My sporting notes will be brief this week, so honestly, not a lot to get excited about.  But here goes anyway......

Southampton continue to ride the crest of their current slump, this time with a 3-2 defeat away at Newcastle.   The game threw up an interesting comparison.  Last time out against Manchester United, the Saints managed to concede nine goals;  this time they failed to win against a team reduced to just nine men.  That`s five Premier League games without a win but there is a pattern here - each season we start well enough, have the slump in the middle and then come back as the season draws to a close.  Wolves away in the FA Cup in midweek, then Wolves again, this time at home in the league on Saturday.   Could be a defining week.

In other `news,` Gillingham entertained league leaders Lincoln City on Friday evening but the league leading Imps were a little too much for the Gills, resulting in a 3-0 defeat.  Forest Green Rovers were on their way to Mansfield when the game was called off, thanks to a waterlogged pitch and the same fate befell Maidstone United in their away fixture at Hampton and Richmond.

(STOP PRESS : I was misinformed.  I have just been advised by my Maidstone correspondent that the Stones did, in fact, play yesterday.  They were away at Hornchurch in an FA Trophy game but lost 5-4 thanks to a 96th minutes winner by the Essex outfit.  So still nothing to see here.))

And to add to the winter blues I watched England`s Rugby team lose at Twickers to Scotland for the first time in 38 years with a performance of outstanding ineptitude.

And it`s snowing, sub-zero temperatures, blizzard conditions affecting my benign Kentish enclave so it`s all a bit rubbish at the moment.

So, nothing to see here. time to draw another line in the sand and move along at the end of the day. To be fair.