The9

I'm assuming that as well as the smartcard STs, the match tickets will also now have barcodes (there seemed to be a slot for them on the new readers) so there wouldn't be any need for turnstile operators other than to assist with reader problems - which is what they do at the Rose Bowl, Wembley, etc.

"Givova".

Less, though I have no idea what's happening with the current or future aways.

That is completely untrue, but nice try. Here are ALL of the announcements of the new kits last season : Home kit articles : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2396237,00.html http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2397143,00.html http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2398194,00.html Both kits : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2396237,00.html Away kit articles : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2400067,00.html http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2402382,00.html http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2409133,00.html The last away article does say "this year's" though. FWIW last season the home kit presale (blind) was on 14 July, the unveil was 20 July at Liebherr Cup, the on sale date was 21 July. Away kit unveil was 20 July at Liebherr Cup, pre-order on 27 July and available for sale on 4 August.

Yeah, Irish. Definitely not the colours of the Basque flag...

That's one of my favourite kits ever and I was disappointed we didn't end up with a Saints version of it - but it's a year old template now, and we won't be offered it.

I'm pretty sure smart cards aren't going to stop adults going in on kids' tickets. If anything the smart cards reduce the likelihood that turnstile operators will check the ST, there might not even be any information visible on them about the ST owner without running it through the reader. Basically, if the STs contain the info in a digital format but not a physically visible form you can only check the validity at the scan point; if the ST card itself has the info printed on it it's as secure as it was last season, and if there's, say, a photo printed on it (like a driving licence or ID) then it's slightly more secure. But anyone with a valid ST can get into the ground with a smart card without even being looked at by a turnstile operator - at least previously there was the chance any dodgy dealings would get spotted when the Match stub was being handed over. All they're there for now is taking match by match tickets and dealing with smartcard scanning problems.

Cheaper prices ? Than 2004 ?

Lambert at home to Reading (yes, Reading, we lost) for me. He was immense. Richardson had a few amazing performances early on, and Cork had a couple of great ones right at the very start, especially away at Barnsley. And of course Kelvin at Leeds.

Hardly, given the long queues and short drinking times it takes a hell of a commitment to actually get drunk in a ground if you enter it sober anyway. Reasonable to at least legislate for anything other than a couple of pints within the duration of the match given the correlation between alcohol and violence.

"Swipe" is a bit misleading, it'll be NFC, so just touch the card on the reader. For those with long memories, Man City had them at Eastlands when it first opened. We beat them 3-1 up there too, obviously a sign for next season.

Apart from it's last season's tickets they're advertising, with last season's "Together As One" strap line. And they stopped selling those in August 2011.

Agreed. Anything remotely involving the fan base and customer service has gone right out of the window. No way to run a business...

I haven't heard anything of the sort, though I'm speculating that this could happen based on an assumption that we'll have a white away kit - most Umbro teams only have 2 shirts and some pull on a previous away kit if it's needed. Whatever happens, it has to be registered with the Premier League in advance and worn in a minimum of 6 matches. A third kit used to be compulsory when we were up there before, but it clearly isn't any more, as Norwich have only worn two kits all season and so have Swansea. The non-reduction of kit prices is a red herring, nothing was reduced by more than 25% last year and they didn't reduce the home kit at all (the sponsorless black shirt only went down to £30) and this season's away shorts have an equally uninspiring 25% off, making them a still-non-bargain £16ish, with the rest of the kit full price. This is no different to last season, and we didn't wear either of last season's kits again.

It's completely made up, and utterly wrong.

You are going to be very disappointed.

It won't be too similar to the home kit if it's white. Umbro only usually make 2 kits for their teams, so I'm speculating we'll be using this season's yellow as a rarely used third, based on complete guesswork about what our away kit will be.

FA Trophy Final, not FA Vase. And weirdly, possibly as I was in the Newport end (as was Steve Grant, fact fans) I couldn't hear any music - they must have stuck the speakers on for the York end. I was quite pleased about how "authentic" it was, endless repetition of the words "York City FC", "2012 FA Trophy Final" and "Newport County AFC" aside. FWIW I hate all music within 5 minutes of kick offm, during matches and afterwards, and that is now being added to by the use of astroturf on areas of the supposedly grass playing field, including inside the goal (Chelsea take note).

I'd be surprised if anything points to the PremierSHIP. But yes, June 30th - July 1st, the day all player contracts flip over into a new year is the "start of the new season".

July 1st officially.

I still hate that programme cover with a passion. I also vaguely recall that I may have said on the original thread (which also has me at my most furious for the first 2 pages) that we'd need to win the Champions League before I'd be ok with him doing stuff like that. His fan policies are still rubbish, FWIW, and there's little or no "business" reason for quite a few of them. We're certainly not "self-sufficient" as a result, but whilst the team is doing well, no-one's going to dare criticise that. On the pitch, great stuff. Off the pitch, still needs work. As for "defining moment" ? We came second, which was mostly due to Reading's inexplicable win at St Mary's. So that. I knew we were good by the time we'd played Barnsley away, I knew we could go up when we beat West Ham and dominated Middlesbrough. I was confident we'd go up when I remembered Coventry were complete pants, about 10 minutes after West Ham beat Leicester. Though I suspect a lot of people are only going to remember David bloody Norris and his chip-p15sing flukiness.

That's definitely the navy/sky away kit in the pic, the home shorts are black but those aren't, and the socks are too dark to be the white of the home kit as well. The away kit had light blue shorts and socks which match the broad stripe - and the colours on shirt shorts and socks all match and are darker than the white on Sporting's kit. Given the evidence of people saying we wore the away kit at home, that teams always changed at home in Europe up til the 90s, and the pic showing Saints in their away kit at the Dell, there are plenty of reasons to think we'd have played in the home kit away, with Sporting changing.

1999 : http://web.archive.org/web/19981212032504/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/ 2000 : http://web.archive.org/web/20000816151421/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/index.shtml 2002 : http://web.archive.org/web/19981212032504/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/ 2007 : http://web.archive.org/web/20070703123948/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news 2009 : http://web.archive.org/web/20091027194638/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/Home/0,,10280,00.html

This is a better reflection of the 2003 site : http://web.archive.org/web/20030416232916/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/index.asp ...and there were quite a few changes each season before we capitulated to the "Football League template". Hey look, here's Mike Williamson's u-19 profile : http://web.archive.org/web/20030206151813/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/player.asp?plid=11378&title=Michael+Williamson&clid=786&navlid=academy And here's the "new look" website announcement : http://web.archive.org/web/20021229130032/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=124104&Title=Welcome+to+the+new-look+site

Despite the fact that their online shop is a load of gash, and that's where they'd make most of the money. In other news, that Saints site linked on the Wayback Machine didn't actually look much like that, there are a load of ads, links and images missing, and the Skates revamping of their site when they were in the Prem was a triumph of design over content - AND they didn't pay for it. Design's a load of gash, it's content that drives hits, IMHO of course.