Some more perspective from a firsttime poster

read this forum for quite a while now without posting but some of the negativity today has prompted me to post. A few points as follows (feel free to ignore but got to get these off my chest)

1. We would have lost todays match last season - to come out with a point after the last twenty minutes battering we took was a good effort for which the players should take a lot of credit - yes it is disappointing to give away a two goal lead but Southampton are a decent team despite their mid table position.

2. Odejayi for me had a decent game today - great flick on in the build up to the first goal and a few other nice touches. Yes he missed a one on one but, having just watched MOTD so did quite a few premiership players today. Is he good enough? Who knows but the mindless abuse he took today was ridiculous. He will know he missed a sitter doesn't need reminding of it every time he went near the ball afterwards ffs. We are limited in the striking department so to knock the confidence of 2 out of the 3 strikers who played today simply does not make sense.

3. We are the forth worst supported team in the division so we aren't going to attract top class performers to the club - we have to cut our cloth accordingly and people should accept players limitations bearing in mind their right to valid criticisms. I don't know the facts but would suggest that the worst paid Soton player today earns more than our best paid player - its the difference between teams with average gates of 10,000 and 18-19,000. Yes Soton have 4 strikers (Euell, BWP, Rasiack and John) who would walk into our team but they can afford to pay them market rate salaries. We need to get used to the fact that Davey has to wheel and deal and some of his signings will be gambles who won't come off - however after just 25 games when some of the summer signings have played less than 10 games we can't yet write any of them off - they may take time to come good they may never get there but can't say for certain yet.

Compare the team today with that which "played" against Wendy this weekend last season -:

Colgan, Hassell, Hayes, Austin, Kay, K.Reid, Williams, Nads, Devaney, McCann, Atkinson subs - Knight, Richards, Tongue, Heckingbottom, Letheren

massive massive improvement. Yes we are struggling to put a win together at the moment but I don't think we will struggle ultimately and should be a safe midtable finish which we would all have taken at the start of the season.

4. Following on from that we need to encourage as many people as possible to get through the turnstiles asap. As an aside for family reasons I spent the christmas period in Cornwall and had the misfortune to watch Plymouth v QPR on boxing day (can't believe they are in the playoffs or that QPR battered Watfors today as they were both abysmal on Weds). However given the fact that Plymouth (bigger catchment area admittedly) are a similar sized club they got nearly 17,000 for that game with maybe 350 away fans which was more than 4k more than we got against Stoke. Given that both clubs are experiencing good seasons the difference was stark (tickets were £24 quid as well despite Plymouth being far from an affluent area) - another difference was despite being a goal down at half time and playing rubbish Argyle were CLAPPED off at half time. This had an effect and they rallied second half and scored the winner at approx the same time Mr Kettle was playng silly bu**ers at Oakwell.

There are times when I despair at the crowd size/ reaction at Oakwell today being one of them. If we rally round, keep the faith and support the reds to the hilt, starting at Glanford Park on Tuesday, we can achieve a "top of Yorkshire" finish this season which would be a remarkable achievement and would make me belive that, when my two year old starts school in 2010, he will be able to afford his L**ds supprting school mates the same patronising remarks I make to my work colleagues in the city centre on a regular basis as present.

For those who have got this far have a prosperous New Year and heres to an even more successful 2009

 

Totally Agree But.......

Are We Missing 2008 Out? </p>

Other Than That SPOT ON MATE (Y)</p>

 

You're getting a bit excited there mate...

It's not even 2008 yet

Decent post though.

 

generally agree,but

KO had 3 excellent chances,and one fair chance, and fluffed them all,the game should have been finished at half-time,he did have some nice touches though,and I certainly thought it unfair to be booed off.the biggest disappointment for me,was the lack of subs,when several of the lads,Togwell in particular (Massive effort in the game)and Stan(Ankle still playing up)looked knackered.

 

RE: generally agree,but

did get a bit excited about the date there - one too many glasses of red wine me thinks.

Principle stays the same though - happy new year

 

Fantastic post mate

I echo every sentiment

 

total ******

nice job fella...I just like ****** thats all

 

Booooooo !

Far too much sense on display there.... Booooo !

 

Point 1 - last season - error. We received a battering in the second half last season having been 2 - 0 up at half time, and drew 2 -2. No improvement in this particular match! Overall improvement in the first half of the season however has been substantial.