The9

...well done, now its time to start messing around with things so you begin to disappear from photos in the future, and stuff. So, which one single event in Saints history would you go back and tweak (for better or worse) ? Bonus points for creativity and obscurity... like giving Sturrock a napkin at breakfast, etc. NB : If this ends up in a Lowe-based row I will not be impressed.

Maybe he's a Time Lord. In which case I want a lift back to 2004, as there are a few Saints-related things I'd like to tweak.

From League One, not the Championship. That's been the case since 1958/9 when Division 4 was formed for relegation from the third tier, and since 1974 when two up two down was amended for the second to third tier. And can someone please do Deppo a poll with the options : "Yes" "No" to answer his question "should we have a poll"?

Why would I want to believe we're going to concede a goal ?

I like the template Saints foreva, I don't have one with shorts and socks on - is there a download link you can post up ? Those short / sock styles on kit 3 look exactly the style we'll get judging from the Sunderland kit...

Fixed it for you.

We'll hopefully have to play them next season as well... though based on the last time we were in the Championship together it won't be a "rivalry" for long.

Just checked, using minimum wins in our favour and minimum defeats for opponents to minimise GD swings (i.e. 1-0s as far as possible). Tis true... and in the event of Saints beating Brighton and Hartlepool Huddersfield losing to MK Dons and then at home to Dag & Red and Peterborough losing to one of either Orient or Yeovil (or drawing with both) and even if MK Dons beat Hudd and Plymouth On Easter Monday night we would be : 6 points ahead of Huddersfield with a MINIMUM of a 15 goal advantage in GD and them with 2 to play. At least 6 pts ahead of Peterborough (if they win 1 and lose 1 - and 7 pts clear of them if they draw 2) with approximately a 13 goal advantage (depending on how many they actually won/lost by compared to us) At least 6 pts ahead of MK Dons with approximately a 21 goal advantage (depending on how many they won by compared to us). and with 3 matches left we'd also have a game in hand on all of them. That is a best case scenario. But an MK Dons win over Huddersfield would be VERY useful no matter what happens at Withdean, as MK have by far the worst GD on the chasing 3 and the fewest points.

I've always been a fan of the "barring mathematical improbabilities" school of thought... until now. That's because the same concept (maths) which says we're about 15 goals ahead on goal difference, and the opposition can only get the number of points that we're on, is also the same one which underpins the probability of us losing all our remaining games after that point (3 in this case) and one of our opponents winning all of theirs by a cumulative swing of about 15 goals. i.e. pretty bloody unlikely. So rest assured, if we win the next 2 and Huddersfield lose the next 2, with Peterborough also losing one*, I shall be going absolutely spa-mental on Easter Monday, "barring mathematical improbabilities" or not. *I haven't yet checked this is the case, taking others at their word here...

Recommending loudhailers and binoculars for Saturday then.

To be honest if this news tells me anything, it's that I haven't got a bloody clue how our academy works from a contract perspective, or in terms of the Year 1/2/3 etc structure - other than the player having to be 17 to sign a pro deal and probably having the chance to be there for years before (or not, as with some of this lot). So can someone recap ? Are there 4 years of Academy and then it's "become pro" or "get released" ? What's the difference between the apprentice and the others ? I assume people can be recruited and join at any point along the way..? What's the satellite stuff ? I get that we can only recruit within a particular area, so is it related to that and linked to their age and amount of travelling they are allowed to do ?

That would be more akin to p155ing on the embers of their bonfire somewhere around December as they were loading their fireworks for the following year onto a big truck to set up somewhere else, to labour an analogy.

Just checked, and I've got our 5 for Brentford (seats) on there. Weirdly it isn't yet showing my Brighton games even though I've been sent the tickets already, though that could be because the first number on the list (and person whose name was on the tickets printed before they put a sticker over it with my address on it) wasn't me.

Not sure why everyone's assuming that "all ticket" means that tickets won't be sold on the day ? I'm not sure how Brentford define it, but plenty of clubs still sell tickets on the day, and "all ticket" just means no cash on the gate. Some clubs extend that to meaning "no match day sales" you shouldn't assume that's the case unless they actually say it. I always used to like Wimbledon's approach when they were at Selhurst, which was that every match was all ticket, but they sold the tickets on the day at small offices right next to the away entrance, so you took literally two steps to the right with the ticket you'd just bought in order to give it up and get into the ground. Palace probably did the same thing. FWIW I think anyone with 4 or more aways will be guaranteed a ticket (I got one for Bournemouth in a group averaging 3-4 and to Brighton in a group averaging 4-5), and there are about the same number of tickets as for AFCB and more or less the same number of matches as Brighton. Three aways will give you a decent chance as well, I suspect.

Didn't go to Leyton Orient then ? FWIW I think Butterfield and Richardson have been below par the last couple of months, but Butterfield gives us more going forward as a far better crosser, and most of the problems he's had recently stem from our lack of a conventional right-sided midfielder supporting him. Richardson has managed not to impress me once this season.

Well exactly. Well done finishing above us for the first time since 1960, btw.

You could, but you'd be wrong unless you're ready to accept that you're suggesting Adkins doesn't try and pick his best team, because he keeps picking players who aren't this lot when the others are fit. Whether Dickson is better than Harding, Guly supports Lambert better than Barnard does, Forte is more impactful than Lallana, God knows who we've got on the right is better than Chamberlain or whatever it is you're claiming, we are clearly significantly weaker when we are being forced into considering players out of position just to field a reasonably stable looking XI.

Well, that and 4-4-2 being England's default formation for the last 50 years or so and the idea of not fielding at least one midfielder who picks up opposing midfielders when they are in attacking positions being utterly preposterous.

Frankly anything could happen, but it could be 50% Saints second string with the players we've got missing at the moment. It's not going to prove much either way. Suffice to say I'm a lot less confident we're going to thrash them now we're probably missing 4 starters.

We've had shedloads at the busiest time of the season, thus maximising impact - I would call that being extremely unlucky with injuries. As I noted to a friend yesterday, we're currently missing starters at left back, left midfield, right midfield, one of the two starting centre midfielders (and two of the other candidates for centre midfield have been injured in recent weeks too), and one of our two starting strikers. Add to that recent injuries to our backup right back and a suspension to our 5th choice centre midfielder, plus our 3rd choice striker's been injured most of the season. We've really been struggling with injuries, and it's only been the incredible depth of squad that we've got that it hasn't had much more of a detrimental effect. For all of Alpine's whining about cover, no-one could have imagined we'd actually NEED to play Gobern when we had Hammond, Schneiderlin, Chaplow, Stephens, Lallana, Guly, Dickson, Richardson and Oxlade-Chamberlain all able to fit into various positions across the midfield ahead of him. As it stands at the moment, if Lallana isn't fit I would expect us to be either picking 3rd choice striker Connolly up front, or picking Forte up there, meaning Dickson at left mid and if Harding's injured, Seaborne at left back. That is not even close to a first choice side.

You're not wrong there. It's as predictable as Alpine's panicking that we haven't signed anyone 11 seconds after the last ball of the season is kicked. FWIW I absolutely hate the black badges above, quite like Gecko's one, still think the 125th anniversary badge was a missed opportunity and prefer the Saints badge of the last 15 years or so (without the superfluous surrounding white shield we had on the shirt circa 2004/6). I don't think we need to change it, almost all club rebranding exercises - with the exception of Manchester United's subtle removal of the words "Football Club" from their badge IMHO - are horrendous. Even the Anniversary tweak made the badge look like it was for Comic relief. Those Swindon efforts are all hideous, without fail - it's no wonder they keep changing theirs. The new Coventry badge is pointlessly bland gash too.

In which case I hope he's been misquoted, or he's mental. http://www.thesportreview.com/tsr/2011/04/former-southampton-coach-hails-pfa-winner-gareth-bale/

Actually it says "he had a while to convince the lads", not that he TOOK a while... that's a comment on the fact he was afforded time to get his ideas across, not that it was needed. Nice job getting the interviews, btw.

That is such a load of crap. Harding's been gash on a significant number of occasions, he's just clearly been less gash overall in the minds of opponents than other notable left backs - and I dare say much of the voting is based on reputation on occasion when the players facing Saints haven't had much opportunity to attack.

It's good to see the Pedant Mafia are establishing a foothold in such important matters.