Fitzhugh Fella

It will put off some - but were they, in the light of that, ever serious and even if they were, would we prosper with such "fickle" owners? Relegation can be overturned within 12 months - just look at Leicester. If I was rich enough to be "in the bidding" it would not put me off - I would just hold back a bit and re-adjust my offer. I reckon (and I stress this is just my thoughts here) there is an elaborate game of "poker" taking place between Fry/the bank/Aviva/consortiums and the results of the games on a weekly basis, just re-arrange the stakes slightly. If, any of the consortiums involve well-connected fans (and I think at least one does) then I like to think "a deal can be done" to stop us folding but it might (as happens in any game of poker) go down to the last deal or even the last card. That will be a worry.

Clapham - I am in no doubt Lowe said it because of the 100% integrity of the person who heard it and reported it back to me and also the fact that Lowe promptly carried out his threat of singing from the rafters when it happened. It was not very clever of Lowe and indeed could I suppose be a form of insider trading except even then the shares were virtually valueless. However for what its worth I do not believe Lowe did this to spite us, that is not in his makeup. I genuinely think he carried on completely deluded that Barclays would not carry out their threat to pull the plug and that somehow he would save the day.

I was told then (in fact the day after) but to be honest I could hardly come on here and spout it off could I? And I don't know the second part of your question - I guess that perhaps none of our players were wanted by other clubs.

A good 6 weeks before it actually happened Lowe was - informally - telling "people" that it was likely the club would "cease trading". He also told the same people that "when it happened he would would shout from the rooftops naming all those to blame".

It's a manager's job to send the players out in the right frame of mind - it seems he failed. Sure the players have got to take a lot of blame but so must Wotte.

Well that sounds like Wotte was not doing his job.

You should have seen the Painted Wagon in its real heyday around 1975. The Saints coaches to away matches used to leave from outside around midnight. You can imagine how couth the departure was.

Thanks for the vote of confidence John. Unfortunately both Wilde and Lowe were a bit more than a footnote - hence our predicament.... but yes, I know what you mean.

There is no disgrace in losing as long as you give it your best shot. If the players did not do that today then quite frankly it is scandalous. We are fighting for our very existance and it sounds like the players couldn't give a damn. Ted Bates must be turning in his grave.

All we want now is Alpine and FC to book a skiing holiday together....... Today has been tough I felt wretched and full of hate towards Lowe an hour ago but you know what this is now about Saints survival as a club, Lowe is history.

Lot of sobering reading in today's Echo - even L Mac, in his column, is admitting things are a lot worse than originally thought.

Sorry - I had to laugh at this. D

There were others Robbie, that Lowe and Wilde could not accept.

No you are quite right Steve - I think between September and December Leon Crouch started to see the liklihood of both relegation and administration and started to be more active in his "manouvering", "agitating" - call it what you will. A letter was sent and it was rejected due to the "strings" contained therein. The letter's existance remained a secret for a couple of months - hence the discrepancy in the timing.

Last September Leon Crouch was pretty sure there was no investors on the scene. His message to me was we have just got to grin and bare it, hope we don't go down sort of thing. Of course he very much wanted Wilde and Lowe out but was not sure how he could make it happen.

Christ I agree too

Not true - LC told me as far back as last September he was very dubious that Fulthorpe could deliver what was being touted around.

Leicester and quite possibly Leeds will probably be playing in a higher division than us plus of course Leeds had the "fun" bit beforehand - something Lowe's prudence (not knocking him here) denied us.

I accept it is bizarre. Probably because not everyone understands the implications but Wash Saint, I think it a case of seeing how other clubs have emerged out of the ashes of administration and gone on to better things. If it happens to us (BIG IF) then those fans who you label as being "beyond belief" will be vindicated. I guess we will just have to wait and see which way (to use an American term) "the cookie crumbles".

HI Frank I think it is quite hard to put into words why Lowe attracted such strong emotions. I guess it is for a variety of reasons. Speaking totally personally now, on the one occasion we communicated I found him pompous, arrogant, ill-mannered and a bully. He refused to budge an inch in debate and never admitted he was wrong. He literally had no redeeming qualities. Now I admit he didn't like my views or the way I challenged him but he was unable to discuss our differences civilly. In fact his debate involved talking over me and then calling me a name. It is little wonder after this exchange I didn't like the man. However I think I could have lived with all this if he had stuck to being a Chairman in the old fashioned sense of the word ie not having the FINAL say in football matters. Unfortunately he started getting too involved in footballing decisions and although he may have got a few right, he got a lot more wrong and hence the beginning of the end. I think had he not gone the first time we would not now be in administration because no doubt the actions of the execs contributed massively to that but Lowe's mis management post Cardiff had already embarked SFC down the rocky road and because so many of us were desperate to see him go (understandable) we did not check the lifeboat too carefully.

Sincerely hope you are right, Morph I still have a few doubts but I always was a glass half empty sort of chap - comes with supporting Saints!

But that was never looking like happening?

He got a lot of stuff from Lee Hoos, assumed it was genuine and passed on what he could to the forum without giving the game away. I don't think he took any perverse pleasure in being considered ITK -he's not that sort. The Allen affair had everyone at the club believing and for that we can blame Tom Mac who duped Crouch, Hone et al. Lee's a good bloke who got sucked in because he wanted (like most of us) to believe we were going places.

A fair and accurate synopsis. It's a shame because Lee's heart is certainly in the right place.