saintstowin

I came for the Downs news and then saw this. I'm as surprised as most. If he had a year left then see how it looks at Christmas and offer an extension (not 3 years) if appropriate, and if not then he can leave like others have. That clearly didn't happen. I don't get it. Especially the length. Definitely not an on-field leader even without the stupid red cards. A leader doesn't regularly leave opponents unmarked through lack of focus and think this is acceptable. I had hoped we would move on after RM inflated his head with platitudes and the captaincy. I don't hate him, and there's a good 90 minutes now and then, but he's not the future I wanted.

It's not sold out is it? Got tickets earlier and now showing as unavailable even after I make sure I'm logged in (which isn't a smooth process on the site). I can only see Stoke on sale. Edit. Maybe showing unavailable as I personally no longer have access.... But I do like to monitor ticket sales progress so that's annoying!

I love how one of the selling points of membership is....EMAILS. They were definitely reaching for that 6th thing at that point.

This is truly the era of wankers moaning that they are no longer allowed to be as big a wanker as they are used to being. It's called (trying to) progress. In some ways I'm glad my Lowe opinion of back then is very much vindicated. I hope he doesn't read too many public sector job descriptions. He'd choke on his privilege.

Cheers! James Bree goal of the season then!

Did we score a goal from outside the penalty area this season? I don't know why it matters but I'd like to know. Maybe just to rubber stamp the awfulness of 24/25. I can't think of one.

Perestroika!

I'm from that neck of the woods so love a Charlton Saints game. That one though. Crikey. I borrowed a season ticket and had to be with the very happy Addicks. I think we won at home 3-1 in a crunch game late in the season and stayed up while they went down. I can't remember us winning at The Valley. I assume we must have. To conclude. Nathan Jones is unhinged. And good luck Charlton.

That's the one that came to mind. Nice goal. Just a bit of a shame it stands out so much when there were 30 something games left!

Well they sat back and were winning etc. But the last 20 were pretty good and I'll give us credit for not collapsing in the face of Everton wanting to sign off with more goals. I didn't see the very bad stuff that went before but can picture it given how bad we are. Robinson hasn't had the attacking guile coached out of him and looks really promising. I like the look of a getting fit Stewart. Archer even tried. Get this done and we can hope again.

I was thinking along these lines about our goal of the season. Most seasons there are some beauties. I honestly can't think of even a really good goal.

5 live have gone from us waiting for a grim death to us being fairly pleased with the opening.

What a game, two games. I think our players should be forced to play two legs against both these teams back to back as a punishment for this season.

Mentioned before, but one run Stewart made in the 1st half and (sort of) got in behind but wasn't able to get away for a shot, he then did what we'd want from him or any front man (held the ball up, held off the defender). And then the waiting started. It wasn't exactly a super fast break, and I couldn't believe how long it took for anyone to get near him to support the attack. That's a sad reflection of effort, similar to West Ham's goal last week. We're joggers not sprinters. I expect confidence affects this, but the effort isn't there either.

It was an odd and long lost feeling to see the football team I support passing the ball to each other and at several times attacking with something like intent. And with some exceptions looking team-like when the other lot had the ball. Not perfect but not bad. Good! From what I saw it was a very slow game and that probably helped us, but we totally deserved at least what we got if not more. Even if they invited us forward you've still got to make it happen. A late happy goal. The jogging back from the attack for their goal. Normal 24/25 and bad. Please a few of you just sprint. But a lot else was really pleasing.

What a sad season. I don't think I've seen us this bad ever. Going to games since 82 and there have been low points of course, but never so consistently 2nd best in every meaningful aspect of the game, every single match. Can't wait for next season, not because I think we'll be brilliant but anything is better than this.

I read that for the first time there'll be 2000 or so unsold tickets, plus season tickets not attending. I can't believe it's taken this long to get down to the still very high 20,000s. Great support through the thinnest of times. I just can't see even a point coming our way later. I'd love to be wrong.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2025/apr/01/david-squires-on-harry-redknapp-fa-cup-quarter-final-review-cartoon Big fan of this, and Redknapp stars this week.

I can see 9 being all we get. So many wrong things during games and players/manager are lost/caring less each week. I agree the gap is widening. And I know our problems this season aren't unique to us. But I find it hard to see how the perfect storm - poor preparation, initial arrogance and seeming refusal to change, terrible recruitment throughout, then essentially giving up after Christmas - will be suffered by other teams, even if on paper they are not competitive. You have to be so, so bad to get only 9 points.

Just heard Victor Wanyama got sent off for Dunfermline!

Well we had 3 the last time we went down. I think we're near enough the end that anyone could do as well as Juric. If we have coaches at the club to see us across the miserable finish line just do it. Juric might not have known quite how bad we were. But he knew the challenge and sadly has not been up to it. And like others feel, it's his making it even harder with odd decisions and not learning from mistakes that means it's reached a point of time to go.

Thanks for the video. Fun times. What a difference. The same players looking utterly lost this season. Some lovely finishing from quite a few different players. With a bit of luck we can get going again next season.

So, so bad. Too much to list all the badness. However, the space. The space. I've never seen anything like it. At this level, maybe at any level of professional football, going clean through or almost clean through the middle should be the most rare of occurrences. It happens every few minutes. Make it stop. All of it. Please.

I've only seen the Newcastle game in person during the IJ time. In that game, and highlights of others, the space for opposition players in the middle third of the pitch is quite incredible. It stands out as highly unusual in all my football watching, Saints and otherwise. I don't think this is all on him, because the rot had set in, and RM's last game featured this for example. But it's a sad indictment of the complete lack of confidence and leadership which leads to awful organisation on the pitch. I say with confidence that you could watch the vast majority of games of football - league games, cup games with lower league against better opponents etc, and you will not see one team jog into such empty parts of the pitch to do what they want. And stopping that was what I hoped for in a new manager.

I think there's general agreement about AA's level. Not PL, yes Champ including goals, assists and misses. Next season we'll be in the division where he has success. I hope he stays. All this planning ahead for after our next promotion is a bit too much whatiffery. I think we'll need players we can rely on next season and AA is right up there.