SFC Forever

Up to a point I have to agree. However at the end of November we had clawed our way out of the drop zone and climbed to within 9 points from the playoff places. We picked up Jaidi on a free which helped improve our defence and we were starting to look like a team that might be able to do a late charge. In December the wheels started coming off. Since then though we keep winning at home we have forgotten how to win away. Indeed some of our home wins can be down to the opposition forwards missing some really simple looking chances. Even a couple of blatant penalty appeals going our way as well. The whole point which most of us who disagree with you are doing so on performance. The team is not playing like it should be with the money that is being spent to improve it. The team has gone backwards. Tomorrow night we will go back mostly to our old team and you will almost certainly see a team with a lot more fire in it's belly. A team with desire flowing through it's veins. We will surely see a strong performance from players fighting to win a game. That is what this team is missing and for that there will only ever be one person held to task. AP the manager. He has brought in too many average players which has started hurting ther team. He could have spent a similar amount on less players but players with more quality.

So why is his opinion bullsh#t and yours isn't? The team picked and brought here mostly by pardew is not performing.

If the form continues in the same vein I would be surprised if Pardew stayed.

Agreed

Why not have a kit similar to the one we had when we first got to the top division?

You ask that but people keep argueing about his thoughts.He is not alone in thinking we have dropped our levels of performance in the last two months. Other people also say the same thing over and over again but because they are in the majority they are right? Maybe it is them who are wrong. Only time will tell. I would love to be wrong because that would mean we are improving but right now I can't see it.

Spot on. The girl is disappointed when we don't go on some Tuesday nights. She does understand that money is tight. My 6 yo is still learning to love us in the same way and gets tired/bored/restless before the end of the games. He will be a Saint for life though because I am and his sister is and he enjoys the whole day. The trip in the car to Southampton. The eating of burger and chips from paper and his bottle of drink that goes with it. The visit to the shop to by something for him or his room. Unfortunately this is my third family and pension doesn't run to many away games. maybe a win on the lottery would solve that problem. My biggest fear was what happens when my health stops me going. Now I don't think I need worry because the wife has said that she will take them for me. Life is grand. The whole family are Saints. As it should be.

There are people on here, myself included, who question Pardew and our supposedly improving side. Performances have not improved and appear to have gone backwards. That said everytime I take the kids to SMS we shout and cheer and swear at the ref like all the rest. We support our team through thick and thin. I am not satisfied that the team is now improving. Before Xmas we were 9 points behind playoffs now we are 15. Figures speak for themselves. As for the games we have coming up. In the next month we also have Huddersfield and Swindon at home. We are likely to drop more points but though I will be disappointed I will feel less so if the team is showing signs of getting it together.

I would have been a lot happier if it appeared that since November we were showing signs of improvement and not decline. performance wise. AP has less to choose from for the cup games and I am hoping that the forced changes will work as they were earlier. That might in turn tell AP to leave them in more often.

my 6yo still refuses to let us change his video dor a dvd because he watches his greatest goals and other saints stuff continuously.

My two ST's will become 3 as the littlun grows. 7 this year and promised one for his birthday. He has been and will be there Tuesday night. He needs to learn how great the atmosphere can get on good days/nights. I am a pensioner with a young family(which I am thankful for). Money is tight and I often miss Tuesday nights but don't care as I have my ST's. As a throwaway, last season I didn't have an ST and was losing hope for our club. I took him and his 11 yo sister to a few games and did not see a win all season right until the last home win. This season he has seen how great it is to leave the ground after we win.

St Jason if you re read my post in context to the one I am replying to. He says we are a difficult side to beat. The only reason we have not lost more recently is because teams have not been taking some very simple looking chances. He also says that he hopes AP is still manager in a year - that is a very dangerous statement if we continue to go backwards as a unit. I apologise if my level of English is not high but I will now try to explain my thoughts. I agree I praised Fonte who does look as though he could be with us godwilling for a while if we can do the 5year thing. All I said about Barnard is that he has scored a lot of goals not that I like him or we needed him. In my post I may have actually overlooked Beckford as a leading goalscorer. The next bit speaks for itself. Our defence has by general consensus looked a lot better since Jaidi arrived. Posters on here and fans at the games have been clamouring for a CB,strong holding/ midfield general and RB. We have been given a good possibly more than that CB in Fonte. Barnard could be a player to0 many up front especially at this level. Otsemobor has not yet shown he is better than Thomas. Seaborne could be a good player in the near future. Puncheon likewise could be a good player but in the future i would have said not straight away. IMO Jaidi has had an injury but has not been on Mo Gimpel's injury list for a couple of weeks. He had made the CB spot his which nobody complained about. I believe that Jaidi and Fonte would make a more solid partnership for the here and now. Like many others I am not impressed by JO and would have Thomas playing there as we have nobody better. He is not a RB by definition but he is big and strong and has not let us down. He has also improved and deserves on performance to play. Finally as I say, our performances have slipped since before the window so calling the new players needing time to gel is in my mind not part of the story. I believe we have bought for the future and not for now. That said why play the future players when we need players now. We have 2 very important games coming up which nearly everyone in Hampshire will know about. (There will always be someone not interested) If AP was going to play different players in the way he has perhaps he could have blooded them in a bit slower. Why play them all from day one at the expence of the team which I feel has suffered accordingly. We still need in my book a midfield general. Either that or another Hammond type of player which would then give the like of Lallana or Morgan freedom to stray. All IMHO of course.

I do not agree. We have been playing sides who don't take their chances no matter how simple. We have in Lambert and Barnard the two leading goalscorers in this league. We have bought possibly the best CB now in this league and he has settled in already. We in no way needed 5 players in the transfer window. Or to be quite blunt not the ones we have bought. Our performances have suffered for longer than before the transfer window so you can in no way blame our malaise on the incoming players alone.

Not if it has been going on for too long. Two months ish ago we were on a run and were only 9 points at one time from the playoffs. We are now 15. This poor run has lasted as long/longer than our winning run. The performances have dropped. That is where the complaints are coming from. A lot of regular match goers are saying the same thing albeit in different ways. We have as much right to be concerned as those who aren't aren't.

If the game doesn't go ahead it will be because the club is dead. Gone. No money and nothing to pay us for the tickets they have sold.

Obviously it does.we are not allowed to challenge the majority view on here. To do so is a crime nearly as bad as being a pompey fan. Or so it seems from the way some people react to a few words. For the last couple of months we seem to have lost our way. Except for our cup runs we seem to have no real hunger. The urgency is missing. My belief is that this is caused in the main by having too many players and the manager being unsure of his best team. Not that he could play it at the mo with the injuries. We were doing reasonably until we went to Leeds. That followed by Colchester has caused a lot of soul searching in my book. Like most I am relatively pleased with the result so far this season. Unlike some I am not blinkered and can see that performance levels have dropped. How can it be so wrong to ask why and what AP is doing about it?

Ok and where have half of the team come from. Places like Exeter, Plymouth, southend, Colchester and all over the place. A lot of our players that have recently arrived are well used to playing on pitches like that. So your argument because they now have our ground as a home pitch does not stand up as well as you think.

Why the f#ck mention August? In August we had no team and had had no pre season. We are now in February and after a bloody good run have started going backwards. In the approach to the transfer window the majority of people wanted , as I recollect, a strong midfield general/holding player, a CB and a decent RB. We have been given a CB and a good one. The RB Otsemobor has not yet shown that he is better than James/Thomas. Seaborne has not yet shown that he is better than Perry/Jaidi. Barnard has looked like a fish out of water. What a few of us would like to know is why so many changes at once. Plain and simple. A better midfielder even if it meant spending more on wages for him would have done us a hell of a lot better. AIMHO. I have already been called a moron and a total c#ck and other choice words so do your worst.

Is it not possible that we have made too many changes and thus have upset the applecart by doing so?

That point is one that some of us may not have taken into account. However that doesn't explain the different way we have played during the cup games recently against the sometimes poor way we have played in the league. In the cup we have at times overpowered the opposition where as we seem to have no fire or fight in league games.

Quote: Originally Posted by offix We started the season at minus 10. Our squad was unmotivated and expected to lose every match In spite of that we are now smack in the middle of the table, which is exactly what the 5 year plan called for (survival in mid table, promotion next year) Oh how I wish the days of RL were here again. God, what a completely moronic original post. Almost as moronic as you regurgitating the Party Line for the billionth time. We all know where we were as the season started. That has absolutely nothing to do with our current situation. The simple fact is that over the last two months we have dropped 6 points further away from the playoff positions. The team is playing by the numbers. there is no fire in their bellies. Us regular match goers can accept losing to better teams. Until recently the worst performance I had seen was the Swindon one. Our team has no-one to spark it off. We have not had a midfield for years that was/is worth calling a midfield. We still have no midfield and no heart. We watch Pompey losing week on week to better teams but until possibly their last two games they have fought for survival. They have players wondering whether they will have a club fighting for their very lives and we have lightweights. We all want AP to succeed because that will save us the bother of getting in a new manager. However when it appears that the current one is lost and unsure of himself we have a problem. I will probably be vilified for doubting AP but doubt him I do.

With so many bad news bulletins about the blues I have a nasty feeling that the blue army will want to have a ruck. They will want to leave their calling card in case it is their last chance to do so.

the blue and yellow is good but what does it look like on tv?

I would guess that just maybe this season is not going to happen. We will all enjoy a trip to the Smoke though for the final.

I agree and Hammond has been missed. Jaidi is not on Mo's list of crocks and hasn't been for a couple of weeks. I would also add Fonte to the list as I am looking forward to seeing him play with Jaidi.i really think that these two would be good together. Seaborne could be on the bench when Jaidi plays and occassionally when we are cruising he could be sub for him. I have had a possible thought as a solution for which I would probably get blown away for. Would Fonte be capable of playing either as a holding midfielder or a sweeper.