CHAPEL END CHARLIE

Even if we could organise a solid defence somehow I just can't see where the goals are going to come from - this team is going to be relegated in all probability .

There's something of the John Major about Jan Poortvleit - nice chap but promoted beyond his ability ? Although he did volunteer for it I still have a degree of sympathy for him however , this is probably his last chance to make a name for himself in football management but he's been dealt a truly rotten hand to play . Rupert Lowe (or more specifically Barclay's Bank) are the real Captains of this ship and JP looks a pretty hapless victim now or even their 'fall-guy' should/when it all go tits-up . Nobody ever said life was fair did they ? With most of our better players transferred out and Micheal Svennson's comeback looking ill-advised we're desperately short of even the minimum quality needed to survive in this division irrespective of who's running the team . The best Coach in football would struggle with this squad and I seriously doubt JP falls into that category , but time will tell I suppose .

This really is like the death of a thousand cuts now , even with a few experienced quality players such as Stern John or Andrew Davies we still looked like a good bet for relegation this season - but without our best players what kind of chance do we really have now ? The trouble with preparing for the possibility of League One football next season like this is that we've now virtually guaranteed it . I would be surprised if there were any set of circumstances that would allow this club to avoid Administration with gates of maybe 9000 down in L1 next season . I'm no accountant but surly there just won't be enough income to service a £20m debt - unless we can transfer Adam Lallana to a Premier League club for £9m that is .

We need to sort the Stern John situation ASAP , in my view we should either : A - Base the team around providing chances for SJ to score the 20 goals a season we all know he's capable of . If he can score enough to keep us up he'll be good value for money . B - If we're not going to play him at every reasonable opportunity we should transfer him as he's clearly too expensive a player to keep for the occasional 'cameo' appearance as we've seen so far this season . I prefer Option A as I see Stern John as our last best chance of avoiding relegation this season and the best striker left at the club by so distance , others will of course disagree . As for Bialkowski I feel it's probably best for both SFC and the player that he finds a new club , clearly one of Forecast , Bart , or Davis has to go for financial reasons and Bart would be my choice .

I note with interest and some alarm most of you are including Paul Wotton somewhere in your preferred squads :smt091 . As a midfielder surly for the love of God , Schneiderlin , Skacel , Gillett , Surman , Cork , even bloody Jason Mule are all far better players than the Plymouth Ploughhorse will ever be . Anyone including him as a Centre Back must clearly be suffering from some chronic delusional condition so advanced that I fear there's no hope for you !

How about trying to survive in League One with a 15 point deduction for Administration ? It's arrant nonsense to suggest it would be easy , football's never easy - just ask any Leeds or Nottingham Forrest fan .

The next time any skate says anything just remind them where their chairman gets his blood money from : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4969422.ece All PFC's 'success' is built on the bodies of dead or maimed Africans including innocent children mutilated by filthy landmines , personally I'd rather the Saints disappeared and they replaced SMS with a housing estate before I'd want that kind of person involved with my club - however wealthy they are .

I kept one eye on Jan Poortvliet yesterday and he spent the entire match standing motionless in the technical area with his hands in his pockets apparently unconcerned as the team self-destructed in front of him . Now different managers/coaches all have their own individual style and I don't believe for one moment that you can shout your way to success in football Mike Bassett style , but I was angry , the fans around me in the Chapel were angry and it would have been nice to think the management shared that sense of dissatisfaction with the teams unacceptable performance and might even have dared to communicate that emotion to the players on the pitch . We're all agreed that JP seems to be a nice bloke and I'm sure the players like him but who ever said being 'nice' or popular with the players was ever an advantage in football management ? - indeed you could argue the exact opposite is more often the case , at least in British football culture .

My personal ratings for Saints v Watford : K Davis 5 - I felt sorry for him , didn't really command the box but any keeper is going to look poor with this defence in front of him . L James 3 - Put simply he's not up to the job and I'm getting tired of making excuses for him . Not strong enough . P Wotten 3.5 - Apparently he can play in defence or midfield , this will come as a surprise to anyone at SMS today , dismal :mad: O Lancashire 4 - A inexperienced player clearly out of his depth , we can only hope he learns , ASAP please . M Mills 5 - Quick and always willing to get forward I'm sure he'll make a decent player- given time . A Surman 6 - He did OK generally and probably one of our better players , but that's not saying much . J Cork 6 - Neat and tidy he surly should have played at RB today with Gillett available . DMG 4 - Criminal penalty shot that set the tone for the rest of the game , but did show some nice wing play just to confuse the issue . A Lallana 6.5 - Lovely skills but needs to impose himself more to be really effective at this level . R Smith 6.5 - The fact that our best player was this kid on loan from Millwall I find profoundly depressing . J Robertson 4.5 - After an impressive debut a few weeks ago he struggled to make any real impact today , disappointing . Substitutes : J Thompson 3 - Another young lad prematurely promoted to the first team . T Pekhart 3 - a late sub he made no noticeable difference as far as I could see . Summary : One of the worst Saints performances I've seen at SMS in recent years and believe-you-me there's been some pretty stiff competition . On this basis we're in grave danger of relegation IMO unless JP can engineer a dramatic improvement in short order . The teams total inability to take a competant penalty kick or defend 'bread and butter' corners makes a mockery of any 'total football' pretensions . As Chris Perry made the substitutes bench I can only presume he was fit to play , in this case Jan Poortvleit's failure to select him remains a mystery to this reviewer and a fatal omission today . nb - no MOTM today as none of them deserved it .

It seems Martin Jol wanted Mark Wotte to join him at spuds as Director of Football : http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/spurs-face-football-meltdown-965312.html Naturally this could never work as no decent English club could possible want two Dutchmen in charge of the team could they

But poor results won't really do as a full explanation either , we had similar results to last season most years when we were in the Premiership but still filled The Dell/SMS most of the time if memory serves . In my view what many Saints fans don't have anymore is any realistic hope that the club is progressing - at least in the short term . Take that vital sense of hope away and you've lost one of the main reasons for supporting any football club in the first place . Give us a team capable of challenging for a play off place with players we've actually heard of , give us some prospect of a brighter future instead of more endless decline and hopefully many of the lost fans will return . But as we all know with no money that's much easier said than done I'm afraid .

I find myself in agreement with those on here who reject the 'credit crunch' as an adequate explanation for this seasons missing fans . I do wonder how much of an effect the closure of the 3 corners has had on attendances this season . People get used to sitting in a certain seat/row with familiar faces around them , that's all been lost now for many fans be they season ticket holders or not . It's a serious error to underestimate the importance of this community effect IMO , especially as any savings made can only have been very minor in the grand scheme of things and may well have become entirely counter-productive if it's deters a significant number of fans from visiting SMS . Savings made from closure of corners & cutting of 'free' bus service = £250k Potential losses this season from reduced matchday attendance = £2m This is a lesson any business should heed - you p*** your customers off at your peril .

Oh I gave up on the on-line booking system years ago as the bloody thing never seems to work properly , I did eventually get an answer on the phone but I had started to eat my supper before it got cold (fish fingers) so the conversation was a trifle difficult with a mouthful of grub . PS , I don't normally recommend Trifle and Grubs as a combination .

I think he already has , it took ages for anybody to answer the phone last week when I tried to book tickets for the Watford game .

I would have thought we did just about enough in the summer to get us through to the end of the season without calling in the Administrator , but considering the dire match-day attendance numbers so far this season and the world financial crisis all bets are off now .

My personal opinions on this subject for what it's worth : 1 - Nigel Pearson did a fine job at SFC and he will in time become a Premier League Manager . 2 - No significant financial saving was made by replacing him with JP & MW . 3 - At no stage did Rupert Lowe ever seriously consider appointing NP as manager this season . 4 - Keeping Nigel Pearson could have been worth an extra 15/20 points at the end of this season compared to the current structure . 5 - Had he been offered the job he would have taken it - subject to certain reasonable conditions . 6 - I see no valid reason to believe he would not have worked with our young players in the 1st team . 7 - Time will prove that allowing NP to slip through our fingers will prove to be a serious error in judgment , comparable to the appointment of Steve Wigley in the 04/05 season . I know I'm not the first to voice these opinions but please forgive me any repartition as I want to get my views on the record .

I would gladly sell my house and its entire contents if it would mean SFC won a corner kick in the next match . You see I'm a super fan I am . :smt045

We get beat again and what is there left to say ? We can't really blame the players , most of them are a honest bunch of youngsters trying to find their feet in first team football . We (or any other team for that matter) were always going to lose plenty of games this season with that kind of squad - it's inevitable . Not many fair minded fans feel like slating Jan Poortvliet . He seems like a decent chap who instinctively wants to play football in the right manner , it's hardly his fault he's been given a tiny transfer budget and apparently strictly limited influence over how even that modest sum has been spent . He may possibly have been promoted beyond his ability but he is our Manager/Coach now and what else can we do but support him and give him the time needed to at least have a proper chance to prove himself ? That leaves us with Rupert Lowe and Micheal Wilde , many of us do have issues with these two particularly the decision to let Nigel Pearson go (take a glance at today's League One Table) but even here the big picture is that we obviously have no money - the bank are effectively in control , and anyway Rupert bashing has been done to death now . So in conclusion there's no much new we can say at the the moment , but I do have a cunning plan , re-sign Jermaine Wright immediately - that's guaranteed to liven things up on here .

Rudi Skacel had the opportunity to move to other clubs in the summer - and turned the chance down apparently because they failed to match his wage demands . Compare that attitude to Andrew Davies who dropped a division (and in all probability took a pay cut in the process) in order to play regular first team football . Skacel is now languishing both unused and unaffordable at a CCC club while Davies is now back in the Premier League with a great opportunity to progress his career . Players need to look after their own interests we all understand that and few among us will volunteer for a pay cut , but players need to understand that clubs and their fans want players who really want to play - above all other considerations .

While I'm happy to admit I'm no accountant it's perfectly obvious SLH will make another substantial financial loss this FY - and next in all probability . I've no idea where this '18,000 = break even' number comes from , we'd have to virtually fill SMS (with adults not kids 4 a quid) every game to get anywhere near that happy situation from what I can see . Expected Operating loss FY 07/08 = £13m Likely Operating loss FY 08/09 = £7.5m? Extra Income from filling SMS = £8m

This whole 'fickle' or even 'bipolar' business annoys me . When I offer an opinion on a football team or a individual players abilities I'll post that opinion based on what I've observed at that point in time , this doesn't mean my view is now fixed for the rest of eternity on the subject ! Kelvin Davis for example made some terrible howlers during his first season at SFC - and I criticised him for it . Now he's wildly regarded by Saints fans as being a fine Goalkeeper at the top of his game - and I'm more than happy to recognise that . This is called being 'reasonable' - to alter ones opinion in the light of developing events is not generally considered to be a weakness of intellect or a character flaw by most fair minded people for Pete's sake . :mad: "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." - Oscar Wilde .

That Virgin Media match commentator is a very busy man , how he manages to simultaneously cover every match in the CCC is a wonder to behold .

Unnecessarily argumentative and rather narrow-minded , have you considered a career in politics ? :smt021

I'll hazard a guess that the cost to SFC in lost income for each missing fan is well 'north' of £18 a head . Excluding children and ST's matchday tickets cost between £16 -£28 each and then you have to factor in other losses such as reduced food and drink income , programmes , merchandise etc . Using your 4000 fan number the drop in income could well be in excess of £2.5m a season . Any savings made on 'chopping out the dead wood' as you put it are going to be more like £3m in reality - not the £6m you quote I'm afraid .

A little chap with a big future I reckon , fit and pacy but not quite so obviously gifted as Gareth Bale 'Fish' brings a super attitude and work-ethic to the left side of the team , which IMO goes a long way towards compensating for his limited stature . Surly he can only get better with age and experience . I only hope he and SFC have both learnt an important lesson from his brothers stalled career - the club needs to show our youngsters we value them and will give them a proper chance to progress and the player might remember that moving on early to a 'bigger' club is not always the best option they have .