SKY BLUES...

No wonder Saints manager, Alan Pardew, looks puzzled. But he shouldn`t really. Almost every time the Saints are shown live on tv, they have `a bad day at the office.` And yesterday was no exception when they suffered their first home defeat since September to a Brighton team rejuvenated by the appointment of Gus Poyet as their new manager.

This weekend, there were no Premiership matches and no Championship matches and so SKY television were obliged to delve into the lower reaches of the third tier of English football to come across a live game to televise. In truth, Brighton deserved their 3-1 win as the `new manager` syndrome took effect. So no complaints about the result from me anyway.

Years ago, when we were flying high in the Premiership - or, more often than not, flying low - a result like yesterday`s would have had a serious effect on my wellbeing, because in those days it seemed that survival in the top flight really mattered. These days, I am able to accept `bad days at the office` like yesterday with a shrug of the shoulders and a whimsical smile because we lost a football match. That`s all. What a treat it is to have small expectations.