the wedge

Left ground on crutches and in a leg brace. As a precaution.

K. Davis, Clyne, Fonte, Yoshida, Shaw, Puncheon, Cork, Schneiderlin, Lallana ©, Lambert, Rodriguez.

Steve Basham.

That's it for me. Irregardless of how strong our team was tonight on paper, it was the opportunity for the likes of De Ridder, Jos, Lee, Chaplow, Mayuka and Guly to prove that they've the balls to step up for the first XI. They didn't. The academy lads proved they had more guile and passion than these other players tonight. Tonight was a chance for momentum, confidence and a good win 6 days before our next game. I can take a defeat in the CO Cup. Elland Road on a wet Tuesday night isn't easy. But the manner of performances recently, the fact that it's taken us a game and a half to muster a shot on goal, increasingly bizarre/resigned press conferences all suggest to me that something needs changing. And for me that's 44 ****ing 2 or Nigel out. The club should also refund every fan who travelled up tonight. To compete so abjectly is a disgrace to the shirt. Why enter the competition at all?

****ing awful.

Doesn't sound a particularly great game or start from us. Hopefully we can grind out something here. Maybe like last season!

Oh Jesus Christ that was absolutely suicidally comically ridiculous. It's like Laurel and Hardy are our centre halves.

For what it's worth, I think our defending has improved since the goal went in... Not much, but it's a start. Offside trap seems to be working well...

Bale header wide there. Marked by Jay Rodriguez. One of the world's most potent attacking threats marked in the penalty area by a centre forward. Logic.

Saints 1-5 Spurs.

Abysmal defending. Jesus Christ we're a soft touch at the back.

Spot on, with the addition of Lallana needing to stay on his bloody feet.

Guly for a hattrick! Must. Remain. Positive... Somehow...

If we don't win this then we don't deserve to stay in the Premier League.

Our passing is so off the mark again today. Confidence we had built up is rapidly fading away, but we've got to keep fighting here. For NA's sake as much as anyone else's.

Awful awful goal. Everything we do, apart from one or two of our best players, is one pace behind every team we've played so far. We're struggling to adjust to the pace of the league here. Which is half our problem I think.

Clyne has the confidence and ability to get forward, and put in countless brilliant tackles today. Fox doesn't get forward, his distribution was way off and was positionally static throughout. I really liked Fox in the NPC, but honestly feel he's off the pace in the prem.

Shocking first half. Rickie isolated and ineffective. Morgan weirdly off the pace. Got unlucky with the first goal. Second half better. Ramirez was excellent and most of the play went through him. Surprisingly impressed with JayRod too, much sharper than Rickie. Fonte has improved, Fox was hopeless throughout. Yoshi also promising. Liked Theo and Alex applauding us at the end. Arsenal's fans are appallingly boring.

Seconded. We'd be silly not to give it a thought.

Photo from the club photographer on twitter of the squad training. SDR is in the background. Maybe he's not off just yet?

I thought he did OK last night. I did worry about his positioning for their free kick which hit the bar early on, he was badly caught out. A little jittery perhaps overall. Short range passing was good. He was pulling out some dramatically exciting saves in the warm up though.

Just back home from the game, I live in Finsbury Park so it's 20 mins on the train. Bit of a game of two halves, Stevenage were a very fast, pressing unit to start with and we never got going. We were, laughably, predictable and the home fans took great joy in letting us know that. We couldn’t string 3 passes together and we were second to everything. Only some poor finishing and last ditch tackling kept us on level terms at the break. Only Puncheon was a serious attacking threat, he was class throughout. Some of the senior starting XI stepped up a couple of gears in the second half and the youngsters started to gain in confidence which lead to the first goal. Harsh on Stevenage, but that’s how far we’ve come now. The second goal was an appalling referee mistake that thanks to Chappy’s quick thinking led to a goal. There was no way that the defender’s sliced clearance was a backpass. And once 2-0 up, everyone started oozing with confidence, especially the kids who started some mazy individual runs and slick touches. Punch’s goal epitomized his overall performance, it was a level up from the rest of the players on the pitch. Cracking goal, best I’ve seen for years. Our fourth was another good strike, the youngsters were flying by now after a shaky 1st half. Hoskins had a phenomenal effort go wide near the end after a Bergkamp v Newcastle style turn. It was brilliant and deserved a goal. Gazzaniga: 6/10. Didn’t have much to do. I think he did look nervy and I didn’t trust his long ball distribution at all, it never went to one of our lads. Butters: 6/10. Efficient if nothing else, positioning was good but rarely went forward. Frazer: 6/10. Covered CB well enough, passing was a bit off but did his job well. Seaborne: 6/10. Just pleased he’s still playing football after the year he’s had. Shaw: Nervous, uncertain but showed some glimpses of what he’s capable of. Mazy, pacy runs forward often led to nothing but he’d gained 45 yards in seconds. JWP: 7/10. At the heart of everything. Love how stuck in he gets, like Hammond with a lot more pace. Calm, collected and impressive. Dean: 6/10. Just seems off the pace the team wants to play, but does what he does well enough. Stuck in, win the ball, play it to someone else. Chappers: 6/10. Largely anonymous 1st half. Showed glimpses of quick thinking and ability but was largely off the pace, like Deano. Puncheon: 9/10. Immense. At the heart of so many attacks. Skillful, tricky and gets a bonus point for the worldy goal. Lee: 7/10. I think he’s a bit lost on the wing, I’d like to see him more central, as he was more effective cutting inside. But delivered some great crosses on his left peg. His celebration was class, putting his finger to his mouth in front of Stevenage’s mouthy fans. Got clattered by their right back straight after. Sharp: 6.5/10. Totally isolated first half due to us being on the back foot for long chunks of the game. That coupled with us playing everything from the back which always ended up with us losing the ball in midfield. Came more into the game 2nd half and worked very hard to set up Lee and took his own goal well. Subs: Reeves: Great goal, oozed confidence once he came on, which filtered through the team. Chambers: Didn’t notice him. Hoskins: Great piece of skill as mentioned above. Deserved a goal, and probably longer on the field. Really enjoyed the game though, nice little ground and brilliantly old fashioned PA announcer.

Could anyone tell me what the ticket situation is? I'd like to go but Stevenage have taken the tickets off sale online...

3-1. Forward Hoskins gets his second as he picks up Dickson's low ball and converts excellently. #saintsfcu21

Very, very proud. Had a text from a City fan at the game who had nothing but praise for us. Play with that confidence all year and we will be fine. Delighted for the boys.