VectisSaint

He didn't have to start with Gobern and Thomson, he chose to. He could have had Gobern on the bench again, with Euell starting, which is what any sane coach would have done. Were Perry and Spiderman injured? We cannot make excuses for Nice but Dim Jan, he is out of his depth, thats what happens when you pluck a coach from the 4th tier of Dutch football.

And the numbers will continue to dwindle while we continue to play "not a clue" football at home. Away wins do little to increase home crowds, losing time and again with no apparent clue what to do to buck the trend means more and more people stay away. It is no good hoping the stay away fans will come back "for the good of the club" - they are customers, as Mr Lowe likes to remind us, and customers have a right to reject the product being offered. Poor product, high price, no customers. I suspect today's crowd was also of course impacted by the presence of Sky, sadly I suspect the fee from Sky is less than we make from the missing supporters. Perhaps Lowe should actually tell Sky to go forth and multiply.

Well the first thing to do is stop playingone up front, thats simple. That gives the 2 strikers (assuming we play 4-4-2) someone to play off, and gives defenders more than one person to mark out of the game. There is no need to always go over the top of 4-5-1, though it can be used as a tactic occassionally (i.e. mix it up). It is still possible to play through 4-5-1 with good passing and off the ball running, but our passing today was woeful at times, and we do not have naturally athletic players so we cant' outrun opposition. We also need to 2 decent wide midfielders/overlapping full backs to outflank the midfield. This is all pretty basic stuff, but sadly "Nice but Dim" Jan is not up to coaching basic stuff. He does know how to play away games when opposition give us more space. To be fair to Jan, Burley had no idea either, and he is now national coach

Usual garbage at home from the coach that is completely bereft of ideas how to play home games and attack the opposition. Clueless in front of goal, and luck that we were still in it with City playing like a bunch of pussies in front of goal. Good stop by Davis from the pen, Lancashire was lucky not to give another one away. Nothing in front of goal, out muscled in midfield by some very ordinary opposition. 1 home win in the League is nailed on relegation form, but hey ho Wolves and Reading next. Probably be 6 points. At least the Sky curse did not strike, only the home curse and the curse of the clueless coach.

Doesn't leave a lot of scope for clapping at home these days

Message for Jim. "Have a word in Tod Leiweke's shell-like and ask him to put in a word for us with Mr Allen". Jimmy Gabriel, ah great reminder of my lost youth.

Can't actually see anything about a takeover, but the rumour about Gerrard is quite interesting, not Stephen of course, but cousin Anthony. Looks quite a useful prospect at CB. More likely than the Johnson transfer rumour in my view.

It's not the players, necessarily, but the coach. Jan is a nice guy but bereft of ideas, tactical knowledge and experience in the English game. Get a proper coach in and let them work out whether some of the kids are good enough or not, some of them clearly are, others clearly will be in time. And stop playing pathetic tactics at home.

The main problem is that our head Coach ha snot yet found a way or understood how to play against teams at SMS. Teams come to SMS for league games with a different game plan, i.e. crowd the midfield and hit us on the break, just like we do when we go away. Our home tactics are bereft of ideas, and we play the same way, to a greater extent, as how we play away. This makes it much easier for away teams to outscore us. However much we wish for more supporters to come and support the lads at home it won't happen until we start winning consistently at home, and that won't happen until we change our home game tactics.

I don't disagree with the view that the ball behaves differently this season, or since Delap was with Saints, but I don't think this is a factor with his throws, which are aimed straight as a die (sp?) into the 6 yard box. I see even the Beeb has picked up on this, and the tactical genius that is Lee Dixon explains how it is used and how to defend against it. Actually I do think he makes a good point, and one that we did not use - that is because you cannot be offside from a throw Stoke load the goal area for his throws. By the way for those who think this is Stoke's only tactic, dream on. If you watch their games they actually play some decent stuff these days, maybe not prettypretty like Arsenal, but then who won out of the two at the weekend? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7705772.stm

It's also supposed to be fun, so calling someone a sad idiot is not warranted. That is why I added a grumpy smiley. I can take the fact that I messed up with my attempt at a witty retort, but you could try remembering some manners

Wouldn't they just have to pay cost price, not megastore price? In which case about £5 should cover it.

The only thing that is utter piffle is your memory. Delap's throws now are completely different to when he played for us, except maybe for an odd occassion. It is faster, lower and more accurate (and more often from the left though I don't think that makes much difference). I also don't think the ball makes that much difference, unless it is grippier when in his hands.

Its Colombia :mad:

I think its you . Soccer has always been a perfectly acceptable shortening of Association Football. It is not an Americanism as some people seem to think, but was coined in England in the 19th century to distinguish from Rugger (Rugby Football). True it is used more in America and Australia these days, but thats understandable to distinguish it from American Football and Aussie Rules - we should be proud that they took an English phrase for the game we invented.

The real difference is the way the ball is delivered, the trajectory and the speed. When he played for us, he just lobbed the ball in, and by the time it got to anyone it had no power, therefore relying on the attacker putting force behind the header to get any power. I didn't see yesterday's game but have seen some other Stoke games, now Delap throws with a fierce, low trajectory at about head height, so now the players can attack the ball and it flies past the keeper with a great deal more force. Shouldn't forget also that Stoke have lots of big players capable of heading with force. The other thing I have noticed about Delap, which does not directly affect his throws I suppose, is that he tends now to play on the left, whereas I remember him usually playing right-sided for us. I suppose it could be that he throws better when his left arm is nearer goal, but I doubt it.

With a decent assistant manager (Snodin) to get him out of the ****. Assistant joins things look up, Assisitant leaves, Burley loses the plot.

Well done to the boys, makeshift team clearly were up for it today. Was out all afternoon so didn't listen, we usually do better when that happens. Its great to have a good result, and no-one should moan today, but things have to still improve at home. Good to see Pearce had a good game (and even a goal) I was quite pleased with his signing, even though others were moaning about an inexperienced kid again, actually he is more experienced than most in the team. Also like the sound of Gobern on his debut. Up the Saints!!

Sorry, I meant Smith. I preferred it when we had lost of foreigners, it was easier to remember their names

No coincidence at all. We spent the final part of last season once GB had left recovering from the mess he had gotten us into with his poor coaching abilities. This season though is a different matter, now we are dealing with the almost equally poor coaching abilities of JP. By the way, the stats are incorrect IMHO. Since Burley left we have played 32 league matches and won 6 (w6 d12 l14). If you go back 36 league games this includes 4 of Burleys, and includes the solitary win in his last 7 games. So it would be 7 in 36. Under Pearon we only lost 4 in 14, and that includes the loss to Plymouth which he was only technically in charge for. If you were including cup games then there are 3 more wins to add (2 for JP and 1 for Gorman). It is therefore arguable that things have improved evn under Jan since Burley left, only Gorman had less league wins that Burley in his last 7 games.

Would be surprised if Euell was dropped, but then again nothing surprises me with team selections at present. I suspect team is more likely to be Davis, Cork, Lancashire (or Pearce), Perry, Skacel, Spiderman, Gillett, Surman, Davis, Euell, McG (though personally I would play Wotton instead of Gillett, sadly that puts the average age of the team too high and so unlikely to be sanctioned )

Sadly, as others have pointed out there are inherent problems with some of the new stadia. Twice as many people sadly does not mean twice as much noise, even roughly. Acoustics are so different and those at SMS are very poor. True there were some games at The Dell where the atmosphere was not great, I recall standing in the Archers when we were in Div 2 and enjoying the space to wander around when we were playing some non-descript team, but in general, and certainly in Div 1 (sorry kiddies that was the forerunner of the Prem, despite what the nice people from Sky would like you to think) the atmosphere was far superior to anything I have witnessed at SMS. One of the inherent problems at SMS is only having half of one end for the main singing supporters (and now no Itchen corner either). Most clubs ensure that their most vocal supporters have one end to themselves, with the away supporters tucked away in the worst part of the stadium, but because of the design of ours the police insisted on the away supporters being in the Northam. By the way are you sure you have been to Anfield and found it library-like? Were matches being played on the days you visited? One ground that in my opinion could never ever be described in those terms is Anfield. Highbury for sure, even Old Trafford when things are not going too well for the home team (i.e. when a homer ref has not been appointed), but Anfield, in the words of John McEnroe, you cannot be serious I think as other posters have alluded to, younger supporters today have known little else and so think what they are experiencing is great atmosphere, I agree its difficult for them to do otherwise as they have no benchmark. But there is no doubt that modern stadia are atmosphere averse. Wembley is another very good case in point, modern expensive stadium with smaller capacity than old Wembley and atmosphere ruined by corporate boxes, empty seats and so on. All that said, SMS is still light years ahead of the Dell in every other way, and at least when it first opened I was proud to be a Saints supporter, and take friends to games. Sadly with the dross now being served up that pride has evaporated, and I sneak down to SMS in disguise as Billy No Mates.

Think this is highly unlikely. Crouch had the full backing of the Bank, had already realised he needed to cut the wage bill (loaning out Ras and Rudi), and had set the wheels in motion to close the corners and cut the buses. We also know that the NP salary thing was a smokescreen, even Lowe admitted that JP's package (or at least JP and MW together) would be greater than NP's if JP was successful. The real point is that we would have been in administration if Wilde's appointees were not forced out last December. It is Wilde that is the architect of our financial problems. I will blame Lowe for many things, but Wilde has to take the lion's share of the blame financially. Yet he is now involved again. Thats what really gets me.

That would depend on whether it is cheaper paying for some shares than getting them for next to nothing but then having to invest money to promote us back to the CCC. Surely the aim of anyone interested in taking over has to be to get back to the Prem, the only place where money can actually be made in English football. It may be better to spend £1m+ and only have to invest for one promotion than to need to gain 2 promotions and one on the back of a points deduction.

Would have agreed, especially about Burley. But then again we also lost 5-0 away to Hull when neither GB "managed" or KD played, and again only had 3 youngsters (Poke, Vignal and McG).