VectisSaint

You are quite correct, bigger than Highbury for sure. The pitch itself was not that small, just that we used to stand almost on it and so it seemed small and intimidating. I think there are several points in making the pitch narrower. It restricts the opposition so that they find it more difficult to get around our defenders (meant Fat Boy had to come inside more). Also makes it slightly easier for us to put in deeper crosses (crosses to the back post). Also means that our 2 defensive midfielders have less width to worry about, and so they can effectively cover the opposition attacking options more effectively.

I grew up with Dan Dare, what has reading comic books got to do with anything

Actually Wes, I have to disagree, it was actually very good entertainment, although sadly from our biased pov much of the entertainment came from the opposition. As a long time supporter I have never gone to games to be entertained, I have gone to games to see us win. If we win playing pretty football I will enjoy it slightly more, but the bottom line is that winning is pretty much everything at home. One of the main reasons crowds at SMS are dropping off is because over the last couple of seasons we have forgotten how to win at home. It is actually much more entertaining to go to away games these days. I used to really not care if we lost away, as long as we won at home. I could go to nearly every home game in a season and see my team beat most of the best teams in the country (or even the best teams in Division Two last time we were at this level). It felt good, and so I went more. I get depressed enough knowing we have lost at home, if I've gone to the game as well, I might as well stick the Leonard Cohen album on Crowds will start to come back not when the team starts playing attractive football but when the team starts playing well enough at home to win or at least draw most of the time. The sooner the people that run this Club understand that the better.

Amazing really that we got to post 49 before anyone realised that changing the system doesn't have anything to do with playing the passing game or playing hoofball. Yes, in the game yesterday one of the problems was that our players could not work out that they were supposed to pass to players in stripes not players in orange (perhaps they have watched too many videos of Holland or something). The problem was that like several coaches before JP, he does not seem able to get players to change their formation during a game. He seems to have drummed in the 4-2-1-2-1 formation really well, and the players understand it well and can play it, but they don't seem to be able to change to something different if it doesn't work. Yesterday, the simple change that may have been effective, would have been for McG to play alongside John when he came on. But instead, McG dropped back into the hole behind John, so that we were playing exactly the same formation. We were not playing total football, we were playing a rigid formation (one that encourages total football but is not total football in itself). We were crying out for two in the box with crosses from Holmes and Dyer. Blackpool's defence was very suspect, but we never tested them when we were attacking with 1 v 4. If you play 2v4 it gives them something to think about that is different. To be fair to JP, even WGS, and Burley especially had the same problem, an inability to be able to effectively change tactics during a game. I'm sure it will come, perhaps this is what we need during the 2 week break.

I guess you didn't see the game yesterday. Until the last few minutes it was us that had 4 bookings. Not saying we were kicking the **** out of them either, most of ours were for ill-timed tackles, not malicious stuff. Blackpool did not kick the **** out of anyone, they actually played decent football.

I guess the fact that Blackpool only brought 2 men and a dog didn't help either. This is always one of the worst weekends of the season for attendances, and with the game being on TV, the opponents being Blackpool, the credit crunch and the general falling off of football atendances, I'm surprised we managed 15k. If we continue to lose at home we will be looking back on this game and remembering with delight when we had 15k supporters turning up.

Certainly looked like there was a bigger gap between the pitch and the Kingsland stand. I actually thought this happened at some point last season as well. FA Rules have a minimum and maximum pitch size, as long as we are within that we have the right to change the size of the pitch. Maybe it is to save money on the amount of new turfs required or to cut down the amount of fuel used by the lawn mowers, or the amount of water sprayed on it at half-time or even the amount of money spent on white lines (which is very expensive) I think watering the pitch at half-time yesterday by the way was a bad move. Just after the break the ball was whizzing off the pitch, whereas in the 1st half it was much slower.

What a short-sighted and patently stupid view. The lad has been convicted and sentenced (perhaps rather leniently). What he did was wrong, and he has beenpunished for it. Why should he not represent Saints again (just because we are called Saints diesn't mean our players really are). You would have got rid of Wayne Rooney I suppose. Once someone has done their time (or their community service) that should be it. I might have a different view of someone who is convicted of more serious offences, rapists, murderers, etc, since I don't think they should be let out in the community again anyway, but for a petty burglar, your views are way over the top.

You thought he was poor yesterday, sheesh? He still tries to do too many tricks IMHO, but he put in so many excellent crosses to players in the box who were there to benefit from such balls it was unbelievable. The fact that the Blackpool players did not convert any of the excellent crosses says more about their ability than Hammills. I was a very outspoken critic of Hammill last season, disappointed that a professional footballer would do so little to take care of himself despite the crass stupidity of our so-called manager and his training tactics, but yesterday I saw what we should have seen last season. Now that he is fit he is clearly able to show the talent that GB screwed up last year. I take my hat off to the lad for turning it around.

Well you weren't watching the same game then. To call Dyer a waste of space is complete rubbish. When he first came on he changed things dramatically initially, we had been totally ineffective down the right in the 1st half. Dyer initially made some good runs, and caused Camara all sorts of problems. Eventually though, as I alluded to, he started to fall back into his old ways, by running at players instead of trying to go past them or play 1-2s to beat them. He clearly has pace to burn and showed plenty of effort, pushing to get the ball back when he had lost it. There is also the ******** other people spout that he does not track back, well sometimes that is true, however he must be doing something right if he clears the ball off of the line in one attack!! He was not great yesterday, but there are some small minded people on here who only have the handbag pilferer in their mind and will not see that Dyer is a talent that needs to be nurtured and encouraged like all the other youngsters in the team. You would do well to remember that he is one of the youngest players in this very young team, not yet 21, its just that he has been around the 1st team for longer than some. I have confidence that JP can make a much better player of ND, once he learns to look up more (he could also do with beefing up a bit, but in a good way, not in the Burley way). By the way did anyone else notice how slim Hammill is this season. Evidence for all to see of the huge damage that Burley did with his "training" methods (or lack of them) last season. The little fat boy is fit again, and now looks like a decent player.

And you won't this year either, they play in Sheffield at the Don Valley Stadium.

No, I am not hiding behind anything at all. It is nothing to do with semantics. Try familarising yourself with the rules of the game if you do not understand them. You are of course not alone. As I said even the pundits on the TV do not understand the rule. Sometimes I think it is less understood than offside. The incident being referred to cannot be considered deliberate by any stretch of the imagination. People are clutching at straws when they know full well that without the ref and his assistant today we would have been tonked, it would have been injustice in the extreme to Blackpool if they had been awarded anything for the handball. But then injustice is often seen to be done.

I think some of the criticism of Dyer on here today is a bit misguided. When he came on for a while we looked quite effective, he drifted out of the game then for a little while, but he was more of a threat than many others. He does seem to lack a bit upstairs, too often he just seems to run straight into opponents, but all in all he was not the worst offender out there in my opinion.

Respect to the ref today, without him and his assistant we would have lost 4 goals at least Many other officials would not have had the balls to disallow 3 goals in one game even when they are correct decisions. He actually seemed to have a good game, played advantage well (of course as Saints fans we would disagree because it was often for Blackpool), ignored silly appeals for non-existent handballs, ffs how many people including sky pundits do not appreciate handball has to be DELIBERATE. The drop ball situation was unfortunate in that Blackpool did not play the white man, and kicked the ball long down the pitch, but drop ball is the correct decision in such a case. Penalty was nailed on, indeed we were lucky not to have conceded more. Time wasting by Blackpool was evened up by adding 4 minutes stoppage at the end of the game. I felt all afternoon that the ref was actually trying to help us get back in the game.

How naive can you get? If you can't see how them having the ball in our net 4 times this afternoon, in the way they did shows how much Blackpool outplayed us then I give up. They should have scored 3 or 4 other times as well. Yes they were goals quite rightly disallowed in each case, but each time they were very close decisions and many lineos would have bottled out of disallowing them (especially 3 times in one game). We were given a lesson in how to attack today by a poor CCC side, and there is nothing anyone can say that would convince me were were lucky not to have been beaten by 6 or 7. The defence was appalling (sad to say Killer was completely outpaced, outjumped and out muscled on several occassions), and but for some excellent saves by Kelvin we would have been completely undone.

Although we shouldn't boo our players at home, it has to be said that today was an absolutely ****e performance. No punch up front until John came on, very poor midfield, Gillett was shocking and simply awful defending. Quite honestly if Blackpool had scored 6 it would not have been flattering. Hate to say it but Killer was shocking. Good job Kelvin kept us in it, and thanks also to the lineo for making 3 very brave (but correct) decisions. On top of that it was clear that JP did not have a Plan B today, even when John came on, he dropped McG back into the hole instead of going 4-4-2. We will win very few at home based on today's display, not helped by the crowd barracking, as Sky said we really do have some poor supporters.

Interesting article, didn't realise he was the Gemmill mug. The thing that I noted in the article was the bit below: His name is not familiar to English football fans and it's fair to say his appointment was not well received by all supporters at St Mary's - some swiftly dubbed him and assistant Mark Wotte the Dutch Donkeys Now I know not everyone was pleased at his appointment, me included, and there were many insults bandied around, but I really cannot recall anyone ever referring to them as Donkeys. I'm sure these journos just make this stuff up.

It seems like Jack has been released from hospital and is back home which is great news. Mick is recovering from op to wire his jaw but is not expected to be released until next week and remains in intensive care. http://www.mickchannon.tv/news.php By the way there are some great clips on the site, not just of the gee-gees, but also some footy related ones, just go to Extras on the web site menu...

By the way, Stephen Crainey could also feature, though he hasn't played so far this season.

Old boys or fat boys

Bloody hell Lordswood, that brought a tear to the eye... I said something similar on the other thread before I read this one.

Hope the boys do Racehorse proud on Saturday - a suitable goal celebration would perhaps do the trick. Mick will need cheering up, 3 good mates gone recently with today's news, Tim Corby and Bally and Ossie as well. For those of us who are a bit older, Mick (and maybe Ron) are our true heroes, no offence to MLT, but I was a bit old for heroes when he graced the footballing stage. Get well soon buddy...

Punctured lung as well, evidently

Bloody hell, I need to read later posts first in future, was seriously concerned there for a few minutes. Best wishes Mick for a speedy recovery, hope its not the windmill arm. Be nice to know if Mick8 is ok as well (just realised it was his 14 year old son, Jack, still hope he's ok as well)

I guess then he will be The Loan Ranger ?