Barwell's Saints say their farewells

Northampton 27

London Irish 22

Half-time: 10-12

Att: 13,538

After the Saints went marching down to National League One, Keith Barwell invited the players and coaches to the Rodber Suite to have a drink with the supporters. They were hoping to celebrate survival but instead found themselves drowning their sorrows.

The doors to the last-chance saloon were slammed shut when the capacity crowd here learned that Northampton, despite beating London Irish, were the fall guys, condemned to the drop by Worcester's victory over Saracens at Sixways. After 22 matches and eight months, the difference between the bottom two clubs was a single point.

After the hangover, the inquest, which will be held tomorrow. "All the directors and senior management will conduct a major review of the club's playing performance," Barwell, the chairman and chief shareholder, said. "We have obviously given this much thought. We cannot continue the way we are. We crave success on the park and we need a coaching structure and a playing culture that can provide that."

Northampton were relegated in 1995 and then won all their matches to go back up again. They intend to do the same again. The compensation is that they will receive a parachute payment of [pound]2.2 million and they will get to play in Cornwall. This, though, is a blue-chip rugby club.

"Really I have to apologise to our fantastic supporters, sponsors and shareholders," Bar-well said. "This season everyone at the club, starting with me, has let you down. You deserve better." They do indeed. Despite this severe setback, most of the fans remained at Franklin's Gardens to applaud the team, and they continued to chant "When the Saints Go Marching In".

Barwell added: "There's an old African saying: if you want to travel fast, walk alone; if you want to travel far, walk together. We want to travel far - we must stay together. Please renew your season ticket." Some supporters, who are not quite so loyal, might care to come up with an old Northampton saying: "cobblers".

Barwell said that for a club to succeed in the Premiership it needed three vital ingredients: income to exceed expenditure, to own its ground and to have a half-decent team. The Saints ticked only the first two boxes. Northampton produced a spirited performance to record their first home win since December but over the season they fell short. Yesterday they won by three goals and two penalties to two goals, a try and a penalty, coming back from a 7-0 deficit after five minutes, Topsy Ojo slicing through the midfield, beating Jon Clarke on the outside before cutting inside the home captain, Bruce Reihana.

Enter Carlos Spencer, Saints' expensive signing from New Zealand. The stand-off produced a clean break to lay on a try for Reihana but then failed to find touch, enabling Irish to run the ball back with interest. Justin Bishop, playing his last game for the Exiles, cleverly created a try for Seilala Mapusua and at halftime Northampton were 12-10 behind, Spencer giving the referee, Chris White, all manner of earache.

The second half opened with Spencer throwing a long pass for Sean Lamont to finish after great work by the pack, and with Reihana adding the points Saints were pulling clear. After 62 minutes there was another huge roar when the scrum-half, Mark Robinson, broke free to score at the posts, but long before Mapusua scored his second try at the death, the Saints supporters had fallen quiet. They were well aware for whom the bell was tolling.

"We've been talking about the possibility of relegation for so long that part of the grieving process had already started," Paul Grayson, the Saints coach, said. "The players are desperately hurt. I'm an inexperienced coach and I made a few mistakes. There are some things the club needs to get right. Some people will lose their jobs over this."

Grayson was hoping it would not be him and was confident of retaining most of his leading players. "I'll see you next season, maybe," he said. "The world keeps turning. Worse things have happened."

Before the start Steve Thompson, forced to retire because of a neck injury, and half a dozen other players who are leaving the club, took a final bow. At the end the Saints wandered around in the sunshine in something of a daze, applauding their extraordinary supporters while commiserating with each other.

Barwell patted Grayson on the back repeatedly and then walked on to the pitch to do the same to Spencer. "King Carlos" playing against Pertemps Bees next season? Apparently so, say Northampton. Reihana has another year on his contract, and he wants to extend it. "I'm not running away mate," he said. "We got ourselves into this position and it's up to us to get ourselves out of it."

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