Asked in the press conference whether he was in the mood to try to bolster his squad with new signings at first he parried  'This is probably not the right time to think about that just yet..."  before adding a characteristic twist in the tail    "...meaning tonight.  As opposed to tomorrow".

And it had all started so well! The North Stand is a tidy addition to the ground and for the first ten minutes it offered the best view in the house as Quins camped in the Saints 22, stealing a lineout here, forcing a turnover there, and scoring the first try of the season when Andy Dunne sailed through a half-gap to release Greenwood who fought his way over for an early score. 5-0 up and the East Stand were singing.

Will scores (Robshew)

 Unfortunately it was all  (steep) downhill from there.

Greenwood had banged his head on the ground when scoring and was clearly groggy walking back, and it was no surprise when he slipped off the field 10 minutes later - probably  he should have gone off sooner - and it seemed he was sorely missed.

Groggy (Robshew)

At any event we didn't see much defence after that. Or, for the next hour at least - much attack either.  Greenwood didn't lose consciousness, it was reported after the game, but he'll probably take a cog-test on Monday to assess whether he can play next weekend against Newcastle.

But, anyway, there we were, 5-3 up after 10 minutes (they got a penalty), Northampton had hardly been in our half, and all was well .What happened?  In a word we were overrun. Men against boys, said one of my neighbours, as the relentless Saints crossed the line again and again. Orcs against hobbits would have been more accurate. Wave after wave of green shirts broke the gain line, were repelled, and returned.

Horrible to watch?  It was humiliating, After the third try, with Saints players celebrating, Quins heads down behind the line, 'When the Saints' echoing round the East Stand, a small boy in front of me started to sob.. And if it was humiliating for the crowd, how much more so for the players and staff (who don't in my opinion, deserve the spiteful comments that littered the message board on Sunday)?

The tries came thick and fast. The first was set up by the  impressive Reihana who strode through three tackles to set up scoring platform, the pack took over with an artful RMTOB which edged steadily toward the tryline as Quins became increasingly frantic....before  the ball was flicked out to Seely at speed who strode over for the try.

The second came from an extraordinary two minutes of end-to-end attack and counter attack, under massive pressure a Saints grubber was grounded by Keogh who hoofed a quick 22 about 60 wind-assisted metres down the pitch and he and Duffy chased. Saints countered - the back three at their most impressive in a broken field - and ran a full 80m to to 'score' with Spreadbury hauling them back for a marginal forward pass. At the scrum Keogh again hoofed it up and it was deja vu all over again as the Saints countered, drew their man, forward passed again (missed by Spreadbury this time) for Howard to score..

Staunton attacks (Andy Hancock)

The third came from Northampton scrum, 40m out, Blowers breaking away and making 30 metres untroubled by any tackles before offloading to Cohen who had a few bodies to deal with, but doesn't miss from that range. (This is when the tears flowed)

The fourth came from a scrum 10m out, and might feature in a text book as the assured pack set up a ruck, and another and another before releasing down the line for Rudd to stroll over. 8-29 at half time, the wind advantage gone, and the match was effectively over.

I don't know if you've noticed - but Harley's Angels are going from strength to strength aren't they?  There was loads of them dancing in the break - more than 40 I reckon - with well drilled older dancers guiding some very young girls through a well organised  routine. A success story for the community team. For the first time I noticed one brave boy in the squad (if he's reading this: good on you!)  A few more boys and the Angel's might have to change their name.

The dancing finished, the teams ran out for the second half and looking up from my notes to check for replacements I noticed that Worlsey was missing but was astonsihed to see he had apparently been replaced by DOK, mixing closely with the team and practicing his place kicking.  Chaos reigned briefly as DOK, and other participants in an ill-judged kicking competition, scurried from the pitch and the game resumed.

Evans had brought on Ace, Ceri and George Harder, for Worsley Hayter and Keogh, in a transparent effort to add some more agression and physicality to the team. Sensible enough, but it just  begged the question why they didn't start the game?

Northampton didn't care. Camped in our 22m the forwards provided Cohen with clean possession and he circled round, breaking tackles to offload to Tucker for try number five. It just finished me off: I mean no one really expected a come back, but we could at least have kidded ourselves for a few minutes.

Vos pursues Cohen (Andy Hancock)

The replacements (who soon included an energetic Diprose) made some impact,  it's true, but in reality Northampton took their foot off the pedal, and a string of injuries and blood replacements disrupted their rhythm. When Deane (one of the few Quins reliably tackling) went off we were out of replacement backs and Sherriff was forced to move to the wing, and both teams by now had lost their shape.

Staunton and Ace (Andy Hancock)

 Saints managed a sixth try, and Quins gained some consolation at the death when Ugo ran over having been denied moments early by a senseless high tackle from Rudd.  (Ugo didn't even have the ball - he'd kicked ahead - and it seemed to me that a LOW tackle would have merited a yellow card).

Final score: 13 - 45.

To cap off the miserable afternoon the Man with the Mic set about weasily eroding  another fine Quins custom by asking us not to come on the pitch after the game for - for all reasons - "your own safety"   What did Farmer Chris plant out there? Poison Ivy?

So, what went wrong?  After the game Evans cited three factors: Poor kicking from hand, allowing the formidable trio of Reihana, Rudd and Cohen to attack in broken play; poor defence, including terrible tackling, and losing all the collisions through lack of physicality.

Solomons thought they'd won it up front, with a front five that dominated, and a back-row that were superb. He didn't even mention the peerless Reihana.

I think our squad are simply all too small.

• take the back three for example: Duffy/Monye/Keogh: Avg Height 1.81m. Avg Weight: 90kg.  Rudd/Reihana/Cohen: 1.86m 98kg
• take the second row: Rudzki/Miall: 1.94m, 110kg,  Boome/Browne: 1.94m, 116kg

To put this into perspective: Browne's a stone heavier than Diprose. But more mobile (he was a star player in their team, for me)

Were there any positives? It was hard to take much away. So'oialo was a curates egg - sometimes so slow to get the pass away, but he stole a couple of balls from the hapless Howard. George Harder showed spirit, attitude, strength and dog. Vos gave 120% as normal (and was devastated after the game). Our lineout wasn't as poor as Northamptons.  Um...that's it really.

In the press conference Solomons was measured in success, and the infamous Corne Krige was quietly impressive: just as he had been in the game in fact. They said nice things about their fans  - they could hear them all right - and about Vossy. Mark Evans was subdued, and the press didn't push him, really.

I slunk off to the bar for my first beer of the afternoon - having been defeated by the queues before the game. I saw three people wearing the new away shirt, with the official mulberry and navy blue colours.

Is it just two bad games - or are we having a crisis?

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