buctootim

Like people everywhere Lowe is a mixed bag. Some things hes done have come off brilliantly some have been failures. You may or may not like him but only the most deluded believe he has deliberately tried to run the club into the ground.

Since its pretty clear he is neither the Angel Gabriel or the Devil incarnate - cant we now just ignore the ownership politics and enjoy the football.

stick with them through good times and bad, until the former outnumber the latter.I'll still dream of going unbeaten for the rest of the season, Champions by March.

 

But these are green shoots, not marigolds or lillies just yet...

I'm not sure I understand the references to Lilies (the flower for funerals) or to rubber gloves - but I agree with the sentiment.

Its good to read that opposition fans dont know whats happening at Southampton.

Didnt think much of their forum or team, but I did like their choice of smilies.

 

 

Hero.

You sure?

Imagine it is part of the Davies deal and he will be used as backup during a long season.

Just got back from this, t'was good and Jan the man was there, top quality bloke

You went to the unveiling of a bus and it was good?? :smt102

I really hope we can tie him down but I have my doubts. I know somebody who went to school with him and apparently Lallana was very arrogant. He also wanted to break into the Saints team as he saw this as a platform where he could move onto a bigger club.

 

Let's just hope this doesn't happen.

Most of us were mouthy at 15 and full of ****e. I wouldnt read too much into it.

Well placed sources inform me that things are not quite as rosy at Fratton Park as they could be. Finance is drying up big time.

Two wins, no Fulthorpe fantasy football takeover and Pompey going down the pan. What a cracking week this is turning out to be.

Sounds extremely encouraging. 6 goals in 7 for the u21 is especially pleasing given he's actually only 19. I reckon we could have a gem here.

 

He was impressed with the team last night too!

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/?page_id=10503

He's even got the accent already - "I want to play for the first team, but there definitely be competition".

Good match report from a Brummie perspective. Complimentary about Saints and quite funny too.

"Just got back from soton so thought I would pass on some thoughts...

Blues made several changes from Saturday with Doyle coming in for Taylor in goal, Kelly coming in for Taylor in central defence, Augustien made his debut in central midfield and McSheffrey came in on the right side of midfield. Bent and O'Connor started up front.

The first half started very much as the previous encounter at St.Mary's - Southampton played the 'Dutch' system to good effect. They were mobile, first to the challenge and moved the ball around effectively. Blues, on the other hand, played the lesser known 'Sunday League' system. This consisted of Blues players constantly passing the ball to the opposition, hardly moving and, when they did attempt a pass to their own player, invariably it was head or chest high at around 40 miles per hour.

It was a pretty sorry performance and when southampton scored I doubt anyone was surprised. It was a good finish by Holmes to the bottom right hand corner giving Doyle no chance but I think Blues defence could have done a little better - the ball seemed to bobble around for an age before the actual goal.

The goal didn't seem to have any impact on Blues - Blues constantly changed shape and at times, I couldn't actually tell what system, if any, they were supposed to be playing. At times, Quincy was playing in the middle of a front three with Bent on the left and O'Connor on the right, then he was playing central midfield with Augustien on the left. McSheffrey stayed on the right hand side and had a complete mair. And, even the [upto now] efficient Carsley not having the best of games. I suspect that was due to Augustien but more of that later. O'Connor and Bent tried hard up front but they got little, if any, service. The service they did get was head or chest high at 40 miles per hour.

The half time whistle went and to a few boos, off trudged Blues with several players moving quicker than they had all of the first half.

Changes at half time were inevitable. Jordan Mutch came on for McSheffrey and super Kev came on for O'Connor. And, for five minutes or so, Blues actually played some nice football - we even got a corner.

But then, it all seemed to fall apart again. In the first half we played with 8 players, the second half we played with 9. One of them, McSheffrey was taken off at half time but the other two Quincy and Augustien stayed on the pitch and continued to cause us more problems than southampton did.

I think Blues eventually had a shot on goal (Quincy in a positive spell) but the ball didn't bounce to our one other player in the box, Philips, choosing instead to bounce to one of the six southampton players. Stern John came on and southampton showed Blues how to play to a lone striker - funnily enough to his feet so he can hold the ball up and bring in other players.

Blues seemed to constantly try the other well known tactic of hoofing the ball up to Bent. Now, Bent has his critics but tonight he did all he could. He harried, chased and I think he won every header but he couldn't do any more with how blues were playing.

I think this had to do with the complete ineffectiveness of the midfield. If I had been playing in the back four I would have just lumped it forward because I would know that, if I had given it to one of our midfield players they would have given it straight to southampton.

Their second goal was a good finish again into the bottom right corner following some nice football. I don't know who scored. I was numb by then.

I think of myself as a fairly positive blues fan but tonight was a little mistifying. I am sure McLeish thought he had enough in the team to at least be competitive and probably beat southampton. He certainly tinkered with the system throughout the game but I wonder whether that was to try and see how he could get the team to function...And, although we lost I suspect he learnt some valuable lessons...

I suspect McLeish is wondering whether he has been conned by purchasing Augustien. I am not sure he passed the ball to a blues player all night. ok, ok, that's harsh and I am sure it's down to a lack of match practice and the speed of the game but there will be a nagging doubt of that I am sure. My note to Augustien: Blues play in BLUE (the clue is there). On the other hand Jordan Much made not a bad start and was the one positive for me. If it was a choice between him and augustien for a start in the centre of midfield I would pick Larson. Oh, and then Much. He could do a job for us there and is way ahead of Augustien.

There is no doubt that Quincy is quick and skillful. I don't know whether he is trying to hard but, for me, he needs to gel in to the team quickly or he will turn in to a luxury. Too many times, he played impossible balls to team mates and whilst Southampton doubled up on him a lot but too many times tried to beat all the players rather than play the simple ball.

That's about it. I am sure tomorrow it won't seem as bad but at this second I am so glad this game only cost a tenner and only took me 30 minutes to get there/back - otherwise I would have been really depressed".

Seeing as I can't start new threads as I spent my £5 on beer instead of subscribing...

 

Got the Championship highlights on youtube... be quick, they'll probably be taken down pretty soon!

 

Excellent. Cheers! Just watched it 8 times and now I'm going to watch it again.

I'll be there Saturday. Definitely.

It's actually quite an interesting point. Do people come to watch entertaining football or to see winning football?

 

I think most fans care much more about us being a winning side than an attractive one to watch. Thoughts?

I think you have (at least) two different sorts of fans - those interested in being associated with success and those interested in seeing 'the beautiful game' and having a craick with mates /family on the day.

Those motivated by success will come to watch a winning team. They will turn up at games and buy the shirts for their kids but will drift off again when the winning stops.

We cant afford to buy the team that will 'guarentee' winning so we cant buy those fans support either. We can however play attract footie and bring back the 'I want to be entertained crowd'.

You think we'll lose to Blackpool at home but win away to Doncaster?

For what it's worth, here are the attendances from Round 1:

 

Coventry 3-1 Aldershot - 9293

Forest 4-0 Morecambe - 4030

Sheff United 3-1 Port Vale - 7694

Wycombe 0-4 Birmingham - 2735

Bournemouth 1-2 Cardiff - 3399

Brighton 4-0 Barnet - 2571

Bristol City 2-1 Peterborough - 5684

Bury 0-2 Burnley - 4276

Crystal Palace 2-1 Hereford - 3094

Charlton 0-1 Yeovil - 6239

Chester 2-5 Leeds - 3644

Crewe 2-0 Barnsley - 2492

Dagenham 1-2 Reading - 2360

Derby 3-1 Lincoln - 10091

Exeter 1-3 Saints - 6471

Gillingham 0-1 Colchester - 2566

Grimsby 2-0 Tranmere - 1858

Hartlepool 3-0 Scunny - 2076

Huddersfield 4-0 Bradford - 8932

Ipswich 4-1 Leyton Orient - 1477 :shock:

Leicester 1-0 Stockport - 7386

Luton 2-0 Plymouth - 2682

MK Dons 1-0 Norwich - 6261

Macclesfield 2-0 Blackpool - 1631

Millwall 0-1 Northampton - 3525

Notts County 1-0 Doncaster - 3272

Preston 2-0 Chesterfield - 5150

Rochdale 0-0 Oldham - 5786

Sheff Weds 2-2 Rotherham - 16298

Shrewsbury 0-1 Carlisle - 3337

Southend 0-1 Cheltenham - 2998

Swansea 2-0 Brentford - 5366

Swindon 2-3 QPR - 7230

Walsall 1-2 Darlington - 2702

Watford 1-0 Bristol Rovers - 5574

Wolves 3-2 Accrington - 9424

 

Even some games, which you would consider a "big" game for the home team and at least one of the two teams has a reasonably big following (e.g. Wycombe v Birmingham) have attracted very low attendances.

Puts things in perspective. Makes you wonder how long this competition will remain viable for if even CCC fans dont want to turn up. Bit surprising tho considering there is still a UEFA cup place at stake.

For ****s sake, all this talk about putting money in other club's pockets by attending away games is the most ridiculous argument I've heard in ages. It just wipes out decades of away support as not being financially important enough to the club and is unique to this "Football only existed after Euro 96" mentality that seems to flow amongst the Sky generation of football fans with David Beckham/Wayne Rooney posters on their walls and virtual Sky season tickets as opposed to real ones.

A bit of an insult to every fan who attends away games really...

If people chose to not attend games because of Lowe then that's their choice... I just think they're missing out on some good football, that's all...

My point was not, of course, that fans shouldnt attend away matches. Its simply that refusing to attend home matches and only attending away matches is a perverse form of support in itself - made all the more rich by attacking someone who does hold a season ticket for something they might or might not have said on 606 ages ago.

No changes unless unavoidable, that must be Jan's mantra. We know Killer will be rested. Whether Cork will replace him or remain at RB where he finished the Derby gameand bring Wotton in is the only decision Jan should have to make. If Holmes is injured then bring in Dyer (there is no case for Skacel yet).

Agree with that

So no one should go to away games then as that only gives money to our rivals?

 

You couldn't make it up.

 

You are a customer, not a fan.

 

I am a fan, not a customer.

No, you're a posturer.

Hacienda = Won't go to home games but ALWAYS wants Saints to win EVERY game they play

 

Scooby = Doesn't go to any games had has a record of WANTING Saints TO LOSE.

 

Yep, I'm clearly hypocrictical.

 

You are a customer, not a fan.

 

I am a fan, not a customer.

Hacienda = Talks but does nothing to help the club when its most in need

Scooby = Has stated he has a season ticket

Words and actions - wonder which count more.

Some would say principled,unlike Lowe or his poodle Wilde.

No. Being principled about it would mean pledging the money saved from a season ticket to a childrens charity or even to buying shares to vote Lowe out. Actually only giving money to Saints rivals whilst criticising others for mere words stinks.

Get over it as I don't give a toss on your views regarding my match going priorities.

Just pointing out how hypocritical you are.

Care to comment on this Scabby?

 

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=27008&postcount=43

 

It appears you've previous of saying that you want SFC to lose games.

Less harmful than only giving your money to rival clubs.

Now this is something i have said before but it looks like i will have to say again a bit more clearly:

 

THE ONLY WAY OUT OF THIS MESS IS TO GET BACK TO THE PREMIERSHIP. TO DO THAT WE HAVE TO KEEP OUR BEST PLAYERS.

 

Salz and Crouch had no problem gaining the support of the bank on this premise. Rupert does not have the brains or the negotiating power to do the same. Shame on him for that.

 

I applaud the use of our youngsters and the way we want to play football. But we will sell them all off until we are left with nothing, accept a stadium we can't afford with a squad of players worth **** all. And then we are truely screwed.

Honestly it is really, really simple. I mean REALLY simple: There was some money. It got spent in the past three years. Now there is none. **** or bust has been tried - which is why we are now bust.

I know you dont think its fair were not in the prem but the only way we are going to get there is by developing a lot of good young players and selling a few to pay the bills.

You know what is different? A big section of our fanbase clearly are not prepared to accept it anymore. Why else was the Brum attendance 6,000 lower than the first game of last season?

I can only assume they aren't happy with the 'product' that has been put forward by the 'company'.

I agree. An increasing number of people only want to be associated with a glamorous 'brand' or 'name'. I saw an interesting article a few weeks ago about how Nigerian professional football is being driven to bankruptcy because the locals only want to watch Man U and Chelsea on tv. Many people now choose their team by their success rather by locality.

You can blame Lowe, or Sky, or 'the company' or the FA or anybody you like - but really its down to more people now looking for a little bit of reflected glory as they spend money to watch 'their' Man U win another cup on Sky in front of their branded tv and sipping the latest advertised lager. "Havent got Ronaldo and Berbatov in your team? -well f off then"

Complaining about the inevitable repecussions of that to the people who are stuggling to deal with the fallout is perverse.

I still go just to clarify.

 

But attendances for Brum were low for a reason i'm afraid. 6,000 down on the first game of last season. There is a big section of our fan base who not only dislike Lowe, but are prepared to stay away from SMS while he is in charge and selling our best players. Now people might say "screw them they aren't real fans" but i tend to think it is these fans we need to get back if we are to fend off financial problems. Now maybe some of them will come back if this side is successful. But maybe they won't.

The gates were 6,000 down because people dont want to watch a half arsed team get beaten whilst playing turgid rubbish. Once they see it might actually be a fun way to spend Saturday afternoon again they'll come back.

Sure a small minority will always think that bad things that happen in the world can be blamed on one person - a police chief after a bombing; an airline CEO after a crash (notice how the pilot hardly ever gets he blame?). Thats part of the blame culture. Its not the way I choose to live my life.