The9

For England, yes. But that sort of overlooks that by far the Skates' best side in the past 60 years was in 2008/9, so you may as well just name that or the years either side, because we're not going to be able to name any other Skates in living memory good enough to get in their team (other than maybe Merson and Sheringham). I'm in absolutely no position to judge a best-ever Saints XI as I've only been watching since the early 90s (and for the first 9 years of that they were mostly gash, Le Tiss aside), whilst aside from some war-time anachronisms the Skate side is going to be pretty accurate. Not that we need an edge, but how's about we only include players fully paid for, and fully paid, by the clubs. That should make some room for the players from the military who were stuck in Portsmouth in the late 40s.

I'm not particularly bothered, but of the top 6 my preferences are Leicester Man City Arsenal Spurs West Ham Man United in that order.

A multi-million pound industry says you're very wrong.

He absolutely left with dignity. Having thrown his toys initially (and not surprisingly when half the team were allowed to leave basically because they got out first), he played very well from the start of the season to his injury before the end, put in excellent, professional performances throughout and went with the best wishes of most.

He had an excellent record for them initially, having only lost one match when actually picked when the rest of the team was piling up the defeats... until their recent injury crisis. He's hardly played in a winning team since Christmas though.

Very interested in the 2 which aren't the flame shirt - what sizes are they?

I'm not bothered either way, I'm from Newport, Mon., only welsh when they win.

They've photoshopped his head onto someone else's body, at the very least.

Leaked months ago, horrendous and pointless design. Just Nike laziness, would rather slap together a crappy print on a template for everyone and throw in some "wrong" colours so that particular combination hasn't been used before and it "looks new" than bother to actually design something new. They've been recycling basically the same design for 5 years with different collars and the odd plastic bottle gimmick. It really doesn't ask much for white socks and blue shorts, then they could get rid of the sky blue hoops on the sleeves and it would be a decent kit.

Quick, get a bid in for him.

Probably, though I got it off a Saintsweb pic via Google... I've got the 1988 white away with jade trim (but with the sponsor as on the third), still after all the others too.

From the teams who can possibly finish in the top 10: Man City, West Ham and Leicester have all already drawn with Villa, though City beat them in the return (twice including the FA Cup), West Ham beat them in the return and Leicester had already beaten them before the draw. So unless West Brom (who drew) or Bournemouth (lost on the opening day) fail to beat Villa but somehow get themselves into the top 10, as Newcastle and Sunderland (both drew) aren't going to, we would indeed have the worst record against Villa of a top 10 side if we lose or even draw with them. Assuming of course that we finish in the top 10 ourselves.

That would (not) be an ecumenical matter.

I believe we may have been down that road.

Not even remotely true. There are different kick off times when there are 3 matches televised than there are only 2 or 1 for a start. There have also been plenty of games not kicking off at the same time as televised Sunday matches in recent years. There have been a few more kickoffs in line with live matches despite the games not being televised recently, Not sure if the rules have changed or clubs just want to maintain a routine - I think the latter. The other reason kick off times on Sunday fluctuate is depending on the teams' kick off times for their fixtures either side and how much recovery time they can get in.

I've (not) PMed as you're a registered user, but I'd be interested in anything in a L or XL from the following... (hold on)... One of these from 2006, long or short sleeved, or the boxed collectible version with the FA Cup badge on it. This (I might already have one, can't actually remember) Either or both home or away in the Patrick broad striped kit, any sponsor or sponsorless. Centenary season, home or away, sponsored or not. Anything from before 1981. Anything from this season without a sponsor on it.

Our tactics that day were bizarre. I can only assume that Ronald realised we couldn't defend with no-one alongside Fonte, no Bertrand and no Schneiderlin, and decided to try and outscore them. Targett didn't have a good game and nor did Martina, and we also failed to score enough.

If Newport can look at upgrading from Cat 4 to Cat 3 with 3000 Supporters' Trust members and no HNW ownership, I'm pretty sure the Skates with home crowds 7 times the size can afford to retain their status at Cat 3.

I'm sure they could rotate the pitch on the site, or something...

We'd be back to the "no pace" problem we had with Lambert up there then. Pelle can do it all and often does, not sure why people are so keen to get rid of him.

We were third on 10th February 2015 and the last time we were within 2 points of 3rd was 3rd March 2015. We were 6 points off 4th by the end of March as our results went DLLWDW, whilst Arsenal won 6 straight, Man City and Liverpool both won 5/6, Chelsea won 4 and drew 2, and Man U won 4/6. Even then we were only a point off 5th and ahead of Spurs.

I'd argue there's not much in it, and we're much better off when a couple of players get injured. The "potential" in Lambert and Lovren has been nicely shown since. All teams get injury crises which affect how successful they are (except Leicester, apparently) compared to where they'd be with their best team on every occasion. Cortese's "plan" was unsustainable as it didn't account for the numerous occasions we had to field non-top 6 standard players, and the fact Leicester doing as well as they have is STILL a surprise shows just how often the "only the first XI matter" approach is successful in England. The last time before that was probably Villa using as few players as they did (I think it was 14) in 1981, when football was VERY different - one sub instead of 3 and advances in sports science have created a massive change in tempo across the 90 minutes for a start. Your Paul Mitchell point is fair enough, though is our business really "poor" if we're where we were last season now despite losing our best two players in Schneiderlin and Alderweireld? I'm fairly sure everyone we've bought in the past few years has been with the emphasis on young talent with potential, and from a vast array of possible choices. The manager is the one who picks the team and no matter how much statistical evidence there is, there's no substitute for knowing or having worked with a player in assessing how well they will fit, so I don't have any problem with his level of influence either.

Given previous experiences, I'm anticipating the fan response to this will be to threaten to attack Tesco repeatedly until they decide to leave - and definitely won't want their money back.

Well obviously don't tell them that! Tbh I don't think Mane has been particularly questionable this season, he was this up and down last year too. Wanyama's form just went off a cliff and given his general ability to get himself banned and still paid I think we should seriously consider not picking him for the rest of the year - though that might affect his value.

I always used to aim at the corners, your perfect finish clips the back of the post on the way in. I'd rather stick the ball off the post and wide with the keeper beaten than hit the keeper with it.