Tom & Gerry

Well we are not in the top half of the Championship so I am not content. I've tried to look at the wider picture of supporting the club for nearly 70 years rather than the current situation. I agree that football has changed, not for the better but the play off final less than 2 years ago shows what it can still be like.

Let 's face it us fans are never truly happy. In the short term we are happy when we win and not when we lose, but even the best managers suffer heavy and embarrassing defeats, there is always at least one player in the team that if he wasn't there we'd be so much better, and no one is happy in July when the squad is looking threadbare and we haven't signed the players yet for a successful season. When I started watching Saints a very long time ago my dream as a fan was to see them play in the 1st Division and my dream of dreams was to see them lift the FA cup. In 1966 and 1976 we achieved those dreams so I guess that was when I was happiest and everything since then has been a bonus. I think where Saints were when you started watching has a bearing on how content or not you are. I started watching in Division 3 (South) so I see the team as predominantly a bottom half Premier league / top half of the Championship club. I'm reasonably content between those parameters and happier or sadder either side of them. Let's hope the present situation is just a blip in an ever fluctuating picture.

I think that is a difficult question to answer for me or the average fan because we don't see enough of the other keepers. What matters now is Peretz better than him and can he instill more confidence in the defence?

I respect and appreciate those posters who know more about goal keeping than me and can explain why Bazunu should save more goals than he does, and I'm all for improving the team in any position. I'll give a pass to those who say he doesn't look like a goalkeeper when to me he looks every inch an athlete, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Those who just swear,well this forum is a broad church and while some want to engage in meaningful discussion others just want a rant , so be it. Those who say he doesn't save anything are just daft, wrong and they know it. I just think goal keeping is a difficult job especially if you are often exposed by mistakes in front of you and most goals I see everywhere come under the category, could the keeper have done better. Those

At least we agree he's slaughtered for every goal he lets in

Bazunu would have been slaughtered for those 2 goals, but then again Bazunu would have been slaughtered for any goal he let in.

Will never forget the run and cross in the last minute against Charlton for Terry Paine to score the goal in the last home game to put us back on track for promotion to the top tier for the very first time in 1966. Of all the big money sales that have left me gutted over the years , he was the first.

Because the Manager always says how great the atmosphere was on the rare occasions that we do win.

The Northam wall is a good thing when the team are playing well and a bad thing when they are not.

All players make mistakes. We only notice the ones that aren't covered by a team mate (its a team game) or ones made by a player we don't like.

It's a funny business. A coach either fits or he doesn't. Most of our best coaches have had a bad time with other clubs. You can have all the experience in the world but it doesn't mean it will work Take Mark Hughes, an International player and manager, managed Man City but although he kept us up few would say he was one of our best.

Who knows, hopefully May 2030

I'd keep Eckert as Interim Manager for as long as we keep climbing the table. Don't make him permanent as we'll only start losing again.

Desperate times desperate measures. I think I'd rather play Jack Stephens centre forward than Downs. At least he can head the ball, control the ball, put himself about,and has scored a goal this season, would probably get sent off though.

Except in the league cup

Any time, any place, any where, in any situation a point against City is a good result. I understand why people didn't go but they can't know how enjoyable that was. Of course it in no may makes up for a disastrous season but don't begrudge us a sliver of happiness.Going home felt so much better.

9/1 equal second favourite according to the Echo. Alex Crook says the board have noted his impressive work at Coventry but he is focused on their promotion push at present.

Frank Lampard is being muted and I know his record isn't great, but he's the type that does well here. Like Ball, Hoddle and Keoman he would have the respect of the players as an ex top player. Like nearly all our best managers he's had failures at other clubs but I think he could do a good job here.

Saints have a habit in recent seasons of having prolonged bad spells followed by prolonged good spells so I'm hoping we will now see an improvement. Of course it wouldn't take much to be better and it's got to the stage where any win we get is a shock win. Still it would be nice to take a few unexpected scalps even if staying up is beyond us.

If we can't afford a Championship manager how about we look a little lower. Kelvin your time has come ( again). Or how about Jimmy Ball , fighting relegation would be in his DNA, and we know the tactics- just give it to Tyler at every opportunity.

He has started for another Premier league team and did very well as I recall.

I don't mind us conceding a few daft goals if we score enough of the brilliant goals we did last season. What is enough? Well one in three games obviously isn't. Enough to win us the 12 games or so to keep us up is, for this season. RM needs to concentrate on getting the attacking side right and to some extent the defence will take care of it's self.

I think after a few more zeros the penny will drop with some that with a great goalkeeper you can't win many matches unless you score some goals. It takes good players to score goals whilst average players can defend if disciplined and well organised.

If we sign a new goalkeeper he will hopefully cut down on the number of errors playing out from the back, but don't expect them to be eliminated altogether. There is no super keeper that makes no errors. As Downes said, it's the way we play. If Ramsdale, for instance was so good at playing out from the back he'd be in the Arsenal team. The hardest thing in the Premier league is scoring goals as we saw yesterday when the goalkeeping mistake shouldn't have been crucial. Getting that right should be our number 1 priority.

Fair enough. Some people on here express their fears, others their hopes. Today the fears won, that's football.