Merrington has observed and explained simply, because it will be another two years before they can hope to play Championship football with SFC, let alone aspire to the Premiership; the best of them are naturally ambitious guys who want to maximise their income and international credibility in what is for many an all too short career. Thirdly, if Schneiderlin in particular decides to go, well... you've seen how we perform when he's not around and Fonte is another who is already too good and too old to hang around for long. Then there's Barnard who must be pretty ****ed off at not being an automatic first choice on the team-sheet and frankly looks the part in recent matches. It's a mistake to assume we can pay enough to keep them happy, as Maslow observed Money may be a motivator but is NOT a satisfier. If we can only hang onto the middling players and the best leave, why would Pardew hang around especially if he too gets irresistible offers over the summer from above and what betting even that we might end up in the worse position of all with Pardew off to West Ham and taking Lallana and Schneiderlin and Lambert with him? So it is unwise to suggest that everything will be even better on August 7 after one or two even stronger additions to the squad. I agree, that's what we'd hope and pray for but we've been a selling club for so many years now that the top 6 or 8 clubs may even see us as a kindergarten for nurturing THEIR rising young stars, ready for plucking when it suits them. Once you've earned a reputation like that it may be mighty hard to shake off; you can't ban scouts from St Mary's.

Basically, Huddersfield need 8 points from 4 games so they MUST win 2 and either draw the other 2 or win 1. 7 pts won't do it for them as we'll murder them on GD. Meanwhile we have to win ALL remaining 5. On balance the odds are in favour of Huddersfield who can afford a couple of not too serious slips whereas we cannot. Of course we discount Colchester at our peril, we've not passed them yet.

Well done lads! Now the same at Yeovil please. I did not like Dave Merrington suggesting we could lose half our current team in the close season "... would be hard to hang on to them.." Who's side's he on?

I've given up on being entertained. A perfect day for all who believe only the result matters. We should be building for next year not fighting for scraps under the table.

Oh Yes! Oh Yes! Oh Yes! Oh Yes! Oh Yes! Oh Yes! I remember it well - we whooped their Rrses, Best, Law, Charlton and all!

That's pretty much everyone's first pick team including Pards, so no prizes for that but the jury is still out o Otsemobor and why not give Lloyd a run out at RB, at lease he gets forward and can put in decent crosses; unlike Puncheon Lloydy can take useful corners. I am looking forward most to the game being played in nice warm spring sunshine for a change so we can turn up in lighter clothes and not huddle together to keep warm.

In comparison to Paul Lambert he has not distinguished himself that's for sure. The problem for fans 'though is placing his 'failure' into context. Compared to what came before - since in fact Strachan buggered off - the stability that Pardew has brought has been very welcome and for many fans just stabilising the ship has been a achievement enough for this year. But... memories are short and the more you succeed the greater you raise expectations and this is where he has failed in my view. He has consistently and disingenuously promised us a team with a winning mentality, that we are 'probably' the best team in the league; that the play-offs are achievable when he knows better than most that none of this has been true. We have been at best this season a better than average side for this division that, until one or two matches recently, struggled all season to beat anybody in the top half of the league. Better had he kept his powder dry and not promised what could not be delivered; a guarantor of turning people against you. So like many including NC, I end up feeling disappointed with the season when in fairness to our recent history we should be feeling delighted that we have made first base in pretty good shape and we can springboard for there. Having oversold - for whatever reasons - the team that he has offered us this season it remains to be seen whether AP will be trusted enough to allow him the extra investment (and time) to build a team for next season that would indeed fulfill the promises he has made. Now we know that our team needs at least 5 players and maybe 8 to become the upwardly mobile Unbeatable's that he envisages, let's say i will not be betting our house on it.

Chelsea or Southampton... Bridge etc This opinion is patently wrong and absurd! It would be - and would confirm to fans that Saints are still a short-sighted selling club that lacks the ambition to do anymore than tread water and run a tight financial economy with no further cash injections from anywhere. Just watch the crowds melt away when the last of our local lads with any realistic prospect of going all the way heads out. Then the economics won't look quite so settled. Saints have been and always will be to fans a friendly family club founded solidly in the community it represents. If we ended up with not a single player from the borough, it would surely be a very black day for us. As NC is on record as wanting at least half our team coming from within the Academy system, it is inconceivable that he will sell Lallana willingly and on this issue he an Pards are surely united as one.

Hey! Don't you just love being popular? Come on lads, admit it, this was one dire football match was it not? hardly the stuff of legend. Don't worry about false loyalties my blood's been dyed Red & White since I first set foot in the place as a tiny tot - Dell that is - in 1948. So that's 62 season's and counting; all bar three or four have ended in abject disappointment so these days one tends to take it as it comes and see the funny side. As for my odd trips to The Emirates, why not? Surely, even if you love fish 'n chips, the odd curry or Chinese takeaway makes a refreshing change... Anyway, I don't have to pay for tickets up there

Who the Feckle hund would want to play footie with a soggy haggis in a league fit for Zeroes! Adam Lallana is going precisely nowhere so stop 'reading' comics and grow up.

Not even NC and ML bothered to turn up for this one! What do they know that we don't? It looks like your on tour own Pards until the end of this campaign. The bollocking that you gave the lads at half-time would have paled into insignificance after the bollicking you will get from the great leaders after this abysmal excuse for football. Hey! We need to be entertained for our money, results aren't everything especially now there leading nowhere. I'll send you a link to a P45 so you can print your own before your meeting.

Yeah! Where are the 12" high hand painted by Johnstone's made in China figurines of Rici Lamberto and the special offers on decoraters brushes and red & white striped emulsion? We deserve the best!

Lol... Exactly! Typical of the extra 28000 "Saints" "fans" who turned up at Wemberley last Sunday.

Lowe's & Wilde were my reasons for skipping the best part of a whole season before. This year I've missed a few since the turn of the year once it became obvious that we would not get near the play-offs and we had nothing to play for. Not sure about tomorrow after yet another dismal performance at Brighton and (I'm still raging over) the crap tickets I was given for Wembley. Even 'though I love Saints I'm not sure about this particular set of Saints, who don't float my boat enough to ensure I'll never miss a game. There just isn't enough home town passion about them as there was in the past; I miss a Channon, Le Tiss, Paine type of hero - they are the people who got me there every week rain or shine.

...and on the evidence of last night that manager might be Gus Poyet who out-thought Pards every step of the way.

Charlie, I agree with you absolutely. All the subsequent hoo-hah and shoeshine from Pards has been window-dressing to try to hoodwink the Swiss top brass that they have invetsed in a silk purse. I've given up for this season so don't bother to tune in to away matches or slavishly trek to SMS every other week any more. They've got my money anyway so whether I'm there in body or spirit doesn't really matter. What really scares me is that as things stand we look more and more like an average mid-table side of little ambition and limited ability. I want to believe it will be a cake-walk next season but we all know it won't, too many teams have cracked us when we don't have the advantage of home crowd support and familiar surroundings. Pards say he will "build a team fit for the Premiership" in the close season... How exactly? He needs players all over the park for that so where's the money coming from? Only two or three from this squad are anywhere near good enough. I'm more inclined to the view that if Saints really need another ground-up rebuilding exercise, then Corteses might as well start with a different manager and give him the money rather than risk it on Pardew buying another load of misfiring journeymen.

I'm really glad that our "individually selected world beaters" have been fully embedded with "a winning mentality" - good for you, Pards! Certainly beats struggling for points in every away game.... Why the feckles didn't you just play last Sunday's team in a straightforward simple 4-4-2, you berk? This one's 500% down to you; if you get your P45 on Tuesday morning don't ask "Why Me?"

You're being effing paranoiac, Alan Pardew has been there so many times before as a winner (only 4 years ago) and a loser (only three years ago) in much bigger competitions so he wasn't in awe of the place. His demeanor of acting calmly and normally was calculated to settle down his players quickly. This attitude of "just another game" attitude which was pitched just right and exactly what was needed. It worked a treat which is why we played our normal dull up-and-under game and yet scored for fun every time we felt like it. Be honest pal, how many teams ever score 4 at Wembley and it's probably because the manager is over-hyped and it all transmits to the palyers? Inside no doubt he was shooting bricks in case we lost and he had to expalin that away to the bosses. As for distancing himself from the palyers during the celebrations you are into looney tunes. His creed was obviously, "these are (my) young lads, they may never play here again, it;s their success and their day. He was full of pride as anybody could see but let them have the limelight, which is why they all love him ad why he is one effing heck of a good manager - the sort of bloke you lay down your life for! Get off his case, get off his back, there is no intrigue, no hidden agenda's. Just enjoy what he's doing for us right now and thank the Lord we don't have some non-entity red-nosed weirdo accented clown instead.