SNSUN

Good point IMO but we have to win vs Barnsley. As well as we played at the start of the season, its clear we suffer from lack of confidence and a dodgy defence at this moment in time. Are we going to stick with this formation? Playing one up front seems restrictive, as does playing attacking "wing backs" when we really need proper full backs. Big question marks over the future sadly.

A positive, combative win IMO. 3-1 or something along those lines.

We will get six points from the next two games. Ipswich will crumble, Barnsley may as well not bother making the trip and take the 3-0 default loss. Confident? I have to be. Not getting points against either of these two would spell trouble, even at this early stage. If we can sort the defence out, there's no reason why we can't get the two wins.

Next season I will be clamouring for the heady heights of the CCC, but this topic keeps on rearing its ugly head and I always say Premiership. Money is better, coverage is better and I never used to mind the relegation dogfights. Last season's in the CCC scared the shyte out of me. (Thanks Leicester.)

I heard we're being taken over by Walt Disney. The football might not be great but the mascot costume will be sweeeeeeeeeeet.

General Announcement - Please read Hi. As you may have noticed from the holding page that has been on http://www.thesaintsforum.co.uk for the last couple of days, the server appears to have finally given up the ghost. This has basically accelerated a plan of action we, as the admin team, have been discussing for some time, given the ever-increasing popularity of the forum and the technical problems that popularity has brought with it. When this forum was launched in November 2006, we asked for donations from you, the members, to help keep it running. It was a relatively short-term approach in order that something was up and running quickly to plug the gap left by the closure of Saints Forever, and needless to say those donations were never going to last forever. For them to have lasted as long as they have done - more than 18 months - is a fantastic tribute to the generosity of all those who contributed at the launch. However, as you will no doubt be aware, technical problems have been a fairly regular occurrence, particularly on match days which we feel is unacceptable, and have been looking for ways to improve matters. Other aspects that have been of concern are the lack of respect shown by users to each other, the lack of respect for the fairly simple and polite rules and requests asked of users by the admin team and the ease with which people who have been banned seem to be able to re-register. As such, we have agreed on the following course of action: Firstly, the technical infrastructure of the forum will be vastly improved. That is to say that we will be moving to a new host offering improved technical specifications for the server, which should guarantee that the forum is working even at peak periods, so those who aren't at a game for whatever reason can still keep up with what's going on. The obvious downside to this is financial, and we have had to devise a plan to ensure that the forum becomes self-sufficient in the long-term. Revenue will be generated predominantly from two places. Firstly, we will be imposing a new tiered structure of membership. The majority of the 8,000+ membership of the forum either don't post at all or post very rarely. For those people, the main change will be the appearance of a few adverts on the forum, predominantly powered by Google. These adverts will slowly be put in place over the next week. For those on this free level of membership (known as Tier 1), a limit of 3 posts per day will be imposed and private messaging and avatars will be disabled. For those of you who want to post more regularly, want to be able to send private messages and want the forum to be free of adverts, there is a Tier 2 level of membership. This level of membership will cost an annual subscription of £5. We have set this to what we believe to be an acceptable level in order to provide revenue for the forum to keep it running to its full potential. However, a slight flip-side to the reasoning is that (hopefully) users will be a little bit more considerate about what they write given that they have paid money for access and would have to pay again to re-register. Secondly, as already touched upon, advertising will be placed on the forum, visible to those on free tiers of membership and also to those not logged in. The main board will remain invisible to those users not logged in or registered to offer an incentive to register. We would like to add more features to the forum to make it more of a community. As such, we will shortly be launching a website to go alongside the forum called SaintsWeb. This site will contain latest news, statistics, columns, match reports, away ground guides, etc, and will also enable users to add comments on articles, so everyone can get involved and contribute to its success. We would like to add things like live data feeds providing latest score information and that sort of thing, but until the level of subscriptions is high enough to enable us to afford it, those will remain on the wish list for now, as sadly they don't come cheap. Even the ability to print the Saints fixture list, for example, costs more than £300 per year due to the bizarre fact that the Football League (and Premier League) claim copyright over a series of dates and times. We have drawn up a set of terms and conditions for users which will hopefully cover all aspects of the use of the forum. We believe they're fairly straightforward, and by users' continued use of the forum it is assumed that they are acceptable and that you agree to abide by them. Failure to do so could result in being banned from the forum, and .Tier 2. members would receive no refund on their subscription fee. With regards to content on the new forum. Due to the old thesaintsforum database crashing, we were unable to rescure the posts. However, we were able to revive all the user accounts and PM's. If you have any queries about the terms and conditions, please contact either Stevegrant or Baj on the forum 'Contact Us' link. Visit SaintsWeb.co.uk I re-read this message about 8 times every day, hoping that one day TSF will return...

I will still give it to Helen Mirren, judging by the recent photos. She's in better shape than my (24yo) girlfriend.

Kelvin Davis is doing what Kelvin Davis is supposed to do, and doing it well, but we shouldn't be letting him get anywhere near the ball. Our defence was appalling today. Lancashire's inexperience speaks for itself, but James and Surman are primarily midfielders and Cork was left to hold it together. I'm all for playing attacking, total football, but we can only let the front 6 players work their magic if the rear 4 defend. 4-1 was very, very harsh, even the biggest pessimist Saints fan could see that. The second goal was offside for a start. Two home games follow now, and I still don't think 6 points are out of our reach, as long as we can defend better. Keep the faith lads.

This'll be a tough game no doubt, especially as QPR are the team tipped to do well this season, but they have made an average start to the season and have Ledesma and (possibly) Buszacky out. It all depends on what our team looks like as to how well we do, but I think we'll put in a good performance, and I would be comfortable today with a draw. 1-1

I have put on a stone this year. That should tell you how much exercise I do. I hate myself for it but have a pronounced lazy gene. I've just rented myself my first ever house though, and plan on doing more exercise like jogging because I haven't got any money to do anything else!!!

I'm not fussy. I'd splat on all 3.

Today - Been to the charity shop and the tip, off to the missus's family house in Norwich. Few drinks this evening and a Chinese. Tomorrow - England match and more drinking I would suspect. Sunday - Relaxing, coming home ready for funeral on Monday. (Not mine.) I predict this weekend shall be a 5/10.

Norwich will get relegated this year. I say this as a wind-up because my missus supports them. :-) In truth, I still don't think their squad is strong. Shackell leaving on deadline day was a big loss. Low mid-table could be their best hope. (Like us IMRO...)

You were watching the Kate Garraway advert nes pas? I wouldn't drink it. Unless it was a matter of life or death on a desert island somewhere.

Paid for by the taxpayers. I would like the government to use my tax pounds to hire Britney Spears so that we can all give her a ruddy good rogering. Money well spent. Why Britney? She's in such a state, you wouldn't feel bad afterwards.

I have arachnophobia. I am suing Liverpool Borough Council and Master Bates for £60 gagillion pounds for emotional and psycological trauma. I'll settle out of court for a meatball sub.

Experience is good, and they're all good players in their own right, but I thought we totally lacked pace in the centre of defence against Blackpool. Perry was reading the game well, Svensson was challenging well for the high balls, but there just seemed a distinct lack of pace. IMO of course.

SSN is as confused as the rest of us. Is he sacked? Is he not sacked? Do we really care? Lolage at the Newcastle fan on the cutaway on SSN drinking the White Stripe and then pouring it over everyone.

I think any man should be arrested for whipping out their bell in a public place.

I don't think there's enough pace in defence, especially if playing Surman and James as attacking full backs. Perry and Svensson are both good players, but playing together means a distinct lack of pace. Perhaps a starting spot for Cork?

Friday - Work Saturday - Work Sunday - First day of holiday and was bored out of my mind. 1/10.

Happy Birthday :-)

The way Blondie sang it?

Vedran Corluka leaves Man City for Spurs.

Having watched McG play yesterday, I believe he has the quality to play where Lallana played on Saturday, Lallana moves across to where White played and John, or even Pekhart, can go up front. I'd definitely find room for John, after a good season last season. That's if we haven't sold him by the end of today...