Bourne Valley Saint

Absolute class - hats off to whoever put that together. Still laughing my head off - it was difficult trying not to let my six year old daughter read it over my shoulder. Off to St Marys now. Quality.

What a waste of a day! From Salisbury - train - tube (3 x changes) - bus - train - taxi (pub) - taxi and vice versa (missing out the pub on the way back). Totally inept performance by Saints but it has been coming - Wycombe at home, Leeds away, Exeter home and now today. Yes we beat Wycombe and Exeter but only just and we were far from convincing. Today was gutless until the last 15 minutes when all appeared lost. I don't understand why you come on here slagging off Colchester. Decent ground, decent stewards, decent and noisy fans, free bus back to the station. Decent football side who know better than we do just how to get out of this league. Yes, they wasted time and play acted but who doesn't. If we hadn't reacted to their antics, we would have escaped the two senseless bookings for squaring up to their players and causing a mellee. As for the ball boy incident - you pr**ks must be really proud of yourselves. Our support was disappointing for the numbers who were there but to be fair, the team hardly gave us anything to cheer. All in all a crap day.

He was a little unlucky to be sent off. I spoke to a league referee at the end and he said it was harsh. I thought Tafazolli played well amongst a young Salisbury defence who were under the cosh for 86 minutes!

Totally agree with SFKA SOUTH WOODFORD above - I gave it my all during the early stages of the game but it soon became apparent that the team were incapable of stringing two passess together let alone applying any pressure on the Swindon goal. I think our only chance of the first half fell to Lambert after a defensive error by Swindon. We were absolute SHlte and, yes, I booed when we started passing it back to Davis instead of forwards because our players didn't have the ability or intelligence to make space or manage a decent pass. I've been watching Saints for years and that was one of the worst performances I have ever seen. Why Pardew didn't change it at half time I don't know - he must have had his reasons and I'll give him a chance to show what he can do, but some of the players were toatlly inept and should be embarassed to have performed like that in front of 3000 fans, who from where I was sitting in the stand, gave pretty good support throughout the match despite watching such utter crap! I think 50 points were required last season to avoid relegation from this league, so we need 59 more. 1 from 3 games is not a good start. We need an average of 1.37 per game. Who fancies we can manage that?

Perhaps if the club sent out a few reminders to last year's season ticket holders that would help sales! I had 3 last season and haven't renewed as yet. I'd completely forgotten about it until a mate rang and reminded me a couple of days ago.

Saints were appaling last night, especially so in the first half. A big lumbering forward like Robbie Matthews caused mayhem in our defence and we'll come across plenty like him in League 1. Perry and Lancashire together will not work. We gave away possession far too easily - Salisbury were much more composed on the ball. Their fifth goal came from our throw in where we lost possession in about 3 seconds. I know that we have the likes of Lallana, Gillett, Schneiderlin, Holmes, etc. to come in but some of the players last night will be playing and they just don't seem good enough. I didn't think Stern John was very impressive and Saga was just as bad. Second half when Mills went into midfield and Patterson came on, at least we looked like scoring and eventually did! Not optimistic about our chances after this showing.

We've actually got to win two games in succession to have the faintest of chance of staying up. Anyone who was at Sheff W on Saturday will know that scenario will be virtually impossible.

Went up with four mates from Salisbury by train. £46.00 train fare, £27.00 match ticket, £30.00 booze and grub. Best part of £100.00 spent. Good day out as usual, apart from the 90 minutes from 3.15 to 5.00 p.m. We met Sam Vokes's dad in the pub before the game - Saints fan through and through, so is Sam Did you see how he didn't really celebrate when he scored? Saints could have had him. That just about sums us up! A pitiful performance yesterday, reminiscent of Burnley the way we started. Game all over after 15 minutes. Fair play to the fans who stayed for the duration but there was nothing to cheer or get excited about. I've got a ticket for Sheff W but cant get excited about it. Just be watching the further demise of our once great club. What a sorry state of affairs. Almost an embarrasment to be linked with the club.

Let's now hope that all the stayaways who have used Lowe as the excuse for not attending will show up for the remainder of the season and beyond. Perhaps if they'd turned up earlier we wouldn't be in this mess!! Chicken and egg situation.

A bloke lit up behind me in the Kingsland on Saturday. He asked the bloke next to him if he minded and the bloke said he did and that if the stewards saw him he'd be chucked out. He had a couple of puffs and put it out fortunatley as I was just about to point out to him that it was against the ground regulations. Ignorant **** seeing as I also had my 4 and 5 year old girls sitting right in front of him. As I had the children with me I left one minute before time and watched the last bit on the tv screen on the concourse. The bloke I ended up standing next to had a fag on the go and the smoke was wafting across our faces, so I moved away. What is it with these ignorant people that they think they can flout the laws just so they can satisfy their craving? I've also taken the girls to the loo at half time (Gents toilet - but they are very young) only to walk into a smoke filled cubicle because the previous occupant has been having a crafty fag. I know that there are some people who can't go more than 45 minutes without a fag so rather than inflict their habit on the rest of us, please just stay away.

It would have been 2 more but my mate and I aborted on Pepperbox Hill between Salisbury & Southampton. Cars and lorries were becoming stuck on the slopes on both sides and the snow was settling. Goodness knows what it will be like for the poor fans on their way home. We advised our mates who drove down earlier to catch the train home. Should this have been called off yesterday or earlier today? I think so and the size of the crowd will probably reflect that. People do travel far and wide to watch Saints and I think a lot of people wont have even attempted the journey to St Marys.

Don't look round but very carefully place your handbag over there before that f**ker behind you steals it! (Pushed wrong button - ignore above post - ***t)

Don't look round but very carefully place your handbag over there before that f**ker behind you

Some on here have to justify their existence with an opinion on everything and like nothing more than seeing their own words in print. The more opinionated they are the more posts they submit - mostly besmirching the people running the club. They end up hijacking nearly every thread because they are unable to find anything positive to say, so they have to have a go at the chairman, or the board, the management, players, ex players, etc. Sometimes posting in excess of 30 comments a day, these people are driving many supporters away from this forum and because many have departed, fed up with their ranting, squabbling, nit-picking, point scoring, etc., they claim they speak for the majority. The majority of what? The majority of the hyper-critical posters left on here - that's what! If only half of them actually bothered to get off their ar5es and watch a match, then at least some of their opinions would be subjective, not hearsay. They deride the club whilst putting sweet fa themselves into it. Just by turning up for a match we, the loyal fans, are accused of being Lowe luvvies, punchdrunk, blinkered, defeatist or not having anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon. The club are in the ****e big time but it happens. It's happened to bigger and better clubs than us and there will be plenty more going through what we are currently going through in the next 12 months. Get over it and start supporting the club when they need it most instead of coming on this board criticising every aspect of it.

Is our debt really that bad? Surely, when we built the stadium, we took out a mortgage over a period of time - 20 years? We still owe £25m apparently. The stadium is an asset. It's not as if we are Hull City who do not own their stadium but which is owned by the council. The stadium generates income through gate receipts. I know there is a break even figure of about 18000 which we are not making at present but surely that can be addressed at some not too distant date. If I were the creditor lending money to SFC, I wouldn't think we were too high a risk at present. Overheads have been dramatically reduced, crowd levels are not falling below 15000 (the last 2 games well above that - incentives aside) and we have the stadium as an asset. If the banks try and call in their debt now, they will lose a lot of money as we can't repay it and what value has a stadium except to a football club! Surely it is in the bank's interest for us to continue trading. I shall await the responses of our financial experts on here.

I thought our support was excellent yesterday. I suppose Reading had about 3000 so that made 17000 Saints fans - more than usual which is a good sign. For those that didn't attend through choice yesterday, well you missed a cracking game full of passion and commitment - even McGoldrick showed some steel and effort which paid off! I can understand some peoples reluctance to attend following the Forest game but surely if you have a season ticket it has got to be worth going - just in case we put in a decent performance as we did yesterday. It only took to the second post to turn this thread into an anti-Lowe theme. 17000 Saints fans went home fairly happy yesterday. For those that can't see beyond their anti-Lowe spectacles - you are inadvertently helping the demise of the club you say you love. The club are trying their hardest to get out of this mess and if another 5000 turn up each week and support the club as did the 17000 yesterday, there might be some hope for the future. You wont be seen as a Lowe luvvie if you turn up, no-one in authority will be laughing at you - you will be just another supporter along with the rest of us.

I'm sure there would be plenty of genuine Mancs as well as thousands of plastic Mancs who would pay £15.00 to guarantee a ticket to see "their" team. Tickets for most Man U games are very hard to come by. As soon as the draw was made, I had a Man U mate from Manchester ring requesting tickets. I told him to contact hospitality as it not worth the risk of losing my season ticket if he gets excited when Utd score! Actually, i've just had a phone call from a lady at the hospitality at Saints reference the Forest game and she states that they have been inundated all day with requests for tickets for the Man U game and a sell out is expected. Sorry to disappoint you Stanley but it would seem that not everyone is boycotting the game, so some much needed funds are coming the club's way. The fact that you are not contributing a penny is your decision but don't come on here berating the club if they have to sell their best players such as Lalana, Surnam and Davis (for your info as you probably have never seen them play) to avoid going into administration.

So if you turned up for this game, you wouldn't object to having a load of plastic Mancs sitting next to you because they were able to buy tickets on the back of dodgy membership applications. Are you going to the match or do you despise Lowe & co so much that not even the prospect of a day in the limelight for our beleaguerd club against the European champions will allow you to enter St Marys?

England are supposed to pick the best players available at the given time........... so why not give Kelvin a call up to the squad. Not even his fiercest critic could deny he has had anything but a brilliant season so far. His shot stoppoing is second to none, his judgement in coming for crossess and dealing with them has been a vast improvement on last season and he is one of few golkeepers (if not the only one I've seen) who can kick equally well with both feet (more than 90% of outfield players in the premiership can't do that!) He couldn't do wose than Carson did on his debut. Would he let the ball run under his foot like Robinson or come hurtling off his line like a headless chicken as does James? What else could Kelvin do for Saints this season that would make him a better candidate for the job? Perhaps you so called goalkeeping experts who reckon he's not good enough yet could enlighten me. After all, what does our manager know about goalkeeping that you don't know?

I suppose that giving up on Saints because of the interference of a third party is a bit like divorcing your missus because of the mother-in-law, no matter how much you loved her (the missus that is). You wouldn't do it would you? So why give up on Saints? It doesn't make sense.

I suppose that giving up on saints because of the interference of a third party is a bit like divorcing your missus because of the mother-in-law, no matter ho much you loved her.

I could be wrong here and i can't find out for sure but was Rupert Lowe back in the fold, i.e. in a working capacity at St Marys, for the last game of last season against Sheffield United. I know he was back at the club because I saw him in the hospitality when we played Bristol City 2 weeks earlier. If he was, then there were about 29000 Saints fans at the game giving their support for a club that needed it on the day. How many of you stay away fans for this season were at that game and if you were there, then can you explain why you attended that day but will not do so this season. Was it just for the short term glory of a possible last day survival as opposed to the longer slog of supporting your team through thick and thin this season, as about half of the hard core support are doing at present? I think he was back but if I am wrong, then just ignore the above! I am not a PR plant, just a Saints fan for 30+ years and will be there tonight and at Charlton Saturday.

So you want Lowe out? Just answer me this - to be replaced with what? The previous campaign to oust Lowe didn't do any good, in fact things got even worse. With no money men willing to invest in premisership clubs at present, what chance is there of finding one to invest in us? Sweet FA, that's what. So by removing Lowe, where will that leave us? I'm all for him going if it leaves in in a healthier financial state but I doubt that will happen. Perhaps some of you stay away fans who pretend that Lowe is the reason that you don't attend should get off your arses and get back to St Marys - that will be a better way to ease the cash deficit.

It really is beginning to look desperate. That was as bad as the game at Coventry - clueless and useless!! A 16 hour day to watch that shower. I can take losing, I've watched Saints long enough - but to see these p*ss poor gutless performances week in week out, it makes me wonder why I bother. At least we managed to get away from the heavy handed police and get beers before and after the game - without that release it would have been a truly desperate day! The players just aren't performing to their potential. We are making ordinray teams look good - QPR, Coventry, Watford, Swansea, etc. because we are playing so poorly. I feel sorry for Lallana, Kelvin and Cork - at least they look like footballers. To be fair, Gillett, Schneiderlin (sp) and Surnam are good players, it's just that they have no leadership or experience around them. Now Stern has gone - the one player who can hold the ball up and bring others into the game. What options are we now left with! If we can't afford to hold onto our top scorer from last season, then the people running our club should take a long hard look at themselves and try and sort this f***ing mess out. Rant over. See you Tuesday!

"007 - the number of spectators expected at our next home game. If I could cross my fingers I could pretend that I was lying".