Charlie Wayman

Bloody pathetic. Aimless rubbish. Surely SR must dump the clown soon.

Without Downes we are rubbish, it's that simple. Sad that he won't be here next season. Still he deserves to be in the PL; if ever the epithet "premier league player" applied to anybody the Championship it is to Flynn Downes. There will be many suitors for his signature in the summer.

The frightening prospect is that he will be one of the few players out there on Saturday that will still be here next season.

Even if we play Aribo without an injury we are screwd!

I missed this one altogether as we were away on the continent and thankfully out of reach of media, thank goodness. What an appalling result for a club posturing as a promotion candidate. If progress can be measured by results against fellow relegation victims, seemingly we have regressed since we played Leicester in the PL last season and at SMS earlier this year. What a dreadful indictment of the players and coaching staff, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose These Saints do not deserve to go up; if there is any justice in football they will not go up and before all the hand wringing by the faux outraged, wasn't it just a year ago that many of them longed for the more competitive challenge of the Championship? Well, they have their wish and it my well be that they will continue to enjoy watching Championship football for a few more years to come.

Saints also went up and did well a few years ago. Not with this squad though

Ich stimme dir zu

It's what he did or didn't do for the rest of his time on the pitch that matters. Every player makes one or two telling passes during a match.

At the arse-end of the season it is a bit nerdish to still be talking about team selections but for me Martin's persistence with Brooks is beyond me. With the exception of about two decent through ball passes he was invisible last night once again. Nor am I convinced about Aribo who seems to run out of gas and ideas after 30 mins in every match and is more of a liability after that until inevitably he gets subbed off. I did agree with MacCarthy's last minute call-up as sub for Baz, after all he has had to stand on the sidelines all season without a game whereas Lumley has featured in cup games. It was nice of Martin to recognise his hard work in training and support of Baz by awarding him a first team appearance in what is most likely his last season as a Saint. Lumley looked pretty hacked off at the decision but should understand that it is the togetherness of the team that matters most and Martin got this right. Optimists on here would have you believe that we stepped off the gas in the second half and just protected our lead, whereas in reality PNE pulled themselves together after the break and played with a lot more pride and commitment and we could not break them down. The freedom of the park that they offered us in the first half and which we exploited mercilessly obviously solicited a mighty b*ll*cking from their manager at half time and it obviously got a reaction. Having said that only rarely were they a threat on our goal. Not inconsequentially resting Downes after HT was a huge factor in our poorer second half performance as well. Without him we are often disjointed and aimless. This must be a worry. Anyway, a great result and big shout out especially for Adams, the Armstrong's and Manning in a performance where most excelled.

Same as normal then?

If we get promoted double his salary in fact triple his salary and keep him here come what may.

Common sense and years of experience says zero chance simply because Saints have to play both Leicester and Leeds on their home turves. No way will they beat both of those sides who are just as desperate as Saints to return to the PL.

Let's hope another warehouse doesn't catch alight and burn down on Tuesday. Also, why aren't the Saints band not marching in anymore? Is it because "When the Saints stand still" is more in keeping with our playing style these days? Nostalgic reunion for my Avatar.

Have you forgotten already the Adkins years? 😂

Jammy buggers, they didn't deserve to win today but they did and we all came home happy. Paper over the cracks and go again! Why the clown started Brooks again is beyond me but at least the penny had dropped by half time. Aribo has no stamina, he was blowing like a knackered race horse after thirty minutes. Great to see Jan back, hopefully we won't have to watch Jack trying to look brave and intelligent for much longer.

One step at a time.

Hoping Brooks doesn't start, he's been invisible in the last two matches. Give Edozie or Sulemana a chance.

I hope that people realise that "brave" is a euphemism for "foolish" or "stupid" in modern management speak.

Not sure you have really understood what I said.

That's a different question of course even though I agree with you.

There are many reasons for voting 'yes' or 'no' not on your list of options. I am no fan of the man but the problem with discussing his future is "who comes next?" That is a huge uncertainty especially for a small-ish club with limited expectations. The pool of talented managers who would be prepared to come here is very small; we are not going to attract nor indeed afford a new Poch or Koeman, Those days are well and truly behind us. So my vote is 'Keep him' for now even though he is not doing a particularly good job. Give him one more season to see what he makes of the PL or of a revamped squad in the Championship. That will also afford ample time to search for a replacement and avoid knee-jerk appointments if one is needed. A greater concern of mine is his apparent loyalty to his players and staff. Others may not concur but in my view we do not have an exceptionally talented squad for the division. The idea of the Saints being "the best team in the league" is an evident nonsense and Martin needs to disavow himself of this notion to make progress. He also needs to look closely at his coaching staff and effect changes where needed, e.g., our defensive weaknesses endlessly exposed by average and poor sides suggest strongly that our defensive coaches are crap. Loyalty must not blind the man to the obvious that some staff and some players are just not good enough. No reason why the old broom cannot sweep out the cobwebs.

Big shout out tonight for James Bree, cool and composed and doing his defensive duties perfectly. We seem to have a player there. Otherwise a good win against a decent side but a few of our lads clearly can't last for more than 45 minutes so our second half performance is almost inevitably a let down. Keep ball is supposed to tire the opposition not us! Brooks and Fraser failed to impress again tonight, how many chances do they get? Mara's total lack of interest suggests that he knows he's off at the end of the season. Not sure how Aribo was MotM but if you leave the choice to the populist vote, that's what you get… Trump, Johnson etc. THB for me by a country mile. We must keep this lad at all cost.

I went out of my way to avoid listening to his infantile drivel and you have to spoil that by spelling it out on here ☹️ 😉

Do you not think that this is a tad unfair? I have not been to an away game this season either but watched most on screen. For most matches the away support has been extremely vocal often drowning out the home support and that comes across clearly on screen. Maybe you just picked the wrong game to attend? It was an absolute bore fest so not surprising that the away support was subdued especially as their season long hopes of a dramatic and immediate return to the PL appear to have been dashed by the recent string of dispiriting performances. If there is nothing to shout about they won't shout and as for trying to lift the team, they've tried that all season with b*gger-all effect. We are all pretty p*ssed off with the current situation aren't we?

Exactly right! The problem for him is that this season may have been his big and possibly only chance to become a PL manager. Arguably he had at his disposal one of the best squads of players in the division if not the best. Next season half of that squad will not be here as they explore other options. He will likely end up with a bunch of plodding journeymen and a clutch of youngsters who are no further forward in their career development than they were this time last year due to lack of opportunities under Martin. On that basis his team might struggle next season to feature in the top six at all especially if transfer money is tight and we cannot replace adequately the star players that won't be here. If he can't get us into the PL this season or next then his days will be numbered and quite rightly so.