sandwichsaint

Does your dentist charge for parking?

I parked to the North of the ground outside a snooker club on a mini industrial estate last time I went - paid 2 or 3 quid (which i got refunded on an hours snooker!). Clean, safe, and gets you out of the city centre traffic and back to the M1 M-Way in about 15 minutes. You walk down a long hill to the ground about 10 minutes and past a big fan-friendly, mixed pub halfway down on the right hand side (can't remember what it was called but lots of Saints in there, decent garden out the back and a little bottle'n'cans cubby hole straight into the beer garden). S6 1JF‎ if that helps?

As posted on the 'no forwards' thread: none or limited loan and transfer activity and we can start to think the worst – the money has either run out (unlikely in my opinion though it starts to look like it) or, as alluded to above, NC spent more than he wanted to last Jan and needs to keep the purse strings tight for the next twelve months? If this is the case I think it would be a major gamble from NC and the club – we have a good squad and an excellent manager and still have all to play for this season, but we are desperately short in certain areas -what’s the point of saving for a rainy day that never comes? If we don’t get the personnel in to kick start our season while there’s still time we will effectively condemn ourselves to another year at this level, with the strong likelihood that some players will want-away in Jan or at the end of the season, leading to a possible downgrading of the squad that has been assembled at considerable (in Div 3 terms) cost. In my book NC has redeemed himself somewhat with an excellent appointment in NA, now he needs to back him with a decent loan or two to give the team and the fans a lift. If we really can't afford one or two decent loans then it just might be bye-bye new Saints, welcome back selling-club Saints with NA stuck in the old sell-to-buy routine?

I don’t really buy this ‘Pardew prioritised the cups’ business, for one ‘why would he?’; he was in a supposedly secure job and a key part of a five-year plan, what motivation would he have for flying in the face of the owner’s and his boss’s direct instructions as to what his priorities were? In my view AP, whatever your view on him, did a pretty tidy job last season – on the field he turned round a wreck of a football team, built a decent squad, won a lot of games, and delivered the club’s first trophy for 35 years. More importantly he restored the spirit and the belief around the club and the fans – call it the feelgood factor – and he put us in a position at the end of last season where we were justifiably favourites to go up this season, the second year of the 5 year plan…. job done! Of course we might have gone up last season but it’s all ifs-and-ands now; most reasonable people would have taken two years from where we started from and the outlook for this season was at that stage very promising. AP had built a decent squad but appeared to have that knocked from under him, or he thought he could do better than Antonio/Waigo but the money was not forthcoming, or he, or somebody else(?) thought a new LB was a priority signing? What followed has been nothing short of a disaster on the pitch and off it. A shoddy attempt to palm AP off at the end of the season, players let go and not replaced, a shambles of a ST sales, a really poor pre-season, poor player morale (before and after APs sacking), a series of misjudgements and PR gaffes from the chairman, all underpinned with the loss of our dear saviour. Hopefully now we will stabilise under NA and I just hope he is given the time to do the job he is clearly capable of, with the very restricted resources he currently has. We are desperate for forward options with none of our three (!) established forwards currently in the best of shape or form. Guess the next few months will tell us what sort of club and what sort of team we are going to become….. None or limited loan and transfer activity and we can start to think the worst – the money has either run out (unlikely in my opinion though it starts to look like it) or, as alluded to above, NC spent more than he wanted to last Jan and needs to keep the purse strings tight for the next twelve months? If this is the case I think it would be a major gamble from NC and the club – we have a good squad and an excellent manager and still have all to play for this season, but we are desperately short in certain areas -what’s the point of saving for a rainy day that never comes? If we don’t get the personnel in to kick start our season while there’s still time we will effectively condemn ourselves to another year at this level, with the strong likelihood that some players will want-away in Jan or at the end of the season, leading to a possible downgrading of the squad that has been assembled at considerable (in Div 3 terms) cost. In my book NC has redeemed himself somewhat with an excellent appointment in NA, now he needs to back him with a decent loan or two to give the team and the fans a lift.

Suprised you could heave a Party Seven of DD quite that far ....

Were you there last night? I went for the first time this season and was horrified by what I saw! I am fully backing NA but clearly in terms of timescale and budget a complete rebuild is impossible at this stage but on last night's showing I would expect to see several changes for Saturday, this team is in urgent need of a shot of footballing Viagra but where we get that who knows?

What an absolute shocker! First game I’ve seen this season and I don’t think anything I’ve seen or read on here had quite prepared me for how poor we were. Call me naïve but I was expecting to see some sort of ‘new manager reaction’, I’ve seen a dead cat bounce higher. All the usual factors were there in spades: lack of FITNESS, lack of pace, lack of desire, lack of leadership, lack of communication, lack of cohesion. An absolutely clueless, rudderless performance and we looked genuinely nearer to relegation than promotion on that sort of form. Shocking legacy from AP and NA clearly has his work cut out and I just hope he is given time to do the job properly. He had absolutely nothing to work with last night, the players he has inherited are not fit and a lot of them look completely disinterested. I’m not sure when the loan window opens or where we go from here but I would expect some big changes on Saturday – Dickson surely has to play LB, Harding very poor (again) and seems to have, unsurprisingly(?) completely lost all confidence since we bought Dickson. Centre-mid was a disgrace yesterday, we barely won a tackle all night, created nothing, and both their goals started from mistakes in that area of the pitch – hopefully we will have a look at Guly in there and spin a coin as to which one of the current misfits goes to the bench. Oxo did OK for 20 minutes but it was real men against boys stuff and he was constantly hassled out of things, needs to be coming on from the bench rather than starting. I didn’t think Punch was as bad as some people said, he looked reasonably mobile and willing but often let down by his decision making and his final ball – is this the same player who took Huddersfield apart last season? Maybe Holmes left side if fit and Punch to strengthen the bench options? Front two were **** poor from start to finish, Connoly huffed and puffed but never looked like scoring, Lambert didn’t even do that! Lambert needs to come out of the first team until he is physically and mentally ready to play for us, whether that’s 2 weeks, 4 weeks or 6 weeks, and if he’s still not up for it after that then we need to get shot in Jan and start again. NA has got a massive job on and he knows it, Pardew’s complacency culture and his old pals starting X1 is now broke and completely unfit for purpose and no amount of ‘we were unlucky’, ‘we only need a break’, ‘win the next one and we are X points behind’, will fix that. Hopefully NA can get it fixed in time but don’t hold your breath – on last night’s showing ‘events’ have pretty much wrecked the 125 party season before it’s even begun – shame really.

Two closely related areas he needs to get to grips with asap are the state of Lambert's groin and the size of his gut. On these two animate objects rest about 75% of our promotion chances.

Good of him to leaflet the neighbourhood with copies of his new contract before he moved out ....

You forgot to mention those, it's probably the same people, who said we would 'easily' replace Antonio and/or Waigo, they weren't that good, and there would be plenty of opportunities to buy or rent suitable replacements. That's turned out well too hasn't it?

started with a 3-3 H v Ipswich IIRC?

Did they have to pay to park?

Looks like NC is not quite as good a judge of a 'yes man' as he thought he was?

Corrected it for you.

A rare glimmer of light on another cr8p Saints day!

Wilkins next? Gutted ... I've followed Adkins for a good few seasons and he ticked all my boxes! NC better have a decent plan C! (or are we onto plan Z yet?) 'kin shambles!

This! Hands up all those that REEAALLLYYY thought we were going to get one of M O'Neil, Leonardo, Martinez, Cantona, Shearer, Erikson .....

pmsl

More excellent PR from our very own Prince of Darkness.

Five gears in reverse, Alpine's new Italian job or Elvis Capello?

Or: player approached to play for Saints - thinks... Pros - decent money (presumably), decent facilities, decent crowds to play in front of, good chance to move up a league/secure bonuses etc. Against - the manager (whoever it is) will quite possibly only be there for 12 months max Decides - go for it ... more money etc... I'll deal with the manager situation when it happens.

This. I have to say when I saw on here that Pardew had gone the first three names that came into my head were, make of it what you will, were Adkins, Mowbray, Keegan. Adkins has done a very tidy job at Scunny and deserves the chance at a 'big club', albeit one that is playing a league lower than he is currently operating in (shades of Grayson going from Blackpool to Leeds, that one didn't work out too badly). Certainly think 'the project' would be further on now if he had been appointed rather than AP at the start of last season.

Jonny Foreigner = Toshack Wow = Zola More likely we'll end up with = Howe My realistic 'wants' would be = Adkins or Mowbray

Three red cards and one sore ****, dooh dah, dooh dah.

Has Capello gone cold on NC after Friday night?