STANLEY UNWIN LIVES !!

Saints latest manager Nigel Adkins seems to be settling in nicely.   When he came to us from Scunthorpe we were languishing in 22nd place in the League One table.  Now we`re 5th, in the play-off places and on the back of a thumping 4-1 win over close rivals Huddersfield on Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday - at this time of the year I lose track of the days) there`s renewed optimism that promotion, once just a distant dream, might now be simply a dream.

Results over the last couple of days have been pretty good for Snopper Street.  Gillingham continued their impressive run of victories and are now looking up the table rather than down it.  Charlton, on the other hand, made the journey to fogbound Gaytown last night and came away with just a single point, despite Brighton having a man sent off after just seven minutes.  So we ended up with 7 points out of 9 which we would have taken had it been offered beforehand, so to speak.

But back to Nigel Adkins.   He is developing into a bit of of a `character,` something I suspected before he even joined the Saints.   I thought there was something different about him when he gave tv interviews and constantly referred to himself in the third person. "It`s important that Nigel Adkins gets a good night`s sleep after going up and down the motorway a couple of times in the last few days," said Nigel Adkins having arrived back at Scunthorpe from his interview at St. Mary`s.

Now, football  has always had a language of its own, to be fair. At the end of the day it`s a game of two halves, some you win and some you don`t. Some things are just never meant to be so there are times when all you can do is hold your hand up, wake up, smell the coffee, draw a line in the sand and just move on, leaving references to despairing custodians, getting to the by-line, being clinical in the final third, having a good engine and an eye for a pass for another day.

Which is why it`s good to see that Nigel Adkins is actively extending the phraseology of the beautiful game at every opportunity. Since he`s  been `in the building at the football club` he`s seen Saints` goalkeeper Kelvin Davis `pull off a few worldies` and the team being `up for it with their game heads on.`

As the much missed Professor Stanley Unwin advised those who had overeaten at Christmas dinner, "If you've done an overstuffy in the tumloader, finish the job with a ladleho of brandy butter, then pukeit all the way to the toileybox."   Nigel has a way to go to reach such proficiency, but the way he`s going, I`m sure he`ll get there.  To be fair.