SAINTS chairman Rupert Lowe will tonight be grilled by fans wanting answers as to why the club have slipped so far following the FA Cup final.

Lowe is expected to field questions on playing matters and finance when he meets representatives of Saints' affiliated supporters clubs at St Mary's in a quarterly fans' meeting.

True Saints Association chairman Steve Godwin will be present and said: "It should be the hottest fans meeting for ages. We will want Rupert to defend his record of managerial appointments.

"The last quarterly meeting I went to, Steve Wigley had just been appointed; in fact I've been to three meetings and there's been three managers!"

Fair Oak Supporters Club member Dave Ford will be at St Mary's tonight and he said: "I will be wanting to know why there wasn't more than the James Beattie transfer fee for Harry Redknapp to spend this month.

"Once Blackburn have taken their share, we're only left with around £4.5m - I would have thought we could easily have found another £3m or £4m.

"Lowe is to blame for the predicament we are in. He should have brought in a proven Premiership manager when Strachan left a year ago.

"Every fan I've spoken to is 100 per cent behind Harry Redknapp, and want him to stay for two or three years even if the unthinkable happens and we go down.

"If that happens, Lowe will come in for a load of stick, so I can't understand why he isn't speculating to accumulate - he obviously just doesn't think like that."

Nigel Quashie, Jamie Redknapp and the on-loan Calum Davenport are so far the only arrivals, and the latter two have impressed in the games they have played.

"I was expecting more things to happen by now. Harry said he was looking for five players, yet we've only signed three," Ford continued.