The9

It is for colour blind players, and round cards have been in use for getting on for 10 years - though not all refs use them, just like not all refs write the bookings on their cards. There's a thread here from 2007 discussing it, in which circular red cards are described as "old school" and other people discuss them having been around for "ages" : http://community.codemasters.com/forum/lma-manager-2007-game-548/246084-circular-red-cards-2.html And another question about it here from Dec 2006 : http://www.kgbanswers.co.uk/why-are-some-refs-during-football-matches-using-a-square-red-card-and-others-use-a-round-one/3006728 So they've been around for at least 5 years.

If that's the clip where we go down the right wing, the same player kicks out at another Saints player when running towards the box seconds later as well. Think it may have been Navarro, if it was the one in the bright orange boots.

They didn't have any space in the first half, when "coincidentally" the Saints player on the ball held it for ages and none of the Saints players were moving into space. I was actually quite impressed with Brighton's ability to spread their players to every corner of the pitch yet to still press the ball - for about 20 minutes, anyway. On an unrelated note, it was nice to see Brighton's "passing football", 3 passes amongst their defenders and then a whack up the line - exactly the same as last season. Nearer long ball than passing football (and pretty similar to us in the first 45 minutes). There was only one Dagenham-a-like on that pitch, and it wasn't us.

Actually they did it every time he was in shooting distance of the goal.

"Not hard to get duplicates" is not the same as "having a load of free tickets delivered to doors all over Southampton".

Why do you ask ?

They haven't actually arrested anyone for it yet to my knowledge.

Jesus, there's a big difference between singing "we can see you holding hands" which does nothing other than illustrate that Saints fans are aware that Brighton has a significant gay population, and actually committing a hate crime, which would involve genuinely threating behaviour. We'd probably be on dodgy ground if the lyrics after "wash your mouth out son, go get your father's gun and shoot the..." were amended, but other than that, there's nothing "homophobic" and there's no "hate crime". It's a sad indictment of how stupid some people are that they can't tell the difference.

I'm happy enough at my assertion, when we were in the poop, that the players are much better than their league position...

No there won't. Well, not literally, no, but I bet the back of Block 42 is heaving with double the usual overcrowding.

He meant "play act".

Yes. Unless you're Man United, as both of theirs were leaked last week. Ugly tartan-looking things.

It took as long as it took for the England game to get boring enough for me to come on here.

Hundreds of Saints fans will have a spare booklet for matches 9-23 if you wanted to wave that at them... though I suspect they might have a clue that it could be happening and may requests view of the front page of the ST booklet this weekend...

Not only is it going to sell out, but with all the duplicate ST booklets around there will be probably be about 40,000 people in the ground.

V neck not collar, the sash goes over the shoulder, there's a panel at the top of the back of the shirt (like the current Saints shirt actually) whereas last season's Saints shirt had straightforward single front and back pieces... Actually the shorts are the same style as the black Umbro flybe HOME kit shorts from 2008-10 (old Umbro logo) and the socks the same as last season's away socks, but sash aside it's not very similar at all.

In line with my other posts on this subject, I think we will add approximately 3-4 players (probably including Hooiveld), all of whom will be potentially of Prem quality or already with experience there. One of them is likely to be a striker, as we are extremely limited in what we can do up there. Another centre-back in addition to Hooiveld might not be a bad idea either, and you can't have enough flexible defensive-minded midfielders...

I thought England were awful, and they were utterly embarrassed from a technical perspective, despite actually winning the game. Equally, Spain only play like Barcelona without Messi, they are unlike any other side due to their excessive use of the 1-2 in midfield, Saints are part of that group of "unlike any other side". Oh, and if anyone thought Phil Jones played well, have a look at the 90 minutes again, he barely has any effect at all on Spain's passing and only managed to advance with the ball once, when allowed acres of room - then Spain took off Iniesta and Xavi, and without them the entire format of their passing and build up changes - until then England were third rate, after that, it was a contest against half of the World Champions' reserves, with their midfield missing.

Completely agree. The "everyone's name" thing was funny for about 5 minutes and even the people who started it had stopped by midway through the second half. Will be surprised if it ever catches on again without us being at least 4 goals ahead.

I assure you I was going utterly mental as much because they'd been such complete bell-ends for the previous months, all the narky pre-match songs, the banners, the abuse to Adkins and especially the cheating withdrawal of the ballboys and timewasting of their keeper from kick off, AND the way we'd scored so late as the 3 points themselves, I'd have been happy enough with a draw as far as promotion went and for me it was all about shutting up their load of bo11ocks. Assuming they don't actually beat us on Saturday I'll be long over it though.

Nobody, I wasn't sure where he was getting that idea from either. Griffo not caring is the only non-positive about them on the entire thread.

To be fair, I think they are a cynical, percentage-playing side (not overly physical though) and they weren't even playing better football than us last season based on what we saw in our two matches, never mind this season. So not sure where the berk stuff comes from, it's a reasonable assessment. Also, I will be more bothered about this fixture than most purely because of the rivalry they created last season, their general demeanour towards Adkins and the fact that we are now very much in the position to throw their mean-spiritedness right back at them.

I'm still reeling from the assertion that Elephant Stone "doesn't have a tune", FFS.

Fantastic draw for them to get Bristol Rovers at home in the next round.

His presence actually turned the game towards Halifax for 10 minutes with Halifax looking unthreatening and Charlton cruising at 0-1, but then Charlton got the better of them with a few late goals.