VectisSaint

I think his legs have gone though.

Good result, though it sounds like we made heavy weather of it. Amusing reading the completely negative comments on here during the match, I suppose there is no real reason to post anything positive, but by 'eck its hard to believe reading this that we are now on 45 points at the halfway point of the season and 15 games unbeaten, now only 7 points to 2nd. Down side is Charles missing next game, when it seems like Downes might have been off injured, leaving us a bit light in MF for Tuesday, and Bree injured as well?

Computer says no. Live Table has us level on points with 3rd.

We won't win the League, but 2nd place is very much still on. Ipswich have Leicester next and again early in the New Year, it just needs Leicester to do the double. If we can keep pace with Leeds then probably both will overtake Ipswich. Ipswich have now conceded more than us this season. Of course everything depends on us and especially today, but automatic promotion is only a done deal for one team, Leicester.

If you had been in Larne instead it might have helped.

We should forget about Leicester, and indeed get behind them in their two upcoming games against Ipswich. Ipswich look to be the vulnerable team, Leeds this weekend (draw would be good) and then Leicester twice in short order, 1 point from those 3 games and if we can do the business that gap will be much smaller and Ipswich catchable if we can beat them when we play (that's a tall order though).

20/21 he was scoring quite regularly early in the season, but after Feb 21 his goal scoring dropped off (apart from a brace v Palace) and he was in and out of the squad. He really hasn't scored many goals since and hasn't scored now for over a year. If he is to come back it is critical that he comes in as soon as possible once the window opens. Would be absolutely pointless if it doesn't happen until end January, given he needs to understand the process (seems like players take time to understand russball), Stewart should be back about then and there are only 17 league games from Feb to end of season. I like Danny and it would be good if he comes back but I'm not sure that he is all that people expect him to be, and I'm not convinced that he wants to be here, he was not exactly complimentary when he left, but perhaps that was down to Ralph as much as the Club.

No. Think it was plain stupid, as I do whenever anyone tries something daft like this.

When he was appointed the talk was of him being mostly involved with defending set pieces, not attacking. Can hardly blame him for "naffing off" if its for a better job, i.e. manager.

Alcaraz has produced very little.

'Was' being the operative word. He peaked with us and then was very poor the season he got injured (or was it COVID, can't recall exactly). Did very little that last season and has done very little since. I wouldn't be averse to having him back, but he is not the Messiah (neither is he a very naughty boy). He would not, in my opinion 'score goals for fun' as others suggest. Sadly Danny is well passed his prime, but no doubt he would be an upgrade on Adam's, which is not really a ringing endorsement.

Not sure how many more chances you expect us to create. At least 14 good chances were created, we messed up 13 of them and scored from one of the least good ones. Creating chances was not the problem.on Wednesday. The goal we conceded was the result of a complete brain fade by Manning, not for the first time. Whatever system you play mistakes like this will cost goals. Well aware of the limitations of the XH, but it is not the issue.

Watching the extended highlights you get a very different view of the game than what is being posted on here (I know, its extended highlights so most of the dross is not shown), I counted 14 quick, incisive, sharp attacks, 7 in each half. The problem wasn't the lack of good attacking chances, the problem was the lack of composure and poor finishing in the box. Our goal was arguably the least incisive attack of the game, very ponderous build up until Stuey and then Fraser got hold of the ball. Really don't think that is much to moan about for an away performance (result excepted). If only we had someone who could replace Adams up front.

Just to clarify, coming up against Prem sides is nothing to do with gaining promotion. It would have happened anyway as PL2 has been transformed into a single division league. Fact is we are doing much worse than last season even against the teams we were above in PL2 Division 2 last term.

Simeu has long term injury, ruptured achilles in August.

Hoedt does for us again. Awful blunder, just like he used to do for Saints.

Just bear in mind that Ipswich and Leicester have not met so far this season. One or both is going to drop some points in those two matches. Probably best for us if one or other does the double. Ipswich have a difficult run from tomorrow until 22 Jan (Watford A, Norwich H - local derby, Leeds A, Leicester H, QPR, Stoke, Sunderland and then Leicester A). They will be doing very well to keep up their current average between now and end January.

Charles is not having a good match. Stupid yellow and giving the ball away, looks a bit like the Charles we saw at beginning of season, thought he had got through that.

He was awful last year, but made no difference to whether we stayed up or not. The whole team was awful, we would have been relegated whoever was in goal.

Yes, I think you are missing something. It won't be 19 unbeaten if we remain unbeaten this weekend. I think you may have missed the point. The record is 19 which has stood for over 100 years.

Nothing like that, sorry you don't understand. It isn't pointless at all (in as much as anything is pointless if it is just idle speculation), fact is we may have looked dodgy in first few games but that was not reflected in the only stat that really matters, i.e. how many goals we conceded, which is how we are judged "defensively" (none of this xG nonsense or whatever it is). We had 3 extremely dodgy games, playing players out of position and so on), replace the 3 bad games (defensively, remembering we did actually draw one v Norwich) with 1 or even 2 goals conceded in each of them and we would still be second best in the League defensively. Those 3 games left a lasting misapprehenison about our defensive capabilities and will no doubt colour our defensive record for the season.

No. 19 league games in 1921 as previously reported.

Girona are not Oriol's hometown club. H was born in Ulldecona (in south Catalnia), whereas Girona is in the north of Catalonia. Hs boyhood club (i.e. where he played) was Barcelona. I think the attraction of Gerona was that it is a Catalan club (like Barca) and Oriol identifies strongly as a Catalan (he represents Catalonia in "international" football, although they are not a full FIFA country.

The tightening up at the back started before Calderwood arrived, primarily when we started to have a relatively consistent defence and CM (KWP, HB, JB, Manning, Downes and Smallbone, not forgetting Bazunu of course). But Calderwood certainly has not done any harm. The porous defence is really a bit of a myth, we had 3 bad games in short order (Norwich, Sunderland, Leicester) which made our stats look very bad. We have not conceded more than 2 in any other league game, and only conceded 2 in a game twice. Take those 3 games out and we probably have the second best defensive record in the league.

Will just be pleased to get to 40. Should be enough to keep us up even with 46 games 😉