I wondered if anyone else agrees with me regarding how odd League One is. From watching the home matches over the last two seasons, I think this is a good league for entertainment value with some of the smaller teams definately raising their game against Saints and often playing good football. A marked difference between the Championship where many of the visiting team were pretty dour in their style of football. However, I really feel that there are plenty of teams in this league which would comfortably compete in the Championship as opposed to the handful who are capable of stepping up a level from that league. The gulf between the the Premiership and the second tier is far in excess of the Championship and League One. I've been surprised by some performances from visitors this season with clubs like Rochdale proving themselves to be much better than I would have exepcted. I would clarify this in that I feel that there are teams in this league like D & R who seem totally out of their depth and the weaker clubs have been woeful. Unlike the top two leagues, I feel that the results are more predictable insofar that the better teams generally win yet the quality of the teams in the play-off / chasing positions are very difficult to guess. I feel Saints should have really wrapped up promotion if we hadn't thrown a few results away. We are one of the better teams and probably have the strongest squad. In this respect, I think we are competing at a much higher level than many of the other teams. I will miss this league if we get promoted (I don't think this is a given by any means as Huddersfield just won'r lie down) as I have genuinely enjoyed the football that Nigel has given us this season. It has been a pleasure to watch. I'd like Saints to go up and feel that we have the main ingredients already within the club to make a decent fist at the next level. I don't doubt that we can finish higher than an under-performing Portsmouth next season if we get promoted. This would be an amazing achievement for our club and demonstrative of how far we have come since being bought up by the Swiss. Norwich and Leeds have demonstrated how they can succeed at the higher level. It will be difficult concentrating on marking my exam papers tomorrow afternoon - that is about the only thing I can be confident about!
There is a lot in what you say Ian.........Saints are more than an average team in league one and as such are in general accorded that respect. You do culture jealosy from other wannabe large clubs in this league who think they are better than they actually are. Meeting someone like saints is their cup final as they do not get the chance to meet such clubs as a rule. Yet when they are soundly beaten by teams such as Saints their management bleat on about bad decisions, hoof ball and the like. Brighton Management are a class example. The vast majority of management have acknowledged at least in part the better quality and the style of football etc. Just the same as NA, when we have been beaten, he will acknowledge the team on their day. Will I miss league 1....... no is the real answer. There is some very poor quality teams in the division, at least in the next level it is more of a level playing field where form counts for a lot more and the pitches are more on a par with our own.
At least in the Chapionship we'll get to play on mostly level fields, instead of the ploughed-up crap we get in this league.
Agree about the standard of pitches and this has definately had a bearing on our performances away from home. After giving the matter of Leagie One more thought, I think that there are a lot of positives in the third tier. There are no real "superstars" and the perception I've come away with is just how well many clubs work as a team unit when they come down here. Poyet's comments are probably the most sour from any of our competitors although I think he has been an exception in this respect as many clubs have praised Saints ability. There are other points I like. The clubs rely more on home-grown players and it is fascinating to see just how many of the teams who have come down this season include loan players from Premiership clubs that are British. I think this is also reflected with managers. There is almost a feel to the games from the time when I first went to the Dell in the mid-seventies where foriegners are exotic. League One is not the "global" product that defines the Premiership and you could argue are more representative of what any supposed "English style" of football should be about. (Wondered if anyone had read the brilliant book "Why England lose" which offers some fascinating insights into our relationship with Europe and how our "unique" style of play handicapped us. The authors don't consider "English football " good thing and demonstrate that the best way to play is to adopt the methods of Western European clubs. Lyon get singled out as the best run club in Europe! I would recommend this book to anyone curious to see statistical analysis applied to football myths in a light-hearted fashion which seriously challenges some commonly held notions. One of the most thought-provoking books on football I have read.) In addition, I must also add that I've enjoyed watching some teams that I've never seen before or clubs about which I know very little. Teams like Orient are as part of English football are larger and more successful clubs such as Man Utd or Liverpool and there is something re-assuring about watching a team formed in 1881 by employees of the P & O shipping company play against us. They are not a global brand but genuinely part of ther community 's history. Granted, there are other teams like D&R and MK Dons whose history is much more recent and lack the cultural aspect but I think it is great that teams like Rochdale, Oldham, Orient, Hartlepool, etc have a definable local identity as opposed to teams like Man Utd whose fans are as likely to come from Guildford as Manchester. As my sister lives up in Cheadle, I have gone to watch Stockport on a few occasions and it is a brilliant experience sitting with fans who watch their team week in knowing that they will lurch from one disaster to another! We often say that Stockport County fans are the best in the country because their team always seems to be in a crisis and they get served up with a diet of dreadful football. Still the fans turn up. It is this kind of thing which I must admit I admire about the two lower leagues. As a downside, the away support has generally been poor at St. Mary's. I think there were less than 200 Hartlepool fans at the last match and the atmosphere when "bigger" clubs have come down is missing. The best support over the last couple of years has been Leeds and Portsmouth in the FA Cup - you would have to say that these two clubs have some of the best away support in the country no matter what league they are playing in. Cheers Ian
