Lallana's Left Peg

Our defensive record is also quite impressive considering it can be argued that with all players fit and available, we'd play two strikers and two attacking midfielders / wingers as well. The team is set-up to attack.

I don't think we played that well. Plenty of misplaced passes in the first half, as well as a lack of fluidity between the players. It started to give Sheffield Wednesday some confidence as well. I am not one of the pessimistic supporters, but I would not say that we played particularly well with the ball and moving as a unit going forward. It was solid, workmanlike, and professional. Not too much to gripe about but we can be much better when in possession, both retaining it and creating chances. Our defence gives us the platform to not play too well and still win, and I think that was the case today. You could see the relief when we got the first goal. Anyway, used up my three posts for today now so I can't reply back but I still think we can play considerably better than that.

The game was probably a fairly decent reflection of most of our season. Not firing on all cylinders, fairly solid at the back, and a few moments of quality get us the win. People will moan that we aren't playing very well, and they are entitled to do that, but I am very happy with our ability to dig out results more often than not. We are right in the thick of this and whether we are playing or not, every weekend and Tuesday from now until May has something of interest going on. I was worried about Sheffield Wednesday reacting to their recent poor form tonight, but it didn't happen. I hope the same happens with Charlton on Tuesday.

It's a little flat, a few poor passes coupled with poor decision making as well, but Wednesday are sitting so deep, they are inviting us onto them. I've always said it is a few moments of quality that can win games at this level, and that is what will determine the winners of this game - for either team...

Whilst I agree with your idea, it is not realistic to expect players like Brian Howard to drop a division to sit on our bench. What is his motivation for doing this and getting some minutes for Saints when he would get the same chance at Reading for a better team in a better division? It's just not realistic. The only player we get from a league higher above to sit on a bench is a youngster nowhere near the first team at their parent club at the moment.

Who would you drop then? The midfield 4 of AOC, Hammond, Chaplow, and Lallana seem pretty set. Why did we sign Chaplow if we could go and get a better midfielder than him on loan in the first place? For what it is worth anyway, I don't think Howard is the type of midfield cover we need. I'd rather a Hammond type player at the moment, even if that means the player we bring in has less quality than Howard.

While we'd all like to think Posh won't sustain the form they've recently had, I'm not getting worried about them tonking Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at HT. I'd obviously prefer it if they didn't, but since the start of February they have conceded on average twice in every game, including shipping four at home recently against Plymouth. Peterborough winning, in whatever manner, is not a season breaker tonight. And in fact as I mentioned before it bodes well for Saints at the weekend.

Yeah but half decent teams score at least two against them as well. If Sheffield Wednesday can't score against them and get dumped by 3 or more, I really do expect us to win comfortably on Saturday.

Posh now 2 up. At least this gives us some encouragement for Saturday, Sheffield Wednesday really must be garbage.

I would hate for clubs to manage their own commentary for matches. If you think local stations are a tad biased now, the thought of clubs being in charge of how their club is portrayed in match commentary is concerning.

Javier De Pedro.

For those that are bothered by what the bookies think, these are the odds to get promoted: Brighton 1/50 Saints 1/5 Huddersfield 6/4 Peterborough 6/4 There appears to be an awful lot of confidence in us whether we go up automatically or not.

While I agree that Peterborough do have some hard games remaining, can we please not forget that we have to go to Leyton Orient, Brighton, and Charlton ourselves. It will be very tight.

Looking at our fixtures like that makes me feel quite positive about second, mainly because of our defensive record.

Richardson always appeared tenacious and quick but Butterfield is much better with the ball. If Chamberlain is to be starting at right-midfield then I'm a bit happier with Butterfield playing there because he'll get the ball to him properly. When Chamberlain isn't playing right-midfield I don't care who plays right-back since all they will do is hump a long diagonal to Lambert anyway.

It doesn't matter but people are interested in positioning their club against others, particularly rivals, so I can see why people discuss it. The subject was interesting enough for you to give your thoughts, even if it was to declare you don't care, so there is at least merit to discussing it.

It's all getting very tense. Peoples perspective of where we'll end up seems to be quite fluid and seems to change game after game. We're right in the thick of it with a great opportunity but I'm a little cautious as the team could be playing better so never quite sure what to expect. But I am still positive about it all as to be where we are while not playing brilliantly for the past month is an opportunity. This is of course assuming we'll play better and there aren't bigger issues at hand. 2-0 win on Tuesday for me, even if the performance isn't there the momentum will be for Bournemouth away in a week!

There is a shred of truth to this but the players we have should be good enough to carry us out of this division, even if they do not meet expectations at times. We've seen how they can perform against teams in a higher division, it's just grinding our results and nous at this level where we suffer at times. Take the rough with the smooth.

Then at the end of the season if we do not finish 2nd we can say what cost us promotion was not being efficient enough in front of goal. End of story. What is the problem?

At the end of the day if you don't put the ball in the back of the net you don't 'deserve' to win based on any other aspect of your play, but you can consider yourself unlucky if you are the better team, the more dominant team, and you not scoring had an element of bad luck to it (such as deflections of goalbound shots going straight into the keepers chest and so on). 46 games is more than enough for one-off unlucky games and incidents to be cancelled out over the course of the season. If Saints pip any other team to 2nd it will be because we deserved it. Anyone suggesting otherwise clearly doesn't understand why a league format exists. I do not believe we deserved to win on Tuesday night, but I do consider ourselves to be very unlucky not to win.

I think too many people believe we need to play really well in order to go up. We don't. We just need to do enough and I don't see how promotion isn't attainable or realistic after last night. I can understand people being frustrated with the level of consistency shown by the team, but lets face it - we have some talented players, if they were consistent as well they would not be plying their trade with us at this level. I can also understand the anxiety some people show but I guarantee that those who let it manifest into negativity aren't doing themselves a favour. Adkins needs to remain positive and is. The players need to remain positive and they are. Lets hope our fans are and get behind the team instead of moaning. Last night was not the end of the world. We are still in the thick of this and sometimes I get the feeling some people would be disappointed to see us go up!

What is to be worried about? If we took half our chances tonight and won by 4 would you be saying that? It really is that much of a fine line. At times our play was not fluid, we looked to play it long a bit too much, but at the end of the day a few of the deflections going our way and that fat lump in their goal not being in the right place at the right time and everyone is happy. Lets not over-react here. Lets worry if we go to Walsall and create nothing. We created a lot.

Just back from the game. If we took half our chances tonight we'd have scored more than we did at Oldham. Walsall, one chance, one goal. We didn't even play that well. But every time we went forward we were dangerous. These things happen, we shouldn't be too downbeat despite what some of our mong supporters will now say. Not play well and create 10+ goalscoring opportunities? I'll take that every week. Sometimes we'll score 6 from about 8 chances as we did at Oldham, and sometimes we'll have nights like tonight. Not worried at all.

It happens - it's hard and rare to control a game for 100% of the time. Very few teams in the world are capable of it. I'm very happy with the way we reacted to their equaliser and the way the game was seen out, which is professional of the Manager and players.

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