The9

As it's the last match of the season, I'm pretty sure they won't mind you taking their season ticket from them.

Is it shown "Live" (broadcast within 30 seconds of occurring) on any free-to-air UK Freeview channels or legally available in the UK subscription services (i.e Virgin, Sky or BT) ? For hair-splitting you may also wish to add live internet streaming direct from the FA's website to this list, seeing as Ukraine v England and a couple of FA Cup games have been broadcast this way.

And plenty of others inhabiting the massive swathe of ground between the "definitely going up" liars and the "everyone who is worried is a wet fanny" liars.

It's not pointless as it's a possibility. Pretty much any combination of possibles is ripe for discussion at the moment. Also, do you always pass off your opinion as fact even when you clearly have precisely zero proof that this will definitely happen ?

Hmm, I'm dealing with it by doing things exactly as normal apart from going to the pub 3 hours earlier than for a 3pm kick-off on Saturday. We shall see how my sleep is on Friday night, but other than that... what's the panic ?

Ok, now I remember. With the assistance of Wikipedia for the scores, text is all mine : The original rule was that away goals counted and there was no extra time (1997 Sheff U went through after a 1-1 and 2-2 without extra time being played, knocking out Ipswich). Then they changed it so that away goals didn't count until AFTER extra time. George Burley's Ipswich then went out to Bolton due to away goals which were scored in extra time (in 1999 (1-0 and 3-4 aet)) which was also regarded as unfair as the away team in the second leg has an extra 30 minutes to score them, and they changed the rule so away goals didn't count at all. This of course then cost Burley's Saints side as it was 2-1, 1-2 on 90 mins and we won 2-3 at Pride Park on the night. Same thing in reverse happened with Palace and Sunderland in 2004 as well.

Nope, load of crap, had we gone up on Saturday I could have done all that at Boro, or if it had happened on Monday we could still have done all of that on Saturday lunchtime. No "preferred method of celebrating" is worth risking having the celebration altogether for. Because let's face it, we all had a great time at the JPT Final and would all love another trip to Wembley to see Saints in the Play-Off Final wouldn't we ? Thought not.

They don't, but checking that news from yesterday (arguably Sunday night) hasn't already been discussed, and the facts of the OP before posting would help prevent this kind of massive hilarious p155takery. Which come to think of it would be a shame. As a rule of thumb, if it is more than 8 hours old, don't even bother starting a new thread about it, because someone already has. You may not be able to see it, you may not even be looking, but it will be here somewhere.

I wonder who the 3 were...?

Our situation was every bit as dire as Portsmouth's in terms of the prospect of liquidation... other than Saints being a viable going concern with no debts, a training ground, land assets, a modern and successful academy, a nice stadium, no overblown contracts needing to be honoured, and Saints not having exhausted the goodwill of every local business, charity, the police and the taxman en route. Nevertheless we still could have gone pop, it was a global recession and it was all about timing. Luckily we found a buyer of integrity with fcvkloads of cash. Most teams don't set up successors until they cease to exist, btw. It's only basket cases (Skates, Chester) or on moral grounds (AFC Wimbledon, FCUM) where they do it before the other club disappears. If Saints hadn't found a buyer, then the support for the new club would have been there, even though at the time we'd all tired of chucking good money in after bad just for player wages to dig a bigger hole. A new club would be a new start, the goodwill comes back fairly soon for most.

Probably the most interesting thing about the strikers we signed in January has been that both Lee and Sharp make runs in behind, and none of our players prior to their signings (apart from Forte, no comment) have done that. For a few weeks we didn't really know what to do about that, and the runs were going unnoticed - then the squad and/or manager picked up on it... and now no-one makes runs in behind any more. . On the bright side, Lambert and co have now remembered they can pass to Sharp in the box and from set-pieces, so he's started scoring loads anyway.

Just don't give them any ideas. Unless that means all ST holders get matches at £10, in which case I'm all for it.

Definitely an accidental computer user.

Clearly it does take into consideration "finishing third" though, and all of the various methods of ending up there. As already noted, 37.5% is better than 1/3 in a four horse race, which is pretty good going for a double-header against 6th and then a neutral match against 4th or 5th. It's not as good as the odds of 100% which we can get by beating a team in the relegation zone though.

Lucky that we wouldn't have to win any of the games then really ? 3 draws, with a win on away goals (after extra time) and penalties at Wembley would achieve the same end.

Erm, Inter did exactly this against Barca in the CL a couple of seasons ago at the same stage of the competition, and Real Madrid did it a couple of times against them last season - I'm not sure Di Matteo should take any credit for it, or the ever-so-shocking news that teams expecting to get outplayed will instead try and defend and spoil the game. Hell, every crappy 5-a-side team I've ever played for which is capable of basic organisation has done it.

Yeah, in terms of strikers anyway. 5 token England appearances, only one 90 minutes, got himself an attitude, suddenly seemed demotivatd by his failure to make any progress, moved on within a year, and never got to the same heights again.

Based on what happened to the last one who got picked I think I'm happy about that. I'm more interested to see if we manage to sneak Lallana into the Olympic squad. Suspect not, as Pearce didn't really pick him for the U-21s when he had the chance, and Bale is likely to be the token Welshman in the 18-man squad and take up the left midfield slot.

It will be interesting to see what happens to attendances next season, whichever division we're in.

Yes, but they've been replaced by the 6,000 who were doing one of those things last time.

They are clearly all bell-ends, thanks for the evidence.

Actually there are loads on the pro and cons list already, we just don't know which list we're picking from yet.

You mean despite us having lost in the league twice since ?

Sheesh. The only criticism I have of Guly in the last 2 months is that he seems to take a long time to close down opposing full backs when they have the ball 80 yards from our goal, which is basically not his job half the time anyway.

Puncheon's most successful returns in the last 2 years (his time at Millwall and for Saints against Blackpool in the FA Cup) were all in a narrow left or right midfield role. I genuinely think Puncheon's undergoing the Billy Sharp treatment - he came back from loans not "Saints fit" and he's being trained to optimum fitness to be unleashed on the Prem next season. I can't see him playing, but you never know. At home against a relegated team I think I'd go with Guly and De Ridder in reserve - not too worried if it's the overlapping Richardson or "holds and passes to feet" Butterfield in behind, though the former would probably offer more attacking threat and put Guly in first touch territory a lot further up the pitch. De Ridder on the bench to do his usual late on impact thing.