jam

I'll leave the 'self-respecting saints fan' for you but I'd suggest Alpine's judgment on Puncheon would be based on comments like this: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Middlesbrough-0-1-Millwall-Daily-Mirror-match-report-Jason-Puncheon-gave-Southampton-boss-Nigel-Adkins-a-taste-of-what-he-is-missing-article634087.html http://www.thisishampshire.net/sport/8750829.Millwall_keen_to_secure_Puncheon_deal__says_agent/

Is there any reason why you chose that thread as opposed to any of the other dozen or so that were started on the same subject in the last couple of months?

If I remember correctly we were pretty much trying to push Davis (and pretty much every other senior player out the door to save wages. Wasn't that the Davis 'I turned my mobile off on deadline day' transfer window?

An alternative. Antonio has a bit more presence, more able to bully defenders. Plus it'd be good to have the option of having Chambo on for 60 minutes or so and then letting Antonio bully the right back for the end of the game - worked well last year. (Not that I think for a second that we'd sign him...)

That's the problem - everyone knows we're minted.

Think of an away game last spring and you'll get an idea of the sorts of people that'll suddenly reappear if / when we get reestablished in the prem.

That's what you get when your MP is a bit of a fanny.

Absolutely, and that's the problem with judging on league position - If we'd got the job done on Saturday then we'd be fifth and the league would be getting seriously interesting. Look at Wednesday - they were nowhere a short while ago and are now second. The reaction on here after a 60 minute horror show - not even a whole game - is pretty amazing...

Swindon and Plymouth - tiny clubs... sheesh...

Did you catch Hammond's free kick in the first half that he batted right to one of their players just outside our box? Fortunately the ref saved us as the ball was moving when he kicked it. After sitting through the second half display, I can see it was just an amusing prelude...

Great result for us.

I felt we were playing well up until they scored the second. By then the ref had waved away what looked (albeit from the Itchen South) like a solid penalty and had a run of rather one-sided decisions, which led up to their second goal, which was almost as soft as the first. I don't think our players recovered from that, which is a worry because we are going to get a lot more abysmal referees this season and there's always a chance that we'll let in a soft / unlucky goal. If they wan't to get promoted they need the mental strength to dig in when they aren't getting the rub of the green.

But we have learned our lesson! We've appointed a manager who won't **** off to South Africa in order to negotiate a move to another club (without having the character to even say goodbye and thanks to the players that had helped him rehabilitate his career) before he committed managerial hara-kiri at his spiritual home...

Probably yes as there's no way you could say the players didn't work hard today. They were just predictable and disjointed.

I don't like Hammond but since Adkins has been here this is the first tie that I've seen him have a poor game. Seems strange to single him out today.

Were you sat in the kingsland or itchen?

Very topical.

To play devil's advocate...

I noticed that, I half wonder if he was having a little joke about Nigel's little phrases, NC also went a little bit Cilla at one point.

It's a pretty interesting read. Of course, just because NC said the players were worked too hard on pre-season doesn't mean that they were. It's like whenever a new manager comes in, they have the honeymoon period where they can just blame the condition of the players from the previous regime.

Funnily enough I posted this only yesterday...

Sorry, sanctioning is a more appropriate term.

But any crime is on the part of the people making the payments, correct?

Lallana, Richardson both injured in pre-season and missed the beginning of the season, Puncheon and Morgan both had injuries in pre-season, Mills limped out of the Reading friendly.

Milking doesn't have to be illegal, and the term is a subjective one at that. It appears to me that NC's view of what constitutes milking an organisation is probably different to some that preceded him.