The9

I'd say starting 4 games in the last 2 weeks constitutes "playing".

Euell's playing for AFC Wimbledon.

If you believe some...

Er, A. I can't imagine any different. Plus we'll get years of lolz at their efforts to come back too. Besides, if we came in the top 2 in a 44 match season it would have nothing to do with Skate Cheats FC's existence or otherwise.

That would be a poll consisting of "most Saints fans" who had never seen Paine play but at the time were watching Le Tiss regularly ? How very unbiased.

Makes you wonder how we arsed up the shootout up at Derby...

SaintsWeb is the preferred unofficial website for publishing Saints' fixtures anyway, so we don't care too much... every club is allowed one non-official site. It would be nice for this stupid copyright claim to be removed though.

Our away games are as tricky looking as our home ones are straightforward. I'd go for 9 wins from all matches myself, though wins at Millwall and Peterborough plus not losing in the others would be decent depending on how West Ham, Reading and Birmingham are doing.

There is no precedent for this other than the PL chucking money at the Skate Cheats that they were going to get anyway as parachute payments - and look how that's turned out. The FL has absolutely nothing to gain by helping them limp to the end of a season, opening the door to them potentially causing further problems next year. They are still going to be paying the same amounts out next season apart from the 2 players out of contract, and the only way they can avoid that is by defaulting on their contracts which will be a legal nightmare. The Football League doesn't want this problem, and there is no reason why them dying mid-season is any better or worse for them than at the end of a season. The integrity of a competition is upheld by it's rule enforcers sticking by the rules, not by artificially ensuring the badly-organised can still play all of their games. The League hasn't baulked at points penalties and no-one is claiming "integrity" is being compromised there. The FA of course no longer give a toss, just like the Premier League don't now they're not their problem - it would take the Football League 3 years of punishments and loans to see Skate Cheats off their radar in the same way as the Prem did - or they can just leave them alone and it'll happen naturally in a few weeks, by the sounds of it.

West Ham don't have any spare.

isn't the entire site surrounded by barbed wire? They'd be right at home.

For those saying "when has a club of their size ever been liquidated?" I have two questions : when has a club even started their demise from the top league and when has a club ever continued to self-harm after an initial admin the way they have? I'll offer Wolves and Swansea in the early 80's with Bristol City not far behind - they all got through it, but all three were in an era BEFORE wages were so high and a compulsory commitment to such large sums over and above turnover just didn't exist. The rules have changed and the sums dwarf the 80's debts - but the rules of insolvency and points removals have not.

Yup, lots of people with short memories on here.

They already did that in 2010, we already know what happened then. Why would anyone do the same again?

You got that right. In the first sentence, the rest was nonsense. Personally I can't wait to see them get their payback for 2007/8.

They've done it plenty of times before - what's the difference between removing a team and skewing the table with points penalties which they don't seem bothered about at all? There's nothing catastrophic about it.

I disagree, I think we'd all have a laugh chucking foreign coins and washers in.

This is absolutely not true. The FA and FL couldn't give a toss if one of their member clubs goes to the wall. If anything it might make others think again about exploiting the rules by massively overspending and the example Skate Cheats in particular have set by conning their way to the 2008 FA Cup, and their demise makes the FA and FL's job easier.

"Effected"? Really ? Tsk.

I'm not sure that's necessarily helpful to achieving an unbiased sample...

Sure as hell looked like he should have scored in the ground at the time though.

Oh, also just spotted that JJB are now flogging off their Wales home socks for £5 which is half what Saints are charging for them. Same goes for the fluorescent green GK socks. http://www.jjbsports.com/wales-home-socks-2011/2012/wales/shop/fcp-product/25301 http://www.jjbsports.com/wales-home-goalkeeper-socks-2011/2012/wales/shop/fcp-product/25305

The socks are used by a few clubs/teams (eg this season's Saints home socks are also Wales' home socks, last season's plain black ones were also Wales goalkeeper socks) but the shorts are Saints ones. There's also a black 2010/11 kids' training top on there : http://www.sportsdirect.com/Products/Default.aspx?DescriptionFilter=southampton You sort of have a point regarding kit on SportsDirect.com, in that the black home socks 2010/11 and the red away (above) from the same season were both on there last season, but they weren't being branded as Saints kit, which they are now. They were branded for other Umbro teams and just happen to be the same - for the socks, anyway. I haven't linked to the green and/or light blue keepers' kit which is on there as they've got Sunderland badges on them - but if anyone wants a pair of Kelvin's away GK socks from last season in kiddie sizes, here are some Linfield GK socks which are identical. JJB also have the green GK socks from 2010/11 in a BOGOF deal, they're also Northern Ireland GK socks : http://www.jjbsports.com/nothern-ireland-home-socks-2010/12/northern-ireland/shop/fcp-product/14978 For the record, no other Umbro side has our away socks this season, the nearest are Joe Hart's Man City away GK socks which have the 2011/12 grey feet, but DON'T have the Umbro logo, which the Saints away socks do have, in blue :

I thought it was a p1ss-easy chance at the time, but could see how he missed it from watching the replay. He still should have scored though, if he couldn't put it in from the rebound he should have cushioned it and buried it. As others have said, he didn't get the chance to turn his body or legs to direct the rebound anywhere other than straight back where it came, though it wasn't exactly the lightning-fast ricochet some have suggested, it was quick enough that he couldn't quite adjust, and couldn't use his left as he was planted on it. I don't doubt he's going to turn into a good player for us though, he's just been a bit unlucky so far - even his presence and movement have made us look like much more of a threat and he's given defences something other than Lambert to worry about, which again creates more opportunities just from pulling defences about. From seeing both of them, Lee has "Ormerod energy" and we love him for it, Sharp looks only slightly off the pace but doesn't have so many adjustments to make to his game to fit in. Oh, and yeah, I did get paid to play as a striker for about 6 years if we're having a "show us your medals" discussion about who's allowed to comment...

Erm, because it's not 16 months away, both the current kits are changing this summer, so they will actually both have changed within the next five months. This has been known since 2008 when Saints signed the Umbro deal - 2 new shirts every season. Admin in 2009 put paid to changing the flybe Umbro striped kit after one year, but every other kit has changed annually since 2008. Note the dates here : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2398194,00.html And here : So there's one reason. Another might be to inform our fanbase of this as they clearly haven't been paying attention. The third is that, yeah, I like discussing kits, and so do other people judging by last year's thread. Oh, and in case anyone's interested - 25% off training wear : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2629232,00.html You can also now get the 2010/11 (125th Anniversary) Saints away shorts (black) and socks (red with black tops), and the Saints home socks (the plain black ones) from SportsDirect.com. First time any Saints kit has been sold anywhere except the club shops and online for about 15 years, and perhaps a sign of how Cortese wants to more widely market the club when the current Umbro deal expires in 2013.