Stanley Saint

I don't think it's something that you want your chairman doing every week, but I've heard of it happening. I can see how in these circumstances it was worth doing. The crowd are just starting to turn because of the Stern John situation (although I thought the atmosphere on Tuesday was pretty good, considering) and, seeing as it is obviously Lowe who made that decision, he obviously felt that the players deserved some 'from the horse's mouth' explanation. I've got no axe to grind on the Lowe front, but I get a bit fed up on here when he can't win (damned if he does, damned if he doesn't). Spawn of Beelzebub he may be, but if we're as skint as it seems, he's got very little option but to pick and back a manager who wants to develop our home-grown players rather than sign 10 seasoned pros. Finally, I've been to a fair few matches this season and I have enjoyed most of them greatly. We're not a good team, yet, but the football we are trying to play is excellent. I like to watch quick passing to feet, cross-field diagonal balls, imaginative runs into space and overlapping full-backs. I like to see attacks which don't always end in a cross from a winger, generally caught by their keeper. I don't think I've seen Saints even attempt to play like this for a long, long time and I'm enjoying it. If we can cut out some of the comedy defending, we'll start to look a decent team.

I've got a Saints-fan mate who I swap texts with after every game to cheer each other up - the rule being that we're only allowed to be totally positive. I had nothing to send to him yesterday, but his message said: 'One of the hardest away days in football. Remember, it's only 25 years since Swansea were a major force in division 1'. Cheered me up, anyway

I'm really sorry to resurrect this thread, but you guys are just flossing over the serious issues.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, another season, another scape-goat. IMHO DMG brings something to the team. I thought he brought more to the table than Robertson yesterday. He has touch and vision (fantastic control from that floating mis-clearance yesterday, for example) and his flicks and turns are usually unexpected, wrong-footing defenders. He often seems to see the killer ball, but his delivery doesn't always match his vision. His weakness is that, at the moment, a lot of what he is trying doesn't quite come off, so the fans get on his back, label him arrogant etc. I agree that he might have been played more than necessary, but I think that he will be a class act when his confidence comes back. All forwards miss the seemingly easy chances sometimes, it's when they aren't getting any chances that you should worry. As for the one-on-one yesterday, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Any forward worth having believes they can beat the keeper from there, but, sadly, sometimes they don't.

Saint Charlie, I agree. I have no axe to grind about chairmen (couldn't give a toss, they're all self-centred PR-obsessed idiots as far as I can see), but I do like the way that JP has gone about things and I feel a pride in the team that I haven't felt for several years. I think it's because it feels like most of the players want to play for us (I know this illusion could well come crashing down round about January 1st); because they've come through the academy they feel more like 'our players' than the oddball collection of journeymen that we've had since the relegation season. Also, maybe because he's not an embittered hack of a manager, and we're his first English club, JP seems to have a genuine enthusiasm for the game which I find infectious. He's certainly far less guarded in his comments to the press than many of our ex-managers, and, watching him kick water-bottles about during the Blackpool game, I think he's as passionate as Pearson was.

I feel like I may be in a very small minority here (alright, completely on my own) but I thought BWP did a good job tonight. We looked much more dangerous with him on the left and Robertson in the centre than we did when Pekart was on, and if his shot just before half-time had been half an inch lower, we would have had two potential goals of the season in 20 minutes. There were moments in the second half when their defence had BWP, DMG, Lallana and Robertson all buzzing around them, playing diagonal balls etc that were amazing. Anyway, can't remember enjoying a match so much for a long time. Kelvin is king.

"James - 7: Thought he did well, looked soild at times." Does that mean he soiled himself at times? If so, that's a concern.

I am totally hooked on Dexter and am very much looking forward to the season 2 finale tomorrow. Have yet to see the wire, but am planning a 'box-set' binge when I can scrape together the cash.

Birmingham were undone by Blackpool at home today too. They must be crapping it!

Obviously I'd rather see us win, but I'd rather see us losing with a team trying to play football than losing with a team intent on lumping the ball 70 yards onto Paul Moody's head. That was what the Branfoot wars were about, and some of us vets haven't got over the trauma yet. At least in most of the games this season there have been passages of play when you think, well, if they keep playing like that, and stop getting bullied in defence, we might get somewhere. Mind you, it's the hope that kills you...

Are we signing Robert Downey Jr? Mind you, if Delago was 'Tin Man'...

I'm a walking reader too. I was so gripped by a chapter last night that I spent 5 minutes under a lamp-post and my chips went cold.

I think we missed Corianders Svensson today.

don't get gobi, the mods have already given this thread too much lassi-tude. Too many bad puns cumin one after another, it's enough to make me pasander the table.

aloo aloo, what's all this?

I liked that they played 'teenage kicks' at the end last night, presumably in reference to our youthful team and not just because it's a kick-ass tune.

Simon Gillett is the new Alan Ball.

Geoff Boycott told me to 'get off his foot' in a highly aggressive manner at the old county ground once. I was only about 7 and was being pushed onto his foot by about 50 hairy yorkshiremen, so it all seemed quite unfair. Mind you, in light of later shenanigans, I probably got off lightly.

I'm enjoying 'Imperium' by Robert Harris (though I'm not sure why, as the plot revolves entirely around an ancient Roman court case) and switching back to 'Lunar Park' by Bret Easton Ellis for a change of pace every once in a while.

'House of Sleep' very good, too

Use the Mozilla Firefox browser and the 'Fast Download Video' plugin. Saves the files as FLV files (flash video) which lots of media players can cope with.