League 1 Match 25 - Tranmere 2 Southampton 0

Trannies 2 Fanny's 0

We’re at Prenton Park today to visit Tranmere – not a happy hunting ground for us. Last year we lost 2-1 up here and had a ridiculous penalty decision go against us when a forward leaned on Seaborne, who backed away causing the forward to fall down as gravity dictates that you will fall if you are leaning on something and it moves. The law of gravity does not dictate that it should be a penalty but it was last year. More recently, we beat them 2-0 at home and we put on a bit of a masterclass and they were shockingly bad. Though they’ve obviously improved and are not bottom of the league - it’s cliché o’clock and it’s a game we really should win.

This week has seen one major positive in that Guly do Prado has signed a two and a half year deal with the club to make his move permanent. You have to be pleased with that as he’s got better and better as he’s got used to English football and I see no reason why he won’t continue to do so as he’s quality and has the right attitude. On the negative side has been the continual attempt by the media to sell Alex Chamberlain. So far they’ve failed in their quest and now only have a week left to complete their task. No one has bid as yet but apparently, Man City have snatched him without making a bid but the bid they haven’t made is bigger than the bid that Arsenal haven’t made either. Meanwhile Fulham are winning the race to sign him without making a bid, as the bid that Arsenal didn’t make has been accepted by no one and Alex couldn’t agree to the personal terms that Arsenal didn’t offer him. Much funnier is the speculation that Pompey want to sign Jason Puncheon but we priced them out of it by asking for 14p, money up front. Apparently, it was the ‘money up front’ clause that killed it and I know this cos I read it on Tribal Football, about as reliable as a promise from Eddie Howe.

Nigel Adkins’ pre-match interview revealed that he was taking his parents out for dinner and that he is a miserable sod when we lose. In the quest to have a happy dinner, Nigel makes just the one change from the bore draw with Notts County as Jason Puncheon is left out with Dicko moving into midfield and Harding coming in at left back. The reports are that Deano and Lallana are not far away but not ready yet. Tranmere have Dale Jennings on the wing – a young player who has scored a few goals this year so it will be an interesting match-up between him and Alex Chamberlain, who despite what www.completefabricationandspeculation.co.uk say, is still a Saints player.

The start of the game was kind of null and void as far as Saints were concerned with Tranmere being the more lively and Saints just kind of being there. Hang on, we should be pinning them back ... but we weren’t. On the quarter hour, Tranmere deservedly went in front when a cross from the right was flicked up in the air and Fonte and Davis looked at eachother as it bounced between them.... in nipped Welch and poked it in the net. It’s abysmal, it really is and it’s 99% the keepers fault. He’s facing the play, he can see everything, he has to call and make the decision, he has to take responsibility. My guess is that he didn’t call and Fonte was waiting for the call – understandably as it was only 6 yards out. If he didn’t get a call then Fonte should really have just got rid of it but he can be forgiven as the keeper HAS to come and sort it out, it was in the 6 yard box for fucks sake.

Five minutes later and an injury break meant that Nigel had the opportunity to administer an 11-man bollocking which showed you what he thought of it all. Sir Rickie headed wide from Chambo’s cross and Saints came close as half time approached with the Gulyman meeting a Dickson cross and forcing the keeper to claw it away. Radio Dave made this sound like a fantastic save but it really wasn’t all that.

Half time and crap with Tranmere just content to sit back and soak up our somewhat clueless attempts the break them down. Our Lallanaless performances are beginning to become a bit of an issue. Still, 45 to go... stay positive and stay on the bus.

Any thoughts of being positive were alive for a few second half minutes as Sir Rickie looked dangerous without looking like scoring. Positivity and optimism left the building and got off of the bus on the hour mark with a Tranny break, a ball inside Richardson to Jennings who decides to hit it first time from about 35 yards. The shot curls round Davis and bounces up into the net. It’s a wierd goal – great vision and execution but how did it go in? Was the keeper not expecting a shot? Was he in the wrong position? Put it this way – there are question marks against Not-so-superkelv again as he scrabbled around on the ground.

Nigel made his one attacking substitution (Ryan Doble must be heading for some sort of record of appearances on the bench without playing a minute) a bit earlier than usual but took off the wrong man with Dickson making way for Barney. Surely Harding should have come off as Dickson is a better attacker or maybe the Invisible Schneiderlin. So, Barney went up front, Chambo was playing behind them, as was Guly and in fact, the midfield was a complete mess with very little width. Barney’s first contribution was to fall over and get booked when he was looking for a penalty. Radio Dave was not impressed and called the dive even before the ref booked him – from that, even allowing for Merrington senility – we can assume it was a correct call.

The last 20 minutes were a bit of siege on the Tranmere goal but Warner in goal kept us out, first denying Barnard and then Harding. Saints had numerous efforts fly high and wide from Chambo, Sir Rickie and Schneiderlin as we finally played with the intensity that we should have had from the start. You got the impression that if we got one then we would get two but you also knew that we probably wouldn’t get one..... and so it proved, despite the additional 5 minutes of injury time.

Perhaps Nigel needs to chew on this over his miserable dinner... The bus needs an MOT and a few quid spent on it to keep the wheels moving. We were rubbish and deserved to lose and a performance like this is not acceptable according to Nigel and according to me. The bottom line is that when a team defends deep against us and in numbers, we have no way of unlocking them, especially when Lallana isn’t there. Usually, away from home, we get more space but Tranmere to their credit, played like an away side, left one up front and played on the break. To counteract this gameplan, you have to score first and early which means starting fast and putting a team under pressure. We totally failed to do this today and once Tranmere went in front, we were always struggling.

As documented earlier, I feel Davis was at fault for both goals and this must be something that’s on Nigel’s mind now after the recent balls in the Brentford home game which we lost in very similar fashion. Like the Brentford game, Davis gifted them the first goal, then a second which was questionable at best and then we couldn’t get back into it. The second goal v Brentford was remarkably similar to today’s first goal – ball up in the air, keeper doesn’t claim, they react, we don’t. In both cases the ball came down within 6 yards of the goal – keepers ball every time... punch it or catch it or shovel it over the bar... don't just fucking leave it. Tranmere had two shots and scored two goals... is it time for the Bartman? Personally, I think it is. He got dropped last year for no reason after 7 or 8 decent performances and deserves an opportunity again.

In his post match, Nigel was clearly about to have a go at Schneiderlin but reigned himself in. Morgan’s been playing well recently but he does have these games where he starts badly and then gets worse, his head goes down and there is no way back. At the moment, he’s the kind of player who you could safely substitute at half time when he’s playing badly but when you only have Gobern on the bench, you have to stick with it. Up front we had a few chances but Sir Rickie was not at his best and the introduction of Barney to liven things up (which he did), came about 15 minutes too late again. The first half was that bad, it really could have been made at half time.

After the weekend, we dropped down to 4th place with Huddersfield winning and the great Bournemouth slide totally failing to materialise as they beat table-topping Brighton. We are two points off 2nd with a game in hand so it’s not wrist-slitting time as yet but a reality check and a realisation that we are not going to ‘walk’ to promotion – as if we ever were.

Transfer window rubbish and it seems that Arsene Wenger is breaking all the gentlemans agreements that don’t exist for the big clubs (and Portsmouth) and is talking about a player who is under contract at another club. Apparently, Alex wants to sign for them though no agreement has been reached with Saints. Annoying though this is, the direct quote from Wenger suddenly makes it look a lot more likely that Alex will be on his way.... maybe we should put a bid in for Dale Jennings as a replacement – we could certainly do worse.

Next week we have the game that I suspect was on a few players minds today... Man Utd at home in the FA Cup 4th Round. They warmed up for it by beating Birmingham 5-0 whereas we lost 2-0 to Tranmere. Should be close then. Am I looking forward to it? – no, not really. I reckon we should pick a really attacking line-up and just go for it, Bart in goal, Richardson, Fonte, Martin, Dickson in defence, Morgan, Chappers and Alex in midfield with Guly just in front.... Barney and Sir Rickie up front. Just fucking go for it.

League 1 Match 11 - Southampton 2 Tranmere 0

Saints subs arrive at St Mary's

After last weeks comprehensive beating of the Moaning Dorset Bastards, it appeared that everything as back on track and we would have a good weeks training, the Echo would have nothing to cut and paste about and the Web Forum Dwellers would have nothing to over react about…. And then Lee Barnard went out on the piss. Lager + The White House + an incident + arrested + bailed + hospital visit + operation on hand + Bailed til December = Normal lads Night Out. What I’ve listed above is basically all that is known. Of course, the world is full of people who were there, saw the whole thing, their mates brothers step dad cage fighting mate was there and told me blah blah la-di-dah. Barnard, in the White House, with the bottle is the concensus of internet Cluedo but it may as well be Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick for all we actually know.

To potentially replace the man with the hand injury from his Saturday night out, we brought in Nicholas Bignall on loan from Reading, a powerful, quick, centre forward or winger. Didn’t we have one of those on loan from Reading last year ? The dust settled on his loan move and then, in a twist so funny you really couldn’t make it up – he’s got his own appointment with the Police as well, for a ‘nightclub incident’. I know for a fact, because someone told me that the entire World Wrestling Federation were in the nightclub in Reading and one of them called Nicholas a poof and he took the whole lot of them on, armed only with a cocktail umbrella and he decked the fucking lot of them. When arrested he said “Do you know who I’m about to sign for… the well ‘ard SFC”, before stuffing the umbrella up the arresting officers arse. It’s all true.

Anyway… team news was that the Bail Boys were on the bench meaning that Guly do Prado got his first league start up front alongside Sir Rickie. Richard Chaplow came into midfield in place of the unavailable Schneiderlin. Tranmere were missing Ian Goodison from their defence who last year, virtually defended everything on his own and looked a very good player. No question – we should win this game.

Saints meant business right from the off with Guly putting Sir Rickie in on goal with barely a minute on the clock, only for the big man to delay in shot and get smothered in the tackle. Chaplow was bursting into the box at every opportunity and nearly got on the end of another Guly pass before Lallana curled a cross over from the right and Sir Rickie rose to thump a header off the bar and over. We’re all over them and keeping the ball very well and patiently building from the back with Fonte totally controlling things and getting the ball off of Superkelv at every opportunity and strolling forward with it.

Guly is showing well up front, coming short to receive the ball and laying it off first time whenever he can but as the game gets going he immediately shows more inclination to hold it up. He looks superb and is showing a surprising willingness to close down and chase lost causes which is not what I expected when he sulked all the way through his first couple of games, pausing only to show exasperation at team mates. Another Guly centred move puts Harding through on the left but instead of lashing it first time he tries to cushion it but unfortunately, he has a touch with the subtlety of a bottle smashed over the head and the chance is gone.

We got to 20 minutes with no goal and a couple more chances for Hammond and Puncheon which test the keeper but not really. Puncheon’s is typical…. Get ball, cut inside onto left foot, scuff it along the ground. There is then a bit of a change and Tranmere have a couple of half chances, one of which results in a Superkelv ‘one for the cameras’ special. As we neared half time, we were having our worst periods of the match and quite unexpectedly, we scored. A Butterfield ball to the Gulyman was too long and ended up in the right hand corner. Credit to the Gulyman for not giving it up and he managed to catch up the defender and nick it back to Punch who did his usual and ran into a defender, from where it fell to Butters who swung over a curling cross to where Sir Rickie was standing, unmarked, six yards out. A thump with the forehead and 1-0.

An added bonus of this goal was that it was so close to half time that many had already made the exit to the concourse, including Old Fat Bastard who sits in my row. He doesn’t even say ‘excuse me’, just barges past expecting you to move, so he can get in the queue first for his pie. Well I hope it was worth it OFB cos you missed the goal. My friends the Chuckle Brothers were 50% light in their number as the whiny thick one was missing, presumed moronic. His mate, the duck noise through the rolled up programme guy (must think of a better way to describe him), was for some reason, asking if anyone know what Welsh Rarebit was. Why the fuck you would want to know that in the middle of a football match is beyond me and then I realised… Tranmere had a player called Welsh so naturally… it’s like a word association thing….

“Welsh… Rarebit”
“Scottish… Haggis”
“Duck Noise Programme Guy… TWAT!!!”

Luckily for Old Fat Bastard, it takes another ten minutes of dominance in the second half before we increase our lead and it’s another Guly do Prado production as he skins a guy down the right wing before cutting it back behind Sir Rickie but in front of Lallana, who smashes it in. 2-0, game over. The question was – would we push on and get loads but whatever we did , we were going to have to do it without Guly who chased a ball into the corner and then collapsed with cramp. Butters administered first aid and the Gulyman gingerly got to his feet before being subbed. He got a standing ovation as he slowly walked off to replaced by Prisoner Number 28469276, Barnard L who shook hands left handed as he came on.

Barney’s arrival brought some humour from the Northam End and he was running to them five minutes later in the belief that he’d made it 3-0, only for an offside flag to be raised against Chaplow who had in fact had the last touch. Punch had a couple of efforts that were linked by the fact that neither the traditional scuffer or it’s alternative, the lash over the bar, were ever going to go in. Recongnizing a lost cause when he saw one, Nigel replaced Punch with Alex Chamberlain.

Chances came and chances went as Saints went in search of the killer goal which they were never going to need because my friends, Tranmere were never going to even make Superkelv get his kit dirty. Barney won a free kick on the edge of the box and Sir Rickie made a total Puncheon of the effort as he scuffed it wide to the deserved derision of “what the fucking hell was that” from the Northam. Sir Rickie found himself out wide right and curled a lovely cross onto Barney’s head but he either didn’t reach it or took his eye off it and it flew wide. The final decent chance fell to Chaplow who could have put the gloss on things but when clean through, seemed to lack the confience to take it on and instead, Puncheoned his shot wide from 18 yards when he could have got a lot closer.

Lee Holmes came on for Lallana for his obligatory five minutes and added to the DVD on his Saints career highlight by smashing a pull back from Barnard so high it almost hit the Flybe plane that had just gone over. It was dreadful and so were Tranmere, just woeful and they will get relegated this year. If there are 4 worse teams than them in the division this year then Tommy Forecast will play for England.

Game over, 2-0, easy really. I guess the only frustration (aside from Puncheon in general) is that we missed a few chances and also, let the tempo drop a bit but these are small concerns really. We are looking more and more like a team that can do some serious damage in this league and talking of which… it’s all closed right up at the top with us now being only 2 points off the playoffs and 4 off of an automatic slot. OK, we’re still 13th but watch us go.

The difference in the style of football in the 3 weeks Nigel Adkins has been there is quite remarkable and it’s only going to get better as well. I felt that we sometimes played what Wee Gordon Strachan used to refer to as ‘propaganda football’ where we passed it about for 10-15 passes without actually gong anywhere… but overall it was excellent stuff and it’s so nice to see the team all want the ball. It’s great to watch Danny Seaborne trying to suppress that natural instinct to cream it 60 yards up the pitch and nice to see Superkelv throwing it out instead of kicking for touch via a slice off his right boot.

Lots of players had decent games today but listen (as Nigel would say), the best was the Gulyman who showed an unexpected work ethic as well as some superb ability on the ball and, listen Jason Puncheon, the ability to play the final ball. I feel that Lee Barnard may get a few more games on the bench as a result of his adventures in Above Bar. Still – at least on the bench he can get to know one of this potential cell mates.

League 1 Match 33 - Tranmere 2 Southampton 1

Sir Rickie and Deano play 'Spot the Wanker'

It's an interesting day for yours truly - I am out on the beer tonight with my mates from school and guess where my school was .... Portsmouth and so guess who all this crowd of mates support... The Cheating Skate Bastards. As we were drinking in Southsea I knew I was going to take a load of shite for the 4-1 defeat and I also knew that I woulod be unable to really give it loads regarding my opinions on their shitty club. It's hard to talk too loudly when you have a peg on your nose to keep the smell out so what I really needed was at least one of two things today - a Saints win at Tranmere and the Skates getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Birmingham.

On the back of our two big home wins comes a trip to Tranmere who are hovering just above the relegation zone, their new manager having managed to improve on the results achieved by John Barnes, possibly the worst manager ever. All the pre-match stuff coming from the Saints camp in the week had been about the need to prove ourselves on poor pitches. Whilst I agree that this is true, I also think that if you make a massive issue out of something then it becomes more of a problem.

It always makes me laugh when professional footballers make an issue out of poor pitches having spent a lifetime playing myself on such billiard tables as The Veracity Ground, Mansel Park and Mayfield Park to name but three. Admittedly, no one besieged internet message boards when the ball took a bobble and I hoofed it in the river. My advice to Pards though is to not train at Staplewood in the lead up to a poor pitch away game but go and train on the Veracity Dogshit Arena for a week.

Our team was unchanged for the game with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain retaining his place on the bench, meaning that Markus had to cough up approximately another £100 getting his name put on the back of an away shirt as well.

It’s a bright start for Saints and we look to have settled well but the first time Tranmere load the ball into our box, we go 1-0 down as Puncheon (5ft 5ish) was left marking some giant bloke on the back post who headed back across (despite Punch’s efforts to put him off by falling over and trying to bite him on the ankle) and Marlon Broomes had a free header which deflected off of Fonte and past Davis for 1-0.

Similar to the Walsall game when we fell behind early, I was expecting an instant response and we came flying back at them and eight minutes later were level as a Lallana managed to get in a powerful volley (as opposed to his usual half-hit bobbler) which was kicked off the line but he rebound was controlled by Barnard and lashed home. 1-1 and we would now walk this.

The rest of the first half was pretty much all Saints with Lallana managing to skew a shot across the goal when he looked odds-on to score and a Puncheon corner causing havoc with both Fonte and Jaidi just failing to get the important touch. No goal though and Nostradamus Dave Merrington speculated that this would haunt us.

Half time, 1-1

When the second half is analyzed, it can be split into the first 35 minutes and the last 10. The first 35 is quite even with Kelvin making a couple of blocks and the Tranmere keeper doing the same. To summarize, Saints best chances fell to Barnard who forced a great save when he let a long ball roll across him before turning and lashing it first time, Sir Rickie who fired a 30 yard free kick just over and Lallana who got the finishing nightmares again when he hit the keeper when two foot either side would have put us in front again. Overall though, it’s not really happening for Saints and we went into the last 10 with Pards making two substitutions designed to win the game with Papa Waigo and Antonio replacing Barnard and Lallana.

The next chance fell to Tranmere however as some bloke called Edds backed into the penalty area, sensed Dan Seaborne (who had come on for the injured Harding) behind him and fell over him. ‘Penalty’ said no one in particular but the little wanker in the red gave it and after a couple of Saints bookings for dissent, Ian Thomas-Moore scored it despite Davis going the right way. I’ve since watched the decision a couple of times on and all that can be said about it is that it’s a shocker.

The referee managed to show his consistency a couple of minutes later as Fonte went to ground in their box in slightly theatrical fashion and we got the same result, a decision in favour of Tranmere and Southampton players getting booked.

Final Score – Tranmere 2 Southampton FFS FC 1

Just when you thought we may have a chance of sneaking into the playoffs…. no, again. Before the match we were 14 points behind the team in 6th (Huddersfield) and had two games in hand. Now, we’re 15 points behind Millwall with just the one game in hand. It could have been a worse day however with both Huddersfield and Swindon losing.

So why the non-performance today? I find it hard to believe that the players rolled up thinking they just had to turn up to win but one or two did sound flat for today. Whilst the referee can take some of the blame, the fact is that we should be much better than these teams and the odd dodgy decision by the ref shouldn’t enter into the equation. Having said that though – we wouldn’t have lost if it hadn’t been for a shite decision for the penalty and we did have chances to win this but unlike the past two matches, we didn’t take them. A more general observation would be that we do not get the same command of the midfield in away games when the pitch prevents us passing the ball.

We have a week off now before next Saturday against Leeds, swiftly followed by Tuesday at home to Swindon. Like the Walsall and Huddersfield double, we have to win them both and you know what – I reckon we will. We’ll reel it in again and start believing again and then it’s MK Dons away on their cabbage patch who we’ve already beaten three times this season and you just know what will happen there… unless we train on the Veracity Dogshit Ground the week before….

As for my night on the beer in Southsea - I just drank to dull the pain of the football, it was a laugh and they were relatively gentle with me.

League 1 Match 21 - Southampton 3 Tranmere 0

33% of Tranmere's fans at St Mary's

Tranmere were our visitors today and like everyone that we seem to play, they’ve hit a bit of form and have won their last couple of matches. They are currently being managed by their physio. I can see the logic in this as my sister is a physio and she’d be better at managing Tranmere than John Barnes. Regardless of a couple of wins, I was expecting Saints to be far too strong for todays visitors.

Mention Tranmere to any Saints fan and of course, you think of the 3-0 up, 4-3 down game and forget the fact that we’ve played them since then in the League Cup and won 6-1 in a game that featured a 40 yard lob for a goal from Chrissy Marsden Football Genius.

Today, Pards had a selection issue as Murty had injured his ankle when he dropped his pie on it in training so who would go to right back?. I was hoping that Thomas would slot in there but Liability James returned there with Antonio coming into the midfield on the right. The rest of the team was as you’d expect and Dismal Forecast was on the bench.

And then the first half was shit.

I could really leave it at that but to expand…the football was shit, Saints were shit, Tranmere were shit, the linesman was a different brand of shit altogether and the referee was several different types of shit all piled up on top of eachother.

The linesman, referees assistant or whatever! – Harding wins a tackle and quite clearly knocks it out of play off the Tranny winger… lino gives throw to them though to be fair, he did have a view that was obstructed by fresh air and he was three yards away. Two minutes later, the Tranny right back is looking to play it up the line and the lino is watching for offside instead of watching where the ball was. If he’d watched the ball he would have seen that it was already a yard off the pitch when the pass was played. League 1 lino’s are the best.

From about the 10th minute onwards, Tranmere were intent on spoiling the game as much as possible and were aided and abetted in this by the fat moron with the whistle. I would love this guy to referee Man Utd one week to see what Fergie makes of his fitness levels. Little fat berk. Lallana breaks away with the ball and he brings it back for a foul on Perry who has already got up and was fine. Why ? Is it because he thought Perry was injured or had a head injury… no, it’s because he was a shit ref and shit refs allow shit teams to make a shit match of it. If you clamp down on time-wasting then they can’t do it any more… if you make them leave the pitch to get treated then they won’t lie down for no reason, if you add on the correct amount of injury time, they will be less inclined to waste time etc etc.

There was the odd flash from a few players with Harding, Hammond and Schneiderlin probably being the pick of the bad bunch. The right hand side of our team was abysmal with Antonio and James doing a passable impression of a Comedy double act and a bad one at that – think Cannon and Ball or the Krankies. James is consistently in the wrong place and kicking it anywhere and Antonio is running into blind alleys, forgetting the ball, falling over the ball and generally making me ponder the wisdom of my assertion a few weeks back that we should sign him.

It gets to the half hour mark before anything noteworthy happens and this is a shoving match between Rickie Lambert and about three Tranmere defenders. This went on for about a minute while the fat chuffer with the whistle waited for his taxi to get him to the area of the action. Bookings all round. It livened things up though and Lambert smashed in a shot which the keeper parried away. After a brief rise in the standard of entertainment to ‘mediocre’, we sank back down to ‘shit’. It was now half time and I had soup. It was the best thing so far.

Dad and I pondered the half time team talk that Pards was delivering deep in the bowels of SMS at that moment. We thought that it would probably not be pretty and that Saints would be a different team in the 2nd half and so it proved as we looked a lot more purposeful as soon as fatty wheezed himself into position and got us all underway again.

Five minutes in and a decent move involving Hammond, Schneiderlin and Lambert ended with Connolly feeding the ball into the path of the marauding Harding who drilled it into the net across the keeper first time, for a really good goal, a great strike and we were up and running.

Everyone appeared to have upped their game with the one exception of Antonio who had maintained his first half standards. He did once playa great ball up the line to where he should have been but as he wasn’t, it went straight out for a goal kick. Schneiderlin and Hammond were completely bossing the midfield though the formers new found aggressive streak nearly landed him in trouble when after earlier taking a yellow for the team with a quite deliberate trip, he then accidentally tripped again and was lucky that fatso wasn’t up with play.

Fatso couldn’t fail to get the next decision right when a James corner from the right was quite unnecessarily handled by a defender. It was the sort of handball that used to be committed by players who were later investigated for throwing matches. Penalty to Saints, Lambert, bang, 2-0 game over. Exit Schneiderlin before he could get sent off to be replaced by Wotton.

Five minutes later and it was party time as Saints were awarded a free kick about thirty yards out, just left of centre. Only one man was ever going to hit it and Lambo looked almost nonchalant as he bent it over the wall and into the top corner. Goal by Saints Number 7, Matt le Tissier… it was that good. The joint was rocking now and so was the Tranmere keeper who dropped a cross for no reason at all and got away with it purely because no one could believe the plonker had dropped it.

Connolly was replaced by Papa Waigo N’Doffside and Saints tried to keep the elusive clean sheet. If we couldn’t do it today then we never would as Tranmere, who were shit in the first half, were even more shit now. The game ran down, Mellis replaced Lambert who got a standing ovation and the N’Doffside count reached two before Fatty blew the whistle to end what was eventually a very comfortable win.

Overall, there were many plus points but we really won this with only about 4 players on decent form… Harding had his best game for a while and Schneiderlin, Hammond and Lambert all made a difference. It’s hard to judge Bart, Jaidi and Perry as Tranmere never attacked. James improved 2nd half but Lallana and Connolly had quiet matches which I guess they are permitted from time to time. Only Antonio was dreadful all match and I thought Wotton put in a decent shift when he came on, winning tackles and retaining possession.

Over the next few weeks we can’t afford any passengers with Norwich in the JPT southern Semi Final on Tuesday and Dirty Leeds away on Saturday. Win those two and we really will be looking healthy. As it is, we’ve moved up another place in the table and the world is a fine place. As for Tranmere… you may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned a single one of their players by name because I can’t be bothered to look it up as they were dreadful and added nothing to the game. Their supporters in the ground were Barry, Ian and Brian.