Cabrone

For those of you who may be interested looks like the company our erstwhile ex-chairman is currently chairing is being examined by the SFA for dodgy dealings. http://news.sky.com/story/1025569/broker-widens-probe-into-suspicious-trades

No 2nd team for me but I do have a slight feeling of kinship with Norwich, mainly because I spent 3 enjoyable years living and drinking there (1 of which was about 100m from the stadium) but also because they have always felt like a similar club to ourselves. The 'local' team for the last 14 years has been Spurs but they can f**k off.

That was actually more like -1 point for Villa rather than 0 as their GD has now been trashed. Being as they are a young team lets hope that this resut crushes them before we play them. We need all the help we can get.

Very poor performance. Sunderland were organised and we didn't have enough to break them down. Set pieces were dismal and all in all it was gutless. This was a game where they had a decent chance of taking the points and they threw it away. Someone needs to put a boot up their collective asses if we are to have any chance of points in the next 6 league games, we need a lot more urgency.

In terms of impact at the club Ricky has to be right up there for me. He's been one of the biggest driving forces of our ascent from league 1 and his goals may yet be what keeps us in the prem in this first critical season. Other candidates are: -> Ron Davies who scored the goals that kept us in div 1 the first time round. -> Shilts who was a major part of our best ever team in terms of league placing. -> Alan Ball who played 41 out of 42 games in our 77/78 promotion season and was a real driving force behind our success. -> Jimmy Case who was bought for £30k in 1985 and gave us 6 years of top class service. He was Lawrie Mac's last signing and in terms of value arguably his best. There are many other transfers that have been fantastic like Beattie, Niemi, Golac, Armstrong, Dennis etc but the 4 above are arguably the ones that have made the biggest impacts. ...of course the list doesn't include those that came through the ranks like Paine, Channon, Williams and of course MLT.

I'm a big fan of Arsene Wenger, think he's brilliant. He has superb knowledge of players and using it to buy cheap (relatively) and get the most out of them. He has had a few misses in the transfer market but IMO no-one has as good a record as him at getting a gem of a player before he gets too expensive. I also applaud Arsenal's stance of not giving into greedy players. If all clubs copied them then we'd get more realistic salaries and (maybe) lower ticket prices. Wanting £100k p.w. is completely obscene.

Exactly, far too much gloating going on when SFC is by no means certain of surviving itself. Of all the clubs out there we should need no reminding that Reading have a history of form over the 2nd half of the season. Hopefully the prem is a step too far for them but a lot of posters on here were pretty snooty about them this time last season and look what happened.

I'd say (in order of importance)..... - Standard of opposition. - Stable team - No major injuries. - Defence getting its act together. - Introduction of Shaw and Cork + form of Puncheon, Clyne and Ramirez.

I don't think 38 will do it TBH. Even 40 is going to be touch and go this season. Looking around us even the worst team at the moment, Reading, are capable of a good run in the 2nd half of the season. The rest of the teams in the bottom 7/8 are really close and I think we'll all be scrapping away right till the death. Could be a very exciting finale.

Following on from the previous '5 game prediction' thread... Sunderland (h) 3 - low on confidence and there for the taking at the moment. Fulham (a) 1 - hoping that the QPR result is the start of a little dip for Fulham which we can exploit. Stoke (a) 1 - don't let in many but don't score many, ugly low scoring draw. Arsenal (h) 0 - even in a rough spell still think they'll get past us. Villa (a) 1 - with chelsea(a) as their next game fingers crossed their little spurt fizzles out ASAP. So 6 points is my 'par for the course' prediction. Anyone else care to take a look into the crystal ball?

£10 for game + transport is what would entice me to see every match.

17th was my target on the day we got promoted and it still is now. Survive the first difficult year and then consolidate for next season would be fine by me.

Fancy at least a point from this one. We can score - they can't.

My views on NA haven't really changed, having got us up 2 divisions he earnt the right to manage us for at least 1/2 a season and have a crack at the premiership and the 19/20 game mark was when I might have started to question his performance. I think he's performed above expectations so far, how some fans wanted him sacked after the first 10 games which were as tough as you could get was more of an inditement on their lack of patience than NA. He's found his feet and I'm now more confident that he's capable of steering us to safety. The only blot on the copybook is the GK situation. To pick Gazza above Boruc or even Davis for as long as he did seems a bit odd but I think he's now getting that right. I can only guess that Boruc has done something very wrong behind the scenes as he's easly the best we have.

Yes, after the last 5 games I wonder what Delldays' views on Nigel Adkins are now? If I remember he was posting 'sack him' every 5 minutes a few weeks ago. Seems to have gone a bit quiet recently.

So 10 points from the last 5 games and our tails are up. I'd score the team an A-. Overall a great performance, above expectations but disappointing to have dropped 2 against Norwich and produced a lame performance at Anfield. Considering we have survived a rather brutal introduction to this league and are now starting to find our feet I don't see why we shouldn't be able to get around 45 points and come in lower mid table (injuries permitting).

Deserved the win as we dominated throughout. Thought our build up play was good but we were very timid in the penalty area, with more aggression we would have had 3. Rickie was subdued but Shaw, Ramirez, Puncheon and Clyne shone. Is that the same Reading team that beat us in April? They look like relegation material to me.

Would like a win but the best I think we'll get is a draw unfortunately.

SAVE a fortune on laundry bills by giving your dirty shirts to Oxfam. They will wash and iron them and you can buy them back for 50p.

Agree, certain players are beyond criticism (Schneiderlin) on here whilst others are demonised (formerly Puncheon, Boruc, Fox etc etc). I don't blame Gazza for the mistakes, he's a 20 year old plucked from div 2 now expected to keep goal against some of the best strikers in the world. To expect him to slot in and perform at prem league level was always ridiculous. I just want to know when Boruc, a GK with proven ability is finally going to get a run in the team? He could already have saved us 6+ points which would have seen us mid table. He needs match fitness but how the heck is he going to get it whilst we persist with Gazza? Demonising a fine GK after 2 games is an utter joke.

If Nige keeps on picking Gazza he's going to leak lots of points. Not his fault, he's a 20 yr old who was playing in lge 2 last season. When is Boruc going to get the nod for the rest of the season?

Holt is a fine center forward but I think Rickie has more in his locker. Comparing the teams man for man is to downplay Norwich's strength - namely their team ethos, work ethic and fighting spirit. The Norwich team is greater than the sum of the individual parts. I've got respect for them but I think we've got just enough to win.

We are now playing teams in the shonky end of the prem and having already played the best teams we've been tested and have wised up, especially in defence. We've also had time to bed in the new imports and have a fairly good injury situation at the moment. Also for the first time this season we have got that magic ingredient - confidence - so hopefully we'll push on from here.

Looking forward to this game, got a lot of respect for Norwich's never say die fighting spirit in this league. Could go any way but I fancy us just a bit more. 2-1 to Saints after a hard fought game.

Great win, great performance by the sounds f it and great confidence boost. Win the next game and we'll be on a 40 point trajectory, that's where we need to be. TBH we are doing better than I thought we would at this stage, I really thought the vicious start to the season would take it's toll on our morale but we've really bounced back brilliantly.