Big Ron fan

By some distance

Agreed

Agreed.

Disagree. Having Lowe anywhere near Saints is like a rapist attending his victim's counselling sessions. His presence makes it impossible to put the dreadful damage he has inflicted on the club and its supporters behind us. The trauma won't end until he is gone and we know he can't come back.

By my reckoning, when England manager, Hoddle had at his disposal, as well as Le Tiss, Gascoigne, Beckham, Shearer, Scholes, Owen. To bemoan his lack of 'special' players is a bizarre comment, even by his own standards. (Not as bizarre as the tactics he employed, though!!)

He also turned down ManU in 81 when Atkinson ended up with the job. His stated reason for leaving Saints (apart from the challenge of reinvigorating a North East 'giant') was the change in the League rules coming in that season whereby the home team kept all the gate receipts - for the younger ones among you, 1/3 used to go to the away side. He felt that this change in the balance of the finances between clubs would mean that Saints, with such a small ground, would never be able to challenge at the top again. I guess he was right on this. It should be remembered too that Sunderland were in the 2nd division when he went there.

Having read his very sensible comments and bearing in mind (A) his Saints background; (B) the fact that he has a good 2 or 3 years playing time left; and © he has recent experience of getting out of both League 1 and the CCC, can I be the first to say... Matt Oakley for player-manager!!

No he's not.

I think you mean 'with our chronically bad management record at the club, this will happen'.

http://www.football.virginmedia.com/page/Galleries/0,,12555~1593713,00.html?imageNo=9

Lowe's involvement with Saints has made it, for me, like having a close family member become an alcoholic, drug addict or member of a cult. At first you think they'll come to their senses and you continue to give lots of love and support. Eventually though, it starts to have a big effect on you and those around you, so you decide the only thing to do is cut them off - if they are going to continue to destroy themselves, there's nothing you can do about it, you finally realise. You still hope that one day they'll snap out of it, but you can't live on hope any more. Instead, you prefer to just remember the good times.

In November, HMRC introduced 'time to pay' arrangements to help businesses and companies struggling with their cash flow during the credit crunch. They have been agreeing often quite long deferment periods very quickly, but will not operate this new regime where they feel that there is little likelihood of collecting the tax in the long run (e.g. because a business will go bust). IF FF's info is correct, it could be that HMRC have said they won't allow deferment of tax because of the going concern issue. Not unreasonable of them really, as it's difficult to argue that Saints' problems are due to the current economic situation! The link from the HMRC website, for those interested: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pbr2008/business-payment.htm

Where's Matty based these days? He was in Waitrose in Chandler's Ford earlier in the week.

I can see Rupert going along with that!

1996 - the match was part of my stag week-end!

Blimey, good shout. I'd forgotton that one. Great game, magnificent performance with a young, injury-hit team, that showed what a great influence Sturrock was having. Thanks Rupert!!

1 May 1976, of course! Closely followed by last season (which co-incided with my birthday) and 1999 - the original 'great escape'.

Agree with this

Worse by a long way than the Wigley decision - and that's saying something!

Had us 21st going into last game, but after losing at Forest and Norwich winning at Charlton, it finished 18 Plymouth 54 19 Forest 53 20 Barnsley 53 21 Norwich 51 22 Blackpool 51 23 Saints 51 24 Charlton 36 However, the Swansea v Cardiff play-off semi-final should be a bit tasty!

Just shows what a good season we could have had. Lowe out!

Unfortunately, things are very likely to deteriorate much further. Lowe is capable of making many more dreadful decisions before his time at Saints is finally up.

Because Lowe has been making all these dreadful decisions, some clearly just out of spite against those who've opposed him in the past.

Any idea what the plan is?

For his last 2 years in charge before being turfed out, and since his return, Lowe seems to have got just about every major decision wrong. (I know a small minority on here will disagree with this statement.) If we do end up going into administration, it is quite possible that the process will also be mis-managed, to the extent that we end up doing it after we've been relegated and end up with a points deduction next season. Nothing in Lowe's record makes me think that even such a crucial issue as this will be dealt with properly. What do you think? Could he get things that badly wrong?