SaintBobby

I'm absolutely convinced that a couple of merry, p i s s ed up Saints fans were singing this before the Charlton game. Am pretty much guessing at some of the finer points of the lyrics: (To tune of the Hokey Cokey) He puts his right foot in He put his left foot out In out, in out, he shakes them all about He plays for Saints and he scores us goals That's what he's all about Oh oh Papa Waigo Oh oh Papa Waigo Oh oh Papa Waigo Left foot, right foot, score score score. Well, you had to be there...but I liked it.

I've only see him play once - at the pre-season game v Newport. He was pretty impressive. Tall, strong and good at getting forward. He took a penalty and scored too.

So, although winning their first six (or so) games obviously helped, it wasn't decisive.

I really like the way AP acknowledges us fans. It's easy to do and words are cheap- but this isn't a feature of all our recent managers. I appreciate it - and his implicit acknowledgement that he and the team really need to deliver for us.

It's seems to be a fact in modern football that every manager is within about six games of the sack. Perhaps not Ferguson or Wenger, but probably c. 90 of the rest. My own view is that if it becomes obvious we're hurtling towards relegation with Pardew then we need to review things in January. Fortunately, this seems not to be the case. If he fails to get us promoted next season though, that's probably curtains.

The difference between our position and that of Sunderland/Palace is that we were mathemtaically certain to be bottom for the first few games - and practically certain to be bottom for 7 or 8 games. We were likely to be in the relegation zone for around a dozen games, even if we'd being showing consistent championship-winning form right from the start of the season. In football terms, we're now 11th and in terms of form, we're much better than this. If you're a pessimist, you'll probably think that out form over the next 34 games will be the same as over our first twelve games. This would leave us on the cusp of relegation, with about 58 points, minus 10. But surely even a cynic expects things to improve. Since the start of the season, we've added Lambert, Waigo, Hammond, Trotman, Jaidi and Connelly to the squad. Additionally, Schneiderlin and Lallana seem to have really found their feet. Games 7 - 12 surely give a better indication or our future performances than games 1-6.

68 points from the remaining 34 games should be possible. That's something like Win 21, Draw 5, Lose 8. As the OP points out, we may scrape in with less than that. We definitely want the top two or three teams to run away with it and for it to be very tight for 5th, 6th, 7th.

I thought we finished with a pretty standard 4-4-2. It certainly wans't "total football". Torquay were passing the ball, we were lumping it forward.

Just got back to London after the game. Truly abysmal performance, but am obviously lifted by having got through to the next round (I actually really care about this competition and think we can win it). My missus will testify that I was considerably more foul-mouthed at this match than I have ever been before, this was because: (a) we were playing worse than a pub team from minute 20 to minute 45 and (b) the Kingsland North was so populated with unaccompanied chavvy 13-15 year olds, at the very bottom of the food chain, that I lost all sense of social responsibility. I thought Waigo was better than okay - but am surprised that he has won MotM so decisively. I voted for Lambert who I thought was 100% committed, very brave and utterly tireless. But I'm worried we're giving him too much of a thankless task. The problem is that lumping the ball up to Rickie DOES work (sort of). He challenges for everything and gets the ball down from his chest to his feet well - although inevitably with his back to goal. But we aren't getting the best out of him if we expect too much of him. I'm leaning towards Lallana being our second centre forward. Particular low points for me today were the central defence and central midfield - both appalling. And our (complete lack of) movement off the ball was pathetic. The penalties were quite superb though.

Schneiderlin. Class act.

Pedant alert. I think 4 teams get relegated, so we need to keep our eyes fixed on 20th place. I think point 3 is a bit optimistic, though. If we're 12th by Xmas, we are cruising to the play-offs. Put another way, the more games we've played, the less the ten point burden affects our league position. At present, we've effectively been docked 0.9 points per game. But by the end of the seaon, it will average out at just over 0.2 points per game. This means our rise up the table is more likely to be exponential than steady. If we're tenth with 8-10 games to go (e.g. in March), we're probably a fair bet to make the play-offs.

I think the play-offs are a long shot, but I'm bemused about people saying "we'd have to show championship form" to get into the play-offs. I've been pretty forgiving about our mediocre start (well, our dire start...which has now become okay-ish). I do think the absence of pre-season and - more pertinently - building a largely new team takes time to come good. It looks like it's starting to. But from hereon, I want to be clear about one thing: I expect championship-winning form. Okay, if Leeds and Charlton average 2.2 points and we're averaging 2.19, I can live with that. But I can find no reason why Saints should not be averaging at least 2 points a game for the rest of the season. This is the third division FFS, not the Champions League. If we don't quite make it this season, our target should be win the division with comfort next season - with around 100 points.

are you moving again next week to guarantee another 3 points?

5 points from 7 games is NOT the haul of points I was hoping for or expecting. It falls well below expectations. I probably would have expected 10 points, and hoped for 12. That said, I remain an apologist and will continue to be an apologist if we don't win on Saturday. Firstly, I don't know what the alternative is (no one is saying sack Pardew from what I can see). Secondly, we are moving - steadily - in the right direction. Thirdly, we haven't had the rub of the green so far, we probably "deserve" more than the 5 points we've got. I want a win on Saturday just like everyone else. But I'm still at a stage where I care more about the performance. If, say, we draw 1-1 (again!), but have 3 clear cut penalty shouts turned down, hit the woodwork six times and they score a flukey goal from their only shot, I still won't be panicking. I'll still be an apologist. A frustrated one, but an apologist nonetheless.

I very much agree with the original post. I'm not even as impatient as Bridgey. I think it quite likely that we're still in the relegation zone come Jan 1st. I wouldn't mind this as long as our form is still improving and we're not adrift. To eradicate the 11 point gap between us and safety would be quite an achievement in 16 games - requiring us to get around 30 points. Not impossible by any means, but no need for despair if we don't quite achieve that haul.

I think the time at which we could expect to see an improvement is about now. Although, obviously our next game is a tough one. I wouldn't want to praise our performances against Colchester, Brentford or Stockport - but I think they were a step up from the dire stuff on show at Huddersfield and Swindon. I'm only saying we've gone from a 2/10 to a 4/10, but that at least counts as progress! In my darker moments, I fear another relegation battle this season. But more realistically, while I think we'll still be in the bottom three at Xmas, we should pull away in the New Year. Scrapping to stay up would constitute a miserable under-performance (again) and relegation would eb disastrous. I think we'll end up somewhere around 12th-14th.

I don't think it's just pre season, its the players gelling. Our ideal starting eleven would now probably include 5 or 6 players who have signed in the last few weeks (2 of whom have yet to play at all). This - combined with the turmoil and fiasco of pre season - means we're likely to be much better in, say, December than we are now. I'm expecting us to average about 1.5 point a game over the next six or seven games, but to be displaying top two/three form from Xmas onwards.

If you expect us to get relegated, you can get about 3/1 on it. Put your money where your mouth is. You can quadruple your money in 8 months. You're speaking as if relegation is a 70% chance, not a 20% chance. Most Saints fans - and the money markets - think you're wrong.

Coyrrrrrrrrrrrrr

badly, badly want these three points...

If we ARE above the relegation zone in November that would be a miracle, and would mean we're probably on target for the play-offs. I'd expect us still to be in the bottom three at Xmas. And I wouldn't be panicking as long as we were within a few points of safety.

Agreed. We will probably bring in 2 or 3 new players this week - whether loans or transfers. By September, we will be an almost totally different team to last season. New CB, RB and LB (plus Thomas who didn't figure last year), two new midfielders (and probably one or two more to come), new striker (and one more to come). Our starting XI will be unrecognisable.

If we're within 5 points of safety at Xmas, I'll be satisfied. And I think we will be. There's a lot of dross in this division - including us at the moment - but we have the manager and budget to improve, unlike most other teams in League One.

need 3 points

Some other countries (Malaysia springs to mind) don't allow dual citizenship. Not sure if this applies to Tunisia, but could affect his tax/assets/international call-up position if he were obliged to ditch his Tunisian citizenship.