Hello lads,
Another Saints fan here. Firstly, well done on the way your young lads approached the game - on another day you could have been 1-0 up in the first ten minutes and it would have been new trouser time!
I can't comment on your manager or players as a whole because, to be honest, I have enough trouble at my age keeping up with my own team... But, I do know exactly how it feels to sit where you sat, to feel what you felt and to know how it is waking up the following morning in a sea of hopelessness. It seems like a lifetime ago when we were relegated from the Championship under the stewardship of an insane chairman and managed by two Dutch jokers who made Steve McLaren look like Pep Guardiola. Our team was full of kids, some with talent, some without and many of whom I am sure had their careers put back years by being thrown into an uwinnable situation. It felt sh**. Totally and utterly. It felt hopeless. It felt like football would move on - a train travelling in one direction only while we were on the platform watching it depart. Not sure that another train would ever arrive, let alone depart with us on it.
Coventry City was a club like ours. Keith Houchen's diving header is my abiding Cup Final memory - no idea why. Two of my best mates are Sky Blues so I've always had a soft spot for your side.
I'm glad to be back in the Premiership - but would I swap the last seven years since we've been away? No. Would I change any of it?. No. I've been to places and met people I would never have met. I've seen football played the right way by the right people supported by real fans.
Football's not about destinations, it's about the journey. And I realise now, we weren't sat on a platform. We were on another train and it just took a while to realise, to look up and enjoy the trip.
Good luck lads wherever your journey takes you. Hope to see you back on the up soon.
