saint1977

It has been implied by other posters. I don't feel particularly bothered by said "incident" but considering how many late goals we've shipped and how unfit the squad has been in most of the last 2 years, I'd like to think that the players might be working ultra hard to redress the lack of quality we have with the high work-rate they showed earlier in the season.

Great post.

Gotcha! There were no anti-Lowe or board chants at 0-0, were you at the game? They only started when we were 1-0 down which I didn't agree with (the timing) but that is simply factually inaccurate to say that it started at 0-0.

Exactly what I'm thinking reading through this thread. Can't summon any great outrage I'm afraid - we don't know if this is true for a start - but it just shows how pitifully low the club's standards are that getting lashed is a solution to our pathetic home form. WGS used to check the bars for signs of players getting rat-arsed. Players are entitled to a private life but you don't put red diesel in a Ferrari. Kelly Holmes didn't win double Gold medals on a diet of Stella or Champagne I suspect. This is the poorest post-war squad we have had so they need to be fitter than our CCC rivals to compete.

We also had a very young-looking right back who put in a superb cross for the first goal. He'd been recruited from non-league Bath City the previous season.

I can remember standing next to a random guy on the Milton who was lobbing the most incredible amount of pound coins at Foster in that game at every corner Saints got and Foster was defending at that end. None hit Foster on the head, a couple hit the bar and one might have hit Foster on the top half of the body. Bit like David McGoldrick's shooting! Remember Foster as a dirty centre-half in a white sweatband. Did he get an England cap in Bobby Robson's early games as England boss? SBR was a great manager for so many years but not one of his better decisions if os.

I don't sit in the Northam so probably any really heavy stuff was from there but didn't hear anything particularly out of the ordinary in the Kingsland. Certainly no worse than the reaction when any other soft last gasp goals have been let in - ie Preston home last season. I don't see the point in having a pop at the players personally - but have a pop at the board at the final whistle.

Agnew is a nomark - he was an average seamer and is a pretty average commentator. He even threatened to quit playing for Leics unless England picked him again in the mid-late 80s.

Thanks for the update Weston, you know a bit more about the inner sanctums of SFC and if my perception was wrong than I apologise to anyone concerned including Leon. I do remember Tommac being an absolute plank on here though. Crikey, the stories we've seen over the last 2-3 years on this site and the ones before it would make a great book!

Good post Nick, we've all been there.

Excellent post and indeed electorates do vent their spleen at those in power. The 1992 election was a great example - there was a lot of anger at the Tories for the recession, Poll Tax, bodged NHS reform, Care in the Community etc etc but there was a sense of "You made this mess, you sort it out". Difference is, the electorate must have had enough confidence for them to do that, plus they had a change of leader (Major) not that long beforehand. Thatcher would have been murdered at the polls in 1992, even though Kinnock was fairly unpopular. I just don't think there is a feeling of confidence that the current regime can get it right with Saints. In the election of 1997 of course, the Tories got routed even though the economy had recovered because they couldn't shake off the perception of being a party in the toils. Having David Mellor as a Cabinet minister probably didn't help either.

There is merit in your first paragraph but it comes back to my original point - neither side should have been using the media as a megaphone. It should have been done via a third party backchannel that was trusted by both sides. On your second paragraph, whilst there is some support for Crouch on here, I'm a bit skeptical after the whole Tommac business although I did like the fact that he stood against the Euell signing as I'd previously blamed Crouch for that. F ucking Keith Wiseman signed that off - that bloke has the reverse impact of the Midas effect. I think many fans, whilst respectful of his wonderful achievements as our manager, are also wary of LM. Mary Corbett comes across well and as a fan and I know this point has been made before but I do wish major shareholders had looked into Mike Wilde in a bit more depth. That also includes Rupert second time around as well. That said, Askham left the door open to the prat in the first place. The post showing that both Askham/Lowe and Leon/Lawrie have bought boxes with sarcastic names right behind the Director's Area when both were removed from the board illustrates this point very well. Go and have a look at people's reaction on that thread and tell me that people don't think BOTH sides are as pathetic as each other. If they worked together, great but sadly that will never happen.

Yes, it is strange although wasn't he involved with Northern Ireland? I seem to recall he did quite well at Walsall but as is always the case with them they couldn't survive the next division up. I think the thing was that he was percieved as a mellow bloke whereas the typical Division 1 boss at the time was still a fiesty British sort with a blackberry crumble for a face - Atkinson, Clough, SAF, Bassett. Taylor didn't have the blackberry complexion but fitted the stereotype in many ways. Venables had been portraying a different image which going to Barcelona helped but still a tosser in my book. The only good thing Vegetables has ever done is almost destroy the Skates and he couldn't even do that properly.

Hope you are right but although last year's survival figure was unusually high, 50 points is not secure and teams do start picking up more points at the bottom this time onwards. I can only see us getting anywhere if we win all of our home games. Our away games left are pretty tough on paper so we need to say that 3 points is the only acceptable return in the remaining home games and set up accordingly in games - even at the risk of the odd hiding. Home draws don't cut the mustard when you 5 adrift. If we can squeeze a couple of away wins, that's a bonus and is possible. I'd also drop McDonkey and pick Saga and Euell up front. Euell is awful but he's better than McG which is really saying something and at least he can head a ball or tries to.

They don't teach people how to proof-read on these media/NUJ courses any more. Conscience NOT conscious. I suspect after all that pub time there will be a few unconscious though! Might have to use the bus and train for this one as I usually drive.

It wasn't helpful though and could clearly have waited until AFTER the Sheffield United game. Sorry Jonah, but most people think both sides are as bad as each other.

Actually Jonah, I've agreed with many things you've said on this thread as well as those of Duncan but I can certainly recall driving on the A272 on the way to a meeting in Winchester in the Spring and hearing Radio Solent and the announcement by Lowe and Wilde that they did not agree with Pearson's appointment and were seeking a return. Not really what the club needed in the middle of a relegation battle (possibly before the Burnley game but I cannot exactly recall the date). I don't know about Crouch specifically but Charles Sale in that awful newspaper (for frustrated Sun readers that are worried about what the neighbours see and don't want to publically admit to voting BNP/UKIP) certainly made a number of negative reports and rumours of "boardroom unrest" even in 2006/7. Both sides have spat the dummy and both have let the club and fans down very badly IMO. About time they all picked it up and moved onto another pram.

I do feel sorry for the younger fans but better times will come, even if there's some more pain first. I first went in the early 80s so my expectation levels were probably set too high for the rest of my Saints-supporting life! What they are missing out on is the collective spirit of the club and it's supporters and you only need to go back a few years, not 30, to see it. The tension of the 90s relegation battles, the genuine family atmosphere of the 80s. We were very difficult to beat at home and even in 2004/5, we still didn't lose that many games but were wretched away from home. Selhurst in 1999 was what I'm describing at it's very best. The atmosphere in the last 4 or 5 years has been not pleasant and I don't blame people for not wanting to take families.

I agree with much of that Duncan although if we'd stayed at the Dell we'd probably be playing Eastleigh by now! There was no way of expanding the Dell bar building a Newcastle-style giant on the West Stand with a underground car park but think about the congestion and the light surrounding houses would have lost. The early years at SMS were very enjoyable times too. As I've stated many times, I've less of a problem with Lowe in the whole SR scenario than the board in 1996. Wiseman can change sides all he likes but he's done nothing but take money out of the club and he'll always be tarnished with the Askham brush. He didn't cover himself in glory (allegedly if the media stories at the time were to believed) at the FA either. Basically, we had a barrel of greedy snakes (to borrow Nick H's phrase from yesterday) at the top in the late 80s and early 90s and many of those snakes - Askham in particular - are still injecting venom into the club. Lowe could mitigate that venom with the Sky PL money and take risks knowing that we could turn to Plan A and B if we needed to. Sadly, relegation (which happens to most clubs at some stage outside of the top 4) badly limited Rupert's room to move, the Dome experiment was a costly white elephant for example. Because of Askham's tangled mess, Lowe has had to rely on Wilde and Askham to carry him through and this has really damaged the club badly. Being relegated is no disgrace but the club has had no solid foundation on which to rebuild in the face of fiscal turmoil with pockets of culpable shareholders squabbling and *****ing. Thanks for the mess Guy, I think it's better that the club don't have a minute's silence for you when you meet the great accountant in the sky as no-one is going to observe it.

It sickens me, KP carries the top 6 at the moment although Strauss has had a far better last 6 months and 2 100s in India. Bell is a tart, hits 3 or 4 boundaries and then gets out like he always does as he's too lazy to move his feet. Bell is too weak mentally for international cricket, hitting meaningless double-hundreds off medium pace and part-time spin for Warwickshire is his level. If you could marry Bell's talent and Colly's attitude, you'd have a world-beater but sadly, Colly is not a Test no.5. Cook is a good long-term prospect but does need to raise his game a few levels now after a great start to his career. I'm confident that he will.

I think a potted summary of both Duncan's and Mark's posts is that as fans we've got 2 sets of incompetents as major shareholder groups with one being a bit more popular with the fans. Wilde and Askham are the real culprits here, Lowe and Crouch are almost fringe players in comparison. Wiseman's greed and utter selfishness should not be forgotten - he may have switched sides but he was every bit as involved in using the club as a cash-cow as slimy Guy Askham and let's remember, no Askham, no Secure Retirement on the table. Whilst I doubt SR was the best option for the club, it did wipe out a £3m overdraft run up by Askham's staggering incompetence. LM was a fantastic manager, our greatest ever but whilst Mark is off-beam on his credentials he is very right on the fact LM did also gain from the 1996 goings on and LM was too closely linked to Guy Askham for far too long for my liking. To be honest, there is so much focus on the two loudest voices - Lowe and Crouch - that the real players in this sorry saga are getting away with running this club into the ground. Yet, by taking "sides" and trying to appeal to us, they are still pulling the strings without accountability to us and the smaller shareholders.

Personally I don't think he's expanded on the SB alias and he still launches into some very strong comments on both the Swansea protests - which were clearly inaccurate factually -and also some quite heavy pops at Leon Crouch that really did look like Sundance. He only has a pop at posters that are liable to get wound up I've noticed. Occasionally, SB could be quite dry and amusing but that seems to have vanished as the club's regime get more and more bunkered in. Personally, if I want to see more intelligent posts with wit I'd look for postings by GM, Weston, Fitzhugh, CB Fry and Jonah's financial perspective is usually interesting to read even if I don't always agree with it. Still, pays your money and takes your choice.

He does his job with little fuss and was only caught for the winner as we'd gone gung ho for a late winner. One of JP's better decisions was to bring him in. We need one or two more like him, if anything.

Don't! I still remember that awful "Where's your Rover gone?" song at Villa fans when we were 2-0 up in 2005. We were soon quiet after such `heroic` defending by Jakobsson and Davenpoop in the second half, not to mention Olivier Bernard who thought he was a CM and left a gaping hole down our left-hand side. Can't believe someone has actually paid £3m for Davenport, he hasn't improved since either even if his Dad was a good player (Peter Davenport).

Not sure Nick, his style is v.similar to SB but it could be that whoever "it" is has indeed got links to the current regime. I wouldn't be surprised put it that way. NC hasn't got involved in the personal spats with some posters that the SB alias did but I suspect "it" is under instruction not to do so. The anti-Crouch remarks look extremely similar to the postings of SB added to the general style. I thought SB was a Skate on a wind-up but it would almost be too much effort! If it someone with links to the current regime, it does tell you that they are very rattled indeed by the recent march and collective actions by the fans.