VectisSaint

The main problem is that our head Coach ha snot yet found a way or understood how to play against teams at SMS. Teams come to SMS for league games with a different game plan, i.e. crowd the midfield and hit us on the break, just like we do when we go away. Our home tactics are bereft of ideas, and we play the same way, to a greater extent, as how we play away. This makes it much easier for away teams to outscore us. However much we wish for more supporters to come and support the lads at home it won't happen until we start winning consistently at home, and that won't happen until we change our home game tactics.

I don't disagree with the view that the ball behaves differently this season, or since Delap was with Saints, but I don't think this is a factor with his throws, which are aimed straight as a die (sp?) into the 6 yard box. I see even the Beeb has picked up on this, and the tactical genius that is Lee Dixon explains how it is used and how to defend against it. Actually I do think he makes a good point, and one that we did not use - that is because you cannot be offside from a throw Stoke load the goal area for his throws. By the way for those who think this is Stoke's only tactic, dream on. If you watch their games they actually play some decent stuff these days, maybe not prettypretty like Arsenal, but then who won out of the two at the weekend? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7705772.stm

It's also supposed to be fun, so calling someone a sad idiot is not warranted. That is why I added a grumpy smiley. I can take the fact that I messed up with my attempt at a witty retort, but you could try remembering some manners

Wouldn't they just have to pay cost price, not megastore price? In which case about £5 should cover it.

The only thing that is utter piffle is your memory. Delap's throws now are completely different to when he played for us, except maybe for an odd occassion. It is faster, lower and more accurate (and more often from the left though I don't think that makes much difference). I also don't think the ball makes that much difference, unless it is grippier when in his hands.

Its Colombia :mad:

I think its you . Soccer has always been a perfectly acceptable shortening of Association Football. It is not an Americanism as some people seem to think, but was coined in England in the 19th century to distinguish from Rugger (Rugby Football). True it is used more in America and Australia these days, but thats understandable to distinguish it from American Football and Aussie Rules - we should be proud that they took an English phrase for the game we invented.

The real difference is the way the ball is delivered, the trajectory and the speed. When he played for us, he just lobbed the ball in, and by the time it got to anyone it had no power, therefore relying on the attacker putting force behind the header to get any power. I didn't see yesterday's game but have seen some other Stoke games, now Delap throws with a fierce, low trajectory at about head height, so now the players can attack the ball and it flies past the keeper with a great deal more force. Shouldn't forget also that Stoke have lots of big players capable of heading with force. The other thing I have noticed about Delap, which does not directly affect his throws I suppose, is that he tends now to play on the left, whereas I remember him usually playing right-sided for us. I suppose it could be that he throws better when his left arm is nearer goal, but I doubt it.

With a decent assistant manager (Snodin) to get him out of the ****. Assistant joins things look up, Assisitant leaves, Burley loses the plot.

Well done to the boys, makeshift team clearly were up for it today. Was out all afternoon so didn't listen, we usually do better when that happens. Its great to have a good result, and no-one should moan today, but things have to still improve at home. Good to see Pearce had a good game (and even a goal) I was quite pleased with his signing, even though others were moaning about an inexperienced kid again, actually he is more experienced than most in the team. Also like the sound of Gobern on his debut. Up the Saints!!

Sorry, I meant Smith. I preferred it when we had lost of foreigners, it was easier to remember their names

No coincidence at all. We spent the final part of last season once GB had left recovering from the mess he had gotten us into with his poor coaching abilities. This season though is a different matter, now we are dealing with the almost equally poor coaching abilities of JP. By the way, the stats are incorrect IMHO. Since Burley left we have played 32 league matches and won 6 (w6 d12 l14). If you go back 36 league games this includes 4 of Burleys, and includes the solitary win in his last 7 games. So it would be 7 in 36. Under Pearon we only lost 4 in 14, and that includes the loss to Plymouth which he was only technically in charge for. If you were including cup games then there are 3 more wins to add (2 for JP and 1 for Gorman). It is therefore arguable that things have improved evn under Jan since Burley left, only Gorman had less league wins that Burley in his last 7 games.

Would be surprised if Euell was dropped, but then again nothing surprises me with team selections at present. I suspect team is more likely to be Davis, Cork, Lancashire (or Pearce), Perry, Skacel, Spiderman, Gillett, Surman, Davis, Euell, McG (though personally I would play Wotton instead of Gillett, sadly that puts the average age of the team too high and so unlikely to be sanctioned )

Sadly, as others have pointed out there are inherent problems with some of the new stadia. Twice as many people sadly does not mean twice as much noise, even roughly. Acoustics are so different and those at SMS are very poor. True there were some games at The Dell where the atmosphere was not great, I recall standing in the Archers when we were in Div 2 and enjoying the space to wander around when we were playing some non-descript team, but in general, and certainly in Div 1 (sorry kiddies that was the forerunner of the Prem, despite what the nice people from Sky would like you to think) the atmosphere was far superior to anything I have witnessed at SMS. One of the inherent problems at SMS is only having half of one end for the main singing supporters (and now no Itchen corner either). Most clubs ensure that their most vocal supporters have one end to themselves, with the away supporters tucked away in the worst part of the stadium, but because of the design of ours the police insisted on the away supporters being in the Northam. By the way are you sure you have been to Anfield and found it library-like? Were matches being played on the days you visited? One ground that in my opinion could never ever be described in those terms is Anfield. Highbury for sure, even Old Trafford when things are not going too well for the home team (i.e. when a homer ref has not been appointed), but Anfield, in the words of John McEnroe, you cannot be serious I think as other posters have alluded to, younger supporters today have known little else and so think what they are experiencing is great atmosphere, I agree its difficult for them to do otherwise as they have no benchmark. But there is no doubt that modern stadia are atmosphere averse. Wembley is another very good case in point, modern expensive stadium with smaller capacity than old Wembley and atmosphere ruined by corporate boxes, empty seats and so on. All that said, SMS is still light years ahead of the Dell in every other way, and at least when it first opened I was proud to be a Saints supporter, and take friends to games. Sadly with the dross now being served up that pride has evaporated, and I sneak down to SMS in disguise as Billy No Mates.

Think this is highly unlikely. Crouch had the full backing of the Bank, had already realised he needed to cut the wage bill (loaning out Ras and Rudi), and had set the wheels in motion to close the corners and cut the buses. We also know that the NP salary thing was a smokescreen, even Lowe admitted that JP's package (or at least JP and MW together) would be greater than NP's if JP was successful. The real point is that we would have been in administration if Wilde's appointees were not forced out last December. It is Wilde that is the architect of our financial problems. I will blame Lowe for many things, but Wilde has to take the lion's share of the blame financially. Yet he is now involved again. Thats what really gets me.

That would depend on whether it is cheaper paying for some shares than getting them for next to nothing but then having to invest money to promote us back to the CCC. Surely the aim of anyone interested in taking over has to be to get back to the Prem, the only place where money can actually be made in English football. It may be better to spend £1m+ and only have to invest for one promotion than to need to gain 2 promotions and one on the back of a points deduction.

Would have agreed, especially about Burley. But then again we also lost 5-0 away to Hull when neither GB "managed" or KD played, and again only had 3 youngsters (Poke, Vignal and McG).

Does passing gain points in the League? No While its a great complement it does us no good whatsoever. The rules of football are still basically simple. The team that scores the most goals wins. I would be far happier if all the other managers were saying, "Southampton are the best goal scoring team in the league". If you think thats negative then so be it. It is still better than if they were saying "Southampton are the best at conceding goals in the league".

There is no quota for how many loans you can have at the club (except how many from one club), only how many can be listed on the team sheet. The Brentford forum has an extract from the FL rules which provides all the information. I believe however that loans from non-English clubs do not count as "standard" loans, so Gasmi is not counted, for instance. http://www.griffinpark.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55637 If I have read it correctly, Pearce must be classed as an Emergency Loan, otherwise an early recall clause is not permitted in the first half of the season. This might suggest that Killer will not be back for a while, as with Thomas long-term injured we only really have 2 other recognised CBs, Perry and Lancs (I know others can play there if necessary).

Trying to decipher the joibberish you have written, you make the mistake of thinking that we are customers of Killer. Killer is an employee, who is employed to play football (and very good he is at that particular job). As far as I know he is not employed in the accountancy office and is not employed to make financial statements. I have no problem with Killer issuing a rallying call, and have no doubt that these are his words, but he has been told the financial situation by others and "encouraged" to include this in a rallying call on the OS because those who should be telling us what is going on do not have the gumption to be able to communicate effectively with their customers. They need to realise that those same customers are leaving in their droves because of the poor standard of football (results) being dished up by a third rate coach/top class man. They are desparate to attract back supporters but do not want to see how that can be achieved because they know it would prove that their glorious experiment was a complete and utter disaster.

Not true, 18 actually at this level or above (played for Reading twice while they were in the Prem in FA Cup games), 5 league starts this season, plus 11 for Norwich. All of the remaining games were played in League One where we will be playing next season unless something drastic changes soon. Good solid experience in my view, very similar figures and loans to Jack Cork who has proved to be one of our best signings. By the way do I smell the involvement of Stuart Gray in this move with his Northampton links?

Don't be daft, no-one suggests it should come out with such stuff, you are just trying to be obtuse. Yes it is an advertising site, but if it came out with some interesting, factual stuff, as other FC sites do, then people may take it more seriously so that when there is a need to insert some rallying calls people don't dismiss it as Lowe's bull****. Its called communicating with your customers and is a well-known technique amongst successful businesses, including football clubs. Unfortunately our shambolic Board do not understand about communication with customers and prefer to think of them as mushrooms.

I'm not a deliberate stay away so perhaps I am not allowed to answer. But if I was a Professional footballer (as opposed to just a footballer) I would try to play the same whether there was 30k, 15k or 1 man and his dog. I would probably cack myself if there was 30k and I was young and inexperienced (I think I can remember that far back), so maybe smaller crowds would be better while I was learning the game.

42 league appearances is not completely inexperienced, more appearances than many currently in the team. Sounds like a reasonably decent move this one, only slight problem may be if he gets recalled at end of November.