InvictaSaint

Good Morning all. Don't know about you chaps down there in sunny Southampton, but up here in chilly north Kent we have had almost a foot of snow and it is looking the same up in Yorkshire. I don't know what the chances are of the game being called off tomorrow, but if you are a hardy soul who is planning to travel up to Leeds, do take care. I can't even get out of my front door!

Love the Avatar. My 2 year old daughter managed to come up with "What you talking about, Willis" today with no prompting at all.....

I would suggest that coming into a club which, on three well documented occasions, had almost folded, and which had seen its few older professionals and many youth team players, who had been promoted too early to the first team, have the stuffing well and truly knocked out of them by Lowe, Poortvliet, that mysterious Dutch agent and Wotte......was a far worse situation to inherit than what Boothroyd picked up. But so many people seem content to ignore the bleeding obvious and bang on about our situation, when AP turned up, being similar to X club or Y club. Sorry, you are wrong; it simply wasn't. I don't really want to contribute to what seems to have turned into a massive ****ing contest about one person proving themselves 'correct' over another in terms of what SFC might / could / should have done in the first ten games or whatever; all rather tedious really, and entirely moot, to boot. We are where we are, we're winning games, the ethos around the club is starting to change and things are looking up. Harping on endlessly - and yes guys, that's how it seems - about what we should have done really doesn't matter or mean anything. Enjoy the here and now and I would imagine the future. Far more important.

Gillingham away would do me; 2 minute drive (as opposed to my regular 125 mile drive to SMS!!)

Do I think it is reasonable to be concerned about the goals we concede? Concerned is probably too strong. I would probably want us to close games out a little more comfortably, yes, but I am now so firmly convinced of our ability to find a goal from somewhere in the team if it is required, that at the moment it is an irritation rather than a concern. We found 2 at Orient to come back from 2 nil down and 3 at Hartlepool after being 1-0 down; same at home to MK Dons, so no, not concerned, but will expect it to improve over time. Perry was playing again today and Murty is still finding his feet after injury, so give it time. I expect Pardew is irritated too, rather than concerned at this stage - if we were not scoring, then concern would register certainly - and he is on record as saying he won't change his style of attacking and goal-heavy football. At the moment, I am just enjoying expecting Saints to win each time they play. It's actually FUN again. When was the last time any of us could say that?! It's like a lower league version of the Nicholl days; really enjoyable and rewarding. If we can get to mid-table or higher this season, maybe a JPT final, then that would be a decent season given our starting point (-10, **** team, no confidence, no pre-season to speak of). Next season is when I really expect us to start taking this league by storm, Until then, I am enjoying the ride.

BTW, I don't know how some of you lot made it through the Chris Nicholl days; you musy have been in A and E every Saturday afternoon. That, or ringing Samaritans.

What, exactly, is there to be disappointed about, pray tell? Did we win? Did we? If you want me to start wailing and thrashing about because of an unfortunate own goal and a penalty - have you actually seen it?? - that was never a pen, then sorry, ain't gonna happen. I will look at my half full glass and look forward to round 3 whilst you or anybody else chooses to see the dark side of everything. There are some people in this world who are only happy when they have something - anything - to moan about or criticise. Unashamedly, I am not one of them.

I despair at some people, I really do.

Can somebody remind me what form Norwich were on coming into this game? Rather good if memory serves; unbeaten in 10 or something similar? Winning a lot? In which case, perhaps an entertaining 2-2 draw isn't the end of the known universe as we are fearing and we can all put the Prozac away. Yes we are leaking a few goals and yes maybe we should and could have won this game but that's still 1 defeat in 10 isn't it? Perhaps in Glasgow that is relegation form but down here I would say we're doing ok. Always room for improvement, of course, but let's put the razors back in the draw shall we?

I see the wrist slitters are already out in force. Glad that there are people in the world who draw pleasure from ignoring any positives and focussing on any negatives.

And you probably will, more's the pity. I just don't get it with you glass half empty types. I mean, here we are, some 6 months after almost seeing our club implode, with a manager who knows what he is doing, a Chairman who has a game plan, and playing some great football and winning 7 of our last nine and all you can do is make fatuous comparisons with teams who were in no way in the same position as us when their managers left. Tell you what, here's a comparison for you, albeit from a different league. Middlesboro - new manager comes in and.....oh, loses first game in charge. He must be awful mustn't he? What's his name again? Find me another club that was in the same post-nuclear explosion state that we were in and then make a comparison. Whether you "buy it" or not, Pardew and co inherited a shell of a football club, devoid of any confidence, proper scouts, proper training and fitness regimes. Christ knows what condition, mentally, Paterson, James et al were in when the season started after a year under the "guidance" of Lowe, Poortvliet and Wotte. Christ, I am scared even saying their names, such was the nightmare of their tenure. Hardly surprising we started the way we did. The trick is not to look at us then, but to look at us now. Pardew is doing fantastically and this hysterical, instant gratification nonsense that seems to pervade society these days is helping not one iota. I don't mind criticism one jot, if it is merited. In this case, I am afraid you are WAY off the mark and need to consider all of the above before jerking that knee.

Quick, quick - panic!! We're rubbish! We're going to get relegated! No teams below, above or around us in the league should ever beat us! We can't defend! Pardew's rubbish! Our position is unnacceptable! All our players will leave! When you stand back and read the above, do you not get even slightly embarassed at how full full of hyperbole, how childishly petulant and how melodramatic you are being? Jesus, what is wrong with people? I have no problem with criticising but for the love of God GET SOME PERSPECTIVE. One defeat in 8 does not make us worldbeaters (yet) but nor does it make us relegation fodder. Honestly.

remember him playing as a sub in the 3-1 win at Spurs that saw Hoddle getthe chop.

He was a sub in the 6-3 win over Man Utd; gangly blonde haired lad. Not quite as bad as Lee Todd.

Up here in deepest darkest north Kent we have BBC south-east regional news and they had the Brighton Chairman on last night saying that they would not be appointing anybody until after their FA Cup tie on Saturday. Coppell has ruled himself out so whoever gets the job is not going to have a huge amount of time to get the team ready for the Saints game. To be honest, new manager or not, we should have more than enough to beat them.

You know what they say about sarcasm (the first part, not the convenient second part)... :-)

I don't think - and feel free to correct me - that my OP ever suggested that we should do it every year, or that a lack of doing it showed disresepect by the club or the team; you may be intimating that others are suggesting this, in which case I may have misinterpreted your comments - sorry if that is the case. I just think it was (is) a wonderful idea which allows fans to bid for a unique piece of Saints memorabilia whilst simultaneously raising money for a most deserving cause. My Pahars poppy shirt is framed and has pride of place on my office wall (I say office; it's really just a spare room with a desk) and I would happily bid for any other poppy shirt on offer, credit card limit allowing.... Incidentally, I would be really interested to know if any of the others in the photo I have - taken on the day the club handed over the cheque to the RBL (game v Burnley, Nov 2006; Wise and Bassett in charge!!) - post on here.....

What, apart from the £10,000 odd that was raised for the RBL the first time the club did it? Was that not useful? Did it not help the RBL, without any cost to the organisation itself? Oh, and by the way, one of the shirt auction winners in 2006 was a serving member of the forces, who lost a limb in service of his country, and he seemed to think the whole thing was a wonderful idea. Not really sure, therefore, why you have such a negative view of the idea. And in case you're wondering, I buy a poppy every year.

Any chance that the club will resurrect the poppy shirts this year? I was lucky enough to be part of the first 'cohort' of winners when I picked up Marian's shirt, and I am certain that a lot of money was raised for the Royal British Legion Benevolent Fund. Perhaps the Cup tie against Bristol Rovers would be the most appropriate game to wear the shirts as it is closest to Rememberance Sunday. Perhaps somebody who has connections with the club would be good enough to mention it?

Page error on the link

Best chant of the day from the Northam, about 3 minutes from the end: "We're not pointless anymore" Very funny.

thanks a million saintbletch; really appreciate it. Will pm you address details later.

My niece and nephew were going to travel down to SMS with me today for their first Saints game, but a dose of the sniffles means they won't be able to and neither will I. Would anybody be able to buy me 2 programmes and send them up to Kent? I will of course refund in full plus postage and a little extra for your troubles. If any kind Saint out there could help it would be hugely appreciated. Will accept first offer of help on this thread to allow others to see if help has been granted. Will pm later. Many thanks in advance.

At the risk of letting the facts get in the way of a good rant, Pardew is on a 3 year contract, not 5. Hope you enjoyed being at the game today Art, and that you saw, as I did, the immense progress that is being made given the corpse of a football club that was SFC post the Lowe "revolution". Destroying a football club over 12 months cannot be rectified in 10 weeks.