The9

Best memories of 2011 for me were Forte's magic 20 minutes against MK, the wonderful final 10 at Brighton after their cheating and timewasting worked against them, getting outed as The9 by a fellow forum member at the Griffin pub before the Brentford match, our first 70 minutes at Barnsley when we were amazing, the final whistle against West Ham, and taking the lead at Fratton. Oh, and thanks to this thread, I've remembered I quite enjoyed singing "you're our second favourite club" at the Bournemouth fans after we casually brushed them aside. The "Scummer Holiday" convoy to Fratton was a laugh as well.

It would be nice it you hadn't assumed everyone knew what you were talking about... ...but assuming from the "gun to head" comments that it's the new rules for academies you're referring to, I think they're terrible for fair competition and great for teams who are in the top category who want to stockpile kids on the off-chance any of them are any good, seeing as enormous transfer fees are a thing of the past when the financial fair play rules come in.

But they didn't completely close the road, they just stopped people using it for a few minutes before and after the match when the buses were on their way.

Rational consumers would have. Either that or wait about for the club to drop the prices, which they only did for the away kit last season.

I have literally no idea what is going on here.

Clearly the squad unity and collective effort is what there is to lose.

Changed my mind. I'm not biting.

I didn't see a shop on the entire bus route from the point we crossed the bridge into Portsmouth, so I'm not sure who the "local businesses" who were complaining were.

Noticed in the club shop last week that not only do they now have away socks, but they also have the alternative blue socks too. Still £10 a bloody pair though, FFS.

They've managed 3000 before, but fair point that they might not be so keen to watch an inevitable beating this time.

...misuse of the word "there", etc.

I suspect that like the vast majority of the Skates, we utterly won't be ar5ed to go out and stare at a load of buses arriving. With the exception of the people stuck at the junctions due to road closures, you'd have to be some kind of mental to want to anyway.

The latter, which is of course completely justifiable, especially with limitations on public service spending. If they'd forced us into doing it and then executed it terribly, you'd have a point. But the effiiciency and competence of the whole bus convoy system really overrides the inconvenience for me. The only real issue for me was the garbage way the club handled the ballot, distribution of tickets and the cost of the bus. More than happy to go along with that for any subsequent Skate away matches to be honest. Charge me £5 and send my ticket out and I really don't have a problem with it, the atmosphere was still there in the ground (except when those bloody drummers were banging away).

Or at the least be able to sustain a decent argument.

Started 8 but played in 17... If Lallana hadn't got that foot injury and gone off the boil a few weeks back I'd have gone for him. But as it is I'm picking Lambert for his scoring record alone, even though he's far less involved in the build up than he has been previously. He's slightly ahead of Hooiveld, who has been dominant, but in a team that concedes a fair few goals, and then Richardson, who's shown the liveliness he had in pre-season and created a lot of chances at the other end.

Some examples of this would be nice, I'm struggling to think of any time we've done this with a player. Maybe Wotton, though he was released to join Yeovil, not loaned.

It wouldn't, it's a hypothetical question about preferences and probability. I'd take the gamble, go for automatic and hope it didn't turn out to be a speedboat.

This is still about whether you want to go to the match or have a row with a Skate really though isn't it ? For the people who wanted to watch the match, the bubble worked. I have to say it suited me fine, even though the stories of 2004 and 2005 (not that it happened) are a lot more interesting.

No, as advertised on Saturday they've got 7 MotD shows in the next two weeks or so. Two of them have already been on.

I'm not being funny, but the three blokes in block N behind us could barely stand, no-one cared.

Save it, "Grampus Eight" is all we need here.

Two Vs gets around the sweary filter nicely, I find.

Yeah, having been there 8 times now the 2004 and 2005 atmospheres were something else, especially 2004 as it was a close game. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but having that bunch of spadges foaming at you and hurling stuff as you become more and more furious at missing kick off certainly raises the ire more than Bingoing into the away end. Not to mention that they had 1500 outside the ground next to the turnstiles in 2004 20 minutes after kick off whilst the match was live on tv... that one's right up there with timewasting at 1-0 down in the "huh?" category.

As per thread title - we know Puncheon is only on loan. "Saints permanently" is allowable, but returning to Saints when his QPR loan is up before getting shunted off elsewhere doesn't count. You may also take this opportunity to post stupid names of obscure clubs in an attempt to look clever. I'll be using this OP to keep track, and the winner will get precisely nowt (bit more cash-strapped than the Saints Forever days when I'd occasionally stretch to a Snickers bar). I'll start, I think we're sending him on loan to Ghanaian giants Hearts of Oak. Don't text in, it's just for fun. The9 - Hearts of Oak tartan_saint - Deportivo VVanka doddisalegend - Charlton Marsdinho - Millwall Lighthouse - Red Star Belgrade Danish Saint - Oldham Spudgun - Skate Cheats -10 FC Pilchards - Haydock Park Bailey - Grampus 8, FFS. DG - Wigan The Majestic Channon - West Ham SNSUN - Swansea EBS1980 - Bolton pingwing - Barnet Dan Johnson - this (i.e. Barnet) Dr Who? - Blackburn St Stimp - Ascoli Prince Jazzbo - FC Santa Coloma ottery st mary - (Millwall) Sidmouth Vikings warsash saint - Blackpool EastleighSoulBoy - NHS Saint_Ash - West Ham Northant Saint - Kettering Town VectisSaint - Kaiser Chiefs (on drums) Miffy - Brighton ant - LA Galaxy CHAPEL END CHARLIE - Preston South End, Wolverhampton Stay-at-Homes, Sheffield Tuesday. del boy - (West Ham) Cardiff, (Middlesborough, Hull, Leicester, Birmingham, Leeds etc...) Colinjb - (Millwall) Super_Saint - Leeds Fan The Flames - He will come back to us and leave for the play off winners, Reading, in the summer. capitalsaint - Nottingham Forest. Clapham Saint - Southampton Saints alpine_saint - if his mind appears right, giving him another chance... DanW - Norwich Saints67 - McDons Minty - Rvt saintbob40 - Fulchester United shirleysfc - (at St Marys) fish fingers - South African side Dangerous Darkies. jjsaint - Stoke Noggin - Wormwood Scrubs Badger - Fray Bentos or Watford Itchen_block4 - Muff in Ireland or ****t in Orkney Tom8558 - Winchester City Jack - Doncaster Rovers Micky - TESCO's (or Stoke City) Flyer - Crystal Palace S-Clarke - (Crystal Palace) supergoose - AC Milan hasper57saint - Wachtendonk und ****um Chez - (Forest) PaulGilchrist_76 - (Barnet) eurosaint - Accrington Mattio - Roda JC Asaint4ever - Man City MINIBARCELONASAINT - (Southampton F.C.) OfnPanad - Leicester - you heard it here first [Although actually del boy had already said Leicester as part of his job lot, I'm not counting del boy's multiples] SNSUN - Oxford United saints triumph - Barcelona LostBoys - (Saints) Horley CTFC Saint - Crawley Town Well, now seems as good a time as any to revisit this thread. We have 5 correct predictions, with Fan the Flames the first to say "stay at Saints", though he's only fully right if Reading win the playoffs and he signs for them in the summer. Shirleysfc, as the first to say "St Mary's", is first runner-up. I think this thread is a pretty good indicator of how unlikely this return has been - and it also gives the first known instance of Alpine being right about something positive happening to Saints.

Because 15,000 inbreds singing "we f'cking hate you" is so much more PC.