VectisSaint

Agreed, I haven's seen him before this season but actually he didn't do much wrong except that like the rest of the team in the first half he didn't seem to realise that we had changed ends before kick off. I don't think he was at fault for the goal (but I couldn't see very well because of the annoying pillar in the middle of the Arkells), and he gave the ball away less than Thomas, James, Spiderman and Wotton. Agreed he's not great but as a back up in League One he is probably OK, but unfortunately with some when the mind id made up they see nothing good. There are worse problems with the team, most of them ending in Wotton.

Sorry, but I don't think pace was the main issue last night (it is an issue just not the overriding one). Bigger problem is the inability of many of our players to think positively. Most of our defenders (with exception of Harding) and our midfield were clueless. Every time we got the ball there was never any thought about attacking, invariably a promising position ended up with the ball being passed back to Davis, sometimes poorly, and with Davis then humping the ball upfield back to Swindon or putting out of play for a throw to Swindon. It was embarrassing how often this same scenario played out, and I'm sorry but this is actually as much to do with Davis as with the defenders and MF. His kicking and distribution is shocking (nearly as bad as the Swindon keeper who was awful but got away with it because he was not pressured). Davis is a great shot stopper and kept the scoreline respectable but otherwise he is at best average (ducks to avoid incoming). Swindon were not endowed with pace apart from their young right winger. What Swindon had last night was not pace but space, they were playing against a non-existent midfield. Therefore they could set up attacks because they had time to place balls to the offensive players. They weren't very good at it thank goodness. The winger was also very ably dealt with by Harding, so although he cause us some problems, in fact his impact was minimised by some excellent LB play.

Interesting really, I don't think you can tar both with the same brush. Personally I prefer Saga and what he brings when motivated and fit. But he is clearly completely disinterested, evident from his body language during the half-time "warm up" by the 7 subs, and evident when he came onto the pitch. If someone makes a decent offer for Saga then quite honestly we should bite their hand off. We should also consider putting him on gardening leave so as not to disrupt the team. Rasiak however showed a different attitude last night. I am no great fan of the lazy lump, but all through the second half he was being very supportive of the team on the pitch, geeing them up, encouraging them and looking like part of the team. Clearly he was very frustrated by not being on the pitch, but he seemed to care. I think it unlikely that someone will come in with a decent offer and we should be making him feel wanted, and we can do that by playing him (for more than 10 minutes).

No, don't sell him, but leave him out of the 1st team and let Wilkins work with him. His main problem is that he has no end product. He is a headless chicken. This is because no-one apart from NP has taken the time to work out his best position and to coach him in the necessities of competitive football, i.e. beat your man and then unload the ball to a team mate. Lallana clearly has talent, but needs some 1on1 coaching. But he is currently a liability in the first team.

Note: (1) Sporting Director, not Director Football (2) Overseeing football matters - not day to day running (3) before next summer You are making an issue out of nothing, because you are not reading what the article says in the first paragraph.

OK, Davis kept the score respectable, but I am sorry Davis is part of the problem. He is not confident, his positioning for set pieces is suspect, his kicking is poor, and his distribution is shocking. Great shot stopper, no doubt, but a top class keeper has to show more. It is also a recipe for disaster having yur skipper in goal. Sorry if this doesn't fit the Super Kelvin Davis agenda, but some people need to wake up and see that some of the problems stem from the back.

I am guessing that AP was at a different game to the 2999 that I was with. If that was better than Huddersfield, then we must have been bad. What were the good performances? Only Harding came out with credit. Mellis is too lightweight, and the Swindon defenders were pushing him over for fun. Did Saga touch that ball when he came on? Why is Gillett on the bench? Rubbish, utter rubbish.

When will it be Ok to panic? You can't carry on blaming it on lack of preseason, or it being previous managers players. We looked absolutely appalling tonight and AP demonstrated tactical naivety and lack of ability to make subs (needed the crowd to tell him). Panic may be a bit over the top but I don't think I have ever seen such a bad game of football, sad thing is I thought we played quite well against Millwall, but we have regressed. Lack of confidence and it starts from the back.

Just got home, what a truly appalling display. Only Harding comes out of that garbage with credit. Even Davis for all that he kept us in the game was nervy and his kicking and distribution was poor. Swindon were awful, but they were still streets ahead of us. Absolutely gutted, sadly for some of us we have to live with that up here tomorrow. Great support tonight again, 3000 Saints deserve more. As for the tactics and substitutions by AP, well beggars belief. 18 points behind Colchester after 3 games, says it all.

Light, bloody hell I could waltz through that midfield

Sounds better than the ex-Reading boss or the ex-Charlton boss I suppose. At least he is not the ex-Saints boss.

Or do they just want to join Notts County? Players are holding out for better deals, the window has another 2 weeks to run, there will be lots of activity on the last day. Then there will be loans. Don't panic. We are still good enough to take Swindon (I hope). They lost Cox and nearly went down last season, while we have a team as good at least as last season (when we were in a higher division). We may lack strength in depth, but 1st XI is still strong, we lost to Huddersfield who will be near the top at the end of the season.

Not sure why you think Saints last season were a lot stronger than the current team. We have lost Surman and McG (and Bradley offside Wright Phillips), and McG at least has been replaced by Lambert, we have also brought in Murty and Harding who are better FBs than we had last term. So as far as I can see the only real change for the worse is Drew. we also have Rasiak back. So the team in my opinion is actually stronger in most respects and we are in a lower division. In addition Swindon are certainly impacted by the loss of Cox. I'm confident that we will beat Swindon tomorrow night, at least I bloody hope so, it will not be too pleasant up here if we lose

seems like an eminently sensible arrangement to me. I think some are misunderstanding the bit about NC identifying the players. I seriously doubt this is precisely what he meant (you might consider that English is not his first language, indeed is it even his second or third). I am sure that AP identifies and names the players that he would like to see come in, discusses this with NC, and then NC goes out and identifies the possibility of bringing in these players, talks with the agent/scumbag, negotiates the contract etc. NC stating his view in discussions with AP would be telling AP that we can or cannot afford this player or that player. Whatever the view though, it seems to me that this was the arrangement that AP joined under, and he is almost certainly very comfortable with that. I note that NC says he is already reviewing some of the early decisions that were made. I assume this at least in part refers to the stated intentioin to appoint a Sporting Director (not DoF) to do exactly what NC is currently doing in this regard. i wonder if some other decisions are also now found to be up for revision, perhaps the role of Oldknow who seems to have disappreared into the background after his reasonably high profile reintroduction.

Seems a bit uncalled for. 19C has actually been posting some quite reasonable stuff lately, there is nowt wrong with what he said here. I don't very often agree with him, but when he does he gets insults such as this. Its a fair question, and deserves an answer, even if as I suspect it simply went into the coffers of the Administrator. At some point there should surely be an Administrators Report filed, has this happened?

Won 1 Lost 2

I keep reading this sort of thing. Don't get me wrong I detest Lowe, but how many crap players on the field yesterday were down to Lowe? Wotton? Anyone else? Perry (no actually Pearson brought him in). Thomas? No predates Lowe. Schneiderlin? Is he crap? Don't think so, maybe not playing to full potential yet, but you don't get to captain France u21s by being crap. As far as I can see that really leaves Davis and Rasiak - while I personally don't like Rasiak, its because he is lazy, not crap, and I don't think many will agree that Davis is crap (though for all his heroics I do think he is partly to blame for our inability to defend set corners). A couple of other youngsters (Lallana & James). I will blame Lowe for most things, but I don't see how you can blame Lowe for us having crap players at the moment. I am sure Wotton will be out once AP finds a replacement experienced MF, but at the moment I would rather see him in MF than 4 young players.

Granted Wotton is poor, but until we get in an experienced older head who can be the MF general I would still prefer to see Wotton in the team. Playing 4 kids in MF is a recipe for disaster (even if Gillett is technically not a kid any more). We need an Alan Ball like figure to play alongside Morgan or Gillett a la Stevie Williams, pity Barmby still cuts it in the Prem.

Well it will end Tuesday. Swindon are not one of the better teams in the league. If we lose 3-1 to them then we probably are in the crapper. Fact is Millwall and Huddersfield will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. Whether we will be depends on getting in an experienced MF general, a big lump of a CB and a winger with pace, and then using what we have to its potential. I am confident that AP and DW will deliver.

Oh FFS, get a grip.

We've been used to division for some years now, hopefully we are past that, although to read some on here would make you wonder. What is aclimitisde, is it some sort of STD?

He was awful last week as well, we would have won if it had not been for his shocking penalty offence(s) However, clearly huge over reaction by many on here. We lost, again against one of the favourites, and away from home. We know there are still 3 or 4 more players required, why are some so shocked.

Often attributed to Disraeli but no evidence to support it. Mark Twain can be quoted however, as he popularised the saying...

The funniest thing about the "apology" is that it says they are happy to put the record straight. But they don't. I could read that and think that perhaps it was actually only 9, or it could be more. Is there more in the printed article? How long before Lowe demands an apology from VI or whatever the magazine was that the JP article was in. Lowe really continues to show his true colours, a total ****.

What a lot of fuss about nothing. I would be amazed if AP did not know this before he took the job, and anyway it is eminently sensible. Let the manager do his job of identifying needs and checking out players, while Sporting Director (no mention of Director of Football by the way) negotiates transfers, contracts etc., just like every other club in the country - except some give this role to the CEO, or to some idiot called Lowe. The article also says this will be done before the transfer window opens next summer!! There are some people on here who have got so used to bad things coming from the Club because of the way Lowe organisued things that they are now paranoid that everyone else is as big a duffer as that prat was. In the end if AP did have a problem with this (and I am 100% confident he will not) then he could take a hike, no man is bigger than the club.