Fans want to see us as competitive – at the minute we're not

LAST Saturday was the first real beating we have taken this season as Southampton could have got more than the five they scored.

They are certainly the best footballing side I've seen this season and went on to prove it again.

The unfortunate thing about this, is we have now had two poor results and performances on the trot (and, to be honest, some of the previous performances weren't much better, even if the results were) just when the mail shot went out for the Early Bird Season tickets.

Several people I know have already said they aren't going to renew and would pick and choose games next season, and a lot of that (although not all) has to do with the poor entertainment served up on the pitch, especially at home, so this is not going to help.

Still worse, of course, is that at least one of Leeds, Charlton, Norwich and Southampton will still be in the division next season.

And we could be joined by up to three of Derby, Ipswich, Reading, QPR, Crystal Palace, Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth and Peterborough, all teams with considerably greater resources than we have.

If the season ticket sales go down, we will have less resources to compete with these teams, which means ticket sales will go down, which means resources will be reduced further.

What fans really want is to see their team being competitive and with an outside chance at least of going up, so they have some hope for the future.

I don't see that hope being supplied by either the current management team or, more importantly, by the regime in charge of the club – I think the crisis is not far off.