saint1977

McGoldrick is appalling, no-one one here can deny that without being ironic. League 2 dross in the CCC. Euell has at least given us a physical presence. Surman played better I thought even his his radar is switched off for goals at the moment. Lallana needs a kick up the arse though, lazy little git. With his ability he ought to be far better. I'm not sure Lallana is as fit as he should be.

My eye is on Blackpool and Barnsley, they can both be hauled in I reckon and Derby are not out of it by a long chalk. Remember how we got reeled in last season as well so there may be a club on 45-47 points that has a collapse. Those Blackpool and Derby games look huge now.

This is TSW Weston. Such reasoned, balanced and accurate posts have no place on here. All joking aside, that is pretty much my summation on it. It would have been better perhaps to have started with Wotte but then I didn't want Wotte either and I'm happy to eat humble pie for the rest of the season if the results keep coming because I am a Saints fan first and foremost, not a Lowe or a Crouch fan. I might not like Lowe much but if Wotte keeps us up I will give Wotte the credit he will be due.

The way Wolves and Brum are playing I don't think getting something at both of those grounds is out of the question. A few weeks ago when JP was here we'd have needed a 5 goal head start but the top teams - although Reading finally won again tonight - are mis-firing and the bottom sides bar Charlton are picking up points.

I went to that and there were a lot of ****stan fans there although I wasn't very impressed with the abuse Sajid Mahmood took that game. Soton is fairly diverse and is not far from London and a number of other urban centres that don't have big enough grounds. The Ashes venues will want to focus on those games so I agree that IF the series comes to England, we'd have a good chance. I'd certainly be up for getting tickets to watch and the atmosphere would be superb. Still, it's a shame it's had to come to that and that innocent people have died today.

That Blackpool game in a couple of weeks is looking almost as big in importance as that tower of theirs. A Norwich mate just texted me and he says it's the first time an Ipswich defeat has ever left him feeling gutted. Barnsley will be pooing themselves and Watford and Derby aren't out of it yet. Doncaster won again - they are close to home and dry now. Charlton are gone though.

I wonder if Hants might hold off slightly after today's appalling events in ****stan. I feel so sorry for the people involved but ****stan looks like its home series will be undergoing a long absence. England looks like the venue now for Pak V Aus this year, ECB probably won't want to use the scheduled Ashes venues so the Rose Bowl must have a great chance of getting a Test. Old Trafford would be another nailed on venue and probably Durham as well.

I wonder if Hants might hold off slightly after today's appalling events in ****stan. I feel so sorry for the people involved but ****stan looks like its home series will be undergoing a long absence. England looks like the venue now for Pak V Aus this year, ECB probably won't want to use the scheduled Ashes venues so the Rose Bowl must have a great chance of getting a Test. Old Trafford would be another nailed on venue and probably Durham as well.

Yes but Richards was making huge money on a pathetic investment and the club got nothing out of it. It's a bit easier to whistleblow from a better moral position than Richards occupies. I'm not some socialist that begrudges profit but in this case it wasn't warranted and also involved trampling all over George Bowyer as well. I agree with him on Wiseman though - I wouldn't let Wiseman run a bath.

I don't like Richards but for him it's not that bad a piece and he does highlight what a g!t Wiseman is and how much he had creamed off from mugs like us. Richards has as well and the article highlights for me GM quite clearly that none of these carrot crunchers should ever have been allowed anywhere near our club. The Directors and hangers should keep it shut unless they are willing to invest or takeover the mess but the fans need to keep the pressure up on these morons and I'm cross that Wiseman wanted to re-write history yet again when all the fans have had enough of these pathetic squabbles and that includes Lowe at the AGM as well. Richards is right on the blame game being counter-productive but if he right and Lowe does blame Harry for going down Lowe really is deluded - that was the product of a poor squad of 40+ players and Wigley. I can't stand Harry either but let's be honest.

I can remember the Draper Tools blue kit 1985/6 as well.

I'd like to provide a bit of balance here as someone that could be ideologically located either on the One Nation side of the Tory Party or the Right of the Labour Party. Undisputably, she was a great leader in the sense she was highly driven and would take unpopular decisions and had a very presidential style, rather like Blair. Before the Neo-Cons jump on me, sorry guys but that is a fact as well if you are using the same criteria to judge leadership on. Probably explains why by and large both figures were electorally undefeated and feared by their oppositions. Good points: Curbed Secondary strike action and forced the Unions to modernise into employment law assistance for employees which is important. Unions have a key role to play but the relevance to a Socialist movement died with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Idiots in the RMT etc need to wake up. Right to Buy - this helped an awful lot of people. I'm not a big fan of the state being a landlord unless really neccessary Law & Order - then again I tend to disagree with the Left on this issue anyway! Opportunity to buy share capital Bad Points: Care in the Community - a disaster Poll Tax - uncollectable whatever you think of the idea and a lot of Local Authorities were left out of pocket. She did get a small win on Council Tax retaining the single person discount. Education - under-investment all-round and left us with a huge skills and productivity gap. Attitude - I probably would have voted for her in 1979 and 1983 but by 1987 the cracks were appearing and she was past her prime. I thought the "there is no such thing as society" comment was brainless and this lost her a lot of support in the longer-term both nationally and in the Party. This is why Major went for very community-based ideas in his early spell as PM. Overall I think she made some painful but much needed reforms early on but 1987-90 was awful and should have quit in 1987. Many of us enjoyed the ride in the South East but I think we took the bits of Thatcherism we liked and discarded quickly the bits we didn't.

I agree with this, the problems started when half of the Chav population of Essex headed for the City in the 1980s. People don't neccessarily need to academically bright to start their own businesses and succeed - that requires a range of wider skills - but for an industry like investment banking I don't really want pizza-faced, Hackett wearing "Orwight Geezer" Tony from Romford being responsible for the health of our pension schemes. The fact such people have been "winging" it for years explains the mess we are in now and the FSA should be shot for complying with it.

Imagine if TSF members were in it, what sort of roles would they take on? I reckon: Alpine - he'd be quite Dennis Skinner-like with some sharp one-liners. The Beast of Austria (rather than Bolsover as Skinner was) Guided Missile - An Alan Clark sort of maverick Jonah - On the Eurosceptic wing of the party. Weston Saint - Good choice for Speaker Fitzhugh - An elder statesman, someone like Ted Heath Master Bates - Cheeky member who would get banned a lot for tampering with the mace Um Pahars - Quite senior and ideological - Tony Benn perhaps Frank's Cousin - Would ensure that he talked through any windows for passing legislation he didn't like. Johnny Fartpants - Irreverant comments from the backbenches TDD - Armed Forces Spokesman Bridge Too Far and Lady Saint - Democracy must be representative and we need someone to keep the above in order (although Weston also does this job. Imagine the debates between Alpine and GM?) I've probably just offended half the site....

I don't like Lowe but no way is the most hated Chairman ever. I'd say from memory: - Archer/Bellotti at Brighton, including flogging off the Goldstone. Pure evil. - Robert Chase at Norwich. Was really hated and allegedly did a runner - Terry Smith at Chester - a US owner who tried to enforce gridiron tactics and then appointed himself Chairman/Manager - Gregory/Deacon at the Skates. Venables wasn't Mr Popular with the Blue Few either. - Richardson at Doncaster a few years before John Ryan took over. Tried to burn down the main stand (allegedly) I seem to recall for the insurance money - Askham - vile behaviour in the Bowyer affair and useless Chairman who brought us Branfoot and then gave him a new contract. - Wiseman - not Saints Chair but went one better and let us down at the FA instead. Same Saints offences as above.

Probably more to do with the fact that Saints away is a popular game for QPR fans. They always bring a big turnout to SMS.

It doesn't offend me as an Englishman when Cardiff or Swansea fans "Oh England, it's full of sh!t, oh England is full of sh!t, full of sh!t, sh!t and more sh!t" etc so don't see why some tired Sheep chants will offend them. We should sing "1-0 to the England" if we take the lead.

Cardiff home - they have gone off the boil a bit but a decent side. Doable. Ipswich - bogey ground but Magilton protests at the moment. Narrow defeat Brum - fancy we might get a score draw if we can keep that horrid midget quiet - the one with the friendly wife Derby - Could win QPR - Draw

Thought provoking post by Ponty. Certainly, there is an element of truth in what he has posted - the internet is well-used by the media and I find some of the coverage of football in the 24 hour media age a bit swamping - quantity over quality. All clubs, but particularly ours, do also seem to take a keen interest in what is said on these type of sites. The anonymity does also give extra licence for the different warring parties to promote their point of view and I'm sure we could all cite plenty of examples. However, the internet is not alone in this change: - Phone-ins like 606 in the 1990s when it was at it's peak really caught on and increased the "fan perspective". It was inevitable that many of the comments on air would not be positive and would rile clubs and the FA with regard to England. David Mellor was the scourge of many boardrooms across England. - Sky - quite simply, Sky have invested hugely and will maximise the bang for their bucks. Live games are now proflierated whereas many of us will remember that they used to be a rarer treat and in part of 1985/6 we didn't have any at all! The scope for supporter interaction via texts and phone-ins etc is increased plus demonstrations at the ground. I'm sure we all remember the protests live on air in 1993/4. - Football is trendier and a way for public figures to engage the electorate - Blair and Brown were keen to point out their interest, Iain Duncan Smith at Spurs etc. I know some public figures were genuine fans but with the decline in violence (thankfully), football became more acceptable to be involved in - Following on from Sky, the money. The sums now are unthinkable compared to when most of us started watching and it is bound to attract some less savoury people who are quite happy to use modern media as a way to stir trouble and rumour. I include players' agents in this as well.

Whilst I'm not a Lowe fan I do have to say the following: SMS was a neccessity, we'd probably be in the BSP if we'd stayed at the Dell and we certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the WGS era. The stadium mortgage is actually perfectly sustainable and Lowe did project manage it on budget and time. Whilst the academy was a requirement, Lowe did promote it and fund it well which he deserves credit for. What he shouldn't have done was to have increased the overhead cost of it in 05/06 when our income had sharply dropped - this was bad business sense and the Dome has hurt the club badly when the Academy already cost over £3m p.a in 2005. Wilde does deserve the stick he gets in that article and he appointed some people that worsened the mess Rupert left. Wilde is the one who got into bed with Lowe and deserves the ire from the fans. Everyone on here knows I'm not a Lowe fan at all but it's easier to present our case for the current board to go if we stick to some form of balance and let some of the most one-eyed Lowe postings (ie Sundance) speak for themselves in their nonsense.

I can't believe this thread has reached 85 posts to be honest.....

Brilliant!

Brilliant!

Good choice although the lentils can have some unwanted impacts! Balti for me with a naan bread and a Aloo Chana side dish. May have to buy one on my way home tommorrow night.

There was a hold up on the A27 this morning, I blame Lowe for that. He also burnt my toast and will spit in my beer tonight! Seriously, I do take your point though, the man is a bit incompetent these days but some of the stuff posted about him is a bit OTT. I mean he's hardly Robert Mugabe?