madruss

Totally agree, winning breeds confidence. Last January we were in 2 cup competitions and our form from then until the end of the season was the best in the league. They deserve a thrashing for disrespecting a historic cup competition

Makes for great reading doesn't it! Cheers for the stats

Whilst I agree his passing was below par, a right back should first and foremost be a good defender and FR is most certainly that.

This. Lambert's confidence and fitness are definitely back, he was actually running at players and trying to take them on when he had the ball..rather than passing straight away. On two occasions he struck a shot first time and, but for a good save and defensive block, would have scored. Earlier in the season he would have taken a touch in those positions. The goal machine is back!

An early cross with his left foot fell perfectly for Morgan, who should have hit the target with his header, and then a through ball for Lallana which he should have scored (ok not a cross, but you get the idea). Still, defensively you have to agree he was excellent

What an absolutely fantastic one-sided game of football! I've never seen so many genuine goal scoring opportunities created in one match before, could easily have been double figures. Exeter didn't actually play too badly first half, some nice possession football with the occasional ball over the top, but our defence was more than up to the task. Seabourne in particular was excellent. Ratings: Davis - 7 Very little to do overall, though made a couple of excellent saves in the first half. Second half played some lovely passes out from the back, and even had time to wave to the Northam! Richardson - 8 Solid as a fookin rock, strong in the tackle, strong in the air, reads the game well and even put some quality crosses in to boot Seabourne - 9 Won pretty much everything in the air, and reacted very quickly to make a clearance after Davis saved to stop a certain equaliser Fonte - 8 Usual classy stuff from Jose Harding - 7 Very solid first half, and linked well with Lallana going forward as always. A couple of slack moments in the second half let him down, he need to stop making bad errors in and around his own box if he's to keep Dickson out of the side Lallana - 9 MOTM Absolute class, some of his skills, tricks and dribbling were an absolute joy to watch. His movement off the ball is incredible and the only reason I didn't give him 10 is that he should have scored 4 goals and not 1. Although the one he did score was a belter!! Morgan - 8 Excellent performance in the middle, chased down, put his foot in and pinged the ball around with ease. Looked much happier on the ball in the second half when the game opened up and Exeter gave up. Chaplow - 8 So glad we signed him permanently, he chases, he tackles, he makes so many runs into the box, and he very nearly finished off one of the best team passing moves I've ever seen at st. mary's Chamberlain - 7 Did really well to set up Guly's second. Always a threat down the right and great to see him taken off early so he's fresh to destroy Dagenham on Monday Lambert - 8 He's definitely getting back to his best now. Winning flicks and headers, making runs, chasing down and (something he hasn't been doing this season) hitting the ball first time. Guly - 8 Two excellent finishes and deserved goals. He put himself about and made excellent runs as well as showing good strength when challenging for the ball. Subs: Barnard - 7 Could've had a couple, good to see him back Dickson - 7 Was a genuine threat and unlucky not to get on the scoresheert Gobern - Not really on for long enough

Get you with your perspective, reasoning and well constructed argument! Makes a nice change from "lambert out FFS"

The difference is though, this time last year, the gap to the top of the league was 26 points. This season it's 8 points at the same stage. A much easier gap to breach, you'll have to admit

Any manager who DIDN'T drop Harding after the horrorshow at Carlisle should have been sacked. Plus Dickson's been quality since he came into the side..miles better than harding who's been consistently average this season

Surely we have to recall Puncheon now. AOC can't last 90 minutes, and at the moment Butterfield is the 'impact sub' who'll be replacing him each game.

It'd be bonkers if we didn't have a recall clause, unless we'd also agreed to sell him to them.

Surely we'll have to recall Puncheon from Millwall now. Don't care if he's a disruptive influence, we can't have Chambo as our only fit right winger

I agree with you on this point. It is a real shame. There is no doubt of Connolly's ability, and I would certainly rank him in the upper echelons of saints' striker hierarchy. However, and this is the crucial part, he spends far too much time in and around the treatment room.

Yeah, nice ignoring of the 6 consecutive home wins. Christ if every manager was only judged on defeats they'd all be shiyte. Old ancelotti is currently the worst manager in the premiership using your logic. As for adkins' interview, I thought it was excellent. Asked "will it be saints and Brighton fighting for the title at the end of the season?" He responded with.. "only if they can keep up with us" Quality. And completely true on tonight's showing

Spot on assessment. Shame though, thought Saints might be the club to stabilise him. Wasted talent.

Would you rather we were playing 'well' and losing and drawing the majority of our games! Go back to how it was under JP eh?

You've got to admit though, it's 10 times more satisfying to win and get the 3 points having not played that great, than it is to draw or lose yet be told you were the better side. At the start of last season it was always so frustrating having to say 'we should have won that, we played them off the park', the same thing happened at the start of our 1st season in the ccc, give me loads of scrappy wins over winless 'performances' any day of the week

Good observation this. Since adkins took over, our second half performances have been much much better, compared with us faltering away in the second half at the start. Adkins has made a superb start, and the results speak for themselves

Oh 3-1 away win! How we've missed you!

Hiiiiiiiii-larious! Still, it nearly made me consider signing up for the player. In the absence of any meaningful injuries then, I would start with Hammond and Morgan in the centre and Lambo and Barnard up front. Although it does seem harsh to drop Guly when he's only had one bad game. Maybe Barney should replace Lambert. Definitely keep Chambo as an 'impact player' for now and start with Puncheon

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/20101028/gaffer-curses-injury-woes_2264122_2200115/0,,10280~2200115~1,00.html Apparently we have 'injury woes' for Saturday, first I've heard of it. I don't subscribe to saintsplayer, can anyone who does find out who exactly is injured?

I hear there's a nice flat in Winchester that's recently been put back on the market!

Last season he also got a lot of assists, he's a great passer of the ball and he also set up a fair few goals by winning flick-ons on dangerous areas. This season he's been hardly winning anything in the air, compared with last year when he rarely lost an aerial battle. He's badly off form, and it's to the detriment of the side at the minute

His tackling is nowhere near good enough for him to play as a CM. Case in point Oldham's goal on Saturday, AL makes a very lightweight attempt at a tackle, fails, thereby enabling Furman to play a 1-2 unopposed into the area and score. To be fair, Lallana creates a hell of a lot more goals than he's at fault for conceding, but I fear he'd let a lot more slip through the centre than our current CMs. Play him in Guly's position by all means, but not anywhere he needs to make a lot of tackles

Totally agree, he was terrible. Guly was about to pass the ball into the back of the net, then was clearly fouled. Should have been both a pen and a red card. No consistency in his decisions, and just before they had their last minute chance, Barnard was flattened and he gave nothing.