The9

That, along with the pork song I've read about, didn't even make it as far as Block 41, so I can safely say they were a tiny minority. I did see the ST-wavers though, about 15-20 of them. Big f'n deal, I also have an ST and the long and short is it means I get in cheaper. We're no longer a dismal side who no-one else is interested in watching, people may as well get used to it (hopefully).

There isn't, there are plenty of ways. The whole idea sounds horrible. Diagonal stripes ? Bleugh. Sash across stripes ? Pointless and ugly, especially with a sponsor too. About the only remotely tolerable option is a sash which is broken up by white stripes, and why would you want to do that ?

I just want us to pick the best XI for the next match; forcing players into the team because they happen to be young isn't going to get the results we want. We all saw what happened picking kids just for the sake of it under Poortvliet. At Championship level there are sometimes opportunities (Bale and Walcott, Blackstock, McGoldrick, Cranie, Best and Dyer to a lesser extent), but players who weren't getting into a successful League One side don't often become good enough to start a League above immediately - there are exceptions (Bale was borderline for a while then suddenly improved immensely and then got his run), but they're rare. Sending developing players out on loan so they get real competitive experience is very much the way to go, especially now that there's a league below us that it's worth sending them to... and for the record, Gobern's already been out to MK where he played infrequently alongside his brother. Look how many times the likes of McGoldrick, Surman and Lallana went out before establishing themselves.

We had one two years ago, fat lot of good that did us. As ever, it's about blending your youth talent with experienced pros.

Agreed. Another Umbro striped number has pitched up with the away Hearts kit leak here, pinstripes added to this season's away template :

I've been banging on for months that their highest Football League finish in nearly 20 years is 20th in the Championship, I'm not sure what makes them think next season will be any different. The overheads of a new ground and the loss of any home advantage they may have had will both conspire against them in terms of winning matches and squad-strengthening (though I think they had the worst home record in League One in 2009/10 so whatever there was about Withdean was hardly long-established). You could see how their results dropped off at the end of the season already, such are the fine margins in professional football.

Oh, and just because I found it, FIFA's Laws of the Game state that "half time may not exceed 15 minutes", but that half time duration must be stated in the rules of the competition, which explains why England and (it seems) Scotland have different durations in practice. http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/lawsofthegame/law/newsid=1290851.html

Similar "half-time duration" discussion here : http://www.wsc.co.uk/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,73/func,view/catid,27/id,314816/ in which some people are swearing blind that half time only went to a full 15 mins in 1989/90 for ITV's live football coverage and some lower league Scottish games still use 10-12 minutes. I vaguely remember a dictat from the Premier League about all matches getting the full 15 minutes when we were still in it, hence my 2000-ish estimate. You won't be in favour of this then ? http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/22/fifa-half-time-extension

Late finishing times are because English football has used a full 15 minute half time PLUS the time taken to get on and off the pitch since something like 2000/1 (for the benefit of Sky Sports, mainly) as opposed to the "up to" 15 minutes they have in Scotland, which is why the Scottish results appear to be final scores sooner on a Saturday afternoon. Also, the handshaking crap beforehand means more matches kick off later anyway due to poor time management. Add to that the introduction of the "added time" board, which now guarantees a MINIMUM amount of added time at the end, onto which any added time substitutions or goals are added on top, and you can see why games are taking longer to complete - back when it was just the ref who knew how much was left, the decision was far more arbitrary. Now there's "a board" there's usually at least 1 minute at the end of the first half as well, which practically never used to happen. You can throw specific amounts of added time being allocated to each substitution, managers sending players to the far side of the pitch to waste time, and the daft lengthy goal celebrations into the mix of "reasons 3pm kick offs finish at 5pm instead of 4:45-4:50pm" as well. It all adds up. As for scoring goals in the 70th minute or thereabouts, Brighton also scored a lot of their significant goals around 60-75 mins from Feb onwards, so I would assume it's a natural time when all the fitness and all the concentration in the world isn't going to help players who are exhausted from constantly defending and chasing a better, stronger, fitter, or more confident team.

I will enjoy them returning to their status as a no-mark nonentity struggling against relegation in the Championship again next season. Interesting to note that they have 18,400 ST holders, I'm assuming that means there will be about 2000 away seats and a tiny number of on-day home tickets on sale (can't see there being 4000 away fans). That's going to make for some empty-looking grounds if Brighton carry on their end of season form, which was scraping one goal wins against the bottom half, followed by only drawing against mid-tablers and losing to their nearest rivals. It'll be an interesting experiment actually, to see how many ST holders they will have not bothering to go by the end of 2011/12. They won't be going for their exciting, expansive football, as it only exists in Poyet's head. As soon as it gets tricky they resort to gamesmanship and Calderon wanging it up the wing, which doesn't work.

They didn't so much "take their foot of the gas", they were just crap. It's also no coincidence that their last 4 games also included home matches against 2 sides they hadn't beaten away. They only managed a point from 4 matches against us and Huddersfield. Their run of games to take the title in March when they snuck about 10 one-goal wins basically didn't include any teams from the top half - which shows that they were off the pace they set up when they were winning games against the top half teams LONG before the last few weeks of the season. It's also the form that will see them in relegation trouble in the Championship.

Wow, THIS makes you sound stupid.

The Football authorities don't allow derby matches to be scheduled for the first or last matches of the season.

We did that at Plymouth, near as dammit. I hate that away kit.

He certainly tried a few circular patterns of his own on some of them.

For those who don't have an historical perspective, the entire Football League used to be like this prior to the FA Premier League, which was their way of preventing the top teams going off and starting a Super League outside their control back in the late 80s/early 90s. Frankly I'd have let them go, what we've ended up with instead is an horrendously imbalanced top division with the proper, equal, competitive football starting at Championship level - and even that's being impacted by huge parachute payments.

Well of COURSE it can "transmit malicious software or has been involved in online scams or fraud", it's a proxy, so it can be a conduit for any kind of data for any purpose - most people using it will be using it for slightly dubious purposes or they'd be fine using their own IP. That's like saying Google is dangerous because you can use it to search for Pompey information.

Jesus, it's like having Saintette back from the S4E days.

I can't believe anyone still looks at teletext.

It's a problem because without police approval you don't have much chance of holding a match.

Doesn't that article say you can bid to be part of the Saints Foundation team, thereby implying the participants in the rest of the tournament are already decided ? Because there would be no reason to pay "over the odds" if you could just enter a team yourself.

Apart from the logistical nightmare of arranging about 4000 people to all move individually, most of the selling point of the Northam is being near the away fans anyway.

As a general rule I put the preservation of law and order in society ahead of the nuances of football supporting.

That would depend where you're coming from - South London tends to signpost to the A3, West London signposts to the M3 and Southampton.

Interesting that no-one has mentioned that he didn't play during the All-Stars match, when basically everyone with a squad number who isn't already being released, on loan to someone else or injured got a game, right down to the kids. I don't think you can read anything into him not playing against Walsall, we've been rotating players in and out over the last 4 matches and Schneiderlin coming back was always going to get a start.