Saints vs Swansea - Saturday 1230

[DT]

52 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Presser: 

 

So uninspiring. Can't think how he doesn't motivate the players...

[Dman]

2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

 

Every single social media expert wants free flowing attacking football, but that is not reality

It is my job to get the best out of our attacking players

Finn Azaz - 12 goals 11 assists last season 

Tom Fellows - 4 goals 14 assists last season 

Adam Armstrong - 21 goals 13 assists last time in the championship. 

You've got the players, its your system (or lack of) that is holding us back, Will. 

[Paul_B]

I'm about as enthusiastic for this game as Still is in his press conference. 

Apathy FC.

Sell up SR or at least get some people in to run it who know about football and aren't cunts.

[benjii]

Still still making excuses based on last season.

Fucking pathetic.

Edited 5 hours ago by benjii

[Lighthouse]

Still wanted decent wide players to play his system. We signed Jelert, Mads, Fellows and Scienza to complement Edozie and Robinson. If we start another game with Fraser and Manning as wing backs and don’t win, it’s really time to start worrying.

[SouSaint]

24 minutes ago, benjii said:

Still still making excuses based on last season.

Fucking pathetic.

Seems out of his depth tbh. 

[AllyD]

13 minutes ago, SouSaint said:

Seems out of his depth tbh. 

Really we have decided that after 9 games! Our fans seem out of their depth!

[SouSaint]

5 minutes ago, AllyD said:

Really we have decided that after 9 games! Our fans seem out of their depth!

9 games and we are lucky to have two wins on the board despite a pretty nice run of fixtures. 

Fair enough if you've seen things that have encouraged you. 

[Harry_SFC]

Agree with others comments about playing the players we've signed to play a certain formation.

McCarthy, Roerslev, Wood, Quarshie (Edwards), Jelert; Charles, Jander; Fellows, Scienza, Armstrong; Archer. 

Can't stand the thought of having Armstrong through the middle but has to play out wide on current form. I'm sure Scienza could do a better job than Azaz in the hole at present. 

Had enough of constant defensive mistakes from Manning so if Welington still isn't ready I'd give Jelert a go. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Harry_SFC

[Football Special]

4 hours ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

“4/10 want him gone after 9 games into the season, now if we were in the bottom 3 then I can see why but when we are above mid table with 3 wins 3 draws and 3 losses that 40 % shows how many pretentious fans we have and I suspect most don’t even go”

Nope, that’s not a quote from a Saints fan, that’s a Swan from one of their boards…and they’re higher in the table than us - but echoes similar thoughts down here. Both sets of fans need a lift and present form reflected in the expected attendance for this, they took the smallest allocation of under 1,200 and sounds like they’ve sold less than a thousand to date. Plenty of home seats available too.

The shit 12:30 kick-off and on SKY+ ain’t helping.

We’ve got to get going at some point (surely) so 2-1 us.

Yeah bottom half championship, early kick off, ticket prices are too high - particularly for kids. 

Away corner holding just over 3000 will have about 900 in it leaving big 2k empty which is amplified by us having 1000 unsold either side of away fans as well. Probably be our lowest league attendance for a long time, 27k probably 

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, AllyD said:

Really we have decided that after 9 games! Our fans seem out of their depth!

To be fair he's a young inexperienced manager, he probably is out of his depth,  whether he can learn to swim in the choppy waters of the championship is TBC 

[benjii]

1 hour ago, AllyD said:

Really we have decided that after 9 games! Our fans seem out of their depth!

He's been as bad as Nathan Jones.

[Willo of Whiteley]

On 14/10/2025 at 19:36, AlexLaw76 said:

Looking forward to another 5 man defence, with a defensive midfield, and passes pumped from our defensive 3rd into Archer....

Should be a cracker

The negativity sometimes annoys me from AL but ironically he is probably spot on with this one 

[Sheaf Saint]

41 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Had enough of constant defensive mistakes from Manning 

Manning needs to be dropped purely on the basis of gifting Derby a goal by being too busy arguing with the Lino to even bother trying to defend. Absolute dickhead.

[die Mannyschaft]

If Saints players cant play free flowing attacking football then the club needs to look for manager in National league or Southern League Division On as the teams I've seen so far don't have any problems playing real football. I've got Saints and Eastleigh season ticket and get some Winchester City games in and the difference in standard of foot is huge. Saints are so negative and cant even shoot enough. For God sake just play football and stop looking at spreadsheets, PowerPoints and YouTube.

 

[saintstowin]

He's not going to get the party started is he? Even though it's not about the personality I'd like to see and hear something that might spark things into life. Even his positive messages are lost in his delivery. 

Sometimes calmness and understatement is a helpful mask for nerves. 

Personally I don't think any of these managerial duties sit well with Will.

I don't know if that's a problem or not, it's definitely not the biggest one right now.

Anyway. I almost forgot. It's 4 nil to Saints this weekend and Will's trip to the garden centre on Sunday will be epic.

[Osvaldorama]

1 hour ago, Football Special said:

Yeah bottom half championship, early kick off, ticket prices are too high - particularly for kids. 

Away corner holding just over 3000 will have about 900 in it leaving big 2k empty which is amplified by us having 1000 unsold either side of away fans as well. Probably be our lowest league attendance for a long time, 27k probably 

Not really surprising, even the derby was boring and expensive compared to previous years tbh. 
 

Awful supporting this club atm. Need the players to give the fans a a reason to go. 

[Verwood Saint]

50 minutes ago, Football Special said:

To be fair he's a young inexperienced manager, he probably is out of his depth,  whether he can learn to swim in the choppy waters of the championship is TBC 

Hard to disagree with this observation - although no doubt all genuine Saints fans wish him well.  

 

For me the real question remains - just why were SR / Dragon prepared to take this level of risk when there were clearly much 'safer' choices available to them, especially given the horrendous failure of the previous season and the inevitable harm done to players, staff and fans.

Assuming Will is 'still' in post at Christmas - SR / Dragon must buy a decent centre forward wherever we are in the league!

[UpweySaint]

1 hour ago, die Mannyschaft said:

If Saints players cant play free flowing attacking football then the club needs to look for manager in National league or Southern League Division On as the teams I've seen so far don't have any problems playing real football. I've got Saints and Eastleigh season ticket and get some Winchester City games in and the difference in standard of foot is huge. Saints are so negative and cant even shoot enough. For God sake just play football and stop looking at spreadsheets, PowerPoints and YouTube.

 

Is this a serious take? Would you have honestly been happy if, instead of a manager with Still’s background, we plumped for somebody from the Southern League?!?

I can get not rating still so far and being unhappy with the style of play but some of stuff posted on here this season has me baffled - this very much included!

[OneMrsWallace]

5 hours ago, Lard said:

Watched the presser live. 
it was frankly the most uninspiring drivel ever. 
excuse after excuse. 
no solutions to anything. 
almost resorting to blaming last season just like Martin and his ‘scar tissue’  bollocks. 
He is so fucking out of his depth at present.

doesn’t know his arse from his elbow.
and I wager that it transmits to the players. 
 
 

Plus some managers are capable of coming in and lifting a team immediately. That just hasn't happened. Something is not right and we will know in the next 2-3 games if Still has any chance of turning this around. I'll accept SR not bringing a decent striker in hasn't helped but this isn't the PL and we have enough to be winning games of football in this league. If he starts getting results then back him with a striker in January and kick on - but I'm probably being wildly optimistic on that becoming a reality. 

[suewhistle]

2 hours ago, saintstowin said:

He's not going to get the party started is he? Even though it's not about the personality I'd like to see and hear something that might spark things into life. Even his positive messages are lost in his delivery. 

Sometimes calmness and understatement is a helpful mask for nerves. 

Personally I don't think any of these managerial duties sit well with Will.

The film I saw of him coaching the players at Lens I thought showed him comfortable with them and confident and clear in his coaching.  The formal media stuff he obviously hates, and surely it will help when he can do an interview after a convinving win!

[Lighthouse]

2 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Manning needs to be dropped purely on the basis of gifting Derby a goal by being too busy arguing with the Lino to even bother trying to defend. Absolute dickhead.

Up there with Stephens’ red card against Chelsea for completely brainless, not even trying to play football, stupidity.

[qwertyell]

2 hours ago, Football Special said:

To be fair he's a young inexperienced manager, he probably is out of his depth, 

I mean, he's managed 136 games across three countries. He's not that inexperienced. 

Russell Martin had managed 179 when he took over here; Pochettino 161.

Maybe, all excuses aside, he's just not the right fit for a club with all kinds of deep-seated problems at this moment in time. 

[AlexLaw76]

6 minutes ago, qwertyell said:

I mean, he's managed 136 games across three countries. He's not that inexperienced. 

Russell Martin had managed 179 when he took over here; Pochettino 161.

Maybe, all excuses aside, he's just not the right fit for a club with all kinds of deep-seated problems at this moment in time. 

I just dont think he is very good. Kind of hung his hat on 'Rosco', which is evidently daft given his injury record. 

Signing Tom Fellows and play him at wing back, sign Finn Azaz and drop him after a couple of games, drop your CBs, Keeper etc...all in the space of 9 games. 

So it seems pre season, other than for fitness, was a bit wasted.

Edited 32 minutes ago by AlexLaw76

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

28 minutes ago, suewhistle said:

The film I saw of him coaching the players at Lens I thought showed him comfortable with them and confident and clear in his coaching.  The formal media stuff he obviously hates, and surely it will help when he can do an interview after a convinving win!

I reckon Will S is going to stumble in to a format that works and we'll go shooting up the league. Plan A with Ross Stewart up front started to look like a plan but there was a flaw! Plan B or C will work. He's got the players and I genuinely think that when things tick, he's not some arrogant knob like previous managers, he'll adapt and take us forward.

Just hope he's drilled in to the players to be more attack minded. When the ball is in their half, they can't score!

[suewhistle]

26 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

sign Finn Azaz and drop him after a couple of games, drop your CBs, Keeper etc...all in the space of 9 games. 

I thought most people wanted Bazunu dropped, for obvious reasons, similarly there have been complaints when a certain centre back has been played and THB being dropped has been due to his form. So I'm not sure what people want: are you saying people should be played regardless of form or fitness?