One of the good things about the pressure of the run in is that most of our squad have been there and done it ....last year, with Huddersfield in the Reading role.

I couldn't make it to the game but the commentary on Saints Player made our performance in the first 20 minutes sound very shaky. The familiar comment that the team was playing without any width was repeated over and over. The goal was described as being against the run of play. Then, of course, we settled.

Still worrying if there is that nervousness at the start of every game. Fortunately West Ham seem to be feeling the pressure even more.

I think that Reading are in our role from last year, in that they are doing the chasing, in this respect we are more like Huddersfield

No, no. We are more like Brighton. It's West Ham who are more like Huddersfield. Every chance the Hammers will sink further after they visit Leeds on Saturday.

2nd half performance on saturday was superb, although barnsley really lost their shape. guly was excellent in the freer role - he got the triangles going.

morgan was good saturday - getting him to concentrate for 90 minutes and being able to dominate opponents in the championship is keyif he is to survive next year (assuming a +ve outcome)

Guly had a great game on Saturday and hardly put a foot wrong, seemd to be involved in most things so take note all the anti-Guly-ites! Don't think Saints first goal was against the run of play, it just took us a while to get into our stride and Barnsley were never in it. It was a game where we didn't have to get out of first gear and controlled it throughout. I guess 5 wins is what we need now, so long as one of them is against Reading! COYR.

The first 30 minutes were truly dreadful. No energy, no movement, nobody wanting the ball. A better team than Barnsley would have punished us. The first goal came out of nowhere but once it went in, there was only going to be one winner.

10 games to go now but 6 of them are away. Hopefully we didn’t use up all our luck at Leeds.

Thought Saints were poor in the first half. Again giving the ball away and unable to put passes together or even clear the ball properly. First goal was the key and the second goal took the stuffing out of Barnesly. It was only when RL went off did we find our quick one-twos again and some sort of shape. De Prado playing centre forward linked up with the others really well and we looked dangerous for most of the second half. Our get out long ball to RL had gone and we looked so much better for it as a team. Something to ponder on NA.

We did what we needed to do. Another win and just 6 more should ensure Premiership football next season, provided that we don't get well beaten in the other 4 games. Every Saints fan just needs to stick with the team now (that includes Guly and whoever else NA puts his faith in) and be patient if that first goal takes a while. It's easier said than done, but the Upton Park faithful seem to have a detrimental effect on their team's results at home, and they've got some tough fixtures left. On paper we have the easier games. I'm sure NA will be saying a game at a time still.

West Ham

17-Mar Leeds A
20-Mar Middlesbrough H
24-Mar Burnley A
27-Mar Peterborough A
31-Mar Reading H
06-Apr Barnsley A
09-Apr Birmingham H
14-Apr Brighton H
17-Apr Bristol City A
21-Apr Leicester A
28-Apr Hull H

Reading

13-Mar Doncaster A
17-Mar Barnsley A
20-Mar Peterborough A
24-Mar Blackpool H
31-Mar West Ham A
06-Apr Leeds H
10-Apr Brighton A
13-Apr Southampton A
17-Apr Nottingham F H
21-Apr Crystal Palace H
28-Apr Birmingham A

SAINTS

17-Mar Millwall A
20-Mar Hull A
24-Mar Doncaster H
31-Mar Blackpool A
07-Apr Portsmouth H
09-Apr Crystal Palace A
13-Apr Reading H
17-Apr Peterborough A
21-Apr Middlesbrough A
28-Apr Coventry H

I think we got 21 points (could be mistaken) in all of the reverse fixtures.

Nobby....?

Guly had a woeful game for the most part. He found a bit of touch in the second half but gave the ball away constantly and continues to appear to give far less than 100%.

The players are noticing this too. Lallana tore him a new @rsehole after the Ipswich game.

The guy is a huge talent but his work rate and lack of concentration often sticks out a mile when compared to the rest of the team. I'm not a boo boy, i'll support whoever goes out there and wears the shirt - but i notice that Guly is often the focus of my frustration.

I would like to see us playing with more width. The wings were empty for most of the time as we seemed to be playing 4-2-2-2. The middle got too crowded. It should be noted that the second goal came from Lee chasing a ball down the left side.

For once Lambert was off-song. Most unusual for him to be substituted, apart from in the last few minutes.

Nick is saying that another 5 wins should do it. 5 from 10 matches seems a little optimistic. Maybe 5 wins and 5 draws. The snag is we have 4 home and 6 away.
Bstokesaint's list shows Reading as having to play 3 away on the trot. That looks tough, but have they forgotten how to lose? Whatever happens, I suspect that the eventual 3rd placed team will far ahead of the 4th team.

Lets be honest here guys, we all know this was a poor performance. Yes it was fine once we were 2 up and passing the ball around nicely - sometimes 20 passes or more at a time, but before this and as other posters have said, we lacked width and certain players were playing like they only had to show up to win the game.
For those of us who thought Guly had a great game were clearly not at St Marys. Like the Ipswich game 4 days earlier, he was lethargic, lazy and often dropped back into a more defensive or central role. This meant we again had no width on the right of the park and the central midfielders were often having to turn back or inside due to there being no outlet there. Guly also fell over a few times when in good positions. Once we were 2 up though he passing and involvement was superb, as it has been in earlier games this season, where he helped us tear teams like Birmingham apart so effectively - so why does he not do this in the early stages any more. Perhaps Nigel has given him a free role ?

I also felt that Hammond and Spider were off the pace a bit and often opted for the simple passes - hot potato syndrome - which made us look flat and one dimensional.

I agree that Lee did well in creating the 2nd goal, but would also point out that perhaps we play more of a long ball game when he is in the side, as he is such a good outlet. We have passed the ball so well this season, so lets get back to doing this and start ripping teams apart again.

Let's get behind the team, whoever features and 7 wins from our remaining games and we will be going up as champions.

PS - Anyone been to Hull ? I'm there next week, but never been before, so wondered if there were any recommended places for pre-match beers.

It is a bit of a worry that we seem slow out out of the traps.
This allows teams to steal the initiative ie Bristol City, Reading, Liecester, Leeds.
This must be fixed by NA.
This could be the difference between Reading and ourselves..
They tend to press better from the off.
We can and have done that to better effect
But then as Blackrod pointed out we were not keeping the ball early on and were narrow which seems self defeating when you want to play expansive game.
Yes the full backs are supposed to be providing the width but that doesnt seem to happen as much as it should.
There must be some nerves in there obviously..time to shake them off.

We weren't slow out of the traps against Ipswich and yet we didn't score when we were on top. There's only been a handful of games where we've ripped into teams from the off; Leeds & Boro at home and Ipswich away spring to mind. Several games we've struggled from the start and on a few occasions relied on a penalty to get us underway (Birmingham & Watford). We've only ripped into teams after going a couple of goals up. Guly didn't have a bad game on Saturday, it's just that people seem to focus on him at the moment and his work rate was actually quite good. I've counted just as many bad passes from the likes of Hooivelt and Fox who wanders in from the left far too often. Fonte seems clueless at times to what to do with the ball, he either passes back to Davis or punts a hopeful ball upfield to no-one in particular. He seems to be getting a little slow. We are a just a different team to what we were at the start of the season, and I put it down to a reliance on Lallana and Lambert. Chaplow has yet to get back to the form he showed earlier and with Cork having gone off the boil, a stronger midfield would have made a huge difference at this point in the season. Also NA should have persevered more with De Ridder. All that being said, we are doing well to win games at the moment and hopefully will be good enough to see it through.

Saints did what they had to do without breaking into a sweat against Barnsley. The first half may have not been great but Barnsley were not able to manage 1 shot on target throughout the match. Another 3 points on the board and it's on to Millwall.