SAFC Blog: The king is dead, long live the king

By Martyn McFadden

As football fans, we want every manager to be a success at our club, and we're no different with Sam, as tired as we are of changing the name in the "blah blah's Red 'n' White army" song.

It's what we do, and it's what we're used to doing. We should be, we have to do it every year. We've spent the week wondering which West Ham players Sam would be trying to sign, and whether they'd be any better than what we already have.

What we've also done is lose our first game with Sam picking the team, but we usually do that with a new manager anyway, so the defeat by a West Brom team so dull that their own fans were complaining on the radio after the game about Pulis destroying their team shouldn’t really have been a surprise.

What does that say about us? Of course, the goal was shown on TV to be illegal on several counts, but Pants should have been stronger and we needed to create more chances.

Which brings us nicely on to the small matter of the Big One: the Derby.

The one we need to win to claim our first victory of the season. The one we need to win because we need something to cheer us up, although the "sold out" signs have been up at all our away games shows that whatever faith we have, we’re damn well keeping.

The next seven days will see the atmosphere intensify. Nerves will be increasingly on edge, loyalty proclaimed at every opportunity. Then it will all end within 90-odd minutes of beginning.

Bring it on.