The9

I was honestly more worried about getting stuck on a bus for 3 hours and needing to p155 myself than I was drinking. Just listening to The Bloke Behind Me on the bus agonising before we even left convinced me "no drinking, not even soft drinks" was the right option.

I can take or leave the bit where stupid people are trying to kill us, to be honest.

We came back down the Bursledon Road and through the industrial estate down by the Prince of Wales, that's clearly what they will do for them, they'll just shut that whole area of Britannia Road and the industrial estate, there are a few flats on the way in but no different to going down the last bit of Eastern Road. It'll be no hassle at all as long as there's space for about 50 buses - and if there isn't they can send two convoys of 25 - I'm pretty sure our buses went in two tranches, we were at the Stadium before bus 30 got off the M27 and my various vids and pics from Bus 9 only show about 10 buses behind us.

I'm afraid to say you are making yourself look a bit spoilt - and I do wonder if you have any other derby aways to compare it to. I thought the organisation by the police was spectacularly efficient and a lot better than the two previous times I've been down there for a league match, when large chunks of us missed kick off -mostly due to the police not having planned for us being attacked - this time around the vast majority of Skates just didn't bother coming out for the confrontation - there was no threat of trouble at any point, we got to fly all the red lights, had police outriders, traffic stopped all around us, police on all motorway bridges, basically the team coach treatment - excellently performed. Still not worth paying the extra £12 for the transport itself, and a few more toilets might have been an idea, but generally it worked very well, and having been heavily critical of the civil liberties aspect beforehand I have to say it WAS less hassle than getting hailed on in Goldsmith Avenue as an upturned car burned nearby in a petrol station. Not as likely to get the meatheads a-frothing, but then there was plenty of atmosphere nevertheless, and I am now harbouring 4 separate Fratton-seat-related injuries from the goal celebration !

That's cos it's crap. The one thing I noticed from the tv coverage was how home-based the microphones were, I didn't even know what the "does your sister" song was in response to, as I couldn't hear the original. Only knew about them reprising "Amarillo" due to the timing of the clapping, really had to strain to hear them - except on the box, when you basically got a 90 minute sound-cleansed advertisement for the Pompey Fan Fan Club, and we apparently barely cheered when we scored.

Pretty sure his job was to mark the zone, then drop to the goal-line because the ball went to the far post from the corner. The only way he'd have stopped Ward's header was to play for the block by jumping later, rather than try and leap in and find himself on the way down as the header was won.

He has games like that. It goes with the territory, he's a flair player and sometimes things don't work for him. Having been at the match and then watched it again when I got in, I thought the BBC's editorial on him was unfair to say the least. If he'd done his job and stayed on the line (he'd obviously been coached to drop onto the line when the cross goes to the far post, as his starting position was where the goal was scored from) and not taken responsibility to close Ward down no-one would have been claiming he "bottled" anything. He'd have been doing his job on the line and someone else would be getting the b0llocking they deserve for not marking Ward. It sure as hell wasn't Guly's man. In addition to that, he had 3 chances, miskicked one early on under pressure, scuffed one across the face that would usually be turned in, and forced one good save when he barely knew the ball was in front of him. A little bit languid on the ball, most of his passes went to teammates, but he sensibly stayed out of making crappy striker tackles and getting the crowd more into it. Basically he's worth his place and gives us something we don't have from anyone else. An alternative target man AND possession footballer who does the unexpected and has a bit of pace where needed. No-one that I know of has slated Lambert for not making Lallana's through pass out wide on the break because he wasn't fast enough, let's not slate Guly for not being a completely different kind of player either. Though I do agree that de Ridder should have got a run when it went 1-1, I believe it was Mattock (who is on loan from West Brom) that he took to pieces pre-season on his debut.

It worked to stop a bunch of people on either side from getting furious with aggressive posturing under the premise of wanting a fight rather than watching a match, but other than that the atmosphere wasn't that different. And to be honest, for 99% of matches that's fine. I do feel there was a slight edge missing, but if that's played off against the possibility of getting my head stoved in with a breeze block, and there's still a decent atmosphere, then that's alright by me. I was in Block N and started a few, which I don't usually, and I smashed up my knees celebrating with people in different rows, which isn't an everyday occurence either - there was still something special about it. I have a bunch of videos from bus 9 with a load of singing, which begins exactly as the bus goes across the Eastern Road bridge onto the island. Everyone knew there was atmosphere and it was going to have to be made, but plenty were waiting until the opposition was in sight. Oh, and of course I was stone cold sober - but then as I watched football for 25 years before I started drinking that's not really an issue for me, I don't need a drink to go mental at football.

Having watched the coverage again when I got in and been amazed that I didn't hear 90% of our songs on the box and 90% of their songs in the ground (or the bell), I noticed we were basically silent when we scored, and they actually faded down the Cortese song (which I hate, but sang as Fratton is the only appropriate place to sing it) half way through, immediately before the bit about him disliking Portsmouth FC somewhat. "We fcking hate you" was not audible to me in the ground, and the Amarillo thing was only noticable due to the timing of the clapping. We weren't all that loud for the first 20 minutes, but there was plenty later on, and none of it came across on tv until they went silent after we scored because then the mics in front of the home fans picked up our songs.

Refused to buy a programme, drink, food, etc. Always buy a programme at away matches, didn't.

In order to have the wrong number put up you either have to have the wrong number on the piece of paper submitted to the 4th official (which isn't valid until the sub steps onto the pitch anyway) or the 4th official has to put the wrong number on the board having read it on the piece of paper, with none of the numerous Saints backroom team noticing it until after the sub has left the field.

Pretty obvious to me that at 1-0 up away from home, Harding was brought on as a more defensively-minded player than Fox (albeit one who could still overlap well with Lallana). He immediately showed his defensive skills with an important interception, covering and taking the ball off the foot of a Skate cheat in our box. Unfortunately we then conceded from the corner...

Had West Ham won by 6 today I'd be using any means necessary to justify singing about being top of the league at them, what's 'official' got to do with it?

Given that the main rationale behind the bubble is that it's less invasive to freedom of movement than to hold people in the ground (as you have a choice to submit to the bubble but no option on the hold-back), I'd be pretty ****ed off if we get all this hassle AND held back - what it would do is prove that the secure area has no benefit to public safety and the bubble has failed.

That's weird, it sounds like we both went to the same generic Skates matches. My Millwall game was 5-1, was there a lot of end-to-end waving?

I've seen 7 matches there. Skates v Millwall 1991/2 Skates v Newcastle, Cambridge and Bristol City 1992/3 Knight's Testimonial circa 93 v Saints in 2004 and some other match I refuse to acknowledge the year after.

Equally why would the club throw away the recognisability of a crest that has been seen worldwide in the Prem already, and the (however tenuous) affiliation some overseas fans will have built from the successes of 2003 and the 12 years of Prem history we already have?

I know for a fact that Meridian have been ringing up "TSA members" for comments... So id be inclined to blame the journos not the quotables, when they're not able to ascertain that these groups ceased to exist before Saints nearly did.

So, let me get this right, if they can stop the League's top scorer, one of its most talented players, and the unpredictable bloke who occasionally scores a few goals himself, then they might have a chance of winning? Well duh. Though that would leave 7 other outfielders unmarked. My favourite bit is the misconception that Lambert runs at players with the ball.

The last SF front pages link to the upstart TSF as well http://web.archive.org/web/20070302131911/http://www.thesaintsforum.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=1f437a035d6c31ef50a00e5d644fd20b Can't get into the link but there's a thread about whether Martin Cranie was the solution at right back and whether Sarmiento and Idiakez failing was what cost us. Oh, and something about Saints and Norwich chasing some Hearts midfielder...

In the meantime, the second greatest thing ever http://web.archive.org/web/20040517144322/http://saintschat.com/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/images/smiles/icon_mrgreen.gif Pic won't work, dammit, just click the link!

Even if West Ham win by 6 to overtake us we'll go back top at kick off with a 0-0 scoreline...

You wish you had Markus Liebherr You wish you had Markus Liebherr You wish you had Markus Liebherr Have a crappy New Year.

Old Saint Nick is red and white Red and White Red and White Old Saint Nick is red and white Nic Cortese. (or if you like, Santa Claus is red and white... He hates Pompey.)

Weird glitch, the original post shows "en en masse" (which I didn't type) whilst the quoted text shows "en masse" (as typed).