SAINTS’ latest home defeat was met with a fair bit of anger in town on Friday night – and that did not really abate over the weekend.

As a result it came as no surprise on Tuesday morning when chairman Eamonn McManus issued a statement, which follows on from a strongly worded set of programme notes earlier in June.

So when Tuesday’s weekly press briefing with Nathan Brown was delayed by 50 minutes because he was in a meeting with the chairman and chief executive – you do start mentally writing the headlines.

After all, when the team plays poorly and fails to string three passes together, the buck stops with the man picking the team and drilling them.

The meeting, we were later told, was to discuss recruitment – presumably of players, not a new coach.

Thankfully, we have not got a sacking story to report this week – the Saints coaching job is not being turned into the sporting equivalent of The Gong Show and Nathan Brown will be allowed to mould this team in his image.

As bad as Friday’s performance was – following on from a series of disappointing evenings at Langtree Park this term - simply ejecting the coach is not the answer.

Since the departure of Daniel Anderson at the end of 2008 we have had too much off field turbulence, short-termism and a lack of continuity.

The problem with changing coaches - as Wigan found out to their cost in the early part of Super League – is that it becomes a knee jerk, quick fix solution.

One by-product is that coaches end up inheriting players, recommended by the previous gaffer, that they neither want nor know what to do with.

Brown clearly has players – good players at that - who don’t fit in to his ideal 17.

Brown’s fingerprints are all over the signings of heavyweight prop Mose Masoe and a specialist scrum half in Luke Walsh – there will be others on the way to complement those next season.

But of course there is a problem in the here and now.

People have forked out good money in 2013 to be entertained at Langtree Park – but alas, apart from the Wakefield and Bradford games, they haven’t been.

If you get given a ropy pint in the pub, few punters would be content with the landlord’s words ‘sup up and stop moaning, the next one will be better.’ And a season ticket is just a bit dearer than a pint of bitter.

Saints still have some big games left at home to put it right – namely against Wigan and Warrington - fixtures that will bring their last chances of beating a top eight side at home this year.

In those games to come there can be no repetition of the dumb rugby that they adopted on Friday night against Hull KR when Rovers’ rush defence caused pandemonium in the Saints attack and provoked an utterly chaotic response.

There was no lack of energy and enthusiasm – but you can get those two commodities in a schoolyard game of bulldog. However, what appeared to be lacking was nous, guile and structure.

It is hard when your main go-to man is a young on loan player with limited experience – but it was a worry that the older heads could not instigate a change in tack until it was too late.

So July is a tester for Saints.

In-form Cas away and then Wigan at home – with blank cup weekends in between to let any bad performances fester – makes for a challenging month but one that the squad is more than capable of rising to.