The9

Simple (and still relevant)... Southampton is red, Portsmouth is blue. We're off to Europe, Have fun in League Two

Actually they've qualified twice, 2010 as well, but because they were in admin they forgot to do the paperwork to apply the second time. Though even if they had UEFA wouldn't have allowed them to participate.

If he starts his run from an offside position and receives the ball in his own half, the free kick still isn't taken from his own half though, it's taken from where the offside player was when the ball was played - so I can only assume it's a clarification that you absolute cannot under any circumstances take a free kick after an offside from the "wrong" half of the pitch. The main one seems to be around the penalty/card stuff - because what that needs is more instances where interpretation by the ref is needed...

That bit made me LLOL. Perfect place to celebrate, what with him having played for Plymouth and us for all but one season of his career and his sending off in the first leg. Oh and cheers to this thread for the retro lolz, I got a goal notification on 92 minutes and went around Coriander Lounge telling people in Saints shirts.

Hmm, so the wife took one look, said "Billy Sharp!!?!?!!?!?!!!!!!!" and bought herself... and me... a ticket. So I'll be there despite my previous reservations about the whole thing. And seeing as I'm going now, may as well enjoy it.

I'm pretty sure they knew he was in an offside position AND played as if he was going to be given offside, which absolutely affected their play and is precisely the reason they introduced the interpretation. The videos on the link I provided make it absolutely clear it was offside as they show exactly the same situation.

Actually if you read the interpretation it only needs to be an obvious action OR impeding a defender's ball-playing actions. Kane being in the offside position next to the ball did the latter, him moving towards the ball did the former. Also, if you think "you are talking cobblers" is an insult, you should try not talking cobblers.

Unfortunately this is wrong.

From seeing Plymouth twice earlier in the season (away to Notts County and away to Newport) they looked like exactly the same sort of side as the Skates, lots of quick dribbling but no particular passing creativity. Then again at the time Plymouth were top. Plus as I may have mentioned I saw 22nd placed Newport win by 3 goals at Fratton, so...

Biggest problem with the second leg is that it's at 6pm, AFTER the Saints game, and on a Sunday evening, so I'll either be so ****ed I won't care, or more likely I'll be sober and home steeling myself for work the next day.

There was plenty of good football at Fratton when Newport stuck 3 on them a few months back. Re: first leg - I did say they couldn't create anything - one Plymouth player giving the ball away on the edge of the box and one penalty. 2-2 isn't the worst result for them as Plymouth will need to score and might get picked off. Or it could be a really dull 0-0 and go all the way to penalties - but there's usually a defensive error or 6 in L2 somewhere.

If we'd have beaten Man U on the last day we'd have stayed up and their result against West Brom would have been irrelevant. Man U sent us down, no-one else.

Well, he was about a foot shorter than Matt, who sort of kinda nudge-nutted him a bit, then the Skate walked around holding his head and "checking for blood" he knew definitely wasn't there for a good minute or two when the ref was looking at him. I doubt they'll bother to retrospective it, it's the L2 Playoffs, no-one's watching. Well, I was, until we put Hollyoaks and yesterday's Eastenders on. Re: colour clash, yeah, it's not like the dark green and white stripes clashes, but the FL's stupid shorts clash rules force teams to change kits more than necessary and they'll take any chance to try and flog an away kit.

You weren't wrong there, Paul Wotton and Cook sent to the stands within 15 minutes (and a dodgy looking headbutt thing by one of Plymouth's eventual scorers unpunished).

It will certainly be bog standard catalogue teamwear, but their bog standard teamwear is pretty nice. Here's the 2016 catalogue (warning pdf!)

The blue marl one? I like it, and it's better than this season's gradated shorts efforts.

Hmm, we're not going to like that. A good Rank Xerox style kit in 2017/18 would be a good way to deal with that.

FIFA did change it (actually the IFAB did) and as usual you're talking cobblers.

This was the definition until last year's re-interpretation clarified what constitutes the last bit - which is what Kane's position and movement did.

It's here: http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2015-16/jul/290715-international-fa-board-offside-guidance.html This is the relevant bit: Kane being in an offside position meant the defenders AND Forster had to see if he played the ball, and it made all the difference in the world to Forster getting out to Son quick enough.

It's less likely than a lot of the other options.

They obviously do, he's just not ready yet. If he's not ready in the next 4 years he's probably never going to be, as he'll probably never get the chance at another Prem club. The Championship is full of not quite there young keepers.

Makes barely any difference as a tiny chance of that scenario playing out, nevertheless.

That is basically the only difference it makes though, almost every other permutation is unaffected by it. Plus we shouldn't be looking at a home draw against Palace as a viable option for European qualification.

Just out of interest, further to the stripes on the back thing, West Brom's new shirt (Adidas) is striped on the front and plain white on the back.