Saint Fan CaM

My guess is that the Club’s thinking is to attract young kids to the ground, thereby increasing future support. It’s all sounding a bit ‘woke’ though - in my day as a kid if you were interested in football, you either played football or watched football or both. You didn’t need a f-ing climbing wall, crazy golf or whatever to make it exciting for you. But that’s the ‘I want it all’ world we live in now I suppose.

For a start, I was categorically not having a ‘pop’ at the Northam - only commenting on the surprising lack of volume from the other end of the stadium, particularly incidentally when the point of bringing together a ‘home end’ and relocating the away supporters was to quieten the away support. It’s a complete fallacy to suggest only the Northam fans are making noise, however it is true that the rest of the ground will tend to react positively to a loud Northam and conversely will get quieter if the Northam is subdued. As you say, the acoustics of SMS may play a part and/or it may be dampened spirits due to the dread many felt of last season carrying over into this one. It was a somewhat different atmosphere once we’d scored the equaliser…home supporters around the ground came to life at that point - it’s beautiful thing hearing the entire ground singing. It’s the old argument of supporters expecting the team to give them something to shout about and the team needing the crowd’s support as the ‘12th man’ - both correct of course, but should one come before the other? My guess is that increased volume helped the lads go the extra mile at the death leading to Cap’n Jack’s late winner.

I sat for the first time for years in the central Chapel on Saturday. The away supporters was very good and until our equaliser I was surprised at how quiet the Northam crowd were by comparison…I really expected there to be much more noise. Quite disappointing really. This idea of a games area is a bit meh. I had a look at the underside of the Chapel roof on Saturday and was surprised to see the paintwork in a really poor state of repair in places.

Had to check there if this was the Wrexham thread! 😉 This is going to be very telling about where we might be in terms of squad quality versus Ipswich who have re-strengthened well it seems. We’re still struggling to create and score in open play and that has to be an on-going concern for Still that Spors needs to address pronto. Bit of a pity this game has come so soon in the campaign, so a draw would be a good result all things considered. 2-2.

It is for all but one person. 😉

Thanks CBF - I remember now. Another utterly pointless bit of low key business in relation to Saints FC. If you’re a die hard SR fanboy I guess it’ll get you excited.

Why is he holding an old style shirt? 🤔😏

Your non-league side may well be quite superb, but I doubt they play at the speed/intensity Saints 1st team plays at in the Championship. Not only that, the slower/less skilled the opposition, the more chance of knocks and injuries to our players meaning they can get ruled out of more important league games. There’s a reason for maintaining a squad of players and providing opportunities against lower league sides is a great chance to get your lesser players going (e.g. BBD), even if only to put them in the window. [MLG mode off]

#jinxalert 😉

If Wet Spam’s bid of £30m is true (it’s probably agent or media speculation), you have to say it’s highly deluded. I feel sure it will take at least £50-60m to prise him away at this late stage in the window and given the length of his contract. It could mean the difference between promotion or not if his quality is not replaced, so there’s a huge amount riding on getting it right.

Not a straightforward game to analyse…but we won! Didn’t enjoy much of the game really until 10 minutes from the end and then bingo, we score and get the bit between our teeth. I really thought my 0-1 prediction was going to come true, but thankfully it didn’t. Anyway, first thing to say is fair play to Baz, Manning and Stephens - despite mediocre performances generally, they were all there when they were needed. Baz did seem to have crisp packet hands for their pen as he reached it but flapped, he made up for that with a crucial near-post save at 0-1. Manning scored the free-kick of his life to put us one up and we all thought that was that at 1-1. But no…out of nowhere in a goal mouth scramble Stephens kept his nerve and slotted it in - I guess that’s why he’s Captain. Top of the league for a little bit. Deserved three points. Feels good.

Got a horrible feeling it’s going to be 0-1 Wrexham. 😖

It would be easy to think that given the overall results of the last three seasons, however they’ve also made it known that they want to increase the size of the stadium and develop around the ground to increase revenue. You don’t do that if you’re in a downward trajectory towards the lower leagues - you have to inspire the fanbase with a very good, consistent product - one that can be believed in. The good news for SR is that Saints fanbase appears to be very robust despite the setbacks of recent seasons.

That’s good news. My subs run until October - hoping they’ll re-surface before then.

Indeed. I just hope the club back him to ensure the squad is of sufficient quality to allow his ideas to take root and blossom.

Very much looking forward to the match today, albeit somewhat nervously. I really don’t think Wrexham will be a pushover and I reckon there will be nerves among the Saints players. I just hope we can score goals…we need a win to kick off the season.

These events are more about massaging the ego’s of entitled supporters who feel the need to get ‘closer’ to the club and/or have their voice heard. That said, it was a slightly better set of questions this time and less waffle. We got the answers that the questions deserved frankly and all of the panel did OK in that context. Regarding Stephens, while I feel he would not be greatly missed as a first team starter, I do sympathise with the management’s decision to keep him around to help steady the dressing room. Three years may seem like a long time, however IF we get promoted that’s two years on entering the PL. Assuming he’s either replaced by a better PL level player or better still sold, it’s a win-win with two years on his contract to get the best return. As they said - this is in the shadow of FFP and us needing to cut our cloth in transfer dealings this year. I think the response regarding Dibling and Fernandes was frank and to the point. Show us your money or F-off…the players are ready to play for Saints if that’s what transpires. However, that surely leaves Spors in a tricky place - does he bring in a playmaking midfielder or not? I hope he doesn’t gamble and leave it too late. This team needs goals and lots more of them.

Love that the club writes ‘confirmed’ with a lock and key, as if Fernandes and Dibling are untouchable and will still be with us at the end of the window. Meh!

Yeah rumour has it that the coach said “you can leave the club Antonio….break a leg”. So he did.😉😂

You look at that list and it’s easy to understand why we were relegated. Somehow Saints supporters have to muster the enthusiasm to watch another season of this bunch of losers (excluding Shea, Welington, Fernandes, Quarshie and Downs). It’s shocking to see the likes of ABK still getting a squad number!

Discounting pre-season, how many games lost on the bounce will this one be? 😉

It’s obvious he’s gone and it’ll be to Everton unless they get gazumped at the last minute. It feels a bit sickening that one of our best young talents goes to a team we should be rivalling in the Prem, but by the same token they are exactly the level at which Tyler could make his mark. Given the advanced talks let’s hope it’s done quickly now so we can invest in a couple of much needed creative midfield players to take his place - that’s going to be a very difficult task and not cheap.

You little tyke! Bet you rolled your eyes when you posted that fake rumour too right?!? 😉🙄

OK fair enough - I just think we shouldn’t discourage posting of this kind of info (if it’s genuine of course) and waving the BS flag may put off future posters.

Yeah of course, but based on posting history I don’t think he’s BSing which is different. If posters get hammered every time they get a sniff of a rumour this place is going to become more boring than it’s already threatening to be! (The transfer thread that is).😉