Legod Second Coming

You have deliberately or ignorantly missed the point. If Cardiff have played us at home, Barnsley and Plymouth away and Palace at home - for argument's sake - do you not expect that they will have more points than us?? We have played three good teams and two bad ones. What has everyone else played??

I agree but we have only been beaten by one poor team - Blackpool - that's what I was getting at. Our young unproven team has been turned over by three good teams and one poor one. That's not a reason for panic. Being beaten by poor teams is a reason for panic!!!!! And I hope after tomorrow we can worry less... of course!!!

But if you were a Stoke fan today and you had played: Chelsea home Liverpool away Villa away Arsenal away Spurs home And got 3 points, isn't that the equivalent?? If we'd lost to Palace, Barnsley, Ipswich, Coventry and Swansea home or away, I would be seriously worried, but we have lost to three promotion favourites and one shocking loss to Blackpool - only Blackpool worries me.

To be fair - and it's not my job to defend Lowe - if in August you had been shown these fixtures: Cardiff away Birmingham home Derby away Blackpool home QPR away Home many of those games would you have expected: last year's team to win a new team to win? Just a thought.

I would guess thar Jan asked for him? Or do you think Lowe's knowledge of football knows no bounds??

Err, you think someone would pay more to sit in his empty seat than next to him??!!!!! boy do you have a lot to learn about football fans...

Alright then, was going to wash me hair...

Nor do most of the others these days!!!

Mate, that was THE internet moment of the year for me. Wet myself!!!

Yep, that's Steve McLaren...!!!!!

are you allowed to take the uniform home...

A fellow Taoist? No wonder we take defeat so stoically...

Isn't it incredible that if you read Dutch with an accent you can almost, almost make sense of it!!

Are you the club doctor????

Feck - his delivery is excellent. That is a real blow... Get well soon Lee.

How about performance related pay? For Lowe. For the players. For the supporters.

Even the gnomes have contributed £3000!!!

I would like to know/see how Rupert is contributing to the coffers of the club. My gut feel is that I have invested more this season in our survival than he has. The club hasn't paid me, yet I've paid them AND brought extra people to the games, and tried (unceremoniously) to rally people to the cause. I want NOTHING for this, but some evidence he's doing ALL he can.

Nothing. I was simply pointing out that I'm not in the business of forgiving lazy disinterested journeymen!! So losing last year was painful. Losing this year is less painful because we can at least see how much the players care. Like you, I have nothing against players of any age who care and put in 100% effort.

No, I understand where you are coming from of course. But wailing and gnashing of teeth is all very well but it doesn't deliver us any closer to the investment that either will or will not materialise. I make no bones about my preference to see us build something that becomes sustainable - along the way we will lose players of talent and calibre, just as we did in the top-flight, just as we did when Steve Williams went to Arsenal, becase we will never be considered a 'big club' in my lifetime. But I don't believe that need necessarily plummet us into relegation - it hasn't for Bristol City, Forest, Swansea... it simply takes time and commitment to a long-term plan. If investment comes, it comes. And as you say, it could come in any form. Now, it would help stabalise the club - for sure. And then what would it do? Be used to what? Oust a manager who finally seems to have a connection with a large number of fans? Replace players who are finally giving their all for the team and their club - some for the club they support, many for the club that they call 'home'? It reminds me of an African story about the farmer who searches far and wide for riches only to find that if he'd bothered to plough the fields on his farm, he would have found diamonds buried there.

Err, but we had that didn't we?? So why are we not content now then?? Why are we hankering like some kiddy in the toy-shop after something we've been told we can't have??

We could still get promoted from this league without money, I'm sure of that. No-one will buy us, I'm sure of that too.

I've no idea what Bristol City's financial position is? Or Swansea? Lack of money prevents you winning the Premiership, that's all. Teams win football matches, not bank notes. And who knows, we might have bought an Anelka - cost Wenger £250k, sold him for £22m. Which helped Arsenal a lot. We cannot simply keep banging on about a rich backer. Why oh why oh why would ANYONE want to buy us?? 15k fans who bother to turn up and a bunch of moaning feckers who don't. About as appealing as life in Alpine's cellar...

:)

If you do the right things for the right reasons, justice says you will eventually be rewarded. What I admire in our current team is their willingness to work and attempt at all times to play football, regardless of the situation. Even yesterday, with a two goal deficit we didn't simply look to hit and hope or lump it, we kept trying the basic ingredients that make for good football - passing and moving. Yes, the defending for the first goal was poor. At times thereafter it was last-ditch. On occasion amateurish. But frankly, the defence was playing together for the first time and, after 28-odd minutes, without one of the men who had been practising the line-up all week. Making excuses for tired and disinterested journeymen is one thing - FORGIVING apprentices quite another. The 4-1 was flaterring on the balance of play - not necessarily the chances created mind. If you're doing 80% of the things needed, do you change the 80% in the hope that someone else offers 100%? Or do you look to put right the remaining 20%. I have heard - and frankly, it's comical - people talk about Ostlund and Powell and Wright... as though loising 4-1 at home with ELEVEN men against Palace who sacked their manager two weeks later - never happened at all!! Never happened... I must have dreamed it... There are still only five games gone. Just five. We're one point from safety and five from the play-offs, we've played Birmingham, Derby, QPR and Cardiff (three of them away from home), all far-superior teams on finance and squad. All favourites for promotion. And yet, it's time for the cyanide. Really? Really? I find this level of sado-masochism bordering on the pyschologically deranged.