- I don't think there were many people in the ground who were disappointed with how we'd been playing up until half time. Indeed, even Mr Angry who sits behind me was forced to concede that "we've done well". And if he's paying us a compliment, then you know it's not been all that bad.
- Gary O'Neil, once more a shining light amongst a sea of mediocrity. I don't know what it is but this season he really seems to have shot on to another level.
- Finally Dario Silva is off the mark and, being as he is a confidence player, hopefully it's a sign of things to come. Hopefully.
- Although we lost 2-1 after being 1-0 up, it's not as bad as 2003 when the same thing happened against Charlton. That really was depressing.
- Mbesuma finally lives! The Zambian beer monster made his long awaited first team return since the first day of the season, and didn't look all that bad either.
- We're still creating chances!
- We're not in the relegation zone.
- We're not Nottingham Forest fans. They lost to Woking in midweek, to Yeovil today and have found out they're playing Weymouth in the FA Cup. Now there's something to bring you back down to earth.
Con;
- We lost, again. And we were 1-0 up.
- Why did we look so nervous and back off so much in the second half?
- With five minutes to go, why the hell were the players passing it back to the keeper and showing no real urgency? There's three points on the line for crying out loud!
- Why oh why oh why oh WHY do people still sing that "easy! easy!" chant. It's a jinx. I don't think we've ever won after singing it. Scoring after sixteen minutes to go one nil up is certainly not "easy", as today's result proved.
- For the first time, I would argue, Reggie has to hold his hands up for this defeat. 2-1 down and with time ticking away, personally I would've just thrown caution to the wind and chucked my strikers on and seen what happened. Look back to his first game in charge - against Charlton - when we ended up with four up front; if you're not getting the result you want, you might as well take the risk. I don't see the point in waiting until there's two minutes left before making your "daring" substitutions; it's simply not enough time to turn things around. As fans we have to wonder why he's left it so late; does he not rate Todorov and Mbesuma? Or, as was hinted, did Todorov have flu? In which case, why even put him on the bench in the first place if he's not fit enough?
- After a relatively stable spell in the last few games, the defence looked pretty weak tonight. It was best summed up in the first half when one dummy from Ambrose sent the entire back line the wrong way, and it was only through Ashdown sticking his body in the way that we survived that scare. The first goal in particular was very poor defending indeed.
- We still can't finish chances!
- Oh yippee, the boo boys are back. We've just lost to a side who are 2nd in the Premiership! That's certainly cause to boo them off the pitch! Match of the Day always refer to Laurent Robert as "lazy", so let's all call him that and boo him off too, even though he wasn't much worse than half the other players on the team! Still, we need a boo boy so why not Johnny Foreigner! I know people will say that "you pay your money so you're entitled to your opinion", but I genuinely don't give a toss. We're supporters, and as far as I'm concerned anyone wearing the royal blue deserves to be supported. Naive perhaps, but God knows what we gain by booing our own players. When we signed Robert we knew what to expect, and so far he's played a part in four of the seven goals we've scored. And as anyone who knows me will tell you, I don't like Robert. In fact, I think he's a bit of a knob, big as his footballing talent is. But you can't argue with the impact he's had, and if the fans start turning on him then we really are screwed. It does seem odd that in the days under Harry and Jim we all had our doubts over whether or not we'd stay up, but even then we would sing our hearts out. These days, throughout the second half it was pretty silent apart from the odd chorus of anger or boos. If that's the price of Premiership football, with the fans becoming spoilt brats, I'd rather be relegated. What's more, I wouldn't blame Milan for walking away tomorrow as things are.