The9

Of course it matters, they shouldn't use it in some matches and not in others, it's a basic principle of fairness.

This is my main problem with it, they can't have different levels of regulation for different stages of the competition. The 5 officials thing is equally as rubbish, but in that case, because the 2 goal-line officials rarely actually do anything despite their prime positions to be ruling on penalty area incidents.

Osvaldo in "hot-headed" unshocker.

Oh, and you'll note I didn't make any note about the fantastic atmosphere on Saturday against Newport. That's because I didn't hear anything from the home fans, not even the Chimes. Then again, I couldn't hear them at the bubble game in 2011/12 either, only that bloody drumming which they started on the pitch an hour before kick off which ruined any real atmosphere there was that day. Thankfully, even Westwood's bell was practically inaudible from where I was on the weekend.

2340 for me.

Thought it was a bit dodgy. Northampton are gash, too.

He and Rowe looked superb in some games for the U21s at the start of the season though.

Looked random and not the best at centre back against Liverpool Dev squad alongside the much more composed-looking Ross Turnbull earlier this season, not a patch on the striding colossus who went the length of the pitch against Man U Devs last season. I think he's suffered from moving to CB. We're not short of right backs with Chambers switching to there from midfield last year, and he has far fewer opportunities to show he's decent on the ball at CB - also spends too much time going towards his own goal in the Dev team.

They would only need to indicate if there's a player in an offside position when the ball is played (or at least when the lino looks at his watch), the rest of it can be worked out around that from the officials doing the interpretation. Say you have a colour onscreen when a player is beyond the last defender, and it disappears when everyone is onside. Then the lino can hold his arm up to check the watch indicator in peripheral vision whilst looking at the players in the distance and work out whether the recipient is interfering. The only problem with an "ON/OFF" only indicator would be if there were non-interfering players in offside positions and the ball recipient was in an onside position, but I guess they could list shirt numbers or something on-screen in that situation. Yeah, ok, still needs work.

No, because the watch only tells the officials when there's a goal, and if it doesn't say "GOAL!" it doesn't get awarded. I've only seen maybe 2 incidents even worthy of review all season, one of which was clearly not all across the line but last season would have had 90% of pundits frothing at the mouth that it wasn't given. I was very against the introduction of technology becasue it couldn't be implemented across all levels of football, but it has completely taken the ref's interpretation out of situations. If the ref doesn't get a signal, there's pretty much no discussion to be had, and that's actually very positive in terms of removing player dissent, because they all know the tech won't be wrong.

Hasn't quite been the same since his mate Gary Speed died, is the sad truth of it.

Lallana looks very comfortable, but I'd take Barkley instead of someone like Lampard as well, what's to gain by taking Lampard when the focus should be on building a new system and personnel for the next Euros? England's problem is a lack of competent defensive midfielders, they've got loads of attacking ones. We can't help them with that for as long as Schneiderlin stays French.

I'm pretty sure Shaw has at least a 1:3 chance of going - Cole's been injured forever and may well miss out, and then it's between Shaw and Gibbs. If Baines gets injured as well (as he currently is), Shaw and Gibbs will be dead certainties.

Prutton's open goal airkick against West Brom in the Prem relegation season is up there.

Trousers, is it not at least a pre-requisite of the "Pompey Calendar Game" that you have the foggiest clue about who any of them are in the first place in order to know whether they're still there or not a year later? The only one I could identify even from 2013's was Webster, and that was because he had his name on his shirt. I wonder if they'll be throwing darts at April 2014 again soon?

Interesting stats all round there, didn't know that about Newport. County's cack last half hour is probably due to their ongoing season-long injury crisis, their top scorer from last season hasn't kicked a ball yet and they've also barely fielded a full bench all season - but all the players who have played have looked up to the task and are clearly good enough at this level. The other factor in the poor last half hour is Danny Crow, who is rather rotund and often-used as sub up front - but he provides no kind of outlet which invites teams on. Also, Newport are 4th in the ACTUAL League table, so I'm not so sure they're all that bothered. Having seen them play away 5 times this season I was more than prepared to settle for their usual score, a 0-0 draw.

"Key Income" from their 13/14 projections KEY FINANCIALS: Match Income 59% of Total Income Commercial Income 25% of Total Income Football League Income8% of Total Income Academy Income8% of Total Income Match Income is based on following : •Actual Season Ticket Sales -10,650 •Forecast Attendance -14,600 •Current Average (3 games) -16,273 •Forecast £50,000 Income from League Cup, JPT, FA Cup (actual to date -£30,000) Commercial Income is based on following : •Hospitality Income -£315,000 •Kiosk Income -£250,000 •Sponsorship Income-£284,000 •Merchandising Income-£200,000 •Advertising Income-£220,000 I apologise again for contributing £20 for a match ticket and £8.50 for a hot choc, balti pie, programme and whatever food the missus had. Either way, I think they messed up and gave us too much change.

I note above that their "variance" on player costs suggests they'll be using 27% of their total income (which includes the PPs) on players, didn't we get a figure for turnover nearer 35% recently? Oh, and just a reminder re: "Cup Finals" - Newport won promotion from the Conference via a Wembley Play-Off last season, and played in the FA Trophy Final the season before. They don't need pretend L2 Cup Finals, they play in real ones. As for TWO teams of dockers, no no, only one. The other team won the match comfortably.

Also, did they ever pay off all the 2012 small creditors? http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-pledge-to-pay-2012-small-creditors-every-penny-1-5468026 Amused by the line that Chainrai also offered to do this "but the money never materialised"...

PST Budget is here as a reminder (PDF!) https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=21&ved=0CDoQFjAAOBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pompeytrust.com%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_rokdownloads%26view%3Dfile%26task%3Ddownload%26id%3D177%3Apcfc-sep-13-pst-report-230913website&ei=LymvUobCBaiw7Aax0ICADw&usg=AFQjCNHtHX2BtDusNXdLeU1o2BL4rZMpaA&sig2=k7nuyDZNfcpqff0d1AMPCg&cad=rja Balance Sheet 30 June 2013 Cash balance of £2.8 million has been enhanced by £1.4 million of Season ticket income in advance of season 2013-14. Share Capital receipts as at 30 June 2013 were £3.9 million and the Loans received from Portsmouth City Council and South Point Finance formed the balance of the purchase funding for the club. FA Premier League Parachute monies have been directly allocated to the settlement of ex-players under ‘Football Creditor ‘ rule which is subject to a complex legal instrument with ‘enhancement ‘ formulae to pay the players early in the event of ‘unbudgeted income’ Other Debtors include £691,618 due from Football League which were withheld during period of administration until final settlement has been made by the club to ex-directors and players. The current forecast for year ended 30 June 2014 is £251,000 better than the original Budget submitted to Football League in March 2013. The key variances are as follows: Match Income is below original budget by £31,000. Full analysis of sales provided on next page. Academy Income was not included in the original budget Players Payroll Costs -27% of Total Income (League 2 Salary cap -55% of Income) Non Player Payroll adverse variance due to Team Management, Academy Management, Development Squad, Academy Squad, Full-time Staff, Casual Staff and Match Day Staff (stewards, turnstiles and C&B Staff) Overheads and Direct Costs incorporated significant changes post administration including changes to planned Training Ground, Kiosk catering operated as a internally by the club after many years of out-sourcing and new Ticketing system implemented with material additional expense in year one.

Oh, and we're not taking the PST or Allen's word for it re: the football creditors, those figures were widely circulated, the Mail has a load of it here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2415009/Portsmouth-owe-6-72million-players-including-David-James-Tal-Ben-Haim.html "The club began repaying players in May of this year, with all 25 needing to be paid in full by July 2016 to meet the terms laid out in the latest administration."

NINE games free with a season ticket, actually. Glad I took this picture on the wall of the Shepherd's Crook now.

Thanks to the need to get drunk, I visited the facilities at least twice (and also bought a balti pie, sorry). I've been before, so I knew not to bother even trying at half time, but the half time queue for the loos was half way along the stand. The food queue 2 minutes into the second half only had 3 people in it. Lets put it this way, even when I went for a wee just before the goals, the fact there were 3 County fans snorting coke from a coffee stirrer (!) in there meant that I couldn't get to a urinal for 5 minutes. I will assume the floors in there were painted red for a reason...

I've wasted my life.

Ok, bit blurry (as was I), but here are some nice shotd of the Pompey Faithful in the last few minutes of the match - there was no booing, but that's because they'd just gone home instead: Fratton end looking a bit sparse too... Oh, and... Welcome, help yourself to 3 points.