east-stand-nic

I was at the semi final at WHL where we lost to Liverpool in extra time and Mark Wright broke his leg. Unlike the 1984 semi, we always new we were likely to lose this one, but still very disappointed on the day. Anyone else there?

Personally I expect Dragan will come over and shake the hell out of the place. He will not be happy that he is losing tens of millions in income streams next season. With any luck he will listen to sage advice and look to hire proper football people at the higher levels in the club. I have no idea who we could attract as we will not be such an attractive prospect for the big hitters. But it cannot be worse than what we have endured this season in terms of decision making. Personally, I still think we would have stayed up had we hired a proper football manager with experience and not messed around with NJ and Selles. For me though there is clearly something wrong within the club. The players moods and efforts are up and down like a yo-yo. This is not just managerial. I think there are some kind of issues in the club behind the scenes. Perhaps those at the top are thoroughly dis-likable? Perhaps they have just had the skills coached out of them and are downbeat. No question almost every player should leave as they have had enough of SFC. Sometimes you just have to move on for the sake of your mental health in life and i feel a lot of our squad have that kind of issue. Even without some of our so called big names, we have a good team for the championship and proven players at that level. With a broom to get rid of the crap and a decent manager in place, I for one am looking forward to nest season, though i will reserve judgement on that until i see what takes places in the summer.

I kind of admire those who still believe we can stay up. But is it just positive thinking for the sake of it or a fashion thing to support till you die sort of thing as there is no doubt whatsoever we will go down this season now. I felt we were down a few games ago, but a couple of false dawn draws and people get excited again, naturally. West Ham loss sealed our fate and personally I am glad. I truly believe we will have an interesting season in the championship as we have proven strikers from that level and some great youth team players we can blood in the league. Roll on next season, but then up pops the issue of promotion. Do we really want to straight back up and be fodder again?

I appreciate the opinion of others and kind of understand those that say it will not be a disaster if we draw. But, with 10 games left the time has come I think, to stop thinking like this. If we win, we have gotten a massive jump over them and taken 3 points away from a relegation rival. It also takes pressure of the team to have to win harder games. In my opinion, this simply is a must win. A defeat and we are down. A draw and we have made no progress and just got ourselves a harder task with one less game. I think we need at least 4 more wins.I think 36-37 will be needed to stay up. We need to win THIS game.

The hardest thing to predict is how many points will be enough? If Palace, Bournemouth, West Ham, Leicester and Forest keep up their recent form, they may only get something like 7 more points each at best. So, could 34/35 be enough? Personally I think we are down. Looking at the remaining fixture list and being as honest as i can be i see this... West Ham v Saints - Draw Saints v Man City - Lose Saints v Palace - Win Arsenal v Saints - Lose Saints v Bournemouth - Win Newcastle v Saints - Lose Forest v Saints - Draw Saints v Fulham - Draw Brighton v Saints - Lose Saints v Liverpool - Lose 9 more points. Total 32 and gone.

I believe the opposition makes little difference when we are at home. The players clearly have issues playing in front of the home crowd. Nervous, lacking confidence and hearing those negative remarks from some in the crowd. All these factors means we are crap at home and that ain't gonna change anytime soon. FWIW, I think we could well win this if we get Spurs on one of their flaky days and we are up for it. But with our negative bunch at SMS we really need to go in front early on to get the crowd onside. If I had to call it, I would go 1-2 sadly.

Unlikely as they are in with a real chance of Europe.

We should keep him as he has already confirmed he can score freely in the championship and that is where we will be. So we should keep him so he can help us to come back up the same as Burnley. As Champs!

Not seen a line up yet but going 4-1 United today.

Did he have a wrong foot?

Caballero KWP Bednarek. ABK. Perraud JWP. Lavia. Armstrong. Alcaraz. Che. Paul. An old experienced head in goal. Get at them with an attacking formation also. Let's not go there scared and defensive as it never works.

I have one of those weird positive feelings going on today. Feel quite certain we will win and play really well. Maybe I just want that to be true.