Chez

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.

since reverting to a hoof it down the channels style we have been embaressing. Much preferred watching us lose playing an all out passing game than the current load of ****. All we needed to do IMO was mix it up a little bit with a long ball now and then. Unfortunately we have gone from one extreme to another. HAving said all that I am not sure the style matters as too many of the players simply are not good enough.

He certainly has been improving in recent times, but you can't get away from the fact that he is still pretty damn slow and absolutely terrible in the air, both of which makes him a liability defensively.

I'd of kept Wright. His positional play improved massivey at right back as the season progressed. He had no pace but he made up for it by being in the right place. James does not. Also Wright's passing was very good IMO. He hardly ever pounted it down the line. James' passing is not too bad either mind you. Wright also didn't do too badly as a central midfielder. OK so he was no world beater but at least he could control a football and pass ten yards, something Wotton struggles with. Ostlund and Licka? No thanks.

he gave up getting back long before the goal was scored, the ref on the other hand can't give it up - he has to continue to try to stay up with play. Never really understood why the keeper goes up, why not just send an extra outfield player, its not as though Davis is a giant. It matters not.

it kicked off massive style at the last BC game at SMS. It doesn't take much `intelligence' to think that this might happen again - hence the police numbers. What I don't understand is the way they treated `suspected' troublemakers inside the ground.

BC were not more comitted.

after the trouble in the crresponding fixture at SMS it was not surprising. Still don't understand why they were so over the top inside the ground.

whats the score on being filmed. I hate that. It feels like they are treating me like a criminal and appears to be a breach of my civil liberties. I have nothing against the old bill but not all fans are hooligans.

seriously second best first half but for me compared to recent displays this one appeared full of passion and effort. If we got Patterson in up front and passed it rathyer than hoofed it we might have a chance. We so badly need another centre back to replace Perry though.

What the **** was the policing in the ground all about? They appeared to be penning in a group of lads to prevent them leaving the ground at the end of the game (kind of section 27). I know there was trouble at our place but this seemed well over the top.

say it how you see it mate, we all see different things in games. Of the two keepers I bet Basso made more saves. Second half saw chanes for Lallana (good low save), Surman (straight down the keepers throat), Euell (how did he miss). We hit the post and had one off the line in the first half. The keeper had to come a punch a couple of times as well. I can't recall Dais making a save other than the pen and the brave save to feet of Maynard.

really, I thought some players (Seijs, Euell, Wotton) gave it all. Others perhaps didn't, but I came away from the game feeling we were unlucky not to grab a point. I certainly haven't felt that way for a while.

If you play him out wide he has to track back etc, up front he gets to run the channels and he did it well IMO.