Chez

Personally, I like the idea of taking a pretty popular skate and turning him into a Saint...obviously so long as they oversee lots of wins.

whenever I see the "superstars" mentioned, it just makes me think of KK falling off his bike. Kind of sums our side up really - an accident waiting to happen. Shame we don't have a `messiah' like him to turn us around.

after witnessing some of the half hearted tackling on Saturday, this is great news. Boy does our back four need a shield in front of it and hopefully (legs permitting) he can still provide it. That little extra quality on the ball, won't go amiss either. We need a better weight of pass, midfielders playing on the half turn and at least a few attempts and playing it between the lines.

It really has. I know there are clubs much worse off than us. Teams in much lower leagues, teams that have fallen much further from grace, but what a grind.

I never understood the policy of not loaning players. In the championship, your chances of signing premiership level players that get you promoted AND can handle it when you do are small. Almost every side challenging for promotion over the last four or five years has loaned in players. Not doing that just puts you at a disadvantage.

Very good description of the players in yesterday's team.

There are too many players that don't want it enough. I could see a real lack of desire and fight. That's bad, but we also create fuck all. We have plenty of nice footballers, but the blend is terrible. Where is the physicality we began the summer talking about? Still has run out of time. This wasn't good enough.

"you're not fit to wear the shirt" sung loud and clear.

Utter shite from start to finish.

Aribo coming on

Downs coming on

Amazed THB stays on the pitch.

Very loud and clear chant of "sports Republic get out of our club"

Two old fellas in front of me clapped the side off. Fuck me. Had to bite my tongue. Not sure I can last another 45 without exploding. Here we go....

An own goal?

Get THB off. He's fucking shit. Wing backs must attack or they might as well be full backs. They offer us nothing. Jander is a ghost. Aziz similar. Downes at least is busy. It's as bad as I've seen for a long time. Get Robinson and Fellows on. I wouldn't say no to Aribo too. Horrible.

Aziz loses it. Zero effort to get back and win it. Lazy fucking cunt.

Utter shite. Manning to no one. THB sells him short with a terrible pass and they should score. They do score....shite.

Woods distribution is woeful. THB no better. The wing backs are just full backs. They dont offer anything going forward. We are playing five at the back. Shite.

They have seen a weakness - the diagonal over THB. Completely done there.

At SMS today. Early thoughts. THB is so slow. We lack intensity and bite in the middle. Where is the desire? Scienza and Armstrong look bright. Back five look clueless with the ball.

I take your point, but if we'd signed McBernie this summer, I think there would have been a fair bit of discontent on this forum. He's had a good start to the season, but we are talking about a 29 year old that scored 3 goals in 34 games for las palmas last season and 26 goals in 134 appearances for sheff united. No one was calling for McBernie this summer, so mentioning him now seems a bit unfair. No argument that Downs has not worked out, so far, so any other striker would have been preferable, but let's suggest McBernie was a consideration...we had to aim higher than him. Shame we didn't manage it.

I wonder, did anyone at Sports Republic bother to ask if he was actually any good at FM?

Were Stephens and THB a strength of that promotion side? I didn't think they were bad, but it was obvious to me that THB lacked pace and it was only the failure of opponents to take advance of our mistakes that didn't expose his limitations. Not sure THB is great in the air. Stephens is competent at this level, but does he ever dominate a big forward. I've never lambasted him, but when a cross comes in he never seems to be in the right position to win headers. Wood was pretty poor for Swansea in the championship in his two final seasons there and I didn't see a PL player when he got the odd chance, despite a few liking what they saw. Not sure what the consensus is on him right now - I've not watched the last few games live, so am not able to give an opinion. I don't care what Edwards did at QPR. He has looked very lightweight for a CB to me. He has been bullied by big centre backs. First and foremost a CB must wins headers. He doesn't do that. Quarshie has the attributes we need. His ability with the ball leaves a lot to be desired. I can't see him stepping up to the PL, but maybe his limitations are manageable in the championship. He has a mistake in him, but which of a CBs doesn't?

I listened to the second half on the radio. Was Downs booed when he came on by the Saints fans? It certainly sounded like it and Blackmore picked up on it too.