Charlie Wayman

So why can't McGoldrick & Saganowski score goals every week when we need them like Rooney and Giggs?

The Derby match will be the decider, no doubt about that. If we win and win well, we may be in wit a shout, if we draw or lose it'll mean we are on the slide again and this time there isn't time to recover. A defeat on Tuesday will likely leave us adrift of 21st place by six points as Barnsley have two games in hand on us so their position amy be false. With 9 games to go and only 4 at home we just could not recover. Tuesday is everything, the Saints know this adn of course we all know what happens when saints are in a MUST WIN game.... they don't win, ever.. period!

On the crowd issue, let's face it Brum have been yo yo-ing during the last few seasons so their fans can be forgiven for not getting that excited at the prospect of going up again this year and down again next like WBA. Factor in that Saints are a bottom three club and a lot if Midlands folk are losing their jobs right now so you get a situation where if money is tight the fans will want to see the more attractive and successful sides. Let's face it you'd probably go and watch Man U, Arsenal & Villa for footballing reasons alone but Blackburn, Sunderland & Middlesbro? You get the point.. we just ain't that big a draw anymore not even at home!

This was a game we could never win, a bridge too far after the excellent performances of the past two weeks. We must expect set backs and there will be others but as long as we focus on picking up 12 points we should be OK. Next time out we could win and the others could lose. That's how it'll be on the run in but we must not lose our home games, if we could win 3 and draw 2 that would be great and we should pick up at least one or two draws away, maybe even a win out of the blue. Admittedly it's a bit unnerving when those around us win when we lose but we have to play most of them when we really must deliver.

The question is can we keep up this current effort. The enemy is form and fitness, if we lose a couple of key defenders through injury it could all be derailed. We have to allow for this over 11 games so in fairness we'd have to expect to end up losing 5 leaving six to split on wins & draws, say 3 of each. We should do well enough to get 12 points which is more than 1 point per game remaining (1.09) compared to our take so far of 1.06. Beyond that it remains the luck of the draw, not lapsing into old habits and the attitude of the opposition. Don't expect Charlton, Blackpool, Watford, Crystal Palace & Notts F to roll over and give us an easy ride. They are just as keen as us to stay up and will fight all the way. These games will be rough, tough and totally unpredictable. Regretably, we must still rely on others ****ing it up in a bigger way than we do.

Lose 5

To be realistic we'd have to say that of 11 games remaining we are most likely to Win 3, Draw 3, Lose 4 - yielding 49 points at season's end. This is about the win/draw/lose ratio we normally hit even when in form. As long as Blackpool & Norwich fare no better, we'll be OK

On paper the last three games against top six sides looked like a nightmare about to unfold so how we have conjured up 9 points and 7 goals for and 1 against beggars belief. It is not impossible we could get a result at St Andrews but a draw will be a good result and people shouldn't lose heart if it turns out that way. As long as others around us are playing we will still have a game in hand which would take us past Blackpool all other things being equal. Then we have to match them and Norwich, win-for-win, draw-for-draw and can even afford a loss-for-loss. It is still best to set a points target. We know 52 would make us safe and now we have 37, hence Mark Votte's comment of needing 5 wins from 11. Still a BIGGIE of a tall order but not quite so far fetched as it seemed a couple of weeks ago. I do not think we can score or beat Brum at St Andrews, they'll be waiting for us for sure; a 0-0 draw will be about the best we can get BUT we must not get sloppy at the back as we did last night.

You are right LTC, it is a very clear sign that administration is imminent; club people are scared to say the words "We will definitely be in Division III in 2009/10" so as not to empty the stadium for the last five games. At the ground on Saturday there was a great deal of talk of 16th March being the announcement date.

Some things have changed for sure. We are in far better shape at the back, holding the line better and with more discipline with individuals showing improved awareness of space and men running; individual positional marking has notably improved. There are still weaknesses especially in heading balls clear of the box, still a great tendency to head clear into forward positions on the edge of the 18 yard box rather than out to the sides. This needs to improve. Overall the improved integrity of defending over the last few matches must be IMO down to the input of Michael Svennson as a defence coach and this is 80/90% of our improvement overall. The defensive midfielders now have a growing belief in the ability of the back four not to buckle under pressure and so are much more prepared to get forward and create play as well as sit tight in the hole to help the defence. Particularly outstanding in this role is Simon Gillett who looks more and more a shoe-in for Paul Scholes and surely must be heading for England's first eleven. Andrew Surman too has gained more confidence and his partnership with Rudi Skacel is turning into something really exciting and penetrating. Unfortunately the right flank is not up to speed yet, Lloyd James is another class act but is reluctant to over commit to attack understandably but is getting precious little support from Lallana who more and more looks out of his depth, which is a shame as it all looked so promising 18 months ago. DM has found his best position running forward and using his trickery, skills not much use to him in a lone striker role. Jason holds 'em up Saga knocks em in... Sounds good enough for me. Just feed Jason on Viagra every Friday night so he doesn't get knackered and we have our perfect team.

Forget the rest and focus on points, we need 45 we have 34, just 11 more. COYR, at least one win this week and then only 8..... Can we do it? Oh Yes! We Can!

Oh Yes! Get in There! Oh Yes! Oh Yes!

Comrades in Distress?

Oh Dear! Birds of a feather flock together.. as the old saying goes. Some might say a 'prudent' PM meets a 'prudent' management team.. I would say "A washed-up football club entertains a washed-up politician." This is the kiss of death surely and the last thing we needed and what is even more astonishing is that Lord Lowe of Everlosing votes Labour. Make mine a pint, Jimmie...

The last time they all got together it became a schoolboy brawl. If only we had mature adults at board level!!! "Old boys' club" means literally that, OLD school boys.

I'm past caring but 1-3 sound about right

You asked how to interpret the slide in value of SLH shares. Investor confidence in Rupert Lowe's ability to save the company from administration is very low although a residual belief must remain that something can be salvaged from the wreckage after administration, suggesting that bankruptcy is not inevitable. This assessment must be based in part on the experience of other clubs that have gone into administration. If bankruptcy was viewed as inevitable shareholders would end up with worthless share certificates and would have to join a long list of creditors waiting to get some salvaged recompense from the fall-out. Not only that but share dealing would be suspended. Thus, you can take a small measure of comfort from the fact that SLH shares have any value at all at this time, especially as the very depressed stock market condition s prevailing in this economic slump.

Very soon now we'll be bombarded with "March Madness" offers by Sir Rupert. Last year I fell for it, this year it's a recycling bin job without opening the envelope. No Way, I'm going to watch Third Division football again ever, Saints or no Saints! I did all that in the sixties when I was young and foolish and lost a girlfriend or two in the process for my sins. Now there are not enough years left... too many other things to do. If they stay up and Rupert is still here, then same answer. If WE stay up and HE"S GONE, I'll be back for more...

Wotte is turning out to be a bit of a twit is he not. What ever happened to the Queen's English in football management? Awesome (average), magic (slightly better than average), strike (shot), cynical (dirty), unhappy with that (useless idiot)... etc. War???? (You'll have to run around chasing the ball for more than 5 minutes lads.. please, pretty, please)

Obviously not you then? Yet when Richard Chorley - love him or hate him - sticks his head above the parapet, instead of people getting behind him as a leader, everyone on here takes a shot at him from behind; not just with a small bore rifle but with a effing great bazooka... so, what do you want from a leader and what exactly is it that you are hoping to achieve? A strong leader might (and it's a BIG MIGHT!) help rid us of Lowe and Wilde but what then? We still won't have any money and it is far from certain that more fans would turn up of a Saturday just because of a new face at board level. We'll still be stuck with the same players, the same plight and yet another low rent manager, who would be low rent simply because he hasn't been good enough in the past to become high rent!

As if we had a choice... Who in their right mind would want to come here?

What a load of crap. Apart from football, what huge high value events run by the council require a stadium of the size of SMS to support it? Answer? Bugger-all. So there's you're answer as to how much credence should be given to this story Hull run pro-rugby and pro-soccer as well as summer athletics and music events at their city-backed stadium

No words left really. All very predictable and inevitable.

They'll all b*gger off anyway when we go down so they give a toss!

Of course we are going down, it is not guesswork just look at the statistics; http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/DivisionalLeagueTable/0,,10794~20087,00.html Taking the games in hand that teams above us have and starkly recognising that we cannot now catch anybody 6 points ahead of us we can only realistically catch Watford, Notts Forest & Norwich. BUT we have to pass two of them!!!!! This just isn't feasible on current relative forms, probably we can only catch Norwich and it's a VERY BIG 'IF', which if it makes anybody happier means we'd be 22nd rather than 23rd at season's end. Whatever we still go down. The odds of staying up must be less than 10% right now and falling.