SWANSEA Commentary

Saw on another site a question as to our boards future plans. Doesn't include getting any players. Administration beckons with the board buying back the club at low cost. Grim grim the reaper comes.
How many will be at home game against COVENTRY.? 12500?

Just finnished work, read the report, same old story; 'we will bounce back'
after this dissapointment'.

How many times have I heared that ???? we must be playing basketball if we have to bounce back so many bl**dy times

sorry if it hurts guys

Swan-Laker wrote:sorry if it hurts guys

Not blaming you, its the whole set up at St Marys 8)

Swan-Laker wrote:sorry if it hurts guys

It does, but the pain gets less with each passing game, thanks to the way Lowe, et al, have driven our club into the ground.

Problem is if the pain diminishes after each game where will the support be? Nobody caring will give some the excuse to sell up and close us down. God forbid. Maybe the council can tell everybody that the ground will only be permitted to be used as a football ground. That would stop some sniffing around and if these people are trying to run the club into the ground, give them a reason to stop.

SFC Forever wrote:Problem is if the pain diminishes after each game where will the support be? Nobody caring will give some the excuse to sell up and close us down. God forbid. Maybe the council can tell everybody that the ground will only be permitted to be used as a football ground. That would stop some sniffing around and if these people are trying to run the club into the ground, give them a reason to stop.

I didn't say I don't care, that was not the point of my post at all. My point was that some people, myself included, are getting a little immune to losing game in, game out. becoming immune to the pain of losing is not the same as ceasing to care. I can't speak for others, but if I didn't care then I wouldn't bother posting on forums, I'd go and find something else more productive to do with my time on a gloomy Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
As for going to matches, I don't live in Southampton and I can't afford to go. Simple as.

PU I wasn't saying that you don't care. I feel the pain and know that I am getting used to it. I was simply suggesting that when losing hurts less a lot of people will be in the same mood. You like me use forums and I have seen how you react to different situations. I was talking generally about the way a lot of people ,mostly on other sites, have started to react. Neighbours of mine have removed their flags and banners because they are losing interest.
A few people have told me they have torn up their membership. These little facts only show how far the malais is spreading. I also believe that some forums for the same reason are struggling to hang on to their members. Apathy is a sad way to feel as it shows a loss of interest. That leads to loss of gate income. We are in a spiral heading downwards with no sign of it ending soon. I still hurt and believe me it is hard for me to relate everything I hear when doing a commentary. I, like you still love my club and wish it could find something to lift it from it's current crisis. I will be here on Tuesday hoping for a reversal of our Coventry score. I will also be looking forward to your imput. It is nice sometimes to know that you are not alone. Thanks to our happy(in the main) little forum I know that to be true.

That's ok, sometimes in the medium of the net, things don't always come across as we mean them.

I won't be at SMS on Tuesday but I will be, as usual, glued to the radio hoping for a good result.

As for people not going to games because of the rubbish on offer, while it is a sad situation and no good for the club I can't say I blame people. Money's tighter than ever at the moment, due to the current financial climate and ever-increasing cost of living, and if people feel that they can't throw money away watching bad football then that isn't really surprising. Unfortunately, as you say, Saints are in a horrible catch-22 situation: poor football+bad results=poor attendances=less income=decline. Heaven knows where it will end.

I feel that we need a couple of bigger stronger players who can help ease the load on the kids. At times they have played some really nice stuff but we see them getting caught by counter attacks. If we as supporters can see this why can't the management.Defensively, our injuries have been horrendous. It seems that we are never going to end the cycle, but cycles always go full circle. Thomas is out for a long time and along with Killer has been sorely missed. Jan has to find a way to shore up the back four and quickly. Lancashire looks a good prospect but with the pressure for much needed points growing he seems over anxious. Tuesday night he was unlucky because the tackle he made was probably going to save a goal.The player tackled might have missed but he took the proffesional outlook and made sure. Cork is doing ok but we will lose him in January. Hope we have some lined up as replacements because we will really need them.
I still expect a big improvement on Tuesday and if we can get amongst Coventry's defenders from the start we could get a good win. Let's hope so.

Although I'm in support of playing youth, I think we've got to the stage of the season where we need to make a judgement and just say which of the youngsters are good enough to play this season and which aren't. Obviously injuries are a problem though and we need to make it a priority to get an experienced centre-back like Chris Lucketti on loan until Wayne Thomas is fit again.

I would say that the following have shown that they deserve a place in the team and can cope with this division:

Lallana - clearly the player that most fans have noticed this season, should have been in the team last season as well.
Lancashire - tendency to give away silly free-kicks/pens/get sent off but he needs to be playing to get experience and I think that he's shown a huge amount of potential.
Mills - could improve positioning and get a big stronger but that will come from a regular run in the tea, I would feel comfortable with him at left back for the rest of the season
Cork - player of the season for Scunthorpe in this division speaks for itself really. Still learning but I don't think he will let us down wherever he plays
Peckhart and Robertson - both have good and bad points but I think they are physically strong enough to cope with the division
Spiderman - Already has become a major part of the team, he will be 1.5m extremely well spent I'm sure. Hard to believe he is only 18 because he plays with such experience
Gillett - Hasn't been given a chance before, but is a hardworker with a bit of ability and agression and has become very useful to us.

Players who aren't good enough:

James - Feel really sorry for him because he's being played out of position but every team we play against single him out as a weakness and do everything down his side of the pitch. Needs more support from McGoldrick however.
Thomson - Definately one for the future and has only been given brief chances but has definitely struggled when I've seen him play.
White - One good game and one bad game but I think right now he is not quite ready, definitely give him another go for next season
McGoldrick - he's undoubtedly got ability otherwise he wouldn't have scored 44 goals in a season for the youth team, but he needs to realise that at this level if he wants to do well he has to work hard because he's obviously found it easy at youth level and as a result thinks he's the best player in the world.

I really hope that we can get a couple of experienced defenders -big, mean, experienced defenders who can kick their way through a game with the best (worst) of them. We need a couple of 'alehouse brawlers' (I think that was how Bill Shankly referred to Saints once) to bring some spine and meanness to the side. Our kids are good, but they are not strong, they are easily bullied off the ball. We need a balance of youth and experience and we don't have that. We just have youth and if Lowe/Jan persist with things the way they are then it will end in disaster. And someone should tell Lowe to keep out of team affairs if, as has been suggested elsewhere, he is meddling.