Teamsaint1

This striker might just about make sense if we are trying to balance the books for a serious shot at promotion next season, and he is being brought in as a back up for Stewart , if they are very confident in his fitness holding up. Or if the are really confident that he is an undiscovered genius. None of those apply though.

To be at the top end of the Championship you really don’t need a team of international superstars. But you do need a bit of class somewhere in the team, some team spirit, some players desperate for a shot at the big time ( money) , good organisation, a proper plan, some experience etc etc. No reason at all that JS can’t be part of the mix. He was last time when we got a hell of a lot more points, albeit with a better squad.

I lived and worked in Southsea for a couple of years, back in the mid 80's, and I worked with quite a number of p*****y ST holders and fans. In fact I played for Star and Crescent FC, ( 2nd team, the first team were very good !!) run by Steve Tovey who was ( is?) a prominent fan of theirs. In the main, the real fans were fine. Ok they gave me a lot of stick ( esp as I was there when we lost 2-0 at the Dell , deep joy) but it was proper football banter. In fact when I left the job they bought me some Saints stuff. The ones who annoyed me were the ones who dished it out when we lost, who themselves never went to watch. Weird. That said, they do seem to have much bigger problem with us than we do with them. I put it down to the incredibly long time that they went without a win against us from the early 60s till ( I think) that 2-0 at the Dell. Anyway, lets hope we batter them. We need to get off to good start in the game. Imagine Leo taking them apart !

jo Tess was saying that he thinks fitness is an issue, given second half performances.

We won the playoffs with JS playing all three games. You might say despite, but plenty of teams achieve promotion with some mediocre players. Part of the problem ( and there are many) is rank amateurish defending, EG Downes at Boro where he completely failed on some simple marking when under no other pressure. If we could defend anything at anything like the decent standard that this group of defenders ought to be able to achieve, we would be picking up a hell of a lot more points than we are.

I think we could sort out this terrible shambles by appointing an even younger, even less experienced manager. Jan 25th has been looking worrying for a while, and looks like a date with destiny now.

It was just me and my brother , aged 13 and 11 standing in the front row so the Villa fans ignored us ! There were some other Saints fans in the Archers , but it was mainly Villa. Anyway, we definitely celebrated .

I remember Hughie’s injury , IIRC he had a metal pin put in his leg ? He did stand out in that Palace game. I was stood in the front row of the Archers right behind the goal ( with lots of Villa fans!) when he scored that vital equaliser in the cup. Etched deep in my memory that one

Jimmy Gabriel. What a player. Could do with one like him right now. Think he would have been great in the modern game.

Other teams make it difficult for us to play. maybe we should try that ?

I spent a good chunk of the Cov game watching Azaz closely. I learned nothing new. He is mostly in the right places and does enough work.In the parts of the game where he needs to win the ball/ break things up/ help us retain control, he is well sub-par for a team aspiring to the top six. His touch in midfield is too often poor. He is useful round the opposition box. I think he is probably a £5m player tops.

1977 we had successive 3-1 victories on the 26th and 27th over Cardiff and Charlton. there was a good following at Charlton , but we still didn’t fill much of that huge terrace.I seem to remember there being police horses inside the stadium ?

Games timed by ball in play would be a big step in cutting down time wasting , play acting etc. easy and controversy free to implement . https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/oct/15/longer-games-less-football-ball-play-premier-league 35 mins a half would give the fans a lot more entertainment for their money.

If that goal gets them through it will certainly seal his place in history . What a moment.

She should be able to handle the pressure.

Downes will be high on the list of suspects, but I thought he was our best player on Saturday ( not hard) and I can't think of many occasions when he has let us down when starting. Which doesn't of course mean he isn't disruptive behind the scenes, and he obviously had the Juric issue, so he has a lot to prove. Incidentally, Mads was just awful on saturday. Given a tough job but he really did nothing of any use at all , other than one interception IIRC.

There are interesting comparisons to be made for those of us old enough to remember 1974. After the way this season has started we are clearly in this for the long haul. The best that can be hoped for from this season is to create a basis for success, some stability at all levels, and a financial re-set to get us ready for a proper promotion push next season, and potentially life without parachute payments. That means more selling than buying ( do-able) integrating young players, and cheap older heads or loans. £10m gambles probably ought to be a thing of the past already. But as you say , the board ( as they did in 1974, albeit in a very different world) need to decide if WS is showing them enough to back him and see out a tough season while change starts to happen. i’m not seeing much that inspires confidence, but how would Lawrie have done in a fans poll say at Xmas 1974 ? We are in desperate need of stability, professional experience and vision. Changing the manager right now needs to be done only if he really has been shown not be up to the job. And there is a lot going on that we never see or hear about, most importantly manager relations with senior players. We may well need to be patient. But not too patient.

Loyalty is all we have. People will be travelling in their thousands to Loftus Road hoping that the team does us proud. Probably a vain hope at this stage , but so it goes.

I completely agree about management. After 3 or four years of mostly shambles and instability, it isn't unreasonable to cut the management a bit of slack. We all know from our own work that things can't necessarily be transformed from chaos overnight. But you can start with simple and achievable ( settled back 4/5, buying a half competent striker ) and go from there. The absence of Aribo from the group that went to Blackburn is one of the most unprofessional things I can remember happening in a very long time , heads really should roll for that.

Alfie had a lot to say, and presumably even more that he felt he couldn’t say about the players and their attitudes. He must have more insight than most, and that is really worrying. Not that most of us aren’t worried already.

We really do have enormous problems. Three years of absolute chaos has finally caught up with us. There is little elite level expertise at the top of club outside of the immediate first team . We likely have the basis of a decent squad at this level ( ignoring the desperate need for at least one more decent striker), but this time it looks as though it is going to take time to build a proper team, and a winning mentality. God knows what it is like in the dressing room at the moment, but I’d be certain that the team spirit and cohesion is absolutely miles off what Bristol City , for example, have. And without that you are stuffed.

That was my last visit there to see Saints, though I did see City 4 Wrexham 4 in the cup a few years later, which was fun. The cup really mattered in those days. Anyway, perhaps Jay R will turn out to be the new Channon

I’m as impatient as anybody to see an upturn in our fortunes. Not seen a win since Wembley, and thought we were very patchy today. Maybe the defence is gradually improving, which with such a mediocre bunch of strikers it really needs to. And hopefully the manager is working out which players he can get the most out of. But Still is following three or four years of mostly shambles and constant change. We do really need some stability, cohesion, team building. Promotion this season isn’t the be all and end all, but building for the future is absolutely vital. I’m not overly impressed with Still at the moment, but if it is going to work, he needs time and the support of fans whose patience is already worn very thin.

Going via Basingstoke/Reading isn't too bad ?

One of the lessons of the utter ( and unnecessary) shambles of last season was that , terrible though we were, and ordinary ( very ) though Onuachu was at PL level , when we had an actual CF who could do at least some CF things, we looked rather more like a proper football team. With the money at our disposal this season, we didn't need to buy a CF genius , but we did need somebody who could be there to do a proper job when Ross Stewart isn't . If we could have got hold of somebody of real class so much the better, but if not, somebody decent would have been enough to spearhead a proper promotion challenge . So you are right.