Chap in the Chapel

From Dagenham to ragging 'em. Lambert obviously man of the match but I thought that Cork and Richardson were excellent too. Richardson's fabulous cross with his wrong foot for the first goal summed up the difference between the two sides - we've got that little bit of inspiration in us at the moment that is getting us in front in games. It's incredible that it's coming from all areas of the pitch. I thought Chaplow was a little bit off his game today but there's not too much else to complain about. As for the penalties, I thought the second one was a foul but the first was a shocking award, at least a yard outside the box. We should have had two others though, so I suppose things evened themselves out. I was surprised at how poor Brighton were going forward though. All of our back five were on their games today but at no stage did Brighton look like they were going to get the ball to stick meaningfully in our defensive third. It merits saying once again - what an incredible time to be a Southampton fan.

I didn't mention football. I was expressing my irritation at people who seem to think that a surveillance culture is a price worth paying for "security". "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin.

Anyone who says that 'If you've got nothing to hide then you've got nothing to fear' should have all the curtains in their house confiscated.

On the way back from the game. If ever a match showed how momentum is important it was this one. We totally controlled the first half with Coventry only faintly competitive for a 10 minute spell before we went in front. They had absolutely no answer to our possession football and looked one-dimensional. In the second half they went a lot more direct and gave us a lot of trouble, but if they hadn't scored early we would have won easily. They had something to bite on after that and at 2-2 we looked wobbly. It was a shocker of an equalizer as well. However, Adkins made a great sub, sending on Hammond for Chaplow, and, as usual when Hammond's on the pitch, we got a lot tougher to play against. As soon as we went back in front we were always going to win. Man of the match was Guly though. His movement was superb and he looked a constant threat. He got a well deserved goal from a great cross from Fox. No-one was really off their game today, although a few faded in the second half. Lallana will be fully fit after the break, I reckon. Onwards though - a deserved win in the end and a great day to end the away winless run.

In October 2003 we played Fulham and came back from 2-0 down to win 4-2, James Beattie getting the first three of our goals. Just after he'd completed his hat-trick (with a header, I think) a woman down the row from where I sit yelled out "COME ON BEATTIE, DO SOMETHING!"

A shame, but it's clear what this season's priority is. Well done to all who went. Anyone know whether Ryan Dickson is injured? He is starting to seem increasingly marginalised. Paul Walsh on Sky is being very complimentary about Ward-Prowse, so he's probably one of tonight's positives, along with the return of Barnard. Saturday, I'd like to think, will see us back on track after a rest for most of our key men.

I think someone should add 'allegedly' to this pretty sharpish... I'd hate to see anyone associated with this site hauled up for contempt of court!

Although it's getting tougher to play the sort of football we were at the start of the season, especially at 0-0 in games, we are still very dangerous when front-running. After a pretty shaky opening I didn't think we looked in any trouble after the first penalty. Difficult to tell from the Chapel End whether it was but the second one was nailed on. We were superb in the second half though, especially in the last 15 minutes, when some of the football was magnificent. If Chaplow had scored with the shot from about 10 yards that hit the 'keeper's foot then it would have been up there with Channon's goal against Liverpool in the early '80s, as it came at the end of a move of about 30 passes! I'm in complete agreement with the other posters who said Richardson had a good game. I thought he was excellent today, and to give him credit I thought Kelvin did well. He made two great saves, at 0-0 and 2-0, that kept the momentum going our way. Rickie played well and Guly deserved his goal. Fantastic though this all is, it's going to be a heck of a bump when the home winning run comes to an end! For now though, the ball is running our way and the decisions are too. What a time to support Southampton Football Club.

Awful news. I hope Dan makes a full recovery as quickly as possible.

A really encouraging start to the season, although tougher tests probably await this month at Ipswich and Leicester. Cork man of the match for me - at no stage did he look in anything other than complete control. I saw MLT yesterday and asked his view. He said Lallana for man of the match and thought we'd finish between 5th and 8th.

It was amazing that that one didn't make Matty's top 50 goals DVD - one of the most perfectly struck goals from distance that I've ever seen in my entire life.

Really and truly, whose cup final was it yesterday?

We had two absolutely superb games in the space of about three weeks in 2002. First the Arsenal 3-2 win - Arsenal were a very, very good side at that point, Seaman, Campbell, Viera, Henry, Pires and their pals, but we didn't have anyone below nine out of ten (including Telfer) and several players had probably their best games in a Southampton shirt. Even with ten men Arsenal looked incredibly dangerous and I rate this win above one-sided thumpings like the Spurs FA Cup 4-0 because we had to play exceptionally well to beat a top team. Second up was the Newcastle 1-1 - two very well-matched sides going absolutely hammer and tongs at each other trying to win the game, helped by a referee who picked up very early that there wasn't going to be any funny business and just let the teams play. 1-1 was totally fair and it was one of the few occasions I left the ground totally happy even though we hadn't won. It's quite interesting to note that the thread on players that fans were happy to see leave involves a large number who played for us in the four seasons following 2002-3. How far we fell...

Fonte - he rarely has a poor game. He's scored five goals and has managed to avoid getting suspended as well, testament to his discipline, timing and positional play. Lallana in second and the quietly consistent and effective Butterfield in third.

We sometimes look head and shoulders above teams that we play - were you at the Dagenham & Redbridge home game? However, we don't look like that all the time because we aren't head and shoulders above every team in this league - it's very close and competitive and it varies from game to game how good teams look. True, we've not been in the sort of form that we were through October and at the beginning of November and around the turn of the year, but we've been good enough to be firmly in the play-off zone despite a perceived dip in standards. If and when we return to the top of our game, we'll finish in the league where we deserve to finish. On 7 May we'll know where that is - like everyone else, I want that to be in the top two.

Margins can be extremely fine in football and I don't really think that one defeat in six and being fifth in the league with enough games in hand to take us second suggests that we're lacking composure, organisation and are incoherent, although we do now need to start another unbeaten run in some tricky fixtures. The number of times we created chances through team passing, headers back across goal, through-balls etc is not indicative of a team that is attacking disjointedly, and our defending restricted them to two efforts worthy of the name, so I think that there's not too much wrong at that end of the field either. I think we had a calm head who can put his foot on the ball, but he got injured and had to go off after two minutes. It is not a time for panic, as we're not conceding soft goals every game while creating nothing. Last night was one of those where nothing went for us and we've got to respond, starting on Saturday. These things happen. Perhaps one or two fans (not you Duncan) should display similar composure after the first league defeat in six - after all, it doesn't take much thought to predict the worst continually and then proclaim oneself a prophet when things go wrong.

Right. A view now from someone at the game. Tonight was one of the biggest muggings I've ever seen. An utter travesty, in fact. We totally dominated, creating loads of chances and made one mistake at the back that cost the game. They had two shots worthy of the name and Kelvin was blameless. Their keeper had a blinder, making six great saves, and we had a couple of shots cleared off the line. We managed all this despite abysmal refereeing - he gave us nothing all night including an obvious handball when the ball rolled up Richards' arm! Football's unfairness was on show tonight in a big way and I hope this has a galvanising effect. We can't afford many more bad results, regardless of the performances though.

Desperately sad news. If I had to pick an eleven of the best Saints players I've seen in the flesh in getting on for 24 years watching Saints, he'd be there alongside Michael Svensson at centre back. I honestly can't remember him having a poor game for us and he must be the best free transfer Southampton FC has ever had. I had it announced in a nightclub that he'd scored the winner for us in an FA Cup 3rd round tie against Ipswich, and I'll have a cigar for him as I did that night. Well played Deano - you were taken too early. RIP.

A far better result than the performance suggests. Although we deserved the win, after about 15 and before 60 minutes on the clock we were really quite poor, lethargic and lacklustre, with some of the passing and the communication extremely poor. Swindon were a 'back to basics' team as you'd expect for one on such a poor run, and once we went ahead at 2-1 we were always going to win - their equaliser was preceded by such an obvious foul on Lambert it was embarrassing for a referee that otherwise had such a good game. I'm not too displeased at the performance in the first 15 minutes and the last 30 delivering such a result though - Barnard and Scheiderlin were excellent when they came on and I reckon must be in with a chance of starting the next game. On the face of it, we've convincingly despatched a side that was desperately lacking cohoesion up front and was short on confidence, so in all honestly there's not too much wrong with that. Jaidi was man of the match -yes, I mean that, you Lallana fan boys who seem to think that football is only played in one half of the pitch. Bring on Walsall - see you there...

We were pretty clinical today, although Peterborough were intent on handing us a few birthday presents. They were probably the best footballing team we've played against this season, and I can see why they score quite a few goals; Maclean and Mackail-Smith were dangerous throughout, although Boyd was nullified by the fact he had to drop and cover their truly dreadful left-back and never really got the chance to go forward consistently. I'm surprised that no-one has yet mentioned how important Kelvin's save was from Mackail-Smith when it was 0-0. I'm not sure we'd have won if we'd gone behind today - they could have sat back and played on the break, and with the pace they had up front we could have found it difficult. Still, it's nice to have a Saturday when the only real criticism of the performance is that we didn't score seven! Very good perfomances today from Dickson and Fonte, but top two today were Hammond and Jaidi. Hammond did most of his best work when he didn't have the ball, tackling, hassling and harrying and preventing Peterborough from getting any momentum. Yes, he gives the ball away a fair bit, but we are an easier side to play against when he's not on the field. I'd give Jaidi Man of the Match though - anybody who thought he had a poor game today is quite simply wrong. He dominated aerially and his positioning and reading of the game against two very fast players was superb. That comes with experience, pure and simple, something that Aaron Martin would not have given us. Adkins was totally right with his selection today. I'm a firm believer in viewing every result in context, and if this is the start of a run then the Carlisle defeat will be forgotten in the same way that the Huddersfield one was. Tuesday night is a toughie, but Brighton may be having a little wobble while they work out how to play without Lua-Lua. It would be a good night for Rickie to end his barren spell...

Anders Svensson's goal in the 3-2 win over Leeds, April 2003. Started with a Leeds corner, headed down at the near post by Claus to Telfer on the edge of the box. Telfer to Fernandes, who is wide right midway in our half. Chipped forward to Ormerod, flicked header to Beattie, just inside the Leeds half, who controlled on his chest, then lifted it over his own head and past his marker Mills into space. Galloping after the ball, Beattie looks up for support and sees Anders, who has run 80 yards from his own box, and leathers the ball towards him far too hard. Anders controls it brilliantly, nearly falls over with the effort of doing so, amazingly regains his balance and hammers the ball past Robinson. An incredible, sweeping team goal that, as you've probably gathered, I'll never forget. If Manchester United had scored this goal it would be on all manner of 'Great Goals' DVDs.

No-one's mentioned him yet, surprisingly, but Neville Southall was one of the best I've seen play against us. I can remember a game at The Dell in about 1994 when he single-handedly (metaphorically and occasionally literally) stopped Everton losing by a huge margin. I always thought van Nistelrooy and Vieira were incredible talents whenever I saw them. More recently, when we played Manchester United in the FA Cup 3rd round, I remember thinking that Berbatov was something else, with so much more ability than anyone else on the field it was untrue. Admittedly he was up against probably the worst Saints outfit in living memory, but if Manchester United had played with only seven or eight men that day and Berbatov was one of them they'd still have won.

Drove there and back in a day last season. About 12 hours on the road, made worthwhile by an unmissable 96th-minute header from Jaidi after Carlisle's 'keeper Pidgeley made his only mistake of the afternoon. God, he got some stick at the final whistle... It's an easy drive though if you can cope with the mileage. The ground's easy to find and there are some decent city centre pubs - stay away from The Beehive near the ground though as away fans aren't welcome.

Good news that Mitchell's getting a box on Saturday - it's about time we saw some payback from Bournemouth for all the times that we turned out for benefit games to keep them afloat 10+ years ago! This is a daft storm in a teacup. Some people will believe anything that they read in a newspaper and rush to the pitchfork cupboard. There's two sides to everything - it just seems that Saints prefer not to give ours unless absolutely necessary. I think that we should give our side the benefit of the doubt, regardless of this reluctance to feed the media. In a way it's counter-productive - if there's little coming from St Mary's then the media will only carry the other side - but I haven't seen or heard much that leads me to believe that there aren't good reasons behind some (on the face of it) rather unpopular decisions. Genuinely, our biggest problem as a club right now is the slow start to the season and the lack of goals/striking options. Pretty much everything else is a string of seven-day wonders, if they reach seven days. Who will be talking about Mitchell on Sunday?

Lambert pretty poor. Needs a goal desperately - six inches lower and he would have had one first half. He missed badly with a volley from a rehearsed corner routine. Last season he would have scored that. It was like the MK Dons goal in the home league game last season, but he scuffed it. I'm disappointed we didn't win too, but no-one's ever been promoted after nine games. We will get better - we can't expect to win games on our "big city club" name alone though. We have to earn the results, especially away, and we are moving towards that state. Adkins will get us there if he can add to the attack. We will be heading the right way given time.