madruss

Out of all the fixtures left for all the sides involved, I think Gillingham away is the toughest, they've only lost 3 times at home all season and will be fighting for their lives. Here's hoping we put in our best away performance of the season there

Our players behaving like 'those continentals' in trying to get the Yeovil player sent off according to DM

Yeovil defending well, I reckon they'll score first on a breakaway before we turn the goals on as we did on Tuesday.

Yep, our season's over. Also, Pardew's a k*ob who only plays negative formations and has a rubbish record at Saints. There's no point really

I think puncheon's been superb. He's had a couple of dodgy games but he's the sort of player who can create/score a goal out of nothing even when he's not having a good game. In that respect he's quite similar to Lallana. Consistency will come with time, he's quick, very skilful, and can run with the ball at pace-plus he's got a fantastic left foot (even if sometimes he doesn't make good use of it for corners)

I think he has to be signed up. He's got no footballing brain but he more than makes up for that with pace, power and strength. With a couple of years experience under his belt and some proper coaching he could be an awesome player. Reminds me so much of kenwyne when he first joined, and look what happened to him!

Great point! Friday's game could be the decider. Come on Millwall!

Very annoying! Don't worry though, morgan's goal alone will be worth the wait.

Incredible game. Put them under a lot of pressure in the first half without getting the goal, they score against the run of play but even then the result was never in doubt. Great timing of the goals before half time and it just had to be Rickie! Second half was so one sided it was ridiculous. Great night, great support, Morgan MOTM for me, he and deano ran the midfield.

Just spoke to the ticket office and the uncollected tickets will be taken up to rovers' ground with the travel club, then you'll be able to pick up your tickets from the rovers ticket office. Sorted!

It's a really tricky one that. Leeds were top on merit, and looked like they'd get automatic promotion at a canter, but since the old trafford win they've just bottled it. It's very difficult to predict when a team's going to bottle it or even go on the sort of run that Millwall have gone on. If we're not in the playoffs or out of reach of the automatic places by xmas then questions will have to be asked. It'd be great to have a crystal ball and be able to predict an amazing run of form, but a manager can only be judged on performances and results

If you booked online and selected 'collect at ticket office' would that be to collect at sms or at rovers' ground on the night?

Yeah I paid £15 for my standing ticket too...wasn't gonna complain.

Yeah what a nob, bringing Antonio in and keeping things solid for the first half hour...he's never gonna score... Oh

Haha! 'Jose Fonte baby' song being sung!!

If a premier league club comes in for one of our players and they want to go, they'll go. Regardless of whether we're in league 1 or the championship. If Lallana's stupid enough to think he's ready for the prem after one good season in the third tier then that's his problem. Is he irreplaceable? No. Do we have the funds to buy a quality replacement (in league 1/champ terms)? Yes. Don't panic, there'll be more quality coming in over the summer than there will be leaving

Exactly, and the reason we haven't 'made ground on 6th' is because the team in 6th at the time, Swindon, have been on an excellent run since then. We have however made ground on Leeds, Charlton , Colchester and Huddersfield and have been the 4th best team (in terms of points scored) since the turn of the year. Yes it's not been perfect, but to try and say we've been some kind of failure since December is just not true. For anyone who cares here's the full league table since 31 December 09 Played Pts PPG Norwich City 16 37 2.31 Millwall 15 36 2.40 Swindon Town 16 32 2.00 Southampton 14 26 1.86 Huddersfield Town 15 24 1.60 Bristol Rovers 16 24 1.50 Brighton & Hove Albion 15 24 1.60 Carlisle United 17 23 1.35 Milton Keynes Dons 14 21 1.50 Brentford 14 21 1.50 Charlton Athletic 14 20 1.43 Colchester United 16 20 1.25 Tranmere Rovers 15 20 1.33 Exeter City 15 17 1.13 Leyton Orient 14 17 1.21 Walsall 16 16 1.00 Yeovil Town 14 16 1.14 Leeds United 15 15 1.00 Oldham Athletic 15 15 1.00 Gillingham 14 14 1.00 Wycombe Wanderers 14 14 1.00 Hartlepool United 15 12 0.80 Stockport County 15 10 0.67 Southend United 14 8 0.57

But we have made up ground on 2nd place!! As I pointed out earlier on this thread. You can't say it's a sign of going backwards to not make ground on the playoffs, but at the same time making up ground on automatic promotion is not progress?! Your stat falls flat by the very fact that if it weren't for the -10 deduction we'd be 7 points away from automatic promotion, and that's even after a dodgy start to the season

At the end of the December we were 20 points off 2nd place. We're now 17 points off 2nd place. So we've gotten closer to automatic promotion in that time and kept pace (form-wise) with the other playoff teams. It's not astonishing progress, but using your definition of success, it's still progress is it not??

It's called perspective! Football would be a pretty boring game if we only looked at the downsides of failure and the good sides of success. I was putting forward my argument for not rushing back into the premiership. Do you have a counter-argument, or are you just going to write something dismissive and p*ss-taking?

Why do we need to get back as soon as possible?? Look at Derby when they went up to the Prem when they clearly weren't ready...they were absolutely humilated. It's surely better to build a winning cohesive side that know each other's games and go up when ready and solid. A good example is Steve Coppell's Reading side that had a couple of steady seasons in the Championship, with a squad that grew cohesively together and had familiarity and experience as a winning side. Then everything clicked and they took the Championship by storm and had a great following season in the Prem. Yes it would be a nice bonus if we'd overcome the -10 and the instability of the summer and sneaked up this season, but the squad building process over the coming summer will be the same if we stay down then it would be if we go up. In addition (assuming the right additions are made in the summer), don't underestimate the benefits of having a league-winning season on the players and the associated momemtum we could take into the championship in the season after next. We're certainly not in any rush to get back into the prem. If we're going to get there I'd rather we were a consistently winning side (Reading, Wigan, Sunderland) than a flukey, scrape into the playoffs side (Derby, Hull...etc)

Haven't you worked it out yet. When we win, the manager has achieved the bare minimum and deserves no credit. However when we lose, the manager is clearly not up to the job and should be replaced by anyone going. Said replacement will be sacked if they have a similar set of results (Ie, 2 points per game)

I thought he played up front for Derby! Scored a fair few goals in one season IIRC

I think the FA Cup final was a lot more nerve-wracking as there was so much at stake, in that the prize on offer and the prestige of beating that Arsenal side was immense. Yesterday was just enjoyable from start to finish as it was more about the celebration of Saints being on the way back up again and the amazing show of support from the fans than the actual 'glory' of winning the paint trophy. That said, it was a pretty special moment when Kelvin and Deano lifted that cup!

If the police had set up a speed camera especially on a certain road, and then publically announced that they were going to crack down on anyone who broke the speed limit on that road on a particular day and you still decided to drive along that road at 36 mph on that day, then you'd surely have no cause to complain about any punishment dished out to you. I guess you could argue that the police had set a 'trap' by having the handheld cameras out, but let's be honest it was a fairly easy trap to avoid