The9

Yeah, the ground was clearly split between "free red and white scarves and cheap kit we're not wearing in megastore" vs "miserable Northerners in dark coats with smattering of team colours".

Basically the teams submit their (minimum two) full kits to the Premier League before the season starts, some poor sod then goes through approving kit combinations, the clubs will also say if they plan on changing, Sky occasionally get involved (as they did with Saints away to Newcastle and Saints away to Bournemouth, both times we created a third kit which didn't exist) to make sure it's clear for the poor saps watching at home, and overall the referee has the final say and can make anyone change if he thinks there's an issue. Clubs are also allowed one "special" kit to be approved in advance and can be worn once a season which is usually used to promote the following season's kit in the last game, but sometimes allows for things like the Man U Munich shirts or Bolton's awful red/white/navy striped kit that everyone's forgotten. There are a few other things like using the Prem shirt numbers, and adverts (you can have one, of a particular maximum area) - from next season additional adverts will be allowed on Prem shirts - I *think* there will only be one Premier League sleeve patch going forward. In addition, no striped backs in the Prem for anyone next season, and they'll probably have a new name and number font in line with their new branding this season (teams had already launched shirts and done shirt printing this year before the rebrand so they stuck with the old style). In the Europa League, there are REALLY stringent regulations about numbers on shirts and the backs having sufficient contrast to the numbers, and a load of regulations about brightness and a ton of other stuff that even I don't care about but which are on a pdf on the UEFA website. They also only allow smaller shirt ads than the Premier League which is another difference. We'll probably wear black at West Brom, they only have navy stripes on the front and all-white shirt back. Shorts and socks don't clash either, it'll basically be all white with a bit of navy against black/grey/black - or maybe we wear the home shirts and socks with the alternate red shorts so it's easier to tell. Predominantly white v almost all red should be fine - they occasionally change shorts in the Premier League for clarity, but the FA Cup/EFL Cup actually prohibits a shorts clash.

Ah, I see. No, you have interpreted my meaning correctly. Obviously shirt clashes are bad at any time, sock clashes are difficult for things like throw ins, so they're generally against the "kit rules" too, but the Prem has different regulations to FA Cup and EFL Cup games regarding shorts, which as you correctly identified means that we couldn't have worn white shorts against Man U as they were the home team and also wore white shorts. Not a problem in the Premier League - and I've long been of the belief that a team playing in (for instance) white/blue/white against a team in blue/white/blue is more of a clash issue than all white v blue/white/blue - at least with the latter option team A can pick out the all white, and team B can look for blue - what do players do at a quick glance in the first situation?

They have to be a different colour to the opposition. I'm not sure I understand the question.

An interesting theory, completely undermined by the very different opinions of the same results seen on here. For instance, I think he's very good, and the only reason we're not at least within touching distance of Everton this season is the 1) Europa League and then 2) a pile of injuries to key players. Other people seem to think 1) has nothing to do with team selection or results, and 2) has nothing to do with 1). God knows why.

*Since leading scorer Charlie Austin got injured, outside the transfer window.

I'm sure we can have the old one back, the one used at Wembley is the club's and paid for by them as far as I'm aware. See "flag" thread for comparison pic.

You're representing 1976 without a hint of flared trouser?

Here we go... a nice compare and contrast - most obvious differences are the amount of red space above Markus' head and the font. Angle of the elbow bend also not the same... can't comment about earlobes though.

Am I the only person that noticed it was A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FLAG then? Most obviously there was a completely different (official Saints) font for the text, different proportions of Markus in a different area of the flag (eg his waving arm is at the bottom of the new one, but there was red space below the waving arm on the original), and though I have nothing for scale to confirm this, pretty sure the Wembley one is a bit bigger too. Need a decent pic of the Wembley flag for a decent comparison - but it is not this one:

I'm not particularly keen on the white/red/white kit, as I think it has too much red for an alternative strip, but that doesn't mean I don't really really want one. EFL rules meant we couldn't have played in all white even if we'd wanted to though. I'd like to see a white/grey/white or all white tbh - but I think 4 different pairs of outfield shorts in a season is a bit silly (but hardly unprecedented). They should still make commemorative replicas with EFL Cup Final printing and numbers, they'd sell loads even though we lost. Or of course they COULD just use the white one for an away shirt next season and sell it then, we've got 6 years left with UA after all. As for it as an alternative to the stripes, nopenopenope, not even this season's relatively ugly stripes.

Newport's signing of Skate reject Ryan Bird seems inspired. Still adrift at the bottom but that guy is just another one who has blossomed away from Fratton - three goals in five games for a team that's won once in 12. There are so many Skate rejects improving when they leave there now it's getting silly.

They got utterly hammered for the last 25 minutes. Folded.

I'm working on the principle that Under Armour would make about 90% of the profit so the club has decided not to order them.

I watched the second half, once they conceded the second having nearly equalised they completely folded.

Quite. These were stats from the first two or three matches of the season, hardly representative of the league overall when a pile of players won't even have needed to sprint in those games.

Tbf Sparta lost 3-0 at St Mary's so 4-0 is Rostov isn't much of a reach... IIRC Be'er Sheva just lost to Besiktas, I remember the relief when we didn't draw them. They narrowly dropped out of the CL with Napoli and Benfica going through so probably one of the better sides left in the thing. I'm more annoyed at St Etienne rolling over and losing 3-0 at Old Trafford because of the effect it has on the side Man U will probably put out in France 3 days before the EFL Cup Final.

I'm still shocked that Bale didn't play for Saints and has never won LaLiga.* *one of these things is true.

Funniest thing on here in ages.

They wouldn't book over the phone because only the disabled tickets were sold over the phone. And that's only because they won't or can't put disabled tickets on the online system...

We should be positively encouraging them.

We're the away team, you may have noticed playing in an away shirt. Due to the daft EFL rules we'll be playing in red shorts again too (unless we decide to wear the grey away shorts), I'd much prefer that, or all white, but the Mancs wear white shorts so we can't have the latter. Then again we wore red shorts at Bournemouth and it didn't do any harm (no comment about Inter away though). Quirkiness; apart from the print on the shirt, and the EFL Cup badges, we've also got red numbers like the ones on the Europa League shirts. So there will be two sets of matchworn white shirts, the EFL Cup Final with red numbers and the Bournemouth away ones with black Premier league numbers.

"Most of the game he will face the goal they are attacking". I think you'll find that most of the game the ref will face the ball, if that happens to be in front of the goal one of the teams is attacking, well that's not really an indicator of bias, is it?

As noted earlier, there were only 150 members who had 3 or more aways but not 3 homes. It's reasonable to treat them as exceptions, and the club has covered off almost every circumstance for anyone who's been to more than 2 matches. Simple facts are there are 32000 tickets and more than 32000 Saints fans, but they've done as well as can be expected with the various permutations and been as fair as possible whilst considering revenue generation too. Those who aren't eligible and missed out still have a few legit if more expensive routes (Club Wembley resale for one) and there are 30k, ahem, "football family" tickets floating around as well if they can get to them before the Man U fans.

I'm glad someone's paying attention, anyway.