Alright so first off I'm new here and I'm no car expert so if I'm talking rubbish at any point then do say!

Yesterday while driving around I stopped at a set of lights. When I went to pull away I found out that I had no gears at all. I could literally do a full circle with the gear stick and it wouldn't go into gear. Eventually it somehow jammed itself into second (which was no located where 1st was) and I managed to pull onto the side of the road (very angry driver behind me).
After looking under the bonnet I found that the cables (with the springs around them) were very loose and so was the metal bit they attach to.. I messed around for 5 minutes and got back in the car. I had somehow managed to fix 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear... but then before I could try out 4th it broke again... Luckily I was right next to a shell garage so I managed to freewheel into it and get a tow home.

So can anyone help in identifying the problem? What I do know is that the clutch still works as it should when the car finds a gear so I don't think that's a problem but as I said I'm no expert lol.

Thanks guys!