Wes Tender

I often leave my seat after the 90 minutes, while added on time is being played. But do not confuse people leaving their seats early with people leaving the stadium early. I leave my seat higher in the stands and try and get a seat as close to the exits for the last few minutes so that I can dive out quickly, but the view I get is the same as that of others around me that have paid for those seats. Often two thirds of the way up the Northam stand, if one leaves at the final whistle, it can take ages to get to the exit. Many others do leave the arena early but watch the remainder of the game on the TV in the concourse, although if I did that, I would feel that I had missed out on the euphoria in the stadium if we scored. Regrettably, that is a possibility that is ever more unlikely with our current team.

I was on a Flybe flight to Jersey and the return last week. On the way out, the flight was delayed by fog at Southampton and I only got to begin my business over there after arriving at 12, from a flight scheduled for 8.30am. The fog was clear over Southampton way before that and you naturally suspect that they combined the earlier flight with the one for 11.10am. As others have surmised, things aren't exactly rosy for the airlines and perhaps these are their excuses for a get-out. If they discontinue their sponsorship, does that mean that they will have to change the livery on the Matt Le Tissier plane?

I think that you're right. I have a feeling that as the loophole does exist, they will have to abide by it and then change the rules afterwards. Because of this, we might be the lucky ones, despite how agrieved some other club might be. Fingers crossed that that is what will be decided.

It just goes to show that despite all the factionalised wrangling over the past few years, we are all united in our love for our club and will not quietly sit back and allow it to sink into oblivion if there is anything we can do to save it. The Spirit of Southampton has lain dormant recently and is resource that can be tapped by the right people to propel ourselves forward once more.

Did I miss something, or was the attendance at the Nottingham Forest game a prerequisite for those wishing to buy tickets for the ManUre game? I am still confident that we will have attendances similat to that this last weekend, despite the next home game being on a Bank Holiday Monday. Let's see who's right.

You live in some sort of dream world. Merchant bankers are the financial equivalent of teachers; the ones who can, do, and those who can't teach, or work in Merchant Banking. Both Michael Wilde and Leon Crouch built up their own businesses and both achieved a far greater success in their enterprises than Rupert Lowe, when he dabbled in his own business, a fairly small and insignificant retirement homes business. We are definitely not talking McCarthy Stone here; it was a minnow of a business, but conveniently for those charlatans comprising the former board, a PLC. As for your contention about these Merchant Bankers (presumably you mean Lowe and Cowan) they only came upon the scene this past decade, whereas we had been punching above our weight for about 17 years before they arrived when the club was run by accountants, builders and solicitors. so much for your argument that Merchant W*nkers are the chosen ones! Why, even some of Lowe's other businesses have hit the rocks recently. That must be fault of their customers, eh, as the business accumen of Merchant Bankers is beyond reproach.

No. You're right. The rest of the responsibility lies with Askham, Richards, Gordon, Wiseman, Wilde, etc, not forgetting of course the blame that attaches to us, the fans. But in true Harry Truman form, as he so sensibly and cogently accepted when he was President of the US, the sign on his desk indicated that "the buck stops here" and the same applies here with Lowe. But hopefully he's history now and having had a few days to dance upon his grave metaphorically, I'm all for putting that particular bad dream behind me and looking forwards with renewed optimism that sooner or later we can begin to move forward again.

This is total nonsense. The crowd of 28000 was immense and shows the potential that we have at this club. Anybody who is going to come in now and take us over, is likely to be either an existing fan, or will have done their research thoroughly and will therefore know that there was a large contingent of fans who were boycotting the games just because of Lowe. They will also see and hear that many fans have made financial contributions in our hour of need and that this financial help was not forthcoming while Lowe was here and our need was just as great. So a few fans left early when we were 3 goals down to the bottom team. That is a message to the manager to get his act together and if he is not capable of putting forward a team and a strategy to win a match like that, then he should at least seek advice from the many people associated with the club who are capable of giving that advice. It becomes more imperative with every match. Although many walked away from St Marys disappointed on Saturday, I am confident that they will all return for the remaining couple of matches and that the other fund raising initiatives will show any potential buyer how much passion there is in this city for our club.

Great idea. As it was, having bought the tickets for the Charlton match at a reduced rate, I had already decided that I would pay the £18 saving back to the club.

It is my firm belief that if a consortium of Askhmam, allied to any of the original board that sold the club down the river at the time of the reverse takeover, were to buy the club from the receivers, then the stadium would revert to being one third full. Yesterday showed clearly the number of absentees there were because of Lowe and the Quisling. That number of boycotters would be nothing compared to the number if that leeching parasite Askham took over. If it becomes apparent to us that the receiver is even considering a bid from those charlatans, then it would be up to us to tell him in no uncertain terms that we will operate a mass boycott of the matches.

Having gone back to attending with my son now that the demon Lowe is gone, I look at our current position from two diverse perspectives and am not that disheartened at the loss today. You see, I am looking at the longer term picture and although the match today was a disappointment, in the plus column we have more cause for encouragement and optimism than we have had for some years. Because we have unshackled ourselves from being a PLC, also got shot of the main hindrance to inward investment in the club, we are now a bargain basement buy for somebody and there appears to be plenty of interest being shown in us. Whether anything really good comes of it remains to be seen, but personally I feel that the longer term prospects are much brighter. The attendance today was nothing short of astonishing and shows that there was indeed a significant element of boycotters solely because of Lowe who were willing to return once he was gone. Surely we must have generated some decent profits today to offset the deficit a little and if we have similar gates for the other two home matches, we will earn ourselves a little breathing space on the financial front. What was the shame, was the team that Wotte picked and the way it played. It was only during the last 15 minutes that it seemed to play with the necessary urgency. If we are to survive, we need to play like that for all 90 minutes. Whoever gave away that stupid penalty should be bloody grateful that Davies saved his bacon and not be so stupid and naive the next time. We played with a total lack of width yet again, much as we have all season. I have almost given up hope of seeing a Saints team playing with wide men who get to the byeline and then put in crosses. We were unfortunate with Holmes' injury, but letting Dyer go was just plain stupid. Perhaps Lowe allowing the hapless Poortvliet to stay in charge as long as he did, meant that we had already sank too low to save ourselves and I don't have total confidence in Wotte either. I wonder what we might have achieved if we hadn't wasted time and money on the dross they brought in that has not performed and instead brought in some decent players experienced at this level and in this division. What exactly have Robertson (apart from one incredible debut goal), Peckart, Gasmi, Molyneux, Ryan Smith and Pulis brought to the team? And so I have still only witnessed one win at St Mary's all season, as I had boycotted a couple of matches that Wotte had won. But I will be attending the other two remaining home games and praying that the Charlton game can be excused because it came too close to Lowe's departure and after the two week lay-off because of the International break. But regardless of whether we win, lose or draw, whether we are relegated or survive this division, I pledge my support to whatever team that wears the red and white from now on, providing that Lowe has nothing further to do with the club. But I hope that the fans get the team that they deserve, one that is prepared to fight for us and always give their best efforts whenever they wear the shirt.

I go away all week to see clients in Jersey and when I come back, I can scarcely believe that the most divisive person in the club's entire history has gone at last. I promised to renew my ST the minute it happened, but there are only 3 home games remaining now. But I will certainly be back with a ST next season regardless of which division we are in. I am buying tickets for myself and my son this morning for today's match and will also go to the other two matches. As many are aware, I was one of those boycotting matches the last couple of months because of Lowe. For the first time in a long time, I am optimistic that the fortunes of the club will finally improve, even if it might be too late to save us from the drop this season. I am confident that many will feel like me, that they are prepared once more to put money into the club by attending matches, buying merchandise, etc. Previously many were restrained in doing that by the thought that they were saving Lowe's bacon and putting money into his pockets. We can now hopefully get greater attendances and a spirit of unity to propel the team towards safety and the club towards financial stability, so that we are in a good position for somebody to buy us and take us forward.

I have been going to the Islands on business for over thirty years. Whenever the subject of Matt comes up, I do not recall ever hearing that Matt was better than his brothers, especially Carl. Had we signed all three, we might have been European Champions.

Yes, we have. Except now the difference would be that in the event of administration, none of them would have any value in their shares. They could form their own little consortium, I suppose, but these are mostly people who have historically shown very little inclination to put their hands into their own pockets, exept for Wilde, who probably doesn't have much dosh anymore. As for people like Askham and Richards, their shareholdings cost them amounts that I could easily write a cheque for and not worry too much about. I wonder how inclined they might be to really put something significant in, if there were other people/consortia interested?

Naturally they would be looking for a return eventually, but it is a question of emphasis for me. As I say, unless somebody wished to buy the entire club earlier, Lowe wouldn't relinquish his chairmanship, so what would be in it for somebody to put their money into the club when they didn't have full control? Lowe's policies are the biggest single factor in our current parlous state and there would be no guarantee that the club didn't go into receivership anyway and their money would be lost. If somebody did the sensible thing and waited to buy the club for a much smaller outlay, bought it delisted, rid of Lowe and the other charlatans, then there would be much more scope to make the club a going concern and build it back gradually and hopefully gaining a profit on promotion back to the Premiership. Provided that Lowe was gone, I suspect that support would increase with a half decent manager and we still do have a decent infrastructure in place down here, especially if the skates were relegated.

Don't I recall that Wayne Bridge had set some sort of record for the number of continuous complete games that he played when he was here?

Why would anybody put money into the club to save it, when they could buy the club for much less after it had gone into administration? Do you really think that Lowe and Co would stand aside and let anybody who did this take over the chairmanship? On that basis, what reason would anybody have to put money into the club now? They'd have to be idiots. Anyway, they wouldn't be waiting to make financial gain. Rather more a case of not pouring their money down the drain. And I for one would welcome anybody apart from Lowe, the Quisling, Askham, Richards, etc who wished to put any of their own money into re-starting the club after administration.

Would the land at Jackson's Farm and around the stadium still belong to the club, or would they be put up for sale as assets to be sold to pay off creditors? Anyway, as I said earlier, it would be up to the fan base to make it plain to the administrator that we would boycott the club en masse if Lowe returned, so that he would consider other options as being more viable.

I agree in general. On the one hand, I know that the Police do over react in some situations like this and I agree that the blanket filming of fans instead of specific targeting of those causing a disturbance is provocative. On the other hand, I am always dismayed at the decline in society so that a kid so young is using language like this and carries on as if it is normal, which it probably is in his family background. We're given to believe that his father is "well respected". By whom? Even if he is respected in his place of work, his neighbourhood, he certainly does not appear to have much support about the way that he is bringing up his kid.

Provided that there were other options open to the administrators than to have Lowe back in charge, I think that it would soon become clear both that Lowe having had us relegated once before and secondly that he was divisive of the fan base, the paying customers of the business, then he would not be the best choice for them. If push comes to shove and we find ourselves in administration, it is up to us to make a convincing case that if Lowe returns we will boycott the matches in large numbers, that he is not an acceptable choice. Anyway, previously Lowe has hardly put anything into the club money wise and having lost the value of his shares, hopefully he will be true to form and unwilling to put his hands into his own pockets. Maybe he will do another reverse takeover using one of his other small businesses.

No, Gemmel. It isn't just you. Likewise I really can't feel that bothered about it all. I began to feel this way the minute Lowe and the Quisling returned and dismissed Pearson. Earlier in the season, there was still an expectation that the failure of the mad experiment with the double Dutch would have resulted in a mass boycott which would have precipatated the departure of Lowe and Wilde, but instead of boycotting in serious numbers, we pussyfooted around with marches instead. Lowe being so thick skinned and stubborn in the head, it was water off a duck's back to him. He has persevered and now that the end of the season is nearly upon us, I just feel numb. At the moment, I really don't feel that bothered whether we go down, go into administration, whatever it takes to rid us of Lowe, Wilde, Askham and all the other dross that has brought about the decline of our once great club. Once they're gone, I'll return with a ST, but if we somehow manage to survive and they remain, I won't be attending next season.

This has got to be one of your weaker responses in a debate, Frank. So when we were in the Premiership watching the likes of Bolton, it cost the same as it does now to watch the likes of Blackpool, Swansea, Plymouth, Doncaster, etc, the difference being that although you might have considered it a chore watching a boring draw against Bolton one week, the next week you would be watching ManUre, Liverpool, Chelski, Arsenal, etc. for a similar amount. And even when we were in the lower reaches of the Premiership, which was more often than not, we still gained entertainment at a much higher level than this, even at the same time as we were being soundly beaten, as we watched World stars like Viera, Cantona, Beckham and Bergkamp. From time to time, we would beat teams containing such stars, such as the 6-3 thrashing of United, or the 4-0 against Middlesbrough with Juninho, Ravenelli and Emmerson playing and victory would be so much sweeter. You bet we expect to be entertained for our money! If we are paying the same as we were in the Premiership and watching the youth team playing Doncaster, then it might just be justified if we were playing scintillating football and hammering teams like that every week. But of course, we are not.

Of course I looked at the OS. Following your comment that it is all over the front page of the OS, I had thought that perhaps they read this thread and had done something about it, but having looked again, it is still not there on my computer. How it is on yours and not mine is a mystery to me.

Yes, you're right. That was the game that I still had to cough up £48 for but still didn't see a win and came away thinking what a load of crap it was. I was away last weekend for the QPR match but seemingly didn't miss much according to the reports on here. I might be pursuaded to go to the Charlton match if I can get it at a saving of £18 for us. But it doesn't appear to be well publicised, does it? Even now, if you go onto the OS there is no mention of it except in that archive link.