The9

The question is "what's your preference" but the reality is that it's not a zero-sum game, so "both" is both preferred to "either" and achievable. Seeing as there's no Prem, FA or CL rule saying you can't have both. I also agree with the "why 4th, we're 3rd" school of thought. This team has already done things many Saints fans under 35 won't have any frame of reference for, there's nothing to suggest they can't get 3rd - and a 9 point gap to suggest we can't get 2nd.

There's a massive difference in prize money for CL and Europa League, a few years back the EL actually cost money to enter due to the travel costs and piddly winnings. The CL money makes the kind of difference in income that opens up spending without FFP concerns, and which could elevate a club to the mythical next level, that, wait a minute, weren't we told we could never reach? I won't name names... Tbh, I'm not sure whether I'd want an FA Cup win now, or a spell in the CL group stages to maybe get better players to Saints, and make a cup success in the future more likely. Suspect I'd take winning something now... carpe diem and all that.

Following "I meant summer not last January" which completely changed the meaning and level of sense in your first post, and "in cable" above, people probably think the cap fits. Maybe take a bit more care about what you're actually saying rather than what you think you are and you won't come across how you have.

It would have been that easy to beat Ipswich if Saints had been doing anything other than just going through the motions for the vast majority of the match, and even then we spend the second half looking extremely comfortable and not threatened at all - without really threatening that much ourselves. Their goal was near enough a fluke, a looping header into the very top corner with the player jumping away from goal. 95% of the time that wouldn't threaten the keeper at all. Apart from that they didn't really threaten, despite the Saints players tangibly only putting in their usual levels of effort for the amount of time it took to equalise. Hopefully with the crowd on their backs the better side will actually turn up this time. Risky game trying to conserve energy when you're not actually winning, it leads to having to go to places like Ipswich midweek.

Like anyone gives a toss about clubs going bankrupt other than to save face- the last time it nearly happened the Premier League forwarded the club's football debtors a load of the Parachute Payments in advance. Had they stayed up with the -9 I'm sure the Prem would have assisted them back to the Championship somehow. Surely it was intended so that the current top clubs could protect themselves against other people having more money than them and was basically pulling up the ladder on an even playing field altogether? Just underpins how massive our achievement is so far, but then we're not playing in Europe this season.

You know Norwich is over an hour's drive or 45 minutes train ride away, right? It's 45 miles on A Roads. I'm sure they won't be bothered to drop by on a chilly January night and... do anything. It's probably not sales on the night because it's a massive hassle and generally chaotic, and people always miss kick off due to lack of planning and then moan as if it's the club's fault. At £10 a head against a top Prem side I'm sure they're hoping to sell out beforehand anyway. I mean they brought 5000 to us, there's obviously interest.

The post is off target. If it hits the post and then goes in it's on target, because it went in - that's the same shot and it went in. If it hits the post and doesn't, it remains off target. Hence, Pelle hits post = shot off target, Tadic scoring rebound = on target. There is absolutely no grey area. Even if it hits the post, then hits a defender and goes in it's off target, as long as it wouldn't have gone in without the defender's involvement.

Stop fanning the flames of idiocy.

I know FIFA on PS4 isn't much to go on, but Bean was their best player on that when I was struggling to beat them with Saints (I'm not very good at FIFA, what with having a job and life and not living in my bedroom oozing sebum). I was reliably informed by some people who went to Rodney Parade that Tubbs was gash. Though I do think they might actually go up next season (but not as much as they think they will). That's mainly because I think they've got a top-end League 1 / bottom end Championship set up and said they'd be back in L1 within 3 years, which means next season. Frankly I'm MUCH more interested in Saints' Champions League bid and Newport County's attempt to keep up with Saints' league position as they both rose to third, which is automatic promotion in L2.

Personally I was bloody delighted with them both.

I was having a weekend off, as I'm going to Ipswich v Saints and Cambridge v Newport in the next 6 days, then Inter v Torino the week after. Plus I didn't fancy having to travel up surrounded by Skates, and I knew County would win (they've now won 4 lost 1 in the 5 matches against Portsmouth since Newport got back in the League).

They don't, Joe Day of Newport County (two clean sheets against Portsmouth this season, about the only player Newport have spent money on in 18 months) is a better candidate, for one.

Schemmel OG. For heading it onto the bar and the ball juddering between him and the woodwork before going in, even more ridiculous than the Mane/van Aanholt decision earlier this season. I was thinking about this yesterday for some reason, possibly to do with statistical counting of goals and whether clubs are obliged to take the Prem's word for it or if they can just unilaterally credit it to Mane, for instance. But there's no place for Prem talk on this thread, just let me catch up on the last 3 weeks' worth and I'll be here having a Newport County-based LOL.

Yeah, let's not go nuts. The team in 7th is 6 points behind. We're more than that from 2nd.

Well, not all of our birthplaces, but then the team from my birthplace beat the Skates in the League on Saturday, so all in all a pretty good weekend.

Didn't see it (though I remember the Moses dive), who was involved with that? If it was Crouch, he kind of needs his own rulebook due to the problems caused by his height, elbowing people in the face by just sticking his arms out, etc.

All well and good saying it, but in order to get there I'm leaving work early on Weds and getting back at the earliest at 2am for a 7am alarm and 9am meeting. It's a good 3 hour drive, potentially in rush hour M25 up there. Getting back should be ok, except M3 roadworks... Can't see us selling all our tickets for reasons not unlike that, tbh.

I'm going, and I'd pick Forster Clyne Fonte Gardos Targett Schneiderlin Reed Tadic Davis Long Pelle Bench: Davis, Bertrand, McCarthy, Ward-Prowse, Wanyama, Isgrove, Seager Gives us Reed's passing and workrate in the middle in the kind of game where harrying opponents into errors is likely to be more successful than it is in the Prem, rests Wanyama in a match where really we should be in possession and don't need two out and out DMs and gives Long a chance to have a run against a team he's already done well against with a point to prove after not getting on yesterday. Let us win or lose in normal time, anyway. Partially for my sleep requirements and partially for player recovery before Newcastle away.

Champions League money breakdown here: http://www.danielgeey.com/uefa-champions-league-broadcasting-rights-revenues-explained/ The second part of the revenue distribution is the important part for the new BT deal. In addition to the above fixed performance amounts, the clubs who qualify for the Champions League receive a proportion of the TV money paid by the national broadcaster. Therefore the size of the revenue pool is linked to the value of the country’s TV market. The revenue pool distribution is split between where a club finished in its previous season and how successful it is in the current competition. The Premier League champions receive 40% of the TV revenue pool, second place receives 30%, third place 20% and fourth place 10%. Where a team finished in its domestic league is important for its UEFA revenues. With the increased BT deal from 2015-16 season, clubs qualifying for Champions League competition will share in the increase of the TV pool money. It is not inconceivable that UEFA’s distribution could reach over £60m if the 2014-15 Premier League champions then win the Champions League competition in the following season and the other Premier League clubs (who qualified for the Champions League) fail to make the later rounds (which gives a club a larger share of the TV pool monies). In any event, Premier League clubs participating in the Champions League will reap the rewards of a larger TV revenue pool. As such, qualification for the 2015-16 Champions League competition with the huge TV pool uplift will have a large revenue impact and will be of significance to qualifying Premier League clubs. The 2013-14 market pool figures for English clubs were as follows: Club Market Pool Amount (€) 12-13 Position in the Premier League % of Market Pool Manchester United 23,775,000 1 40 Manchester City 18,302,000 2 30 Chelsea 18,491,000 3 20 Arsenal 11,132,000 4 10 Total Market Pool 71,700,000[1] [1] Note that the % revenues for the market pool will not be exact as some clubs went further in the competition. i.e.. Chelsea would have been entitled to £14.34m from the market pool (20% of £71m) but because they went further than any other English team, they benefitted from an extra share of the market pool revenue. Manchester United chief executive Edward Woodward claimed non-qualification would cost United in the region of £35m. That would appear be a conservative estimate based on additional match day revenues and prize money. From looking at last year’s distributions, the second placed finisher in the Premier League received 30% of monies from the TV pool. For example, should Liverpool qualify from the Champions League group stage, it is likely to be worth around €37m in total UEFA distributions[2]. That does not include match day and additional commercial revenues. [1] Note that the percentage revenues for the market pool will not be exact as some clubs went further in the competition. i.e.. Chelsea would have been entitled to £14.34m from the market pool (20% of £71m) but because they went further than any other English team, they benefitted from an extra share of the market pool revenue. [2] Calculation: Performance Prize Money €8.6m+ €3.5m (assumption of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses) + €3.5 (for last 16) + €21.6 (30% of €72m TV pool which may vary depending on how the other clubs progress) = €37.2m

Not based on every football match I've seen since 2002 apart from the two mentioned above.

I assume you mean the JPT match in November 2009 (13,906), as we haven't had under 20,000 for a League match against them since The Dell. And if JPT attendances are your thing, Torquay in the same season was a far lower crowd, 9319. We didn't get under 16,400 for a League match in 2009/10.

That just leads to more people doing it. Shirt-pulling is a yellow card offence, if anything it's worse than a "normal" foul. Also, FIFA have tried to move people away from the indirect free kick route by the IFAB ruling that it's practically impossible to commit an obstruction foul without committing a contact foul (direct free-kick), I can't see them muddying the waters with this.

The one who isn't lying on the floor, which brings us back to the diving issue - and the "refs should punish fouls where the player doesn't go down, so he doesn't HAVE to go down" thing. Much as it was going on, I never once thought we'd get a penalty for it. Thought they might though, in amongst Dowd's inability to give a 50/50 our way in the entire match, again. 4 contested throw-in decisions in the last few minutes, all of them went to Man U. Booking for Pelle for absolutely nothing? Check. Free kick in dangerous area for nothing foul, check. At least he didn't give a penalty for the ball hitting someone in the face, but apart from that...

That's a MASSIVE change though - the days of swarming all over the opposition with 6 players breaking from a transition are gone - but so are the days of getting undone from having three-quarters of the team the wrong side of the ball and giving them easy goals (Villa aside). It's also significant in terms of reducing ongoing fatigue - which I think we learned a hard lesson about in practical terms in December, for all of our monitoring.

I quite enjoyed the 3-1 at Middlesbrough in the relegation season.