Saint Charlie

When was this? On the radio?

Neither did Burley or Pearson so maybe its our expectations that are too high?

This is a good summary IMO: http://www.saints247.co.uk/2008/08/16/inexperienced-so-what/ To get experience you have to play! If you were at the game it was probably the ‘experienced’ players who let us down. That is perhaps being a bit harsh on the older playerss today, but I have become very fed up very quickly with people banging on about experience. How many ‘experienced’ players were in our team last year… we did really well didn’t we?! A happy medium would be to have perhaps 3 or 4 good experienced pros in the team, but we simply do not have them do we. Anyway, the young lads have already shown more desire, more commitment, more flair, more skill, more awareness, more control than the team I saw last year, so what could they possibly learn from our ‘experienced’ players apart from how to get paid a lot of money and take the supporters and club for a ride. Stern John wasn’t up to it today and personally I would start the next few games with McGoldrick up front, Lallana a bit more forward and Jake Thomson leaving John on the bench. Our young lads will only improve and get stronger. They certainly don’t lack confidence, so we as supporters should be supporting them 100% otherwise we will be responsible for sucking the confidence out of them. For the first time in a long time, I don’t think I moaned at any player during the game, I was honestly very pleased and impressed with the team. The Birmingham goals were scrappy, we didn’t lose because of experience, we lost because we didn’t have the same fire power available to us like Birmingham. I think we could afford to be a bit more direct in final third sometimes but you can not fault the team and Manager for wanting to play football the way it should be played. Add more goals into the mix and we will be the team to watch! YES, I KNOW FOOTBALL IS ALL ABOUT RESULTS but give credit where it is due, the lads did well, Birmingham had some good strikers in their team. The fact that McLeish had to chuck them all on is testament to how much Birmingham had to throw at us to get a win, albeit a tad undeserved and lucky. Keep playing the young lads Jan Neil

Apart from that it was last season and we have a vastly different lineup.

Can't we just move on now?

Not how I saw it but thats the beauty of football

I thought James and Surman did really well. As JP said, the full backs get lots of the ball and both used it well, especially in the first half. As for Lallana being lightweight, it hardly matters because he always beats the defender with skill, he is going to be a superb player! Birmingham's subs wages ar probably more than our entire squad, to bring players like that off the bench is not normal for this league and they just pumped the ball up to their big guys as they will do all season. Some of our interplay was a joy to watch, and I watch football to be entertained. After seeing today the doubters will have egg on their faces in a short while, and once this extremely hard start to the season is concluded.

The football we played was superb, this simply isnt true. Lallana and Schneiderlin are better on the bal than any of the Birmingham players. They were bigger and stronger but you cannot say people are not good enough if you havent seen them play.

Just back. Definately the best Saints performance in the first half that I have seen in a few years, great one touch passing, Gillett and Schneiderlin in control, Lallana some great touches and DMG and Holmes stretching Brum's defence. Ok, we mucked up in the 2nd half, but the goals were the fault (if anyone's) of our more experienced players and for large parts we outplayed Brum who were largely long ball merchants. We will certainly thrash a few teams at SMS and with the team learning all the time and am very confident that JP will be a success. At the end of the day Brum have a Prem team and will be in the top 3 or 4 come May, we won't be, but will certainly be in the CCC. For those who moan yet havent seen the matches (and probably don't intend to) this is a Saints team that play good, entertaining football and play with passion. IMO we were miles better than with a load of journeymen pros who are more bothered about their pay packet. Get behind the lads and go and see them play before judging them, you may actually be impressed (Alpine excluded).

Yeah so players can slot into the first team in the same style.

SAINTS reserves have been given a Dutch-style overhaul this season by coach Mark Wotte. (Full story available on http://www.dailyecho.co.uk ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seems very sensible.

Davies is a lot better CB than Baird. I can understand having to sell him and him wanting to go but 1.5m if true is a joke, he is worth 4m if Baird is worth 3m.

http://oatcakefanzine.proboards27.com/index.cgi?board=Potters&action=display&thread=38459&page=1 Bloody hope not! Im relatively unbothered by Saga and Rasiak but to lose Davies would be awful unless for 4m.

****ing hope not! Davies is our best player by a long, long way!

Good article and most of it is pretty spot on IMO. People think we had some sort of right to be in the Prem but the truth is that of all the team there now, near to half will be relegated at some point in the next 10 years. We need to move on from that, its been a while, maybe Lowe has learned from his mistakes, hopefully he has, but he did also do good things and he can continue to do so.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/video/video/index.var.40008.0.0.php Come on everyone, first home game of the new season, lets get a decent crowd into SMS and roar the youngsters on to victory against probably the best team in the league. As Jan says in the interview, the players really need the support to drive them on.

Ok. I have concerns too, as do all Saints fans. But I would rather hope that things get better and support the team at SMS than assume the worst will happen.

Maybe it should, fan is short for fanatic afterall. Certainly better than an endless stream of negative drivel. Constructive points are fine but sometimes people just argue points to people they know will disagree and its so antagonistic and meanwhile the proper worthwhile debate gets pushed aside. If Saints, the Manager, Chairman and other fans are so clueless then ask yourself what you have in common with them and why you bother supporting them.

FFS, the quality of this forum has dropped significantly since Alpine came back. (Not saying its directly your fault but its certainly true and its ****ing me off)

JP said this in the Solent forum!

And he won it.

Now scored in four consecutive games. This season is all about youngsters grabbing their chance and he is doing well so far....good on him.

Good win.

McGoldrick scored in 4 consecutive games now....

In a way hope they win, then Jewell can't get his first win against us.