Graffito

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/holt--lambert-rise-of-the-rochdale-diamonds-8360509.html Clear who Parkin thinks the better of the two.

I found that interesting too. The message in his post match interviews is aimed at the players and whereas we might think him repetitive he is reinforcing the message.

Pace is useful but not essential. Movement, moving the ball quickly, players getting forward of Lambert, high tempo, pressing and doing the unexpected were all evident in Saints' best performance of the season yesterday. Cork and Schneiderlin's work in pressing the opponent's midfield is the platform which allows the front four to do all this. I'd be concerned if a team, for instance, out presses Cork and Schneiderlin and compresses the game. It could happen on Wednesday. In those circumstances it's useful to have pace as an outlet should it be necessary to go long and so as to push back the opponents back four.

I was in line with it and thought at the time that he was definitely off. Having seen it on the box I'm now satisfied that he was onside. Just goes to show how difficult it can be for linesmen.

I read that in the Guardian. Not sure how it compares with other teams but it I thought it was an incredible statistic and seems to underline our goal keeping problems.

It's uncanny.

Which still makes a team which isn't much good.

On the face of it he seems a good fit for them but the QPR team isn't much good. Unless he's given plenty to spend it could be the Saints scenario all over again. Relegation would be the death knell of his managerial career and then we'll just have the benefit of his insight in MoTD studio to look forward to. I hope he gets it so we can give him a warm welcome to SMS in March.

John Terry.

Doris Day was a sectarian? I never knew that. Oh well, que sera sera.

Qualification through Fair Play maybe.

Absolute balls.

Cork. Puncheon was good. Shaw is a real talent.

It was a really good performance. All positive. Play like that every week and we'll stay up.

The Goldhawk on Goldhawk Rd. Get off at Goldhawk Rd tube, turn left. Pub is about 200yds on opposite side of road. About 10 minutes from there to the ground.

Can't say something was a turning point except in hindsight. A win and a clean sheet would have given the team such a confidence boost going into what I fear will be a difficult match for us at QPR. The more I think about the more I think it's a right b@stard we gifted Swansea a goal.

You won't win anything with kids. It's a good point though. Saints, liverpool, villa. All struggling a little.

Quite right. Nothing to do with Adkins' coaching. It was an error of judgement which, as Adkins implied, is to be expected from a young player shouldering a lot of responsibility.

It looks to me like more of the same as what we saw last season with a bit more quality added. Carroll was a great signing for them (though his antics against Saints weren't impressive). Jarvis was a good signing. Collins is a big no nonsense unit. Allardyce's methods are tried and tested and relatively simple. If they stay up, and I think they will, he'll add a bit more quality as he did at Bolton. Their fixtures have not been so tough as Saints' allowing them to build on confidence. Whereas Saints have tried to introduce all at once new formations and new personnel with a very tough fixture list which has almost knocked the stuffing out of the players. Add in the manager and chairman being on a steep learning curve and it's no surprise we are where we are. I expect West Ham to fall back down the table but to stay up and I hope by the end of the season we can get the hang of it and move up to safety such that we won't be so far apart points wise.

Fair point well made. Sticking with the manager would seem to be in keeping with ethos of a stable sustainable club building for the future unless to do so would undermine those ambitions. Equally it could be argued that the structure of the club should allow for managers to be replaced without impacting on the longer term ambitions. I'm for keeping NA right now.

I'm not an advocate of laying long but in yesterday's match I think we could have done so a bit more to good effect. Swansea didn't look that good at the back. Would have brought on Mayuka for Puncheon at 70 minutes.

I would say the team was playing conservatively rather than negatively. We've conceded a lot of goals recently. But for the errors that gave them the opportunity to score (expertly taken by Dyer) we would have had all three points and the tactics would have been vindicated.

I saw no quality gap between Saints and Swansea yesterday. We lost yesterday due to errors by two individuals. If Saints' passing isn't as crisp as it has been I would put that down to confidence.

Short term effect. QPR sack Hughes, appoint floppy chops and they beat us next week. You can just see it happening.