VectisSaint

Sulus est in omnibus

Think this is spot-on. The scoreline flattered us, it made a very average performance look good. For long periods in the first half we were frankly appalling, passes going astray, players not competing or looking like they were asleep, Hammond in particular looked like he had just fallen out of bed, completely dozy. For a few minutes before and just after Swindon equalized we were rocking, our defence was all over the place and Davis was very lucky with a ball that fizzed right across the goal and only needed a feint touch to go in. Adkins pt Spiderman on (instead of Chappers, whereas I would have brought off Mr Dozy) and thinks changed quite quickly afterwards, MS took control of the midfield. Two quick goals killed the game and made it look like a walk in the park. Swindon are currently very very poor, yet they could have won it, those who think yesterday was good are kidding themselves. We won 4-1, hit the post twice and had another disallowed for offside, but in the end we really weren't very good. We played far better against Peterborough, much more pace, slick passing and threat, difference was that Posh had good players up front to punish us.

Morgan made a huge difference, though personally I would have taken Hammond off who was having a mare up to that point, looked completely dozy. After MS came on Hammond did improve markedly.

The team that was on the pitch before the AOC/Gobern switch is our best team, although on yesterday's performance I would have had Chaplow over Hammond. Hammond was completely dozy first half, 2nd to every challenge and not aware of what was happening around him. Improved 2nd half once Morgan came on and took control of the MF.

Was in Block 4, no noise at all from the Northam, and Swindon were very loud. One of the major problems of having a split end, whole of Northam should be Saints, with away supporters in the Itchen or Kingskand corner.

You are joking, right? Before the game, 1st half and until they went 3-1 down they were very impressive with their vocal support. OK after that they were like church mice as they sneaked out hoping not to be seen, all the tractors had gone from the car park before the final whistle.

The Northam was like a morgue yesterday (or perhaps more like the Chapel). Completely out sung by a bunch of moonrakers. Really wondered what was the problem, had word got around about Deano? 2nd half was a bit better. Swindon supporters were right yesterday when they were singing to us "your support is ****". Sorry if this offends anyone but sometimes the truth hurts, it was quite embarrassing to have about 20k supporters sitting in almost silence. Nothing wrong with the numbers, just the atmosphere and the singing. I don't recall one sustained "OWTSGMI".

Is there any other sort?

Just back from the game, very sad news. Never heard anything at the ground (was in the Itchen/Northam corner) or on the radio on the way back , perhaps this is why everything seemed rather subdued.

For some of us who happen to work in or live near Swindon this is one of the biggest games of the season. You don't have to put up with the yokels day in day out.

Assuming its based on competitive matches only I don't think Messrs Pulis & Forecast will feature.

I think the point is that was probably the greatest team goal ever. There are goals where an individual does something spectacular (MLT several times) but this was a goal worked by the majority of the team, working from the back, with great first touches and movement. One of the most impressive aspects was David Armstrong's involvement and movement from box to box. In the end Micky had what could almost be described as a tap in.

Hardly a personal attack, as you say yourself "it could well be interpreted by some as a bit of an attack". A "bit of an attack", hardly a feud is it? It contains no vitriole, only a bland statement that he will not be influenced by these people. If this is the only evidence of a feud, then I stand full square behind my previous statement.

But if you take this to its logical conclusion this means that you cannot judge a chairman until he is no longer the chairman. I think you can judge a chairman at interim periods as well, most companies would judge the chairman based on annual results (some short-sighted companies judge their chairman quarterly). There were clearly times under Lowe when we would have judged him in a positive way, indeed he really only became a bad chairman after the Cardiff jaunt, when he completely lost his marbles. Before that time there were many positives and perhaps not so many negatives.

You're absolutely right Benji. In fact I would go further, I don't actually see any evidence of a feud. A feud is "a long-running argument or fight between parties". So far I have only seen evidence of one "party" having a problem, ergo no feud exists. But then of course I am a Cortese Luvvy so I would think that wouldn't I?

Interesting and very unusual use of the words "enjoy" and "Alpine" in the same sentence

There is a lot of misunderstanding about our run-in

The plus side is that Lallana was out for several weeks but missed less games than he would have done if games had not been called off. Spiderman should also be fit and DC is also apparently fit agian after a hernia op. I think that means we have a fully fit squad apart from Bart who we have replaced temporarily anyway. Doubt many other teams who have played the extra games have a fully fit squad and one of such depth as ours. All teams should be more than capable of playing twice per week at this stage in the season, especially those who have had more rest recently. Incidentally currently we only have 5 "double game weeks", but I suspect that some fixtures are still to be rearranged, including Rochadal of course. When you look at that the backlog is not that significant.

People do strange things on Live TV, maybe he thought he was on Big Brother.

Clearly showing one again your ignorance about Oakley. Had one very bad injury in his whole career, and worked his way back to fitness. To bracket him with the others that you did illustrates once again your knowledge of football knows no bounds. I suspect you never actually saw him play. If you were consistent you would at least be blaming Gormless George for his departure. Over 300 appearances for Saints would suggest he was in no way a treatment table blocker.

12st 1lb and 5' 10" on the day he was born, must have given his mother a hard time!! There is no enigma, Matt was a great player for us, in another era (like now) he would have got closer to the England midfield than he actually did despite what WGS said. Another one of Burley's major cock-ups, just when Matty was getting back to form after his horrendous injury Gormless George makes him feel unwelcome. He should have made him skipper and he would still be with us now and we wouldn't have needed Hammond. People who did not think he was good did not understand football and that there are different needs in midfield, Matty was nearly always asked to play the defensive role, breaking up play in front of the back 4. His tackling was as good as anyone and he was often the last defender keeping us in a game. On the rare occassions he was allowed a more attacking role he showed what he could do, Millwall if I recall was one such rare occassion. A very loyal player who was unfairly shown the door to all intents and purposes and we were the poorer for it.

OMG here we go again, the childish accusations of the being pro-Cortese if you don't agree with one of the vocal minority who seems to have a grudge and need to form themselves into school playground gangs, you're not in my gang you are in the pro-Cortese gang. 99% of SFC Supporters are neither pro or anti-Cortese, no one actually gives a flying **** about Cortese, he is just the current Chairman of the Football Club. There are 2 sides to this story, none of us know the full facts about both sides. Just because the other party to this dispute is an "untouchable" then everyone else has to be wrong. This stance against anything Cortese does is just so irrational, but of course GM knows better and I am sure will now label me as pro Cortese because it is the only way he can deal with life, pigeon-holing everyone and not understanding that there are shades of grey. 'Charging for car parking - get out into the real world, many companies do the same, or do not provide sufficient parking on site. Not nice, but reality. Mrs Cortese's manicures - who cares if they get paid for by the Club, it is Liebherr/Cortese that put the money in so if they agree, fine by me. If we were a plc and watching every penny I would have a different view but we are not so I don't give a toss. And as for the Liebherrs not caring, well maybe thats true, but if it was I suspect they would have pulled the plug by now, in any case there appear to be other backers potentially lined up. GM - we don't really care about this, its a private spat between 2 people of Italian descent who seem to have fallen out over a private matter. Move on (bloody hell I wish there was game today so that we had something better to talk about).

Is the said article online? It would be good to read it, I see lots of comments already presumably by others who have not read it either. One comment not about the article as such but about the Club distancing itself from the award for LM. I see this as a good thing. Quite frankly the Lifetime Achievement Award means far more having come from his peers/players than it would have done if it had been from the Club itself. I would be far more flattered to receive something from my friends and colleagues than from a new owner of a Club who has not been involved in any way from the achievements being honoured, and I think the Club were right to make clear this distinction. However, once again the ne'erdowells on here like to try and make out that there is something bad about the Club doing this.

Would be a bit tough on Rochdale, playing 2 games in less than 24 hours including the journey back from Hartlepool the night before.

Can only assume you are reading a different forum to me. My view of this forum is that it is dominated by a few who are so anti the current regime and make it look as though the entire fan base are up in arms at the way the club is run. It has become a very depressing place because of these few people, and I spend less and less time reading it as a result. People in the anti camp think that if you support anything the Club has done you are a Cortese luvvy. What a load of absolute crap. The truth is that 99% of supporters couldn't give a rats arse about the Chairman or the club management. They are interested in the success on the pitch of the team. Most supporters that I talk to don't have a clue about any politics, don't know who NI is, and frankly don't care. But if you come on this forum you get this anti stuff rammed down your throats by the small bunch of so-called supporters who have nothing positive to say about the club ever and are never satisfied. Don't get me wrong I was as anti Lowe as anyone, the guy was a complete and utter ****, though even then I have to admit that on the odd occassion he did some good things. But in those days most of the pro-anti Lowe stuff was banter and good humoured. Not now, some of the stuff against the current Chairman is in the gutter. The ones who complain about the "pro" Cortese folks are the ones who cannot cope with the fact that 99% of the football club supporters are relatively happy with the way things are going and cannot cope with seeing themselves being the ones who are often made to look silly by making false accusations and being proved wrong time and time again. Sadly one of the reasons things have gone wrong on this forum is because in the modern game of football clubbs do not let information out about what is happening due to the perceived need for commercial/sporting advantage and thus there is little to discuss on these boards - SFC is no different in this respect. The world has moved on, the good ole days of message boards has passed, they will live on but as the minority of negative moaners continue to hold sway their popularity will wane and their usefulness for finding out information about the Club will be minimal.