CanadaSaint

Do you have a constructive contribution to make with your third and final post of the day or is this as good as it gets from you? Don't bother answering that. Disagree with him by all means but at least try not to come across as a complete idiot.

Agreed, but the discussion is about finding the right place between the extremes. I think we over-did it and that Pards should have adjusted, but I'm still very proud of my team. I think we all got the feeling in the first half that we've seen games like this many times before - score while you're on top or pay a harsh price later.

Nice to see that. People used to say that about us goalies.

And if you'd played you'd know that you don't need to "commit everyone forward in search of an equalizer" A) when you're only one down with fifteen minutes or so to go - or even two down with ten to go, B) when all the other side really has to offer is pace, C) when your defenders aren't quick enough to get back for the inevitable counter-attacks, and D) when you've been creating chance after chance without committing everyone forward. I don't agree with Tim's point and I'm VERY happy with the way we played for 70+ minutes - AP's tactics were spot on and decent finishing would have won it for us early. I am NOT happy that we over-committed by allowing Thomas to keep pushing up when he had no chance of getting back to stop the wide counter. I said on the second-half thread that this was "naive", and that's exactly the word AP used in his post-game. However, he watched it happen on his side of the pitch and didn't get the message through. Having said that. it's great to see that we clearly have the talent to compete and win at higher levels, and that the heart of the club is beating stronger than ever.

For the sake of accuracy, he proved he can score against a side in the Premiership.

I don't understand why some people are being so venomous on this thread. TT offered his view. Most people disagreed with it. Let's move on.

CBs who can then be caught at the wrong end of the pitch when a counter happens. Seriously, after spending all that money we must have someone to take these kicks other than the person we'd like to have on the end of them.

As I said earlier I think we overdid it and paid the price. We'd proven that we could unlock their defence easily, so there was no need to throw caution to the winds and leave our entire right flank open. AP should have seen that and adjusted - it was right in front of him.

He frustrates me, too, but he's going to be a hell of a player. He tries to be too clever with his chances instead of just whacking them in.

We over-committed, leaving our right flank completely open. Three times at least. Thomas can't spend that kind of time up front if he knows he has no chance of getting back. And AP can't watch him do it without making an adjustment. Generally, though, we were much the better side but we had to score when we were on top. God, what a sick feeling but I'm still proud of them.

You can still chase the game without leaving yourself that open to THE clear threat. Thomas is not so critical to our attack that it's worth leaving that entire flank open. Again and again and again.

F*cking naive on Pardew's part. The writing was on the wall in the first half about the fast break with Thomas caught upfield, and now we've fallen for it three times. I could f*cking vomit.

I'm interested in number 2 because the longer this goes on without the league stepping in to help, the more likely it is that they are willing to see a team go under in order to nudge others towards greater financial sanity. If they were going to act, surely they would have done it by now.

It's because we're seeing no such people around that I posed the question I asked in post #396. What are your thoughts on that?

Excellent. I'll give it your regards when I get back at the end of March - I ran away to Phoenix for the winter (Edmonton's only downside)!

It seems like a sh*t or bust strategy - literally, but the odds are moving more towards "bust" every day. And one thing I'm wondering is this. The football authorities (even, perhaps, including the Premier League) must know that football is unsustainable in its present form. Do you think they might be willing to let P*mpey crash, because they're not one of the big clubs, in the hopes that this would cause everyone to wake up to the realities? I say this because they're certainly not lining up to help P*mpey and may well be subtly pushing them over the edge.

I hear you, Redondo, but I can't help wondering if - somewhere down the road - we'll need an Echo that isn't cowed by the fear of anger from within the Club. That has happened before and it will doubtless happen again, so we can't criticize them now for doing something we might fully expect them to do in the future. I'm not viewing this so much as Cortese vs Murray.

Did Jo tell you that your behaviour was "un-ass-eptable"?

Not yet. I've always been a good boy. I got a little angry but DP and I have good history.

Fair observation. I should have said "help to get this issues resolved" because I think Cortese has people who keep a close eye on this forum as part of his "finger on the pulse".

Fair enough, Nick. I'm p*ssed off at all of them. No, if it's true that the Echo has pushed out an olive branch and Nicola ignored it (which I end to believe because - as you said - he does have an ego), I don't think he has shown maturity. The charity story (seen through the eyes of a non-Saints fan) didn't look good, and the club will need general public support down the road. But it's certainly true that Murray has himself acted like a pompous pr*ck and showed a lot of immaturity by throwing petrol on the fire. They both need to park it and move on because there are much bigger issues on the road ahead than frigging Staplewood. What has been getting my goat all along is that people have been so quick to take Cortese's side on this without knowing the facts, and that a lot of those same people would have savaged Lowe (who I dislike intensely) if he'd pulled the same stunts. This forum taking Cortese's side without knowing all the facts is not, in my view, going to get this issue resolved.

Why don't you try reading my post first - as in the part where I said "You - like virtually everyone else spouting off about this topic, including me - have no KNOWLEDGE about what has really happened here." We know, or think we know, certain things. I suspect there's a lot we don't know, and I've said that on multiple occasions. And I'm not judging him on the opinions of Murray, who seems to have his own set of problems. I'm asking both of them to show some maturity and get this thing resolved, and I'm also asking people without the necessary knowledge to stop taking sides and making a bad situation worse. What exactly are you doing other than joining in with the populist movement to shred the Echo, and misrepresenting the comments of people who aren't so quick to join the lynch mob?

That's offensive. Because I don't agree with you about the spat between Cortese and the Echo, I'm dumped into the category of people who "seem to have an agenda against NC and the club" and told that we'd have to be "a ****ing moron to agree with what the Echo did". You - like virtually everyone else spouting off about this topic, including me - have no KNOWLEDGE about what has really happened here. I'm urging both of them to act with some maturity and sort it out. You're acting like a lynch mob cretin, firing accusations and obnoxious comments around willy-nilly.

No it's not irrelevant. The analogy is not helping. This is about the media business, and the news was apparently in the public domain and being reported by other media outlets. The integrity goes both ways - Cortese can't expect to hold the Echo to a deadline if he's failed to maintain confidentiality and other media are running with the story. It started as a rather silly squabble about a nearly-nothing event. It could have been quickly resolved, but now it's escalating and both parties are to blame for that. So are we. Cortese seems very attuned to the fan base (including this forum) and if we were saying "sort it out", I think he would have done it. Instead, a lot of people on here are saying "Stick it to the Echo". No wonder it's getting worse rather than better.

And your point is what?