Tony F

Didn't Arsenal go 2-8 at Old Trafford earlier this season?

In that case I'll add my voice to the "we did pretty well, in the circumstances, didn't we?" side of the house. Cheers guys (ps - wish I'd known before the match cos it had me wondering the whole game!!!)

Can anyone be more specific re injuries? I mean, are all three of Richardson, Butterfield and Harding injured - despite us having a 2 week layoff prior to this match? EDIT OK S-Clarke - thanks....

I think it was close but just on. Talking of which we must have had about 10 offsides against us today - and I can't remember one from Forest. Which probably indicates that our defence wasn't too sharp (to catch out Forest) - not necessarily a surprise with so many new faces in there - but likewise indicates that our midfielders and attackers were being well marshalled by Forest. Must do better, in my view. Don't forget, if Adam had managed his offside better today his goal would have stood and the result could have been secured with greater ease (and less squeaky bum time for us all!).

. I have to say I was pretty surprised to see no Frazer or Butterfield, nor Harding or Dickson - our supposedly "first and second choice full backs" on the pitch today. And of those, only Dicko made the bench. Now, I appreciate that Fox came to us as another LB (although we had seen more of him as a sub, coming on at LM) but Jack definitely came as a fourth midfielder. So what was either in Nige's mind or forcing his hand? There is no doubt that Jack exploited well going forward and was often in front of Guly. However, Forest scored both their goals down their left, our right - and I believe on both occasions Jack was either beaten or out of position (ie not there to be beaten) so Jose had to cover across, which in turn made more space in the middle - exploited to effect (twice) by Derbyshire and his mates. When Kelvin had the ball in his hands, on many occasions both Fox and Cork had pushed up too far to be available to receive - and hence Kelvin had only Jose or Jos (sometimes Hammond/Morgan) to distribute to. This caused problems on a few occasions and almost cost us a really silly goal in the second half (poor back-pass from Jos because he received the ball under pressure from Kelvin). Suffice to say I much prefer to see Jack in midfield and either Frazer or Danny (I'm equally happy with either) at RB - ie I'd prefer to see us playing an established RB in the RB slot. Given the semi-chaos described above I think Jos did pretty well with Jose in the middle. Absolutely no worse than Seaborne and he had a handy left foot free kick on him too (from which Fonte just failed to score). In the end, we won a very difficult game, so either it was a lucky let-off or a stroke of managerial genius.......thoughts?

Why do you have more than one seat anyway?......when I met you a couple of years ago (Hull City, away) you definitely only needed the one seat..... maybe some dark sotonic expansion has been going on just behind you??!!

I agree there's no poll; that makes two of us

I think you'll find he's entitled to his opinion. Therefore, by definition, he is also entitled to allow that opinion to swing from pessimism to optimism depending on who he's trying to wind up. DUH - let the cat out of the bag at the end there, didn't I?

Fully agree with last two posts. Team ethos and momentum are extremely strong factors

For what its worth I was walking home behind 3 Millwall fans (peaceful types actually!) and they were having a real old moan about how Saints had spent much of the match passing the ball in triangles around Millwall's players - and "why can't we play that sort of football?"

No-one has mentioned on here that the 70th (68th/whatever) minute substitution took off David Connolly who - we all know - is a something of a delicate soul. I believe that DC has been subbed at around the 70 minute point every match this season when he has started? So my view is that the driving force behind that substitution was to relieve DC - the fact the DeR might expose the Millwall Left flank being a bonus of that decision.

I am quoting the right quote.....and I concur with this. Leicester have apparently spent the most money in this division but I see no sign that they yet have the balance and understanding Saints do - that takes a while to develop. I see them as being vulnerable for a while yet - and should then get better provided they are not at each others' throats.

It's http://www.leagueoneminus10.blogspot.com which you'll guess from the title has been going 3 season and is, in my view, an absolutely cracking read - every time. Regularly has me in stitches.

After seeing De Ridder play the second half against West Brom I quickly came to the opinion that the lad had NOT joined Saints just to be AOC's back-up boy. Signing of DR and selling of AOC are pure good business in my view

I agree that he had a certain "journeyman" image but he was simply superb in the middle of the back four for those couple of seasons. Never spectacular - always reliable.

Turkish's answer #159 answers this perfectly clearly......thanks Turkish.

How about...... Anthony Pulis. Hmmmm...there's a flaw here ....I've never seen him play (has anyone?) so that must mean I exhibit some other sort of trait of anti-minority-ism which means I judge footballers (or people claiming to be footballers) in a way that.......... No, I can't really define the the crime, though one MUST SURELY EXIST. Maybe I should go to the nearest Police station, say I might have committed an imaginary crime but I don't know what it is. They'll soon equip me (whoops - I almost said "fit me up") with the evidence I need to condemn myself and offer myself for punitive measures - ideally self administered. That will make me feel a whole lot more like a 2011 British citizen.

It looks to me that you have now had your question answered by the "wider council" of Forum Users. Players with arrogance or other forms of bad attitude have always been slated (including pre-Internet and pre-Forum days) by fans paying good money to watch their team. The fact that you list a few players that have fallen into this category and linked them by skin colour proves nothing. I could list white players who fit it equally well but you've already dismissed that as being an non-acceptable response to the discussion. I hope you can now put this particular theory to bed along with such other historical examples of theories being proved well and truly being wrong. Eg the world being flat and an (IT early days) calculation that the man would only ever require a maximum of 6 computers. Now where were we........? "Jason Puncheon is a serial underperforming and petulant footballer - great potential spoiled by arrogance" - discuss.

I am saying exactly what I wrote..... that there are people (and many Policemen examples of this) with a vivid imagination about conspiracies and undertones. We are supposed to have Freedom of Speech in this country - yet the "vivid imagination bunch" are turning this right around and putting people on guard about what they DON'T say as much as what they DO say. Your "racist undertones" question is a classic example. Like I said before - its all imagination, but dangerous and misguided.

You're not a copper or ex-copper are you? You're talking in the way they do - looking for conspiracy or imagined "crimes". But thats all they are - imagined.

It sounds to me like you're one of those fools who looks for a PC slant (ie some sort of anti-minority-ism) where there simply ain't one. I confidently believe that the absolute majority of Saints fans on this forum (and elsewhere) see footballers as footballers and arrogance as arrogance. Likewise staff at SFC. When they exist together, in someone wearing a Saints shirt, we don't like it and express that. Colour of his skin.......?..... pah - no relevance to the discussion. Imagination, dangerous and misguided imagination.

Donated and pleased to have done so. The first anniversary of the great man's passing will be a great day after all.......

....could be a real nightmare. Time to dust off the motorbike methinks

I SERIOUSLY LOL-ed at this - great post m8!