Bailey

If these rumours are true, maybe there's a possibility that Seaborne could be heading to Sheffield United, as speculated on Sky earlier in the week?

They also have every reason to be optimistic. They're looking to make it 8 games unbeaten in all competitions, and are fresh off the back of an away win at Premier League Sunderland. Why wouldn't they be hopeful of getting something tomorrow? I'm hopeful we'll come out on top however, although we cannot afford to be complacent. If Lallana misses out, we'll certainly feel his absence. Assuming Puncheon deputises, then fingers crossed he can deliver for us. This won't be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll cautiously predict a 2-1 home win.

I love the sash, but I also like the fact that it represents our 125th year. It'd be fantastic to look back in a few years time and say , "I remember when we had the sash kit! Was our 125th year and the season we won the league!" If we were to keep it, then it'd take some of the significance away IMO. Return to the famous red and white stripes next season please.

No! Sky got it wrong with some dodgey journalism, that is all. When he's signed, it'll be confirmed on the OS. Until then, he remains a loan player.

Pardew wanted to bring him here just prior to his sacking. A good player, and would do well at this level.

How many of you half-expected this to be about a Saints youngster leaving . . . ? I know I did!

Based on the team fielded against Blackpool, I'm expecting us to start with . . . -------------------- Davis ----------------- Richardson ---- Fonte ---- Jaidi ---- Dickson Chamberlain -- Hammond -- Chaplow -- Lallana ------------- Lambert -- Guly -------------- Subs: Bialkowski, Seaborne, Butterfield, Puncheon, Schneiderlin, Barnard, Connolly. Schneiderlin in for Hammond if he doesn't recover from injury in time. Adkins has a bit of a selection dilemma after the peformance against Blackpool, especially with Seaborne, Puncheon and Schneiderlin all impressing.

Ok, I'll bite. Dune, it's got absolutely nothing to do with that. Season ticket holders have paid good money for their seats. There's no reason why they shouldn't be given first option as to whether they'd like to keep their seat for cup games too. It should be a given IMO.

A fantastic draw, so long as it doesn't effect our league form. A full-house is guaranteed with this fixture, so it'll be good to see St. Mary's rocking again. Like others have said, we're in a much better position now than when we played them last time round, so fingers crossed we can give them a game. It's the FA Cup, so anything is possible.

My heart said he would stay but my head always thought he'd move on to bigger and better things. What fantastic news to wake up to! Signing of the window, without question. Full credit to Cortese and Adkins, and a massive thankyou to Adam himself. Lallana has the ability to one day play in the Premier League, now I just hope that is with us. COYR!

Harding narrowly edges it, but only just. Dickson has started to produce the kind of performances that made Pardew bring him to St. Mary's in the summer, but I still favour the tried and tested DH. One things for sure, it's fantastic to see that we have such strength in depth, with our third choice left-back playing regularly for a Championship side!

Baldock is a good, young striker who is highly rated at MK Dons. I've had the pleasure of meeting him on a handful of occasions and I know that we wouldn't be the only club to have taken a closer look at him, providing we are interested that is. In terms of his style, he's not too dissimilar to Barnard IMO, in that he's a grafter, gives his all but he certainly knows where the goal is. He'd be a good signing, more than capable at this level, but whether he's the type of player we need right now, I'm not so sure. Potentially a long-term replacement for Connolly?

Sam Baldock and Martyn Woolford are two players we've apparently bid for. Source isn't my usual, so I'm taking it with a pinch of salt. Only time will tell I guess.

Forget that, how are Exeter doing!?

Absolutely spot on. It's great to have replacements all over the field that are of equal quality, if not better than some of the regulars in the starting XI. If Richardson is struggling, we can bring in the experienced Butterfield, we've got Dickson keeping Harding on his toes, Schneiderlin available if Hammond or Chaplow are out of form, and the likes of Barnard waiting in the wings if called upon. It's fantastic.

Butterfield, Jaidi, Dickson and Hammond in for Richardson, Seaborne, Harding and Schneiderlin.

Normally, I'd agree with you. However, I just feel we're going to have to adapt to the conditions tomorrow, and IMO, the likes of Jaidi, Hammond and Barnard will give us a better chance of taking all three points. They'll provide us with extra strength, power and industry, something that can't always be said for both Schneiderlin and Guly. We'll see though. In Nige we trust!

Couple of changes from the 4-0 win over Exeter for me. I'd go with the following . . . ---------------------- Davis ------------------ Richardson ----- Fonte ----- Jaidi ----- Harding Chamberlain --- Hammond --- Chaplow --- Lallana ------------- Lambert ------ Barnard ---------- Subs: Bialkowski, Seaborne, Butterfield, Dickson, Schneiderlin, Guly, Connolly. Bring in Jaidi as I feel this will be less of a 'football' match and more of a physical contest. I'm not convinced Guly will make an impact away from home either, so the tried and tested Barnard might be a better option. Hoping for a 2-1 away win, but this is the sort of game that Saints tend to drop points. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong tomorrow though!

Adam Lallana. It was no coincidence that we struggled for form when he was out through injury at the start of the season. A top, top player who will no doubt go on to play at a higher level. Lets just hope it's with Saints!

A repeat performance of this fixture last season would be perfect, but in reality it'll be a very tricky game. Hopefully the players are raring to go after the enforced break due to the weather, but we must be wary of a Huddersfield backlash after their home defeat to Hartlepool on Boxing Day. I'm going go for a narrow 2-1 win to Saints, with Lambert rediscovering some form and notching twice.

You mean you read the Daily Mail too!? Seriously though, I'd be surprised if he left in January, but I doubt it'll be too long before we see one of the top four snap him up. I genuinely believe he's a better prospect than Theo at the same age, but only time will tell.

Glad someone else saw the positives in Lambert's performance yesterday. I'll be the first to admit that he's struggled this season, especially in comparison to the last campaign, but yesterday, his hold-up play and overall game was better than in recent weeks. I think the enforced break due to the weather will do Rickie the world of good, especially ahead of the busy Christmas schedule. Hopefully we'll start to see Lambert improve in front of goal over the coming games too.

Haven't had time to look through all the posts, but here's my take on the game for what it's worth. A very bad day at the office sums it up perfectly for me. We were sloppy, lifeless and out of sorts. Brentford were up for it and wanted it more than us, simple as that. At a loss to explain such a performance. We'd had a nice break enforced by the weather, and so there were no excuses for such a tired display. The back four were appauling. Butterfield and Seaborne can be excused as they have been out for a while, but Jaidi and Dickson were terrible. We lost the midfield battle too. Hammond seems to be a lot more effective when he's got Chaplow badgering the opposition. Schneiderlin had a poor game in my opinion. Didn't put himself about enough and struggled to make any sort of positive impact. On a slightly more positive note, I thought Lambert and Guly did OK, with the former's hold-up play a lot better than in previous matches. The main problem with yesterday was that there was no service, so both players found it hard to make their mark. As for Kelvin, well what can you say? Totally at fault for the first and nervy throughout. Didn't command his area at all and distribution was poor. Have to admit, was slightly disappointed with Adkins and his tactics. I appreciate that he changed our style, putting Chambo up top, but he failed to make the most of his substitutes. Maybe he felt that in Doble, Dean, Gobern and Connolly, we didn't have any strength in depth that could change the game? Expect to see some movement in January if that's the case. All in all, a bad day for Saints, but the silver lining is that our rivals all dropped points too, bar Huddersfield. A win against Walsall and we'll be back on track, but we can't afford to many more slip-ups like this, especially at home. Lets not get too suicidal over this result, but the manor of the performance definitely is a cause for concern. 3 points next Saturday, and all will be forgiven/forgotten.

Lambert was a lot better against Brentford yesterday. His overall game was much improved. He linked up well with Guly and won almost all of his headers. The main problem was that he and Guly had nothing to feed on yesterday, but in terms of his individual performance, it was an improvement, that's f'sure.

I don't know all the details of what went on between Pardew and Cortese, but in my opinion, AP did very little wrong during his spell in charge here. When he took over, we had a squad which was short of quality and confidence. The whole atmosphere around St. Mary's was pretty grim in truth. After a slow start to the season, (not helped by the fact that AP came in just two weeks before the season got under way) things began to pick up. Pards made some very astute transfers, strengthening in almost every department. Yes, we narrowly missed out on a playoff spot, thanks largely to the ten point deduction, but with the JPT win and a relatively successful season, he gave us fans one of the most enjoyable campaigns for a long time. For that, I'll always be grateful. Now he's moved on to Newcastle, I hope he is given a fair crack of the whip to prove his worth as a Premiership manager. He's got the ability to do well there, but it could take a while to win round both the players AND the fans. Having said that, there's a strong enough character there to do just that, and I have every faith he'll do just fine. Whatever went on behind the scenes that led to Alan's dismissal should be put to bed now. He's just been appointed as manager of a very good club, and I think the majority of Saints fans should appreciate what he did do for us and wish him all the best for the future.