The9

I like that we have a 75% chance of promotion even without considering our current league position or form, or opposition, just based on the fact we have a game more !

Nor can I... but I have a computer with the internet on it which I find useful for checking these things. You should get one.

He must be on Milton Road !

I'd rather Dickson plays against Brentford where he'll be motivated (not least by the crowd), rather than Plymouth when he'll be a bit gutted, judging by his twitter following tendencies. Harding on Monday freshens it up, especially after his performance on Monday this week, which was one of his best for Saints. Butterfield and Richardson are also pretty much interchangeable, and that also worked this weekend, so more of that and I'll be happy.

Really ? They looked absolutely fcvking crap, but beyond that I'd like to know how you think an injured keeper palming it to a nearby defender who manages to blast it at a teammate from 5 yards away when trying to whack it off the pitch is anything unusual - it was only Calderon miskicking it to the striker that was even remotely dubious, and it WAS a miskick and he couldn't possibly have controlled it to put it there. He was amazed to have killed the ball blasted straight at him in the first place as it was ! So unless they had money on 1-1 there's no motive, and for about 60 minutes they looked like they had no chance of getting an equaliser anyway.

Can't blame the TO, they weren't even in a position to say how many tickets we had only 2 weeks ago due to Brentford, and they went to additional trouble to put buckets out at the Bristol Rovers match (16th) so people didn't have to queue to hand their forms in. As it was, they'd put mine on my account online by Tuesday lunchtime LAST WEEK (19th and I received them on Thursday 21st), so it's only the combination of bank holidays and the postal service that's to blame. There has only been Thurs 21st, Tuesday 26th and today that the tickets could possibly have been delivered on (assuming no Saturday bank holiday delivery). It usually takes Saints 2 days to process all the applications and the given posting date was 20th. They did some on 19th (like mine), so a Wednesday process on 20th posted to be collected on Thurs 21st wouldn't arrive until Tuesday, if it wasn't done until Thursday then it may not pitch up until today. Don't panic ! They have definitely been sending tickets to the first customer number though - made sure that was me this time around after the sticky label over someone else's address for the Brighton tickets !

I think he meant clubs had about 12 players in their squad, as opposed to teams having 12 players in a match (subs or otherwise). Subs were introduced in 1965/66 to the Football League.

We already just changed SIX players for our last match and have recently given a start to Gobern for the only time in the League this season, so I think we'll be squad rotating for Brentford/Plymouth in a very similar way to the Brighton/Hartlepool matches to keep the side as fresh as possible for Monday.

We don't really know what the impact will be yet - other than the Prem sides trying to change the youth recruitment rules to enable them to hoover up all the talent for a pittance in the first place and not have to worry so much about signing players with amortisation costs to be counted as a loss. I'd always rather be a club with a squad of decent players than a club needing to buy a squad of decent players. There wasn't a problem on the spelling front. It was Adkins' you were looking for, or arguably Adkins's.

Point of order, Lung, they no longer arrange derby matches for the first (or last) weekend of the season (or on Bank Holidays) due to police advice. But say Aug 13th or something, then that's ok.

We'll see this summer if we still "have money to invest" from the family by our transfer dealings. Already being more than familiar with Prem tables in the last 20 years, never mind 10, I think we're probably discussing different things - I'm talking about becoming established as a side not remotely considering relegation from the Prem, whilst you're talking about some teams who have occasionally finishing above half way. There are only currently about 5 teams in the Prem who don't have any chance of getting relegated when the season starts, and all of them have spent massively in the hundred millions apart from Arsenal who had a pretty high starting point. Man City and Spurs have joined Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal, whilst Liverpool have shown quite nicely this season what happens if you don't invest. I'm talking about challenging the top 4, not sitting about midtable, otherwise as Patrick Bateman says, what's the point ? To help you out with the "top 5" figures, here are the top 5 finishers in the 18 years of Prem history : http://www.myfootballfacts.com/PremierLeagueTop5Finishes1992-93to2008-09.html Whether the expenditure pattern changes with the UEFA Finance rules I don't know, but I can't see us benefitting from the practicalities of a potential squeeze on transfer and wage spending when other teams are already at that point.

Didn't Saints say when they launched the Foundation shirt sponsorship that the Foundation logo could be added to kits free of charge, or have I just made that up ? Story's here so I'm thinking I made it up, though the SaintsFC site may have a different article : http://www.saintsfoundation.co.uk/News/tabid/63/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/19/Saints-donate-shirt-space-to-the-Saints-Foundation.aspx

But you are a slightly mental optimist, 28_F. However, I will counter the obvious stream of "mathematically certain" blatherers* by pointing out that if we win and Huddersfield lose this weekend, they'd be 3 points behind and their GD will be at least 15 goals worse than ours with them only having one match to play (and us needing to lose both to mess it up). From that position for us not to go up the scores for those three matches would all have to average out at a 5-goal advantage to Huddersfield, i.e. them winning by 5 and us losing by 5 twice, against two teams in the bottom 5. Which is mathematically extremely unlikely, if not "certain". Having said all that I think the chances of us beating Brentford are only slightly greater than of Hudd beating Brighton, so if it happens, awesome. *EDIT : Too late.

First thing I'd have in my tooldbox was something to remove incorrect apostrophes. His surname is not Adkin. Second thing would be a reality check for people who think Saints in the Prem would be anything other than one of those run of the mill midtable-cum-relegation threatened teams without a massive cash influx, which will probably be against the rules by the time we get there.

For me THEN was "why did we get rid of Pardew, this bloke seems like at best 3rd choice though he's done ok in this league before" NOW is "I can see why he's done well in this league before - but what's going to happen next ? Oh, and he does talk some rubbish".

As opposed to the "completely justifiable" pitch invasion against Burnley which didn't make anyone look like a div as it was to celebrate, um... nothing. Practically all pitch invasions are started by people with the mentality of children just showing off. There's then a pecking order of peer group pressure and acceptance which gradually encompasses practically everyone, depending on how likely it looks that there will be any repercussions, and how interested in being on the pitch they are - rather than just going home. With that in mind, here's a photo of the centre spot from after the Sheffield Utd game under Pearson.

Well, you're young and stupid.

Mostly because the crowd has initially gathered at the front of the Northam. The crowd control (stewards / police /dogs etc) gathers there, leaving those in the side stand (which includes people who've snuck under the barrier from the Northam during the second half, and don't tell me it doesn't happen, I've watched them) a relatively clear run.

To be more specific, about 30 people at the back will sing it, loads will sing along with no intention of going on the pitch unless hundreds of others do, then a few will get persuaded into following them because they have even worse judgement, that will escalate or not depending on the crowd control (dogs and the like will wind up the nobbers who will then be determined to get on JUST to annoy the people who dare to stop them), and the people who think they're acting like childish bellends showing off and stopping everyone else from enjoying themselves properly will boo the shart out of them, and rightly so. Personally I'd rather the pr1cks stay off the pitch and give all of us the chance to see the team celebrate.

Thriving in the era of 30 live games on terrestrial tv, terraces, pee down your leg, long ball mid-late 80s in the English Football League was VERY different to thriving in the post-Italia 90, post-Hillsborough, All Seater, Sky Money, Premier League for a start. Even you have to accept that before the late 90s there was every chance of any top level club competing to win the top league on a limited budget. That is very much an impossibility nowadays, and the slide away from being able to keep up, especially for an unfashionable team limited to 15,000 attendances (but prior to the kind of International television deals which gave everyone a slightly more level playing field except the CL teams) was well under way by the time Saints became a PLC.

I find the cumulative Premier League Points stat is quite a good one as a pointer of where we are in "recent history". We're 14th in all-time Premier League history, i.e. the last 20 years. Bolton and Fulham are gaining fast though... http://www.myfootballfacts.com/All-TimePremierLeagueTable1992-93to2010-11.html Though we are only 27th in the top tier of all time including the Football League (which was around for 30 years before we joined it). http://www.myfootballfacts.com/SEASONS-IN-TOP-FLIGHT----1888-89-to-2009-10.html Oh yeah, and 27th in the whole Prem/FL for attendances last season despite being in L1. Which isn't all that great really... http://www.mikeavery.co.uk/Attendance%20All%20Teams%20High%20to%20Low.htm

Showing your ignorance of third tier football here - Newport County were in this very division (albeit under it's original name) for 8 of the 9 seasons prior to their liquidation, and even had their ground as an asset until they had to sell it back to the council when they were beginning to fail. I will allow that there is some disparity in the attendance figures between the sides, but it's not as if the Saints crowds of the previous seasons had kept the club out of admin, is it ? People overestimate the business benefits of football clubs, which are almost without fail loss-making tax-write offs at best, and are also tiny companies compared to "proper businesses". Mid-recession there was always some doubt whether a buyer would come forward in time.

Presumably because he put him in on Saturday to do a specific job and wanted to rotate as many players, especially from our injury-wracked midfield, as possible.

I would expect at least a few hundred Saints fans to be there disguised as neutrals.

You'd think Tranmere would love us for all the times they've rolled over us too.