Ken Tone

Still better than losing, getting relegated, and then starting next season on -10. K.

Can't help thinking that the charlton attendance was boosted by the £15 tickets as much as by administration etc. And anyone who was an irregular attender but who came to that game is unlikely to have been inspired and excited enough to start attending all games again! These next 2 home games are a real test of how good our support is and how strong our fan base. If we get 25k+ regardless of the away results and any football league decision, that should send a good signal to a potential buyer, though 32k would have been better. 20-25k would be so-so. Anything less than 20k would be poor IMO. K.

I think you're right. Our only very faint chance is if we get a buyer quickly, meet all our football debts on time, and satisfy our other creditors somehow. In other words if the outcome is much the same as it would have been if someone had bought out the existing shareholders a few weeks ago, except for the shareholders not getting the price they wanted. The points deduction was introduced mostly to stop other clubs missing out because those going into administration were thus avoiding paying *football* debts... balances of transfers etc. We might just get away with it if we get back on a even keel within days and no other club loses out on a payment from us. However didn't Notts County (?) say we owe them money for McGoldrick. We're stuffed if that is correct IMO. In any event we now need to get as many points as possible so that the 10 points are deducted this season, not next. K.

But as administrator his job IS to do the best for the bank, not for the club or fans. His only real interest inthe long term future of the club is if that long term future is the best way to ensure the creditors get their money in a reasonable time period. He doesn't have all that much discretion. If Attila the Hun came in with a bid that included immediately paying off all the debts, but then using the pitch to practise his hordes' cavalry charges whilst the peasants watched from the stands, the administrator would take that bid unless someone else matched it financially. K.

Thought we'd done this one to death. Before cut off date, points deduction this season regardless of where you finish. After cut off date points deduction suspended till end of season. Then if the deduction makes enough difference to get us relegated when we would otherwise stay up, it is applied immediately, causing relegation. If it makes no difference because we are relegated anyway, it is applied next season in the lower division. So if you are definitely going to be relegated you want administration before cut off date so you lose points this season when it makes no difference, rather than next. By leaving it this late, if the Football League decides it applies, we lose the chance of getting away with it, and will be hurt one way or the other. K.

I intend to clap politely, but will have to remember to put down my thermos flask so I can stand up when we score. Should be too warm for the blanket. ( I sit in the kingsland, and didn't want to disappoint all you others by not fitting the stereotype. ;-) ) As for stay-away fans, welcome back from me .... as long as you'll be with us next season too, in L1 if that's where we end up. Btw is it just that the stand you're in always feels more crowded than the one opposite or has the kingsland crowd size really held up better than the numbers in the other stands this season? K.

1. No. Administrator's job is to do the best for the creditors. Often that means some of the debt is wiped off by agreement so that the credoitors get at least something, but all is up for negotiation, and creditors can get nasty and insist on getting as much money as they legally can, regardless of what that means for the business. In our case we need to keep Aviva as mortgage holders and Barclays as overdraft holders happy somehow. 2. Yes, but there's nothing to stop them buying back in if they want to and manage to convince the administrator that will give the creditors the best deal, which is why ..... 3. Bates is mentioned because that's what he did at Leeds, and someone claims to have seen him around with Lowe as if advising ... yet another ITK rumour. Clear enough? K.

Presumably Forest etc are 'monitoring' because they might yet want to pull the same trick! Even if this cunning plan does work, you still have to wonder why we (sorry ..they) didn't go into administration a week ago to cover all possible outcomes. Why risk it? K.

If the pain is no worse than that I for one would agree with you. Relegation is not such a big deal in the long run,and the points deduction would not be so big as to necessarily send us into another relegation. But the danger is that we also end up with no players worth mentioning , no training ground , no academy, and at the very worst extreme no home ground and even no club ..though I can't really see a club as big as saints not finding some sort of buyer somewhere somehow. Michael Knighton anyone?!!!! ;-) K.

Hear hear. K.

If the club had tried to sell early season tickets as they normally do at this time of year, even though the income would no doubt have been much lower than in previous years, surely just that process alone would have brought in enough cash to keep the overdraft down? Pretty much everything that has happened this season has been weird. As someone who has frequently warned of the unpleasantness of administration I am worried today, but even I am not so gloomy as to predict the end of Saints' existence yet. There is a faint chance we'll come out of this relatively ok and a *good* chance we'll come out of it surviving but badly depleted after a fire sale of assets. K.

Am not an insolvency practioner, but we've been through this before. In short the administrator's first priority is to see that the club's creditors get as much of their money back as possible. He or she runs the club for the time being as cheaply as possible, with that in mind, whilst looking for a buyer.... any buyer. Second priority is to keep the club running as a long term entity, but really only as a way of ensuring the creditors (which may include unpaid employees) get paid. Sentiment, history, tradition, all count for nothing. IMO administrator would sell off training ground, and even stadium if there is a buyer (admittedly unlikely), cancel as many players contracts as possible, selling off any that will raise a fee. Run with smallest squad possible....quality irrelevant. Results irrelevant. Stop any non-essential expenditure such as reserve/youth team/academy. The possibility of Lowe buying back the club is hard to quantify. How much money has he elsewhere? Would he want to? I don't know. No one on here is likely to be sufficiently ITK to answer those questions I'd have thought. All we can say is that it is a finite possibility. The administrator will take whatever offer seems best for the creditors .. not best for the long term future, let alone the fans. If no buyer is found in a reasonable time and debts remain with no prospect of improvement, he would eventually close the club down and sell off all assets. End of Saints. K.

Well you may be right. Who knows? I empathise with the 'falling out of love with football as a whole' feeling. I've been a regular attender at matches for some 38 years (christ! ..only just worked that out!) and am now increasingly depressed about the way money drives eveything in football, the boring dominance of a few big clubs etc. I wouldn't even look at the premiership results if it weren't for hoping portsmouth might be relegated ;-) I turn over from sky sports when yet another man u game comes on, couldn't give a damn about european football, hardly care about England games any more, etc. But nonetheless I know myself well enough to recognise that this feeling is not unlike the drinker with a morning hangover saying 'never again'. If (no *when* ..let's have a bit of optinmism) Saints start doing well again, I'll be just as hooked as ever before. And btw I'll be renewing my season ticket next year regardless of which division we're in --which is why football gets away with being run as badly as it is. We aren't 'customers' who will go to a competitor if we are unhappy. I'm not suddenly going to start watching rugby instead! K.

This is based on the premise that administration is inevitable eventually anyway. If we aren't quite that skint the argument falls apart. I don't know how many times those of us who know a little about business have to explain to explain that administration is a very unpleasant process and not something to wish for, however much you loathe lowe and wilde. And btw I don't agree that fan will desert the club next season in droves. We seem to be down to a pretty loyal hard core of 16/17k home fans. I reckon the numbers would be similar next season if we stay up -- better if we stay up and do well. And if we go into L1 numbers will fall a little but not much further ..and will recover dramatically if we have a good run even in a lower division. K.

Putting aside all the pro and anti -lowe arguments over how our situation was managed, in general a team that has come up and is well-supported will be better off than one in decline like us, because they will be paying mostly lower division wages, rather than carrying overpaid dead wood who've been relegated from a higher paid division. And even if they are not better off on a day-to day basis they are likely to be carrying less debt from previous duff transfers etc, since by definiton they have been successful recently or they would not have been promoted. My personal opinion of Blackstock is he is an ok striker at this level but nothing special, so he won't take QPR up to the premiership, but I'm still surprised at them lending him out now when he is a regular for them, and they don't seem ot have bought a flash replacement. K.

Blackpool's manager said after our game that they'd wanted a point from us, and that was what they achieved. He apparently thinks they need 2 more points to be safe. That would give them 49 points. Meanwhile we of course have 40 points with 7 games to go. Last 7 games: 3 wins, 1 defeat, 3 draws. Repeat that and we'd be easily safe IMO, and with 52 points, well above Blackpool's safety target. Just a pity it doesn't read 1 defeat, 3 draws then 3 wins, so we were on the up, but even so all is not yet lost. K.

Youth team?! He was in the first team for a while when we were in the premiership ...and looked really promising too. Unfortunately, since then he's looked rubbish! We seem to have a bit of a track record of spoiling good keepers. Paul Smith also looked good when he first came, and we completely detroyed his confidence. In fact Davis is the only one in recent years that comes to mind that has bounced back to good form after a 'down' period with us. K.

Sorry. Hadn't seen. Mods please lock. K.

So who will we play at right back? http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/?page_id=11510 I know a lot of posters on here slate him and will presumably therefore be pleased he's out for 2 games, but actually he's grown into the RB role and more significantly who else is there? K.

No way am I confident about predicting the score. 2-1? But has anyone any idea what the crowd will be? Will our recent run bring back some of the fair weather fans? (Not meant as a dig at the anti-lowe stay away-ers) Any inside info from the ticket office? K.

From the very clear web site http://www.footballgroundguide.com/birmingham_city/ Record & Average Attendance Record Attendance: 66,844 v Everton FA Cup 5th Round, February 11th, 1939. Modern All Seated Attendance Record: 29,588 v Arsenal Premier League, November 22nd, 2003. Average Attendance: 2007-2008: 26,181 (Premier League) 2006-2007: 22,274 (Championship) 2005-2006: 27,392 (Premier League) So actually this 16k was well down on what they might have expected in a promotion season. K.

Yeh, but Benali had a fantastic scoring record as a youngster too! At the risk of being smug, I did post in Poortvliet's time that I'd rather see Euell as the hitman strker and McGoldrick playing behind him. However Wotte has gone one better and put both Euell and Saga in front of him! I've always thought the criticism of his work-rate unfair. He tries hard, but simply isn't suited to the sole front man role. K.

Not sure, but think his Abbots Worthy house is still for sale. K.

Quite. So technically the pedantic one who waited until the players had run like hell, risked injury in a desperate sliding tackle by the defender etc, and then finally blew up as the ball was touched, was right. But it's a damn silly rule. Meanwhile on the tv that morning before leaving for our game I watched part of the everton match, where their goal was allowed even though a player ran forward in an offside postion in the 6 yard box as the scorer headed in. He didn't touch the ball and didnt actually get in a defender's way, but if he wasn't distracting the defence and gaining an advantage then I'm a Dutchman (but not necessarily a very good coach ;-) ) It's no wonder non-fans dont understand the offside rule. I've been watching live games for nearly 40 years and I can't bloody understand it now either. K.

The way I look at it, we are on a winning run of 1 game. Next stop, promotion. ;-) K.