VectisSaint

You need to do something about that sticky "o" key

He used to score a lot of goals for TNS (only 10 this season though) He doesn't live in Burley any more (at least not all the time) He spotted the Boyle twins and signed them for Saints There, thats 3 positive things and I thought this was going to be one of the shortest threads in history.

No, sorry this is just not right and is a reinvention of history. The team that NP inherited were in a shambolic state, following the demotivating spell under Burley (especially when it was known he was off to Jockland, but longer still under his awful training regime after Snodin left) and then D&G, the Bristol Rovers fiasco and so on. I don't actually think the players were really demotivated at all under JP. They were not performing because JP did not know how to get them to perform, but they did not appear to be demotivated, just lacking in ideas and trying to play a ridiculous formation. We, the supporters were demotivated, but Wotte did not inherit a demotivated squad anything like NP did. Thats not being negative about Wotte. I don't like the guy, but concede he has done a reasonably good job so far despite initial misgivings. 10 points from our last 5 games is good form, and that cannot be denied (just a shame all the other teams around us are doing equally well). If Wotte keeps us up he deserves another go next term, just as NP did.

Rodney Marsh, good reason for a punch-up

No, he spent it all on a new mansion in Compton Bassett here in sunny Wiltshire.

Same team is the right approach, injuries/suspensions notwithstanding. Nearly always the best policy, the more the team play together the better they get to know each other's game.

He actually said "finally go down again", its the"again" part that is significant. I wonder if Will thinks we will get Parachutes payments in League One He really ought to tell the rest of the band that a free gig at SMS with all proceeds to SFC would be a good idea. If they insist on a return gig at Stamford Bridge that would be a small price to pay.

Agree with this. I really don't understand why when we have a 1 goal lead nearing the end of a game, Wotte (and several others before him) decide to change things by going defensive. It basically signals clearly to the opposition, hey guys, we are really worried about conceding now, so come on, get at us and see if you can score. Defensively we are still naive, though clearly we have improved from JP's time (and even BUrley, Dodd and Gorman's times as well). We do not have the type of defence that is rock solid and can be relied upon to hold on to a lead. Although I wouldn't go as far as Kevin Keegan used to, I still believe that the best form of defence is attack, and that good defending starts up front. If you have earned a 1-0 lead by using an attacking formation, the chances are that changing that formation can often lead to losing that advantage.

Depends if Wotte leads us to League 2 Championship next season or not I guess.

Evidently Everton and Villa are in a race to sign Surman. Wonder if they were at the game last night.

Could be a trend, don't forget Imants Bleidelis keeping Marians company as well.

I suspect Lowe is planning to flog the horse who is currently not looking too well

Scorer Rasiak

Nah, watching Champions League

Last 4 Matches table looks better Bit worrying that Derby are top of the 8/6 match form table. Time for Cloughie's bubble to burst?

What is the Champions League? Sorry I support Saints. Whether I go or not I don't consider watching Manure or Arse to be a rival to Saints. I will listen to the commentary and the TV probably won't even be switched on.

I'm honoured that you think I talk sense sometimes My point was, and perhaps I didn't make it as well as I could have done, that at the time when Stern went to City (several weeks into the season) it was much clearer how they were doing. They were not down among the dead men scrapping with us to avoid relegation, and in theory at least if John had started banging them in it may have benefited us (it didn't but thats another story). The Rasiak situation was in my opinion just daft. Before the season started we should not have loaned anyone to any of our CCC rivals, which I think is what I said, because at that stage we did not know whether we would be battling against them or not. I am completely against loans within the same division, so disagree with John and Dyer as well, but at least with the current set up I could sort of understand the logic, whereas with Rasiak it was just plain stupidity. Responding to someone's point about Crouch not guaranteeing that he would not loan to another CCC rival, perhaps he didn't, but at least he actually loaned Rasiak and Skacel to the Prem and Bundesliga respectively.

Brett is not an issue, he wasn't a loan. But what is madness is loaning players to rivals. I have no problem loaning Rasiak out, I was never a fan of his, and although he did score 20+ in the past time has moved on and he is not the player he was. Nevertheless to loan him to a rival relegation candidate is utter lunacy (OK, some will say Watford were not expected to be a relegation candidate, fair enough, in which case don't loan within the same division). At least when Stern went to Bristol we knew he was not going to a rival, and perhaps he could more damage playing against our rivals (as it turned out he hasn't done much of that either). My view is that loans to other teams within the same division should be outlawed. It makes a mockery of competitive football.

There are 2 actually, Wilde and Lowe

Astute business sense to copy what Leon Crouch did last season. Sorry but Rasiak has scored 6 goals this season. It was actually one of Lowe's more sensible moves, Rasiak is a lazy toe-rag who had a couple of good seasons but is now past his sell-by date. Watford are not serious candidates for relegation, would be different if we had loaned him to Blackpool, Barnsley, Nottm Forest etc. Now if you want to talk about stupidity consider the loan of Saga, followed by Stern John.

Nothing to do with whether I agree with him or not, don't judge others by your own standards. Clearly he has no idea what he is talking about some of the time (not surprising, no history with the club so thats not a criticism). But he should stick to his job of managing/coaching the team. He doesn't need to get involved in the other stuff, and by doing so only antagonises some supporters whatever he says. I don't think Burley, JP, NP or others really ever spoke about the politics, Wotte should follow these examples. If you want to encourage supporters, don't antagonise them, just win games and play good football.

The revoluition is complete, never happened under JP

Have no recollection of any fans backlash against Wotte before, only vaguely remember him being mentioned as being wanted by Woodward at the time. Then out of the blue along comes Burley. Given the CVs of these two I'm hardly surprised that Lowe went for Burley, I'm equally surprised that if Wotte was offered the job and this was then withdrawn that he didn't tell Rupert later to stuff his offer, appalling treatment. Nevertheless what it does show is that CVs can be worthless. Maybe Woodward actually had more vision than Lowe (not much of a shock there), as we found out with Burley and his appalling tenure at Saints, buoyed only by the time we were able to employ Snodin as assistant). It would be interesting to consider where we might be now if Woodward's view had prevailed. Of course we will never know, and its probably also still to early to judge Wotte based on 3 vistories, but he has certainly turned things round faster than Burley ever did. My one big criticism of Wotte remains that he should keep his mouth shut about non-football matters. As a case in point why was the club statement about BWP and Mcg made by Wotte? This should come from one of the Chairmen, not the head Coach. His continued attacks agianst the supporters is also bad form. If he sticks to football and gets results, supporters will respect him.

That'll be the Boyle twins. Wilde bogof

I received Saints March Newsletter tonight by email, but could not find details of the protest in it.