Free Spirits Rowing

I agree Mr Strider.

The way that Adkins was treated was not very professional and certainly not pleasant. You have to say however that he would not have had the confidence to get us to top 6 in such a short time. Adkins was all about being "good enough". The present guy wants to be pitching for Europe.

The test, as always, comes on those dark and cold days in January/February when you're 2 goals down at home, impatient crowd, best player having a 'mare and confidence and discipline at a low. That's when the manager needs to step up and get them working.

We are a few players short still. I'd like to see a creative central midfield player. Lallana is creative but mainly from the flanks. He needs the space out there to do his thing. Ramirez tends to run into blind alleys. A rod is really a forward. Davies is perhaps a bit defensive but has his moments. Personally I'd take out Wanyama (I've seen him play once and he was awful) and play Ward-Prowse. Especially at home when I question why we need two defensive midfield players.

Still could be worse. We could support Man City.

4th Spot-Champion's league beckons-2 goals conceded in 7- whats the name of this team, it can't be Saints surely

Pinch me someone

Seriously Swansea are a good side and we did well to batten down in the second half, the difference is definitely Lovren, even made up for Danny Fox playing

Boruc was not half bad either =D>

And when is Lallana going tp get an England cap ?

Mr Strider, I can tell you that we got battered for an hour after we scored.

Fox was out of his depth. We should have brought on Chambers and moved Clyne to left back.

We were a bit niave in terms of midfield. Swansea has more players there and if Shelvey could actually play we'd have been in trouble.

Wanyama continues to worry me. He can win the ball but not distribute it. He's also a bit headstrong and could easily have picked up two yellows.

Lallana for England? Too inconsistent. Lots of skill but also times when he just goes missing.

It's always a sign that the oppostion has lost hope when we bring on Do Prado. If he can play for Saints, so can I!

Sorry - 26 points from safety.

Next game will be a marker - Man U away.

Left my other half to go to Stamford Bridge so I have just watched CFC come from behind and also Utd/Saints match. What is Moyes doing....Felliani cannot cut it in a Utd shirt. We should have bought Sneijer or Van der Vaart
Then Moyes decides to substitute Rooney, then its a Saints corner & equaliser from Lallana....they deserved it.
Chelsea were poor yet still win...We should have signed Mourinho

After today's results, I think it's time for Southampton to stop worrying about relegation and for Man U to start worrying about getting into the top 4. United were lucky to get a point today.

Thanks Paul

But as Graham will no doubt tell you, Saints fans are by nature pessimists.

We do however seem to have a nice balance and resilience this season having shipped over 20 goals by this point with the worst defensive record and only 5 so far this term and the best record, down to our manager being a robust defender I guess.

Last season we could not hold on after taking the lead at Man U-Ferguson paid us the ultimate compliment of saying we were the best team he had seen at Old Trafford that season, this season we came back and yes we did deserve it.

Its a long season though so the champagne stays on ice

Indeed it does.

25 points from safety

We've played Liverpool (win) and Man U (draw) of the traditional "big" teams. We've done well and from what I've seen we have raised our game against both.

We have also played Sunderland and Swansea at home. Drew the first and won the second (but Swansea deserved at least a draw). We seem to struggle when teams come to St Mary's as park the bus. I predict something similar this Saturday (Fulham at home) when we will probably batter them for an hour and perhaps scrape home.

We have to find a way to break teams down at home and with no wingers, relying instead on pace up front and midfield with a narrow approach, that's difficult.

I also continue to worry about Wanyama. He's good at winning the ball and terrible at passing it. I think in the big games he performs because he has fire and passion. In the "smaller" games he is lazy and complacent. He can't afford to do that and personally I would not play him against Fulham, instead putting in Davis or Cork or Ward-Prowse.

COYR

Totally agree on Wanyama and I'd go with Ward Prowse

Jol had all his luck for the season vs Palace so it's our turn this weekend

COYR

22 points from safety.

We were just too good for Fulham and if we had scored a couple more, they could not have complained.

Wanyama had a decent game for once. He won the ball and gave it to somebody who can play. Jay Rod was a threat all day and Ward-Prowse would be a decent bet for a wild card for Brazil.

Another stiff test next weekend (Stoke away).

For us I think Christmas will be a telling time as we play most of the clubs around us at that time.

COYR

21 points from safety.

Bit of a comedy goal and I think the second time it's happened to us? I seem to recall Gary Sprake (Leeds) doing the same against us at The Dell about three lifetimes ago.

I think it's a measure of progress that last year we were very happy with a 3-3 at Stoke and now we're a little disappointed with a 1-1?

Ward-Prowse is definitely the future though. Although I'm not comparing him with Beckham, the way he gets a lot of pace and power on a cross or free kick is similar.

Sunderland away in the cup this week (I still don't know why we didn't play last week) where I don't really mind about the result and then Hull at home (could be tight). Then a break before Arsenal away. I'm hoping that Arsenal start to pick up a few suspensions or injuries (just for that week) because the way they are playing would be a real problem for us.

A good week for my team so far.

Three players in the England senior squad. Lambert has obvious qualities. Lallana has been recognised at last and is in fine form. Jay Rod more of a surprise but again he's scoring and making many defenders feel very uncomfortable.

Two players in the Under 21's. Shaw and Ward-Prowse. I predict that they will both play in the senior team in due course.

One player in the Under 19's - Chambers. He's a right back/midfield and in the first team squad.

We also have a number of academy players in younger squads.

I hope the guys who run our academy are rightly proud.

Also just announced is that our manager, Pochettino, has won the manager of the month. I think that this is the first time a saints manager has won this.

So a great week so far. =D>

Watch us go and mess up by losing to Hull Frostie Tigers on Saturday.

Another 3 points for Southampton today. At this stage, there is no way you can still be thinking In terms of number of points to safety. Top 3. Who'd a thunk?

Cheers Paul

I was thinking it would be tight against Hull, who have played well this season.

Steve Bruce, who is one of the most honest managers said that they were beaten by a much better team.

The level of consistent quality is good to see, the only problem we have compared to the top teams is depth of squad however even this is gradually being addressed and with young players continuing to come through who knows, we may even be able to keep them, why leave a top team ?

I can not believe that the only team to beat us were Norwich, who ironically were beaten by Hull

COYR

18 points from safety.

We played well for 45 minutes on Saturday, took our foot off the gas for 20 minutes and then went again, which is encouraging.

Great performances from Lallana and Ward-Prowse. Can't be long before both of them appear in the England team.

Another inconsistent performance from Wanyama. I have to say that he just doesn't cut it. When Davis came on for him we looked much better.

Results elsewhere went for us as well.

Next group of games are testers. In the next 9 games we have Arsenal, Chelsea - twice, Man City, Everton, Spurs and a newly in form Newcastle.

Probably know more at the start of 2014.

Still, I'd rather be going into this break 3rd from top than 3rd from bottom. Let's hope our international players come back uninjured.

COYR

FS derby tomorrow - Saints v Man City.

I think we won this one last year. Be very happy to repeat that!

Another humiliation for City on their travels. At least united lost.
The game against Arsenal on the 14th looks to be a potential title decider - it will be very difficult to catch them if we lose that one.

Pellegrini was very gracious in his comments about the Reds Stan, I like him a lot better than the other chap, seems like a gentleman by comparison

I wouldn't be too hard on City Stan, at least they escaped with a point.

From about 35 minutes on, there was only ever one team going to win this match and City did well to hang on to what they had.

I would also add that City were extremely fortunate to end the game with the full 11. Nasri got booked after 3 or 4 infringements and then committed another couple of cynical fouls. I suspect if he played for a less fashionable club, he would have been showered and sat on the bus before the game ended.

I'm not sure that the "big" clubs have got any worse this season but rather some of the "small" clubs have upped their game. Saints, Everton and Newcastle are all going well. Liverpool continue to surprise me but if they lose Suarez, what then? Chelsea are just too old and their strikers don't score. Utd are just not good enough.

Very welcome 3 points for Spurs today. I thought Southampton were going to win at a canter after they went ahead, but I guess you never can tell with football. First time scoring more than 2 goals in a Premier League game this season.

Paul,

I'll let Graham get back to you on the actual game as I am more like your average Man U supporter, its been a while since I have been at St Marys, suffice to say it seems to be our rock solid defence that is letting us down and the injuries have not helped

I'd be interested to know what the Southampton fans on here think about the FA's ruling in relation to Mark Clattenburg. If the BBC website is to believed, all he did was tell Lallana that he's lost the run of himself since he was capped by England. If that's true, it seems rather flimsy grounds for making a formal complaint to the FA, particularly if Lallana was being abusive towards him in the first place. I mean, come on...

Or am I missing a bigger picture here?

(By the way, I'm no fan of Clattenburg. He's made some awful decisions against Spurs over the years)

Just when I thought City had finally sorted out their away form

The Clattenburg thing in interesting and I suspect more than one agenda in play.

The incident that led to the alleged remark I've not seen. I believe however that penalties given or not given rightly or wrongly probably balance out over a period.

The remark made by the ref is however indicative that he thinks the game is all about him.

The complaint was part of a bigger package in which Saints put up "evidence" of bad decisions mainly by Clattenburg but also others where the club thinks it's being treated unfairly. They have pointed out that Saints have never won a match where Clattenburg has reffed and has lost around 90%.

Cortese *(Saints CEO) is a notorious egoist and presses the nuclear option button as a matter of course in negotiation. This may be more of the same.

I reckon Clattenburg probably has a point - your average Premier League footballer is an arrogant, over-paid drama queen, and gaining more recognition by making the England team is going to make a player even more insufferable.
I for one would not want to be a Football ref.
On a lighter note, as a lifelong Everton fan I am taking great pleasure in watching United floundering - Martinez looks to be the best thing that has happened to Everton in some time.

Paul G