doddisalegend

Well maybe if we spent good money on players for evey postion but we have spent about what £3.0m however over half of that has been on two players Lambert 1.0m fonte 1.3m two players out of eleven doesn't make that much difference if the other players are only average. What spending money does do is raise the fans expectations. We've spent loads of money but that doesn't give us a right to win anything. Expensive players with no fight can be done over by cheap players with a will to win. We've done much better in the cups this year and I wonder if our players figured that the league was a lost cause this year I know I did (still do).

How's that work then? We beat Ipswhich who beat Conventry last week. That means we're better than Coventry. Skates only just beat Coventry after two attempts so are only just better than Coventry. So by my calculations we are as good as the Skates. Of course we lost to Colchester who where thrashed by Preston. So Preston must be loads better than the Skates but wait Preston only managed a 1-1 with Ipswhich:p. The result of one match has no bearing on the results in another. Just depends how up for it both sides are on the day.

It seems some one says that before every match. I thought saturdays game indicated we are really CCC quaility side, but the match against Millwall showed we're not good enough for the play offs. Funnily enough boxing day showed we where good enough for the play offs:p. I've already given up on the play offs to many teams above us need to have a bad patch for us to progress. On the other hand we will win enough to avoid relegation I'm sure. Top half of the table and the JPT final and I'll consider this season to have been a good one. Next year though I expect promotion (ideally automatic)

Not sure Morgan and James have enough steel in midfield, although Morgan isn't as powder puff as he once was (I believe he's top of the clubs yellow card and red card leagues:eek:) I think we need Wotton next to Morgan. Let Morgan do the classy passing while Wotton concentrates on the defenvensive stuff. That leaves James on the bench. I actually think James is a good player (not a popular opinion I know) but in this team selection I don't see a place for him. I see thomas is flavour of the month. After saturday his stock has risen with the fans I think.

Really Dan Harding doesn't even get on the bench? Millis has had a couple of good games but Harding is still the better option I think. Waigo won't get on I really rate him but AP seems to be using him less and less (don't know why?). James and Morgan midfield is to powder puff I think, Wotton and Morgan I'd say. Saga -no chance.

Matt starts for Southend today vs Wycombe. Hopefully a run in a team will help him improve, be interesting to see how he gets on. According to the bcc he missed a sitter putting it wide of the Wycombe goal. the miss proved costlty as Wycombe scored to make it 1-1. Still Barnard didn't score today either so we might have to wait longer to see who came out better in the deal

He read the dis-allowed goal well. We were sat right behind the throw in taker and the ball missed everyone and went into the net without a touch. Takes a strong ref to rule that out as I imagine from another angle it would look like a goal.

I was lucky enough to be there today and I don't know what game some on here where watching we we're immense today. The back four where very solid Jiadi was all over Stern John (so much so they subbed Stern John of) remember he's the striker we all wanted to stay in the summer. Mills was excellent played some good stuff with Holmes down the flank. Everyone in the team worked really hard closing down and not giving the Ipswhich players time to play. Yes our midifield struggled at times but their midifield is the best part of their team (according to their own fans) and ours was a makeshift midfield. For all the possession the Ipswhich midfield had at times their strikers were totally toothless. The second half we had them pinned down at thier end for long peroids. Barnard looked alright but never looked like scoring worked hard though and even did a bit of defensive work. MOTM was Jiadi though was a man mountain today. Oh and the disalowed goal was never a goal we where sat right behind the guy who took the throw in and it bounced straight into the goal without touching anyone at all. Overall I'm well chuffed a very good performance Why some on here aren't happy I really can't figure.

Watch him score a hatrick against us next time we play Southend now. To be honest I'm not to sad to see him go don't think he was in with a chance here. Didn't look to great the few times I saw him (which I'll admit wasn't much) but others seem to rate him. Good luck to him

Thier top scorer this season only has 6(!?) goals and he's still banned for saturday. An Ipswhich fan on 606 said that they have a very good midfield a poor defence and a strikers who can't score. We on the other hand seem to have no probleming scoring, have a makeshift midfield and a defence that can't keep a clean sheet. Tactics for saturday then are to bypass midfield with loads of hoofball maybe we should play 6-0-5 as a formation:p. to be honest I like us to field our strongest side. Playoffs are an illusion this year so lets go as far as we can in the cups I think. Also I'm going on saturday and I hate watching us lose.

It's amazing we've got one of if not the biggest squad in league one. However as soon as you look in more detail you see how little quaility in depth we have. It doesn't look like any ones leaving in this window (prehaps Gillet) so we need a really good clearout in the summer even if means paying up contracts. As for the midfield with what we have left I'd play 4-5-1 with Wotton, James and Lallana in the middle Holmes on the left and Papa on the right.

The JPT is Papa's competition he saved us againt Torquay, he saved us againt Norwhich and I full excepect him to score the winner at Wemberly. Paps's our JPT lucky charm if he gets on the pitch we will win somehow.

Please make it true! We don't need the Barnard type of striker, we need a pacey forward to complement Lambert. We already have one in Papa but we don't play him in that postion for some reason he's a striker but we play him on the wing. Better to play Papa as a striker and buy a decent right winger I would have thought.

I don't doubt that but reading some of the comments on here seems to suggest that half our fans think we should target it! We're only just past the half way stage of the season and its far from being a mathematical impossibility yet it seems that people already settling for a mid table finish. Why? Becuase we're saints fans. Expect the worst then you can be happily suprised when something actually goes right. With this club so much crap comes our way it's just easier not to get to excited. I find supporting Saints is a lot easier and more fun that way. if I dont expect to much I don't find myself becoming one of the slit wrist brigade every time we lose/draw a game..

No to be honest playing Thomson and Lancashire was just asking for trouble. He chopped and changed all the time. One week Saga started up front, the next it was Rasiak,then Patterson, gave no-one time to settle in.They weren't interesting to him and he tarted about regally with them.He obviously wanted nothing to do with Gillett so apart from a few minutes as a sub he complete ignored him, even gave Pulis a few minutes instead. Well it's all opinion of course, but of all the players you mentioned Rasiak is the only one that was any good HTH. To be fair both the Poles were giving him the run around trying to get out. and the others were/are dire. Even Raisak I don't miss know would rather have Lambert.

But in my opinion it will be better if the majority of fans accept NOW that we have a very feeble chance of making the play-offs because continuing in the current vein of "we will make it and it's the manager and players fault if we don't" will lead to the type of hysteria that we saw on Saturday evening and all day on Sunday.Our poor start to the season (and some very poor team selection by AP in the first 6 games) has always meant that we had a mountain to climb and that hasn't changed. Kind of agree with that, although I don't blame AP for the poor start if most of your team are crap you can only select crap. I think with the players he's bought in and the work his done on some of our exsisting squad we're much improved on those early games. For me the baggage of relegation coupled with administartion meant this season was buggered before it started. My only hope for this season was that it wouldn't be as bad as last season and that the club would get back a bit of pride, so so far I'm very happy with this season if we get something out of it I 'll be extact.

didn't convince me that we should write it off! Bit lacking in details! Didn't say you had write off. Just putting up a load of numbers and saying if we get this many wins, draws and losses we will end up here is pointless. In your little number cruncher you've not made the case for what will happen to all the teams above us if they all follow the same form they have so far this season (as you suggest Saints will) most of them will still end up with more points than us. your argument is we will play as well as we did in the first half of the season but most of the teams above us won't? Of all the teams up at the top end of the table Colchester, Leeds, Swindon and Huddersfield have taken points off us. We've only managed draws against Millwall,Norwhich and Charlton. I think the only play off team we've beat is the MK Dons. All these teams started with 10 pts on us and we've dropped points on all of them bar one. How are we going to make the 10pts up on them if we can't beat them? We're basically left hoping that these teams have a bad second half to the season but if you apply the same critera to these teams as you did to saints you have to assume they will all get as many points as they did in the first half of the season. It is unrealistic to assume they will all get worse while we stay the same or get better they have all apart from the Dons proved they are better than or equal to us on the pitch. In summary the playoffs are not impossible but they are unlikely given our inability to beat the top sides in the division.

Would be interested in any fairly reasoned argument to show it is totally unrealistic to consider it! I think the case is not that it's impossible becuase it's not impossible until such time as it's mathamatical impossible. Realistically though we've not done well against our play off rivals and there are a lot of teams between us and the play off places they are not all going to slip up and let us through. It's intresting that we're closer to relegation points wise than the play offs but nobody is talking about us going down. I'd be happy for us to get into the play offs and win but I really don't see it this season.

Our new team will need time to settle which of course is a luxury we do not have anymore. Depends on weather you feel we have to go up this season or not. I never thought promotion was realistic this year. Results have gone better than I (and I suspect a few others thought) which gave a glimmer of hope that we might sneak it. I think the reality was that this season was/is just a big pre-season for next year that being the case we've got plenty of time to put a good team together. We've had such a bad few years many people want things to turn around really quickly (back in the EPL in two years ?). The truth is Leeds have taken what three(?) years to get where they are. why do people think we should be any different? I'm sure we will get back to the promised land of £40 tickets and being pumled by the Arse/Manure/Chelesa in five years time, but I'm really in no hurry.

We are 10 points away from playoffs - In a way, ok, this can be acceptable because we had points deduction but FFS we shouldn't have lost to some of the teams we have lost to. Why? I hear this on here all the time, this is football the smallest things can change a match. This idea that our club (or any other) will beat another club becuase we're bigger,richer,have better looking fans etc is so much crap. The team that wins is the better team on the day (most of the time). I think the reason some of our fans get so wound up is becuase they can't handle this fact. They look at other league one teams and think we must beat them becuase we're Saints and they're not. Bigger clubs (if we are indeed such a thing) get turned over by smaller ones all the time. No club has a right to win any match.

Of course even if we reach the play offs we still might not get promoted. A lot of people seem to be working on the playoffs = promotion theroy. So how will people cope if we make (somehow) the playoffs and fall at the last hurdle? What will be more important. Winning the playoffs playing awful football or getting knocked out playing amazing, pacey and flowing total football? If we make the playoffs and don't win them will people call for Pardews head? will it be success or failure considering where we were at the seasons start? If we don't get promoted this year how many people will do themselves in? Personally I don't think league one is as bad as I thought would be at least I can afford to see my team play down here. Another season in year one won't be the worst thing ever IMO.

Start of the season very realistic really with -10 and a poor squad I figured we'd struggle Spending millions on players made the chances even more realistic really? Man City aren't exactly winning the EPL are they? money helps but doesn't make anything certain Poor start made it less plausable made it almost impossiable I'd say Good run then made it very possible again No it didn't. It just raised the fans expectations into thinking it was possiable WE are now in another poor spell so really dependant on how quickly we recover Even if we win almost all our matches I still can't see it other teams above us just don't seem to be slipping up.

This kind of bi-polar attitude is beginning to get on my tits. Before we played Leeds and had something like 10 wins in 13, everyone was convinced we were the best team in the League and pretty much took a playoff spot as given. Now after a couple of defeats away to team in the top four, and a draw at Millwall, it's doom and gloom again. I agree with this. It seems the usual suspects have all crawled out of the wood work now we've lost a couple. Truthfully with the players we had at the start of the season with -10 pionts I expected very little from this season. I'm enjoying this season, I'm happy with things considering what I thought we'd achieve this season. The idea we're going to win every match is stupid even Manure can't win every match. I'm not worried becuase the plan (IMO) was always to win this league next year promotion this year was a long shot and a bonus I reckon.

most play off rivals winning -as score stand would be 12 points of play offs Which is why we won't get to the play offs this year, we started to slow and the teams at the top just aren't slipping up. Next season is our season.

I think we should, if he wants to stay. I like him I think we'd get more out of him by playing him as a striker than a winger though. To be honest without him we'd be out of the JPT by now, he is our JPT special weapon.