St Marco

Few pics i took with my new camera DMG celebration He came over to the line and made some sort of man love gesture to BWP Then my battery died... Now onto the game. Not really sure what to say as it was a meh type of game. The atmosphere seemed dead, the stadium seemed empty and the quality on the pitch laughable. This for me was a must win game and now we are 2 points adrift in the bottom. We have Preston away then 3 very tough games. I will maintain my view before the game that if we did not win today and lost on saturday i would change from undecided on Jan to time to go. The boys today tried but just lacked the quality. The inexperience shone through. Thomson i thought did some really good things and with more experience could do some great things but some of his passes and decisions were really frustrating. We played long ball too many times and had very few clear chances. I can recall only 2 and they were both from DMG. Who i felt had a better game. Still don't think he will score the goals we need. He hit the corner flag with his shots more then the target. The tactics were all wrong again and i think that really is it for 4-5-1. It does not work. Having 1 striker up all on his own and having too many people in midfield just over complicates things. There was little space to pass. In the first half i felt Rudi did some good over lapping and got some decent crosses in and that looked like the way for us to score. But we are always our own worst enemy and for some awful defending we were lucky not to have gone 0-1 down. Other then that i can't recall either goalie flying across the goal to make a save. Second half Coventry came out more attacking and looked like they wanted it more early on. We were lucky they didn't get a penalty (from my view) but the ref was ****. The yellow cards he gave out were a joke. We came more into it and DMG took his chance well, it was a good team goal and in my view we deserved it. But after that we do what we do best and self destruct. The defence just switched off and Wotten put his hand up calling for offside rather then deal with Morrison. That really ****es me off as we were taught to always play until the whistle not hold your hand up crying all the time. Kelvin had zero chance with the goal as it was like 2 yards out. To be fair though Coleman did change the game with 2 attacking subs and got the reward for it. After going back to 1-1 i have to say Coventry looked the mostly likely to score as we were sitting back and giving them time to play. Then with 3 mins of injury time to go Jan brings on BWP while we had a free kick....where we really playing for the draw? So all in all i think it was a meh game. Better then the weekend but nowhere near the level we need to survive. We have to beat Preston or JP must go. We can't drop the points we are dropping. Forest and Doncaster are done for. The last place is going to be the last relegation spot. Right now we deserve to be there and are playing like we belong there. This talk of "good football" Jan talks off is a lie, i saw more punt it up the field passes today then any Warnock game i have seen. It is clueless football, directionless football and unexperienced football. It has to change now or we will just drift further away from getting out of the relegation zone.

Cheers for that. Not sure what to make of it. It had to be before the game during the warm ups. Which still begs the question if we are momments away from playing a game why is he on the line talking with Jan? Should Jan not be getting last minute instructions/talks to the players? Maybe im being too critical.

How many chairman have you seen standing on the touchline with the manager? I have seen zero. So if he was there and was actually caught on camera there the question is why? So this whole "losing touch with reality" thing doesn't make sense because it is not normal that a chairman has anything to do with the footballing side, unless he is there to say "your sacked my son".

There is some hope. Since they played us they have got only 1 point and lost 2 games. I think they haven't scored since playing us either. So we do have a chance with this one. But i think we shoot ourselves in the foot with our set-up and our negative tactics so every game is going to be tough for us while we play only 1 up front. The 1st goal in this game will be massive. If we get it we could go on to win. If they get it we could get a mauling as when we go 0-1 down we can't get back to level terms normally. Either way i have this down as a must win game. Lose and Jan has to go. 14 games and 9 losses would be too much.

Coventry and Preston are must win games for us i think. The other 3 i can't see anything coming our way as Wolves and Reading are dangerous teams who i expect to go up this year. Bristol City are a good team and were unlucky last year so this one is a hard one to call, i think we can get a draw in that one. So i'm saying 7 points from 15. However if we lose tonight and at Preston i think Jan will be gone.

Thought i would do an update on how well these games are doing review wise overall The Metascores are (a metascore is an average of all scores given) Fable II = 90% Fallout 3 = 93% Portal Still Alive (forgot that one) = 90% Dead Space = 89% (fecking scary game) Wii Music = 63% Motorstorm Pacific Rift = 81% Legendary = 56% Midnight Club Los Angeles = 83% Far Cry 2 = 88% Guitar Hero World Tour = 87% Rock Band 2 = 92% Fifa 09 = 88% Pro Evo 09 = 73% So lots of good games and scores thus far

It's a quality game. I think it is very much like Monty Python with the humour. The bit with the League of Shadows has got to be up there with the most genius things ever. "We have various days, we like torture tuesdays and on friday we play demonic poker! If you bring someone along and sacrifice them you get dark club points for each sacrifice!" quality.

Ah i see! Wow The Echo trying to be funny! Wish i saw it.

I think it could be under the 12k mark. It is going to be a cold night, add to that expensive that i just can't see many more then that going. If we had a deal for half term i.e kids for a quid then it would of been a lot higher. But nope those seats will all be empty and no doubt were get the whole "fans are to blame" comments again tonight.

Here is a new one today from The Echo talking about formations and 4-5-1 "Liverpool and Chelsea also don’t play with two centre forwards, they play with three" or "When you play with one centre forward it means the man in the hole has to be there or the man outside has to be there and we work on that"

Whatever happened to that Wilde fella? Last time i think i heard from him he was talking about how great were going to do this season and that our goal is promotion this year because that is "realistic". Think he might be on that Nasa space station!

Was reading Jans comments today on the Daily Echo site when one poster said that Lowe was standing on the touchline with Jan at the match. Now i was at the game and i have to be honest i did not see that. But it says they had a picture of it in yesterday's Echo? Is that true or ********? If it is true then does anyone have the pic? Again if that is true i think that is very bad and unfair on Jan totally.

Exactly it is not brain science is it. If he wants the fans to get behind the team (which they have in my view) then he needs to stop looking for excuses all the time and get the team playing. Coming into the xmas period with the world in the financial mess it is £28 to watch a team give no effort, little skill and very few if any goal chances is not exactly value for money is it. The one thing which is starting to annoy me about Jan is he never accepts the blame himself. He needs to do what Pearson did when we lost and just say "my bad, i choose the wrong tactics etc...". This whole "fans need to get behind the team" rally cries seems like a weekly thing these days.

points from the top 6 Bristol City were top when we played them = 3 WBA were 2nd when we played them = 1 Wolves were 5th when we played them = 1 Ipswich were 6th when we played them = 1 Palace were 6th when we played them = 1 So i make that 7 points from the teams near the top. Losing only to Hull from the top lot. And your right he did have 2 games against teams who were relegated and won one and drew the other which was an away game. So not quite sure how that is of any relevence exactly mush?

Seriously please shut the **** up you nobhead...... The club suffered badly before the fans started to show their anger at the board. We suffered a relegation and were looking at another one. What would you have people do just sit on their arse, watch the team put in gutless performances despite the fans trying to support them, then give a smile to Lowe in the Royal box as you walk out happy about the loss and some bright players sold? That is not reality. People have a right to be unhappy and have a right to show their support for the club and the way it has been treated, supporting the club does not mean supporting the regime. The fans have been excellent at this club. If things are going really badly and were 0-10 in the 1st half i still bet you the vast majority will wait till full time before starting any anti-board chants.

What a complete load of ******** once again. You have a habbit of that don't you? You are a prime example of the hypocrite im talking about. Trying desperatly hard to be little the feat of which he pulled off. By saying his tenure was "patchy" and we had "some right tonkings" again just shows you don't go to the games at all thus have no clue what your talking about. Lets look at some numbers shall we? The previous 13 games BEFORE Pearson took over. P13 . W1. D4. L5. F10. A18. Points = 7 Now lets look at those teams we played to get that awesome points total of 7 Preston,Colchester,Barnsley,Watford,S****horpe,Plymouthx2,Norwich,Crystal Palace,QPR,Stoke. 8 of the 13 games were against teams at the bottom or just out of the relegation zone. Now lets look at Pearsons 13 games P13. W3. D7. L3. F14. A15. Points = 16 Now lets look at those teams. S****horpe,Ipswich,Wolves,Blackpool,Leicester,Hull,Coventry,Cardiff,Bristol City,Charlton,Burnley,West Brom,Sheffield United. 7 teams chasing promotion of which 2 actually got promoted. So this "average" spell of which you talk about had a increase of over 120% of points then the previous 13 games. And these "tonkings" you talk about were actually just one game. Which are now the team 3rd in the premier league having lost ONLY 1 GAME! But i guess we were expected to beat them right? So Pearson might not have been the messiah but his figures compared to those before him and after him proove without a shadow of a doubt he had a more succesful time with the club. So you might be one of those thinking "he was average" but i would expect that from someone such as yourself. But the facts and figures show your view is pretty stupid, just like your post,mush.

i think it will be another thrashing in all honesty. You have to create chances to score goals and in the last three games that has not happened. If we go 0-1 down early then it could be anything really. Coventry are a good counter attacking side so if we push too many up for short corners then were get murderd. So i'm going for 1-3 with our goal being something based purely on luck then skill i.e the ref gives a phantom penalty.

A way it could be done would be to hand it over to the council and rent it from them. Then buy it back when we can afford it. Other clubs have done this before. Only downside is someone else could end up buying it.....(Crystal Palace owner did that i think).

Not true. On Nov 07 Crouch said we had gone from £21.4m to £19.2m with our debt. Our turnover had gone from £25.7m to £23.2m. So we dropped £2.5m in turnover. Player trading had gone from £11.2m to £7.5m. Which proves we had lowered operating costs substantially and improved fiscal control. Also losses went from £3.3m to just £1m. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/uploads/documents/nov_07/sfc_1196414690_annualreport07.pdf

Could be. I remember last finances Crouch said he took our debt from £21.4m to £19.2m. That is what it was at. So Lowe has openly said there has been an increase in borrowing so what is our debt now? Attendences and season tickets will be well down but you would expect all the cost cutting Wilde and Lowe have done to have a drastic impact upon that number surely? If our debt is increasing then surely we have to go into admin as lets be honest we have no more silverwear to sell.

How can that be true if when Crouch was here we paid off £2m of our debt and still paid those players? Something does not add up.

To be honest with you as much as Lowe is a tit and i want him out as much as the next fan i think this was the right choice to make. Reason i think that is if JP is not picking him and he openly says "i cannot gurantee he will play" then why bother paying his wages if he is not going to be used? The way i look at it is that if JP said he will use him then he would not be loaned out. JP should of said he will use him as we cannot score goals rather then rely on a striker who has scored only 3 goals all season. But he made the choice to stick with DMG and he must live with that decision. So while it is so easy to blame Lowe on this one i think we have to look at it in the way it is, if JP had John in his plans he would of stayed.

Spot on and agree. As i mentioned in another thread i expect the excuse people will use at every oportunity will be "we had no other choice, we have no money!" etc.. etc.. But that is ******** as our borrowing has gone up since Lowe returned so that money has gone somewhere.

Seriously the fact that you don't get the point of it is quite funny. The "twisted logic" you try and accuse me of is actually perfect sense. A group of people cannot base their views on one persons results and not do the same for the other. You cannot say Pearson's results were bad and JP's were good. That is double standards and wrong. If someone is to be judged on a fans merits (whatever they maybe) then they must account to all. That is the point. So you may not understand what i'm saying and can call me all the names you like but the facts remain Pearson had a hard job to do and he was more succesful at it then our current manager. That is fact. Deal with it.

Not at all. Im guessing you didn't go to many games last year then because there was many people up until the Sheff Utd game who didn't want him because of his results (mainly the Hull game). The forum is just a small representation of the actual fans.