Saint Malc

My only, slight, complaint about the whole issue is that the club may not have demanded their rightful allocation. Surely, we could have applied for, and sold, a 10% allocation or is that not the case anymore? Off to Stevenage shortly :-)

I went to, virtually, every game in the Championship and League 1 but could not make City. I knew the rules before City so it's tough titty's on me :-( My mate told me he went to the ticket office at 8:00am to get our tickets but failed to get to the window before they sold out. I'm still going to go and hope there are enough touts about. I checked out the Arsenal hospitality yesterday and it started at £350 per person - WOT!!!!!

I used to go in there a few years ago and, because I went in there a lot, I tried to join (I filled in three separate application forms) and they didn't even have the courtesy to acknowlege my applications despite my constant weekly prompting. To$$ers.

I was in there yesterday with my daughter and I really liked the friendly atmosphere (and the Grolsch in real glasses). We have to get to the ground early for my friend (he's disabled) so it's going to be more comfortable than the concourse in the freezing weather that's for sure. A thumbs up from me.

Adam can not play centre. The Messi song just won't adapt to it so he can't.

Great draw for me. With Wigan Athletic in February and Stevenage that'll be 80 current grounds I've seen Saints play in. I don't much care for Stevenage though. Until a couple of years ago, when they dropped the Borough bit, we were the only SFC.

Fans can be a bit one dimensional. It's OK to have your hero, put your hands in your ears and shout la-la-la so you can't hear anyone else's view but the fact of the matter is; Adam has not played to his best since the middle of last season. I'm not just talking about pre-season friendlies, I'm talking about competitive matches. I love Adam to bits and I'm just looking for a bit of an improvement that's all. You can call me all the names you like, I'm old enough and ugly enough to take it, but that's my opinion and the above post does very little to suggest to me that everyone can discuss this with a sensible counter-view. Thank you CL for a well put reply.

What a fantastic, well reasoned, reply. You substantiate your very own statement perfectly.

Don't worry Noodles34, your views are as valid as any other views expressed. After all it's just your opinion which you are completely entitled to. I had to laugh at the way my original thoughts were shot down in flames. I was only saying that Lallana has been disappointing in the friendlies I have seen so far and towards the end of last season. I did not say he was going to be sh!te for the entire season but some have suggested that is what I meant.

I know that I am risking the wrath of many on here by daring to criticise one of our very own hero's but Adam Lallana has not progressed since the middle of last term IMO. He looks disinterested and has been giving the ball away far too easily for my liking. He will be given a lot of slack by most on here because he is one of our hero's from the day but he does need to show a lot of improvement from what he has shown during the friendlies as far as I'm concerned.

This is the most valid thing I have read regarding the over-priced January market. QPR thought that they could do the Premiership on the cheap last season and ended up paying well over the odds in January just to scrape in on the last day. However, from what I've seen during pre-season, I think that J Rod will be a success and Rickie will prove to be better (because of his football brain) than a lot of people think. We desperately need some pace out wide though. Clyne is pretty swift but I mean in a more attacking position.

Your opinion. Just as bizzare to say he 'would' score in the championship when he has never proved himself. I'm glad you're not the coach/manager.

He wasn't much cop in league 1. That's not being bizzatre.

Barnard is no more than a League 1 player in my opinion. He puts in the effort there is no doubting that but he couldn't trap a bag of cement and his anticipation to get on the end of a through-ball was more like an after-thought. Good luck to him though as he did give his all for us.

We're in the Premier League when it comes to beer prices now. I paid £4.30 for a small bottle of Singha yesterday which, I think, is quite a lot. My friend paid £2.20 for a hot chocolate. At least the queues at half-time should be shorter from now on.

Both Tranmere's (bl00dy Kelvin) and both Huddersfield's

Going to away games in the '70's and '80's meant that you had to have your wits about you and wearing shirts and scarfs were a definite no-no. I s'pose I've never grown out of it and still don't wear colours to away games now.

I meant Simon Templar stick man badges.

I've got a couple of small golden Simon Templar Saint man badges I wear quite a lot. They are so discreet that I'm always being asked 'what does it stand for?'

Exactly, my heart sank too as it did on Tuesday where I knew we would struggle with 10.5 men. He's not carp but there are better options on the bench like Cork and Sharp (who showed a lot more quality for the first time after he came on yesterday). I think Guly does put in a shift but IMO he's just not good enough. All managers seem to have players we all love to hate but still keep playing them like Strachan/Telfer and Burley/Jermaine Wright. IMO Guly is an excellent option to have on the bench.

Born in Waterhouse Lane, proud to be a Sotonian.

A for me. Not just for the points but because they're a bunch of pikey imbreds.

I'm getting a bit fed up with this. How many Saturday 3pm kick-offs have we had this season? I s'pose it's a measure of our success, which can't be a bad thing, but I love going to games at 3pm on a Saturday.

I think the CoC experts are really missing the point. We have really struggled since early December primarily because we don't have key back-up players (which I'm sure everyone can agree with). It may be for perfectly acceptable reasons but Cortese has not, or not been able to, address this major issue. So he may not be as good at his job as some of you may think.

I'm starting to believe that Cortese is the new Lowe in our lives. It's not that we don't have the money as we've not spent any of the £12mill we got from the Oxo deal; only cheap loanee's and the like (sound familiar?). We were woefully inept last night. You can say that Adkins won't go into the transfer market until he finds suitable cover but you could easily have replaced Guly and Connelly with a rocking horse and got more thrust and guile :-( We urgently need quality back-up for times like these. All the fans around me last night could see the shortcomings. How comes Adkins, who works with the squad week-in, week-out, can’t see it as well. The only thing I can justify the lack of transfer activity with is that Cortese is still on his five year plan and getting promoted this season would be too early. That's the only thing I can think of. I put a lot of effort into following the team around the country (my choice I know) but I don't think that Cortese has the same commitment this season :-( Sorry for the depressing ramble and, after all, we are still second in the league however, I fear, not for too much longer. What a waste of such a good start this could end up being. I hope this post comes back to haunt me at the end of the season.