M271

Careful I thought that just before the Bristol City away game and an 'easier' December.

COYS you can do this, 20oC at 2.30 in the morning here in Pune India.

20oC and dry here in Pune India, 2.50 in the morning.

Our bad run started against Bristol City hopefully it finishes against them, I had a horrible turning point of the season feeling when Chaplow went off after a few minutes against Bristol last month. Maybe we'll be better for having the wobble now before the transfer window so that strenghtening can be made. I must admit in early November I didn't want new signings to risk upsetting the team spirit but now I think at least a new striker is required. But what a great 2011 I doubt as Saints fans that we will ever see such a good set of results in a calender year again, we need to make sure that we do it over a Season not 2 half seasons.

Last 2 away matches seem to have followed a similar pattern, pretty even first half with OK play from Saints without threatening much, but second half after some tinkering Saints have been second best with hardly a threat in the final 3rd (even with Lambert against Brizzle). May be Adkins shouldn't change things too soon, I know that he wants to win every game (don't we all) but may be he needs to be a bit more patient while things are even before changing things. Still a great start to the season and "not to high when we win or too low when we lose".

Very biased, result fitted with them bigging up the improvement under McInnis. Only showed Bristol good moments, no Saints play moments.

Pity Cardiff didn't draw, a part than that not a bad set of results for us from the chasing teams. Now need Derby to do us a favour. Couldn't get to the match today but it sounded like one of those days when we created very little and couldn't pass the ball to each other or get it to our forwards in threatening positions, a bit like the Reading game but without the last 15 minute push, if De Ridder had got the predicted goal on 73 minutes rather than skying it it could have been so different.

Is buying on the day up there an option ?

From an economics view point the decision to expand the stadium is fraught with risk. If as previous poster stated that it would cost at least £3000 (old figures) per additional seat even if the seat was 100% used by a £500 season ticket, or equivalent pay per game, it would take take 6 years just to cover the cost of the additional seat, this is without even considering the extra other overheads such as stewarding. Would my beloved Saints sell out games for at least 6 years I'd like to think so but it's a hell of an investment for an uncertain payback.

I see this as a big dilema in the January window, as it currently stands we are 5 points ahead of second so our squad can't be too bad, so would additions to the squad increase our ability to get better results or disrupt our togetherness and team ethic coupled with new players needing time to settle in. Any good player we sign (better than we have at the moment) should be good enough for the Premier League and would expect to play from the start of matches in the Championship, so who would we drop ?. On balance the only signings that I would make would be to sign Hooiveld permanently, and a striker to partner Lambert (although the way the Gully has played recently I would also hesitate to change that).

I thought that he looked very useful today (for the amount of chances that we gave him), that coupled with his connections with Southampton may make him a useful addition to the Squad. But that is the problem he would be an addition to the squad ahead of who ? I see this as a big dilema in the January window, as it currently stands we are 5 points ahead of second so our squad can't be too bad, so would additions to the squad increase our ability to get better results or disrupt our togetherness and team ethic coupled with new players needing time to settle in. Any good player we sign (better than we have at the moment) should be good enough for the Premier League and would expect to play from the start of matches in the Championship, so who would we drop ?. On balance the only signings that I would make would be to sign Hooiveld permanently, and a striker to partner Lambert (although the way the Gully has played recently I would hesitate to change that).

Barnsley finished in 17th on 56 points so only 23 points from 31 games needed !!!!!!

I agree that the lack of a proper Reserve League is ONE of the reasons why Managers use the Carling Cup to try out fringe players. If these players were regularly playing competitive football their performance would be already known and give the players (fringe, injury returns and youngsters) more chance to get more fully match fit. However other reasons include: 1) Only 5 on the subs bench restricting Managers options and experience for players during games, for example with a 7 man subs bench youngsters could be brought on if a game has been won i.e. 4 - 0 Watford and more players coming back from injury could be on the bench and brought if required. 2) Cramming so many matches in a short space of time and then having an International break which means that clubs don't play for 2 weeks, maybe International breaks should only be for the Premier League where they play less League matches anyway. Although I may not think this if we lose 3 or 4 first teamers to U18, U21 or other Internationals i.e. Lallana, Schneiderlin, Guly (Brasil !!), Fonte (Portugal !!)

According to NA in his post match interview some fringe players didn't seize their chance (Butterfield, Forte ?) but the youngsters stepped up to the task. He talked about the January transfer window more then before, if we can stay near the top of the league I can see us attracting good players and NC releasing sufficient funds to make the push for the Premier League.

Its never nice to lose even if it means we 'can concentrate on the league' Starting line up made sense because of injuries, suspension and resting players who had played 3 games in a week. The mistake was not bringing on Lambert, Barny and Guly after 60 to 65 minutes while it was still 0-0, waiting until after 70 minutes is just a waste of talent.

I would have thought that he will start in the cup at Palace.

Match up there in Aug 2008 had attendance of 27,032 with only 1,098 saints fans, 2,700 Saints Fans this time is a great improvement.

Managed to buy tickets today online.

Tried to buy tickets for the Derby match online tonight but it says it's sold out. Website says initial allocation of 2700 and further tickets will become available if required. So I'll just have to wait and see.

or blackburn !!

True, and we're in the Top 10 so we can't play ourselves !!

Brilliant set of results, still top without playing. Interestingly we haven't played any of the Top 10 sides yet. More severe tests to come, play Cardiff 8th tonight and Middlesboro, West Ham and Derby in October should give us better idea of the level we are actually at.

Ronnie Rosenthal

At the beginning of the run in.

Adkins said in an interview that after the open training session yesterday that the players had the weekend off and that they would be back in training on Monday for the build up to the Nottm Forest.