Chez

About 9 years ago we went up to the Fulham FA cup midweek game at the cottage. We tried to pay on the gate but were turned away as it was full. We ended up watching the game in a nearby pub. On the way home we had a major crash hittinge a car that had lost control and was effectively parked across the A3. Car was written off and driver and I both broke our backs and sadly we had to miss a **** load of Saints games.

what exactly is hoped to be achieved by these marches?

not sure about the others but we'll beat the bluenoses at their place. They are ****ing awful at their place.

I also thought he did well for us. Love the way he flys into tackles whole heartedly if perhaps a little recklessly. This loan spell is just what he needs and if/when Rudi leaves in the summer maybe he will be our first choice and not Molyneux.

thanks once again for putting me straight on Lallana but I don't share you opinion on him as a player. He has been way off the pace for a long time now but I put that down to two things, firstly playing him out wide and secondly him getting injured. Get him fully fit (he looks short to me) and get him in the middle and we will see the best of him.

he has a good first touch and composure on the ball typical of a centre midfielder, but nothing has changed there in recent times. He still has a lot to learn and in my opinion his lack of pace and very poor heading ability leave him exposed. Preston offered absolutely nothing out wide so he was not tested at all on Saturday. I don't think that game is a faor measure of his progression, but I do think he has improved positionally. He certainly covers round much better now thats for sure. He also does cross a very good ball but too often it is from deep. It worked on Saturday but it doesn't always. As good as Saturdays result was don't let that game disguise that we have a midfielder doing his best at right midfield.

I'd be tempted to play Lallana where Wotte is playing McGoldrick - ie at the front of a midfield diamond. The problem with that is there is no one to play right midfield.

anyone got a link to the goals from that game?

Were there? I honestly don't recall anyone suggesting that Lowe had unearthed a gem and we were bound to prosper. All I remember of the summer was people laughing at the OS for its descriptions of the new `amazing' signings and repetitive mentions of the fantastic coaching set up.

when you say numpties, who exactly are you describing? Are there and have there been any posters on this board that actually thought we would be in a different position to the one we are in now? As far as I can see posters over the last year are either those that hope things work out or those that laugh and name call at those that hope.

If when you say `more people' you mean Lowe and JP then fair enough, but if you mean people on here than I'd point to the fact that the only thing fans could have done to avoid this situation was to go to more games providing more money to loan/buy players. Other than that supporters could do nothing to change our predicament.

Reminded me of the first SMS drby game with the cupping of the ear celebration. Great to see tapered only by the thought that we are a long way from seeing that sort of thing (Premiership relegation battle). never seen him miss a penalty and never seen a keeper even get close either, they nearly alway are top corner or into the inside netting.

what a day, even being locked out of my car (battery failure on my fob and amazingly no key hole to manually open the car door...don't ask) then forced to make a painfully slow treck home using the worst public transport system known to man still didn't prevent me from having a great day yesterday. Just made the reverse trip and thankfully the spare key fob worked so alls well that ends well. As for the game, wow, what a wait it has been and maybe not compensation for all the defeats, but it was still bloody brilliant to see that little rub of the green come our way and for us to take some of those chances we have created in first halfs all season. I actually didn't think we played a great deal better than countless other games this season but the Surman chance fell nicely, the long distant volley flew in, the breakaway ended with a touch of composure and we hardly let our guard drop throughout. Their real penalty claim failed to materialise and we made exactly the right subs to counter their long ball onslaught at the end. For all those that attended I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We hawve suffered long and hard and WE deserved that win. Get the **** in there. Davis 7 had sod all to do really. James 7 some terrific crosses, I'd like to see him get to the byeline but with no one to cover behind him perhaps that explains why he doesn't. Seis 10 Faultless killer-esque display. Won everything. He has been superb since he joined. Perry 8 Handled Parkin well. Skacel 7 Solid display, even his wave and dive couldn't annoy me today Gillett 8 busy, very busy and gave the ball away less than usual. Still room to improve, especially when with back to play. Surman 9 Tackled hard, worked hard but its his first touch that sets him apart. Didn't give the ball away all day. Lallana 6 Didn't see enough of the ball for me and I'd like to see him play where McGoldrick played. Still doesn't look fit or sharp enough. McGoldrick 7 Played in midfield at the front of a diamond and did pretty well. I don't think he worked harder than previous games but he made some tackles right in front of the fans and they backed him to the hilt. One top class volley showed his pwerfull shot and his ability. I still think he has something. Euell 10 Played ery well in centre midfield last week and continued this as the target man. He may not have won every header but all their defenders knew they had been in a battle and a lot of the poor headers went straight to us. Great display. Saga 9 Two tremendous goals, tremendous. Top class. He still gave the ball away a fair bit but his quality was clear to be seen. I hope he can keep this form going. As I said before the game, I go into every fixture with hope and today that hope turned into gold. I can't wait for next week. Can we do it, two wins on the trott? Even if things turn to **** again I will cherish that 3-0 after half an hour feeeling. Oh yeah, I forgot to say that I'm delusional, totally and utterly delusional. You see I can use that term wrongly as well.

I go to games with hope. No expectation these days, just hope.

thats the trouble with this board, anyone offering any positivity at all is classed as delusional even if that positivity is backed by genuine realism. I get the feeling that supporters that go to a lot of games, especially away from home where we have seen one or two victories are a little more upbeat than those that just see the defats roll in. If you are at the match you can see the effort (or not as the case may be), you can see how the match ebbs and flows, see the poor refereeing decisions, see the poor tactical choices by the manager etc. and the match becomes much more than just a defeat and 0 points. You see the reasons for failure and you can hope that these are put right next time round. If you just see the negative result come up on sky or teletext all you see is the hard facts and that has got to hurt a lot more. I guess thats why those that don't attend are more pessamistic and hard nosed about our situation than those that do attend.

better going to maccy d's than starving I say.

if I'm honest I have gone into every game thinking we have half a chance. Having turned over Reading, and more than matched Wolves and Brum there is nothing to fear. Unfortunately we've failed to match my hope with performances. Still today is another day and I'll try to forget what has gone before and get behind the lads as usual.

It took Saints years to cotton on to the world wide web, then slowly and surely they started to see the benefits and used it accordingly. Unfortunately they now take the X thousand regular visitors for granted (sounds familiar) and offer substandard content in the knowledge that they have an avid readership. I wonder how visitor numbers have faired in recent times? I suspect they have grown as more people have web access, but I wouldn't be surprised if the average number of pages people visit when they get there has fallen. Actually they might have gone up as fans desperately seek a page that contains information that is of any use at all. Teh fact remains there is always room for improvment and greater visitor numbers means greater advertising revenue - is this another case of cutting costs and hoping that customers don't notice the substandard product (sounds familiar too). At the very least I'd expect up to date player profiles on this site, and I don't see why we can't have the most comprehensive player information available on the web. Every single last bit of information should be available - height, transfer fee, contract length, kit sponsor, boot deal, game stats, opta stats even. Why on earth we don't have contract expiry dates listed i will never know. All fans want to know this. On each profile there should be all the news items related to that player - interviews, injuries,etc. How about blogs from the key players (club captain, captain, manager, kit man) giving us some inside thoughts on things - in short a bit more personal unsanitised material. Injury information is another area that could be improved. Why we can't get a weekly update I don't know. Every now and then when a player is about to be transfered we get some ******** about them stubbing a toe as an excuse for their non appearance and thats about it. Personally I find myself only checking the fixtures, perhaps finding out the cost of an away ticket and reading the managers after match comments. Even that last one has become tiresome as since Pearson and his direct honest responses dissapeared. I don't register to the SaintsTV thing, is all the good stuff to be found there?

don't knock it, in 100 years time when some rsearcher is trying to put together the history if that site then this thread is going to pop up in google and make their day!

Spackman was appalling.

He ranks with me about the same level as Powell in terms of footballing ability, both were whole hearted, slow and talentless. The key difference is that Wotton has avoided injury since he joined us. To be fair he had a fairly decent game on Saturday, but he still booted it anywhere about 50% of the time and chased shadows all game. That is a vast improvement on his previous outing I might add, but he slides in for so many tackles because he is too slow to catch them. In the second half even he started to look to play it short rather than hit and hope. If he does more of that then maybe he can change my opinion of him - because in terms of comittment to the cause I don't think I've seen anyone give as much as he has done in the last few games. To be honest though at this level I'd expect that drive AND some quality on the ball.

a very good point indeed, but to counter that I'd have to say we played to our absolute maximum that day with Perry having the game of his life IMO and the likes of Lallana and McGoldrick linking up beautifully to run them ragged. Add to this BWP scored a header!!! and for him a very long range goal (over 10 yards - can anyone recall him ever scoring from outside the box? I've never seen such a woeful `long range' shooter in all my days). Reading on the other hand had a nightmare day giving the ball away so cheaply. I doubt they have played as bad as that again. When we passed it and we were on our game we were brilliant earlier in the season. The second half against Wolves with ten man showed we have talent, but the long and short of it is we have players that are not up to it and when they are exposed or put under pressure we conceed goals. The formation also helped and hindered us. It allowed us to flood the midfield and let Lallana loose in the middle where he needs to play, but it also exposed our very poor fullbacks as they had no cover at all. James learning his trade up against two players cost us goals. Pretty much every senior pro we have was out there on Saturday, but playing hopeful balls down the channels with no speedy striker to get on the end of them is folly.If we use the same set of players but play a short passing game we might just have a chance against Preston.

who'd earlier ****ged a certain lodger that subsequently had to be sold on to another united...alegedly

thanks for the tip, good threads are hard to find. The entire transfer window passed pretty much without any discussion of the merits of possible signings. For me thats a shame.

why is it when rich owners enter the fray the ticket prices go up not down? QPR fans must be pulling their hair out at the prices rises bearing in mind they have three of the richest guys around running the club. Midn you you don't get rich by giving your mney away I suppose. £28 is rediculous for Ipswich. Just getting their costs an arm and a leg, they are taking the ****. At some point fans just have to stop going, thats the only way they will learn.