Whitey Grandad

Let's not get carried away. With a motivating manager last year's squad would beat this one 7 times out of 10

We are talking about independent adults who have a choice what they do with their own money, not sheep to be herded into another enclosure. We need every paying customer that we can find.

I agree with every word, a very accurate summary of the game.

From what I've heard, it's more to do with the break-up of groups of friends.

That's the long and the short of it. I once saw a cartoon that said 'I feel so much better now that I've given up hope'

Do you want to go through the season playing with one striker?

Apart from John & DMG & BWP who else do we have? Do we really want to go through a season with these three?

Ah, the beauty of anonymity. I was speaking figuratively, of course. And if Birmingham do the same as us and play their reserve team we may stand a chance.

There's too much spin about to know who to believe. The truth is out there somewhere. See you at the next match.

There are, of course, a lot of factors. We are still in the holiday season believe it or not. We can only guess at the reasons that they weren't here, but perhaps they didn't didn't fancy the new-look team? As a thought, how do you think that today's team would have fared against Sheffield Utd.?

For some people (not me) it was the final straw. They were separated from their friends of many seasons. You insult your customer base at your peril.

Providing that the dept is serviceable then it is not a problem in itself.

This is all part of the problem. We hear all sorts of figures from all sorts of people, but with most of the big earners gone we are a lot closer to being solvent.

There speaks the voice of reason. Why is it that other clubs get relegated from the PL and everybody tips them for instant promotion beause of the 'parachute payments' whereas we fritter away ours on Woodward and dithering?

I heard a rumour, no more, that Euell was up at Sunderland training all week with a view to a move. Has anybody else heard anything?

This club is not losing £15,000,000 a year.

It's why some people didn't go. I know of season ticketers from those areas that haven't renewed.

Let's not kid ourselves that we were unlucky not to get a draw, or that Birmingham only beat us because of two scrappy goals. We ought to have scored another goal in the first half. There two good cutbacks from McGoldrick that Holmes should have connected with, Gillett(?) had a shot cleared off the line and John had an offside goal, but after 20 minutes Birmingham began to carve us open and also had a fluffed cutback and an offside goal. In the second half all that we had was the Stern John chance whereas Kelvin had a good one-on-one save and Birmingham had an offside goal and two real ones. At times we were being steamrollered. Bent & Jerome were pulling us all over the place. It was a classic case of men against boys and it was very depressing. Worst of all was that neither the management nor the players seemed to know what to do next and there are no real alternatives on the bench or in the treatment room.

That's the most accurate assessment that I've seen so far.

I was there as usual today and what I saw was exactly what I expected. A bright start with an even first half, although Quincy was skinning James at will, and a second half in which we were completely overpowered. We had the one good chance from John but apart from that we were steadily overrun and never looked like scoring again. Complete tactical ineptitude from the manager (sorry, coach) playing one up front at home and not changing it after Birmingham went ahead, although to be honest there was nobody on the bench to bring on. Where were BWP and Skacel and what is the point of paying them all this money to play golf? We have a desperately thin squad and I can see nothing positive to take out of the game. I can see absolutley no resons to be cheerful, but I shall be there every home game as usual. We are down to the bare bones, half a crowd, half a squad, half a football club.

I'm struggling to think of them. I think we'll be somewhere between 3rd and 7th from bottom. I can't see us keeping many clean sheets, mainly because of our chronic inability to defend set-pieces.

It's what Schadenfreude was invented for.

.... very good!

Agreed! Then all that we need is a keeper who doesn't flap at crosses (unflappable?) a midifeld dynamo/general and a couple of 20-goal-a-season forwards who can defend all over the pitch and we might get somewhere. It's easy this football management lark, isn't it?

Well I would like to think so, but I will reserve judgment on this until I have seen a few more games. I know that it won't get the crowds flocking back but all successful teams are based on a solid defence and it's a lot easier to keep the goals out than it is to score at the other end. For that you don't need skill or artistry but good, sound organisation coupled with strength and physical presence.