Perspective dear boy, perspective. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/table/default.stm
It seems to me quite unreasonable to say Martin is not good enough. He hasn't made individual errors that have led to goals against us. Ok, so his partnership with Jos may not be as good as Jose's, but that's down to lack of game time together. If any defensive criticism is made, surely Kelvins failure to direct his saves to safety should be the target? they have cost 2 vital goals against us in the last 2 games.
Things will be good A bit of a rest up now to recharge, get the boys fit again & sure Saints will stay at the top. Ricky back after his suspension, a fit Fonte, Deridder, Chaplow, Barny Jaidi & Seaborne and we will be back to our winning form. Also maybe Puncheon back into the side. Like him as a wide player when on top of his game.
Fair do's CBK. I tend to look more at the form table at this time of year though. It's the final table that counts. All I'm saying is that we all have the same requirements as fans of the club. Some show their passion when we lose just to vent a little. I'm locked in the closet right now so the missus can't hear my wonderful use of the English language!
I am holding back on my thoughts about Lambo until I see the footage, but recently he has been getting some rough treatment from defenders with no protection from the Officials, not surprised if frustration finally got him, not saying that he was right or wrong, the truth is I just don't know, but it may speed up the acquistion of a decent forward or two which won't be a bad thing.
Anyone remember what Norwich or QPR's blips looked like last season? I know they had some, but can't remember, as wasn't following Championship particularly closely.
Maybe dropping down a few places, getting out of the spotlight a bit, and no longer being the team to beat will be a good thing. As long as we keep the pace, a nice strong finish into second a la Norwich might be the best approach.
it seems lallana played better with harding on the pitch, seems those two have a better understanding than lallana and fox
I live there so I would. Bristol certainly consider us as some form of rival. I have to work with them!
It's now a 4 horse race for two automatic places. Only 2 points separate 1st and 4th and our goal difference is now only 2 better than WH. I wonder what the record least amount of points for auto is because I think it will come mighty close to that this season. We seriously need to regroup now and Adkins/NC need to work fast in the transfer window. Rickie out for 3 games, Fonte still out, de Ridder and Guly now injured too, no Chaplow or Barnard for a while. Our bench showed just how vulnerable we are. I'm trying to keep a level head and not be to negative as I'm naturally a pessimist anyway. The only positive I can find is that we are still top. It's just depressing that we were 8 points clear of third at one stage, whether we expected to be in that position or not its still disappointing that we now find ourselves one bad result away from 4th.
Well, If you want to get all technical about it. Perhaps they are just more a rival to me than they are Southampton fc then! Even so they were more up for beating us (twice) which is the same for other southern clubs like Swindon and Plymouth that really don't like to lose to us!
One thing to remember (though it doesn't make any of this feel better) is that we have basically spent a whole half of the season in top spot. No one does that without slipping back to second or third for a bit, so it's unbelievable that we have had the staying power and consistency to get us this far. In the notoriously competitive Championship, we had to eventually knacker out using the same pool of players (we've been relatively lucky with injuries too, remember), so though the nature of the implosion isn't easy to take, it could have been worse, and happened a few fixtures earlier - imagine getting battered by Pompey! The key thing now is to win the forthcoming six pointers - Brighton and Bristol are annoying gnats to swat away, they won't enter into direct competition for top two places. Lose to Cardiff, West Ham etc., and then we'll know where we stand.
