ExSt Peter Saint

How can you criticise Skacel? He was playing as 2 men most of the time covering for all the others and hopelessly outnumbered. Having thought again he was one of 3 for an honourable mention with Perry and Davis. I'd still rather have him in midfield with a specialist LB though.

He has no clue at all - get rid now!!! His comments have been laughable for months now and the football has been total ****e.

It was a horrendous challenge 2-footed or not. You would have been livid if it was against a Saints player.

Firstly, it was a blatant red card from a player obviously not up to playing 1st team football yet. I would have been screaming at the other team if their player had done that. the first goal was offside, but very few officials would have spotted it - unlucky, but wouldn't complain too much. The penalty did not hit his arm, but his arm should not have been in that position when he's in the wall- asking for trouble. They still scored another totally valid goal and were it not for Davis and Perry would have scored another 5 or so. We, on the other hand, didn't look like we'd get close to putting the ball in the net all day. Their team was totally untroubled by all the pretty passing in the middle of the pitch and they were nowhere near a first choice eleven. Contrast that with Gillingham, who I watched beforehand. There was a team with real purpose, passion, pace and goal threat, who gave Villa all sorts of problems. They lost too, but only by one and did actually score against a team probably as good as the one we played and who were actually trying. They are in the 4th division and looked much better than us. If we carry on in the same way we will be below them very soon. Today I saw very little fight, no pattern of play, no goal threat, gaping holes all over the pitch for the opposition to exploit and a clueless manager standing at the side with no idea how to change it. Much as the rest of the season. Jan out now!!!! I must say well played to Perry and Davis as the only ones to come out with any credit. God how they need some other footballers with the balls and the talent to play in a proper league beside them.

I have to agree that we are absolutely up the creek as far as having any decent defenders goes. There should be a back-up plan if loanees are recalled, or better still we should have some players we own who can play CB week in week out.

Perry's ok at this level, but he needs a big bruising centre half, like Lucketti, beside him to bring out the best in him. No point discussing the ones that have gone now - anyone could see Cork was a great signing, so well done for getting him for 1/2 a season, but we're stuffed without him now as he was almost ever-present and leaves a big hole. Schneiderlin has talent, but his contribution hasn't been consistent enough so far due to injuries. Holmes ditto - a good signing IMO, although left wing was not necessarily the position we needed someone in most. All the others are yet to prove their worth. What we know is that there are positions for which we need players and once again these obvious gaps are not being filled. Buy a decent big CB, a right back and a striker and we might have a chance.

I seriously doubt that either Surman or Lallana will play. The best we can hope for is something like: --------------Davis James Lancashire Perry Molyneux ------Euell---Schneiderlin ---------Skacel Smith-------------Holmes ------McGoldrick Subs: Forecast, Gobern, McLaggon, Saga, BWP Who knows how the deckchairs on this doomed ship will be arranged, though. It could be that someone wants to buy Euell or Skacel, so they won't play. I can't see Saga starting when he's been away for so long, but you never know with JP. I guess the players picked will be wanting to do their best, but I fear an attack of stagefright once again combined with vastly inferior playing ability, which will not serve us well.

Happy New Year everyone. I slept through most of today and let's hope Saints recovery in 09 is as good as mine was today - feel fresh as a daisy now :-))

Armstrong

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8742_4681627,00.html We are in the championship losers here - a pretty fair assessment "it's not working"

No Passion. No guts. No clue. Time to get rid.

A few points. 1) Did anyone see any passion from Portaloo yesterday? I didn't see him bark any order or do anything to indicate to the players what was going wrong. Looks clueless and depressed. 2) I was in the Itchen North and for about 15 minutes we sang OWTS non-stop to try and get some reaction from the players, but just before the 2nd goal went in it all seemed useless, the anti-Lowe chants started (I was tempted to join in) and then fights nearly broke out between our own supporters, so much so that I was looking around worried at some aggro and missed the goal. After that the atmosphere was almost as bad as the play on the pitch. 3) That is not total football - it was total b0ll0cks. Loads of long balls started being hoofed up towards players incapable of competing for them. A few pretty touches, but no pattern to the play, no system and definitely no goal threat. 4) Our forwards look as likely to score as I am to win the world's strongest man. 5) Why can noone cross? A lot of the corners and crosses didn't get higher than knee height - shocking. I could have done better than that when I was 15, never mind 19 or 20. Plenty more awful things about yesterday. I will not be wastuing money on going to see that again. I may come to watch the last game of the season if there's still anything riding on it, but don't expect there to be after that performance.

Much of the season we've been playing goalkeeper midfielder defender defender midfielder 2 defensive midfielders who can't tackle 2 forwards on the wings who can't cross a midfielder a striker who does nothing

I've just read up on it and am disappointed to see it doesn't mean they have to come from the club's own system - what a bloody waste of time, then. Who cares where you bought them from as whether it's North east of England or over the pond they're not "home-grown" are they? It would benefit the game and clubs like ours with f all money if it was from your own academy, but this is a pointless sham.

I'm not expecting a win - that just seems a bit far fetched on form at home so far, but it would really make my Xmas if we do get one. 1-0 would do for me, so long as we get 3 points.

Our team on the last day of last season that kept us up would not have been ok. Of the 16, only Surman and Lallana would have been at the club for 3 years before 21. The others - Wright, Powell, Perry, Wright, Safri, Idiakez, Viafara, Euell, John, Saganowski, Davis, Pericard and Wright-Phillips do not fit into that category. Not saying anything aganst the selection - it did the job and kept us us and I do like the idea of promoting more home-grown talent, but I do think this shows something that would apply to a lot of clubs when they bring in a lot of players on short term deals.

We bought our tickets before the last 2 dismal displays luckily, as they might well have put us off. Even with cheap tickets for the match it's an expensive weekend, so I hope the lads buck their ideas up and give us fans something to cheer about before xmas.

Most sparkling performances over a short time - Bale, Walcott, Saga, Guthrie, A Davies Worst performances (ignoring better ones afterwards if relevant) J Wright, Makin, Bennett, K Davis, Pericard Many others worthy of mention, but we've had so many players it's hard to pick people on the basis of a lot of games as there have been few who've stayed around long enough.

Pearson didn't have the team playing great football, but he did what was needed - kept us up. He got the best out of old has-beens such as Idiakez, who is now trying to win a contract at Bournemouth FFS and you could feel the passion in the team. The team on the last day when we won against Sheff Utd was Richard Wright; You can't really say keeper has been the weak link this season - was brought in when KD got injured Jermaine Wright, I would even rather have James than him at RB Powell, Also can't get a contract nowand not sad he left, but would have signed Lucketti Perry, Was signed thankfully Surman; Still here and has been one of the better players in midfield - here had to play out of position at LB, as he did earlier this season Viafara, Did not have a great season last year and was not the presence of the season before. I'd rather have Cork Safri, Better than Schneiderlin? Steady, but often criticised Idiakez (Licka, 79), as mentioned earlier, would you have either of these in the team now. Euell; Still here and occasionally on the pitch, but not performing as well as he did under Pearson Saganowski (Lallana, 73), Would definitely prefer him to McG or any of the strikers John. Ditto Apart from strikers, I don't think the players Jan has now are that much worse, but the team does often look clueless. That has to be down to the coach.

I can't believe Euell's not in there again! Does anyone know if he's injured? McG a slight doubt - wonder how we'd do without him for once. How many changes do you reckon for 2nd game in 24 hours? http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/?page_id=11041

Ivan Golac for sure. Mills was good too, but never quite to that standard.

Utterly predictable. I knew at half time we'd be hanging on for a lot of the second rather than playing 2 halves well. Foot off pedal = no win again. Could even have lost it in last 10 according to commentators.

I would feel a lot happier if we'd got a 2nd goal while on top. Nervous times to come I fear.

Strange that Euell's not even on the bench!

I wish I could make it to the game, but have a work commitment. Hope it won't be another dull 0-0 and the bots come out and play they they did against Reading. I doubt JP will tinker much and we all know what the formation will be. For me it should be Davis Cork Pearce Perry Skacel Morgan Surman Lallana BWP Euell McGoldrick I don't norrmally advocate playing McG up front, but with Euell behind him it seems to work better.