madruss

Unfortunately his normal standards this season have been pretty low, and I actually thought he had one of his better games today Unfortunately, that just highlights how bad he's been in the other matches this season he'll get his form back at some point but I think he's behind Guly and Barnard in the pecking order now

Good win. It was pretty ugly at times but that's exactly what we need to get out of this league. Credit to Oldham defensively, they never stopped chasing and closing down. Going forward they were shocking, just hoof after hoof. I'd say Dickov is building a team to mirror his own playing style, which is actually pretty effective in this league. As for saints, shocking first half but we improved in the second as Oldham tired. Chambo took his goal well and was the width of the post away from scoring the goal of the season with a magical run and shot. Fonte easily motm, closely followed by butterfield and Morgan. 3 home wins in a row now, can't argue with that

At the game. It's pretty dire stuff. Oldham hunting in packs and man-marking, saints lacking the confidence to pass and resorting to hoof-ball. On the plus side, we scored from a set piece, and we can't play any worse second half

You seem to be suggesting that he's got a contractual right to start?? 37 goals last season suggests another reason he doesn't get dropped, not to mention all the assists

Like against Tranmere yeah?

Let them survive please and be a perpetually inferior football club. That's so much more fun than having bournemouth as our rivals

Ask yourself this. Would you feel the same way if we were playing Man. Utd rather than Oldham? If the answer is yes, then you're clearly not in a 'football place' right now and should take a well-earned break from the game If the answer is no....err don't admit to it on here for starters

A lot of people are saying we should drop seaborne. I don't understand this. He had one bad game against huddersfield, granted, but prior to that he'd been excellent and part of a back four that went 5 games without conceding from open play. He's a better ball player than Martin and Jaidi and we'll need to do a lot of passing to get past the double-decker that Oldham are bringing down. Other than that, I'd agree with most of the teams people have suggested, maybe start with Guly and Barnard if Lambert isn't 100%

The trouble with Puncheon is that he sees a lot of the ball, which is a credit to his positioning and work rate during the game. The downside of this is that if he's not having a good game, he makes a lot of mistakes or bad decisions on one of the many occasions he gets the ball. What do the crowd see? Is it hard work, good movement and positioning? Is it hell. They see the mistakes and make their judgement based on that. By contrast, a player who gets on the ball once it twice and makes a good pass or creates an attack with one of them is praised for that but not criticised for not getting on the ball. Anyway, I think Punch is a brilliant player and we're lucky to have him. Just hope he scores this weekend to shut the short-sighted booing morons up

I completely agree. We should also write off the season and ignore the outcome of the remaining 34 results after this one.

This board has become eerily positive of late. These strange bouts of optimism are often dispelled with a disappointing defeat. 2-1 huddersfield!

Morgan for me. He links up very well with Lallana when we're trying to create openings using high tempo one-touch passing, plus he's consistently out performed hammond this year. If anyone should make way for chaplow it's deano

Hmmm, perhaps I was wrong to use the word back-up. I should have said bring him in as a genuine challenger for Lambert's place in the side, much like Ryan Dickson is for Harding. The fact is we need something to spark Rickie into action, and genuine competition for his place in the starting XI could well be it.

Hardly an 'international' striker is he? Perhaps in the same way that Doble is an international striker. It would hardly be bloating the squad would it? Did it escape your attention that we finished the game against Bournemouth with no strikers on the pitch? If we bought in someone like Agyemeng (who was playing against the saints development squad this week...hardly international football). It would give us options, and enable Adkins to drop Lambert if his performances carry on at the level they currently are

Patrick Agyemang please. The ideal back-up 'lump' striker to put some pressure on Lambert

Well in the game after Madine got charged with a similar offence he scored a hat-trick for Carlisle! Might have the same effect on Barney!

I didn't think Jaidi could play 2 games in a week, hope yeovil don't have any pacy strikers

Nah, the reason the line-up is so predictable is that we have a squad with no depth. Pulis was on the bench the other day FFS!

Fair enough, footy is after all a game of opinions. At least we both agree how bad Hammond was today. Perhaps I was assessing Morgan's performance relative to Deano's, even Pulis would have looked good compared to him today

Very surprising to see anyone say that about Morgan today. I thought he was excellent, and out of all the players on the pitch he was the one who wanted the ball most and if you were to watch the game back you'd see that pretty much every move was started off my him and he was often the only outlet at throw-ins, free kicks or for the centre backs to pass it out of defence rather than hoofing it. I reckon you must have been confusing him for Hammond today, easy to do given that Morgan was doing Hammond's job for him for most of the game.

Nice parallel there. Last year's Colchester 0-0 was bloody frustrating, especially as they went down to 10 men quite early on. We didn't look like scoring in that game, but I thought in the second half today we were very threatening and if not for some desperate defending and excellent goalkeeping we would have

Just back from the game. A definite step in the right direction (albeit a small one). For once we started pretty slowly, Colchester were all over us and deserved to be at least 1 up after 20 or so minutes. The rest of the first half was very very dire and neither side created any real chances of note. Second half was much better, and is the reason I think we're starting to turn the corner. There was urgency, positivity and a sense of purpose that has been lacking from every second half performance this season (including in Pardew's 3 games). At least two stonewall penalties were turned down, watch the one 10 minutes from time if they show it on the football league show - absolutely nailed on pen, then the cowardly lino gave us a corner even though the ball hadn't crossed the line!!! Another positive was Adkins' double substitution, really revitalised the left hand side and it almost paid off within seconds as Holmes shot just wide. There's a long way to go before we're the best team in the league again, but if we get a striker, CM (unless Hammond sorts himself out quickly) and right winger on loan then I reckon NA will have us back up the table in no time. My ratings for what it's worth Davis 6 -The good (save at the end), the bad (some of his kicking to no-one) and the ugly (nearly letting the ball bounce over his head into an open net in the first half) from Kelvin today. Butterfield 6 - another solid performance today, didn't get forward as much as in previous games but then most of our attacking came down the left so not really surprising. Fonte 7 - This is the Fonte we expect, solid in the tackle, great in the air and excellent distribution along the ground Seaborne 7 - Quite impressed with DS, although he didn't get to grips with their striker in the first half he improved as the game went on. Also his distribution was superb, a complete world away from Jaidi who (this season) can only find the touchline with his forward passes Harding 5 - not at his best, Colchester offered little going forward down the right and I would have expected Dan to be more of a threat going forward Puncheon 5 - A couple of good deliveries from open play, but set pieces again were absolutely shocking and he wasn't much of a threat, even when the appalling Lloyd James came on!! Schneiderlin 9 MOM - Absolutely world class. He did the job of two midfielders today, and he bloody had to because Hammond was AWOL. He tackled hard, put in a lot of running to create space and was pretty much the only player who actively wanted the ball...often he was the only outlet and he started most of our attacks. He popped up on the left, the right, in the box, and the piece de resistance was a superb bit of athleticism in our penalty area to clear from a dangerous situation. Far too good for league 1, but his commitment to the cause should be noted especially by the likes of Hammond. Hammond 4 - Quite awful, a succession of misplaced passes, mistimed tackles, getting dispossessed far too easily by the platinum blonde midget. Such a shame because he was excellent against Bolton and looked like he had found some form. Perhaps he's having trouble coming to terms with AP leaving, whatever, he needs to get over it and start putting in captain's performances. Chamberlain 5 - Anonymous in the first half, but perked up in the second and gave their full back a lot of problems. There's a lot of pressure on the lad, he's only 17 yet he's our only naturally right sided midfielder (and one used to playing in a central role). He's going to be quite some player, but today I think the pressure got to him a bit. We need cover in, and fast. Barnard 7 - Great to have him back in the side. A lot of the time he was doing the job of two strikers, because Lambert wasn't challenging or making space or winning headers. Had a good turn and shot in the first half, and it was his run and cross which instigated the stonewall penalty 10 mins from time. Lambert 4 - As others have commented, he's just not right at the moment. He's at least a yard and a half off the pace, he doesn't challenge with any vigour he pulls out of tackles, he's not the force he was in the air (last season he won literally every aerial challenge, or at least it seemed like he did - today it was 1 in 5, if that). He isn't fit. Whether it's mental or physical fitness I don't know, but it needs sorting and I pray that Adkins knows how. At the moment we have no choice but to play him, but if we had a decent loan player or a working 4-5-1 formation then I would suggest he's dropped until he sorts himself out. That said, his free-kicks are fine at the moment and he was desperately unlucky not to score in stoppage time. But we can't have a passenger in the side just for his free-kicks, we might as well put Matty on the pitch with that reasoning Subs: Dickson 6 - made a difference when he came on, and formed an excellent partnership with Holmes. Made one superb run that had echoes of the one for Brentford at St. Mary's that set up their equaliser. Holmes 7 - very impressed with Holmes, he was positive and direct and put good deliveries into the box. If he had Puncheon's pace he'd be a hell of a player.

Not to mention the 11 assists!!! Yeah, he's all about free kicks that Lambert...get him out

Yep, and don't forget the fact that he only concentrated on the cups. Surely that win ratio was made up, all I can remember from last season was drawing at Wycombe and losing to Tranmere..nope can't recall many wins

I'd be interested to know adkins' win ratio for league 1 matches only, surely that'd be the best way of comparing his capability as a manager in this league with Pardew's