Mowgli

He's absolutely right. What Saints have traditionally lacked (I think the young guns will deal with this better than the old pros) is consistency. Believing you can win is simply not enough. You have to go out and play like you are 1-0 down with ten minutes to go; and you have to do that throughout the game whatever the score. It's a combination of belief and sheer hard work that will turn us into consistent winners. Never take your foot off the gas. Ever.

Too right we will see it again. It won't happen every season but 1 in 15 is fine by me

Great day out though. Just why I love being a Saints fan.

That's fair enough and although the comment was not directed at me I have to say I do find all three threads bizarre. Are we really that mean and vindictive to feel the need to constantly drag up our apparent dislike for these ex managers? I'm sure it's not good for the health. My gran always used to say if you haven't got anything nice to say don't say anything at all ;~)

Sorry that should read 'very rarely talks about himself...'

Can't argue with much of that. JP seems to talk a good game by praising players when they do well and criticising them when they don't. The only thing that seems to really rattle him is lack of effort. He ver talks about himself - positive or negative - and that is a good thing because it is the team that we should focus on. I thinkthere are some basic 'attitude' issues that he is trying to address alongside the defensive frailties and the missed goalscoring opprotunities. He has a tough job and he is not doing bad considering the resources at his disposal.

Not sure it really tells me that much. Of course that excludes the cup ties which were won 2 lost 1. Agreed this is asgainst CCC teams not premiership but that is cancelled out by the fact that JP has pretty much had to work with zero budget. I wonder how the other managers would have fared with the youth team of the time....

That is a good point but since SMS (and most other CCC pitches) always looks immaculate through the winter and we heavily sprinkle the pitch throughout the year to put a zip on the ball I'm not sure it's much on an issue. Still, we'll find out over the bext couple of months.

Sounds like a young team learning to me

I respect your views on Skacel and we'll not really know until he gets a chance to prove himself on the pitch. Hopefully he will get that chance. What I am impressed by is how the existing players give it their all for 90 minutes. If they don't Jan will drop them but whilst they do, he keeps them on the pitch because that is the best way they will learn from their mistakes. Frustrating for us - particularly when you see a Coventry side take us apart with apparent ease but there is a long term plan and you just have to hope they learn quickly enough to keep us up!

Crikey. Where are you sitting? We have a guy who would rather stay at Saints drawing an inflated salary than be pretty much gaurenteed a game elsewhere. A guy that has spent most of this season on the injury table and most of last underperforming. We have a team of fired up youngsters who are unbeaten in 4 games and you want to switch?????? I think I trust JP on this one!

For all the talk of needing an experienced spine through the team it is the kids that continue to hog the headlines. It's almost as though they are saying hey, we're a team that's developed over a few years - we don't need our hands held at this level. Watch us and we'll prove we are good enough on our own.

Highlights can be misleading. We deserved the win. Luck did not come into it until the penalty decision. Before Kelvin made his double stop (just before the penalty), they had hardly had a shot on goal. 1-0 would have been a fair result with 22 players on the pitch but against 10 men we really should have had 4 or 5. I'm not complaining though.

I've never really subscribed to this debate. I'm not sure which is the worse 'holier than thou' attitude - the ones that say I'm a better fan cos I go or the ones that say I'll never come back whilst Lowe is there. The reality is we get low crowds because we have no household names and too many defeats. If JPs plan works (and I think it will) then the wins will come, our youngsters will start to become good role models / household names and the fans will return.

That's not an unusual angle at all. The question is, has this lack of community identity contributed to the sterlisiation of our beloved game (along with Sky money and russian mafia chiefs etc). Personally I started supporting Saints because I had pride (and still have pride) in the City where I grew up. To compete with all the big name foreigners in the Premiership, we need to develop a unique angle which will help us survive. If home grown players cannot get in at Man Utd or Chelsea the hope is that they will see an opportunty to play regular first team football with us and develop their career. Let's face it, unless someone takes that responsibility, where will our England players of the future come from? Ideally I would like to see a good Saints side taken all from local schools but that is not realistic. This is the next best thing.

Amonst all the dross on here following the Rotherham result this appears to be the only post worth responding to. Why? Because I had a similar conversation with someone at the Ipswich game. If you had a million would you invest it in Saints? (no) Would it make a difference (no). The same conclusion at £10 million. If you had £100 million you might put £10million in but in reality that would do no more than give us the chance to gamble for a year on big name players on big salaries in the hope that we would get promoted. We've tried that. Listen I'm as disappointed as everyone else but the only sugar daddy that will do us any good is the one with bottomless pockets. And where is the fun in that? I've followed Saints to the old First Division, back down, back up, into Premiership, down and to the bottom of the CCC. It's been this bad many times before, or at least seemed like it. Sometimes you just have to accept that in the cycle of things we will have a few bad years before the good times return. Believe me they will return. Throwing our dummies out of the pram (and we all have our favourite dummies managing the club) will serve no useful purpose. Once, in the dim and distant past, before instant fame and success, teams won things by actually working with what they had as opposed to changing managers and boards every other week. It's harder but far more rewarding to witness. It's particular hard when you have a result like tonight (but we last lost to Rotherham two years before that giddy Cup Final run) but that is where good coaches show their worth. We have a whole team of those at SMS - not just JP.

Yes I'm still enjoying it. I sense there is a decent long term plan here and providing we hold our nerve and stick to that plan we will come good. Mid table survival will do me fine this year. At the beginnnig of the season everyone said it would take a couple of months for the players to start delivering so let's see.

Funny we should be discussing this when Magilton was the best sideways / back passer ever to wear a Saints shirt. It's all about keeping possession and if you can't penetrate, moving back and starting the move again often works. I did hold my head in my hands last night when they went back and THEN lost possession. Not too smart. But I still say there is a system here that the young players are learning and after the equaliser, the confidence just vapourised for half and hour or so. I just hope JP can lift them back up for Saturday.

I was sort of hoping that this was a thread about how easily the opposition were getting into the corners to deliver killer crosses, or how we could stop conceding corners. Even how we could improve our own deliveries from corners. Nope. We want to talk about plastic seats that we can't get too. Oh well. To be honest, it is not something that has really occured to me as a big issue but maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick.

I win in 5. Te facts don't lie. The season has barely started.

Spooky. Someone on a radio phone in Wednesday called him the Transit (aka made in southampton). Good idea tho although I think we are grasping at straws if we have to rely on an EX player to claim fame for something

There's a big difference between being not guilty and being acquitted. Those who saw the video will have their own views. But let's move on. What he does on the pitch is more important.

A flawed argument. Anyone who has worked with animals will know that markings change considerably over time. Leopards are no exception. Leopard cubs have simple spots when they are kittens but are more like rosettes when they mature. There, you'll sleep easier knowing that won't you?

The article is pretty good and does illustrate a very fine line between arrogance and consistency of thinking. The bit that intrigued me most was making the same decisions when you're 4th as 18th. He may be right and it may explain why we did not invest after the Cup Final. I hate to keep beating the man with that stick but it did seem to be a turning point in our fortunes. Easy for me though to look back and say that - he was the one with the responsibility at the time.

Eh? Hardly a personal attack. As long as I can remember chants have developed at football grounds that do not necessarily reflect true feelings of fans. On a lighter note 'it's just like watching Brazil' has always been sung tongue in cheek. I think it is a fair comment to say some (particularly younger) fans do join in chants without thinking - I don't think it belittles them, it's just an indication how the atmosphere at football games pulls people along. A cynic would call it sheep mentality. A realist would just describe it as people having fun.