The9

Thankfully, I hate our UEFA Cup kit for all kinds of reasons.

Oh I dunno, I can pick a player...

Merrington says a lot of things, it was a straightforward pass into 20 yards of space, he only had to hit the enormous gap between the keeper and the defender who was barely closing him down and Barnard could have buried it from pretty much anywhere in the box. To illustrate this I've popped onto FB and lifted a screenshot from a video I saw on there, and helpfully illustrated the kind of area he was trying to hit with that pass (which incidentally I think I've underestimated) :

Feel free to elaborate, because I'd like to know myself...

I can never remember what's wrong with it, give us a recap...

This is a fair point. How does putting your own nickname that others gave you fit into it ? There's still that element of giving it to yourself by putting it on the shirt...?

He's alright for League One, I just don't get the logic that he'll be better at a higher level, when everything happens more quickly and the reason players get space and time is because they're good enough to earn it, not because there's less pressure on the ball. Lambert's improved significantly with his close game the last few matches compared to his performances before Bournemouth. His short passing and touch generally was decidedly below average for most of February and the first half of March, but his long passing has always been pretty decent. I still think the pass into 20 yards of space v Barnard was something any parks player could do.

You can run perfectly well in straight lines with medial ligament damage, it's changing direction which is the problem. Haven't seen the video though, can't see the point in paying for it, so he could be zig-zagging for all I know.

Great logic. And an overestimation of Lambert's passing to boot. Long passing maybe, but Lambert's short passing has been through some troughs recently as well. He's 22 in November, btw.

Chaplow was doing alright until the first half (out of position) against MK, and has been alright since. Hammond couldn't afford to get booked and was thus very restricted in what he was able to do. Our midfield was where we lost out a little on Saturday but Orient barely used theirs in the second half, and I doubt Schneiderlin would have solved that any. Stephens might have, being more used to the kind of pitches- more concerned with him at the moment. And no, I don't know when he'll be back.

I think we're all pretty much in agreement that the Forum name on shirt thing is pretty sad. Setting aside all the "best clobber to the match" types who think all shirt wearing is sad, and those who think all names on shirts are sad, what exactly is it that makes the use of a forum name particularly, "crossing the line sad" ? I think there's a hierarchy of match attending clothing wearing attitudes, and readily accept as a "shirter" that it's marginally less cool than wearing your own clothes, so : No replica shirts to matches Replica with no name/number Replica with number only Replica with some Liebherr related reference Replica with name and number (I don't see any difference between lameness of having your "own name" or a "player name" but some may differ) Replica with nickname and number Replica with other slogans Replica with slogan incorporating "8" and "Pompey" or similar Replica with Forum User Name and number. But WHY is the forum name bottom of this list ? Is it because the Forum isn't real life and going to a match is, and there's some implicit lameness in crossing over from one to the other ? Is it because online personae are generally a bit... weak ? What is it ?

Pretty sure it was the incitement, you have to have left the playing surface to commit the other offence, and the grass is right up to the stand at Orient.

Yes, you would, the offence is removing the shirt (actually lifting up the shirt rather than actually needing to remove it) during a goal celebration, whether you have one on underneath or not is irrelevant. And just to prove it... (you might want to skip to 30 seconds) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt3mLtylRq8&feature=player_embedded ...I think that happened about a week ago.

Surely more likely that he'd have got in and then been immediately thrown out when he got past the turnstile operator ?

I'd like to point out at this juncture that Pat From Poole hasn't seen Saints score yet this season (in, I think, 5 attempts), and despite our best efforts to ban him, he has tickets to three further matches. All of his efforts to point the finger at others have been disproven with the attendance of the two other main suspects at the MK Dons and Leyton Orient matches recently. So we can write off Bristol Rovers, Plymouth and Walsall.

Any parks player could have made that pass, he could have put it anywhere in about 20 yards of the pitch. Also, how does one decent pass by a Saints player prove that we passed better than Orient for the other 94 minutes ? We didn't. I'll take your "Lambert to Barnard - Goal" and raise you "Guly's shin to the Orient keeper's hands from 40 yards out when he was trying to flick it wide to Lambert".

Additional shirt removal yellow card reasons given by (some) mentals on threads about it on the web: *Intimidating to the opposition (!) *FIFA want more exposure for sponsors *Time-wasting (which was an offence already anyway) *Not being able to identify a player None of these cover the specifics, which are during celebration and if the shirt is pulled over the head or exposes the chest - EVEN if there's another shirt underneath. Of course the real skill is to manage to remove an undershirt with a message on it without taking the overshirt off. Velcro shoulder straps anyone ?

Graham Poll says "the instruction to referees within Law 12 was intended to stop the display of political messages or slogans and was necessary when, in 2002, shirts consisted of two joined layers which were very difficult to get back on when damp. In those cases players were cautioned for delaying the restart of play." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1173330/Graham-Poll-We-don-8217-t-need-collar-shirt-criminals.html I call bollshetz on that one, he's referring to ONE incident with Diego Forlan, hardly a reason for an entire law...

The actual reasons for the shirt removal thing becoming a football "law" are arguable at best - I've heard at least 3 different reasons for it given by FIFA / the FA / randoms. 1) Crowd incitement (which can happen shirt on or off) 2) Preventing players revealing slogans (covered by other laws anyway, and not stopped by the celebration law which is only during goal celebrations) 3) To prevent offence in muslim countries (like FIFA care about that when their main tournament is sponsored by Budweiser) In addition, Barnard's yellow WON'T contribute to a further suspension, it was for incitement by running front of the home fans and given that he clearly WAS inciting the home fans, can't really argue with it. I think everything should be allowed other than actually directly addressing celebrations to goal-conceding opposing fans - and the ref should allow the conceding team to kick off as soon as the scorers have 7 players in their own half, ready or not.

Tell that to Leyton Orient's ground staff, as bobbly a pitch as I've seen this season, and they passed on it a lot better than we did.

You're certainly 1 goal better than most of the last 10 teams you've played, yes.

Tss, as if you'd be able to get in there for people sneaking a "sly" (read "incredibly obvious") fag. Though at least it would help you with your hovering skills.

I thought the "striker standing massively offside" thing was pretty informative actually - of course, outside professional football it'll just be flagged offside by the opposition's cheating linesman nevertheless, but interesting to get a perspective on what the idea behind "making yourself look blatantly offside" is. Having Cheltenham in the same region as Brighton is a tad silly, let's face it.

I'm not sure that the logo's the right shape for that, but I get what you mean - it would be similar to the shield Newcastle had circa 1999. I think that kind of thing has to be integral to the design though, and they're not going to have done that this season. Mind you I hate colour patches full stop anyway.

I have no match day rituals other than making sure the missus gets her ST on the ramp approaching the ground. I gave up on all the others after a particular game in Fratton, as "not wearing any blue" didn't work 2 years running... and my jean-replacement trousers didn't match.