A BITTER PILL..

I guess I know how it feels now.  And it ain`t nice.  The blue moon arrived for once this afternoon when Saints went down 0-2 for their first defeat at St. Mary`s for nine games.   Their opponents, Brentford, came with a game plan and executed it efficiently whilst taking advantage of the fact that at least four of Saints` first choice players were absent through a mixture of suspension and injury.

But no excuses, we lost but still stay within touching distance of the promotion spots if we can rediscover our goalscoring touch, stop leaking bad goals and find some creativity in midfield.   Not too much to ask for.

Now, the other evening Charlton went to Kenilworth Road and beat Luton Town convincingly 3-0, the first goal coming from a deft header from local pacy icon Scott Wagstaff.   The problem was that the game was televised on the obscure EPNS Channel  which is a channel you have to subscribe to to watch, so I didn`t see it.  When I was at school, EPNS stood for electro-plated nickel/silver and I can`t see the point of subscribing to a channel that is predominantly concerned with metal alloy based programmes. 

However, Charlton`s win in this FA Cup Third Round replay sees them now facing Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in January.  Spurs are on a hot streak at the moment but it will be a big occasion for our local hero to pit his wits, his pace and his flanking skills against Tottenham`s mega stars, who include ex-Saint Gareth Bale.  I really hope Charlton can cause an upset, not least because us Saints fans have it in for Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, whose only contribution to Saints history was to mismanage us out of the Premier League after a stay of 27 seasons in the top flight of English football. 

But once again, the highlight for Snopper Street is again the burgeoning form of the Gills, who went to Macclesfield today and pulled off a 4-2 win at the Moss Rose - their third successive away win, which might be some sort of club record.   Good luck to them and to my Gills supporting neighbour, Mr. Slightly who must surely now change his nom-de-plume to something more in keeping with the Gills progress - Mr. Optimistic perhaps?

As for me, having swallowed the bitter pill of solitary defeat,  if I see any straws in the wind, I`ll be sure to clutch them.