The9

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Maybe start at 125 and build the tension ? I'll get Le Tiss v Arsenal, last match at the Dell out of the way for ya. And 9 of his others here - that should get people thinking a bit about the non-OBVIOUS ones. [video=youtube;EtJeN96-6fw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtJeN96-6fw Chip to himself free kick v Wimbledon Double dink v Newcastle Thigh and volley dipper from same match Top corner v Villa Long ramger past Flowers against Blackburn Chip up half volley v Wimbledon Long range strike to top corner v Coventry Edge of area smash v Newcastle Dribble chip v Man U Last goal at the Dell

Seems to be doing about as well as Pardew, and without the points deduction and with a closer league this season that should be more than enough to get us promoted.

A cynic would point to defeat at Carlisle compared to a 4-1 cakewalk at Wembley and defeat at Huddersfield compared to a 5-0 win at St Mary's under Pardew. But generally I agree with you. People are far too ready to criticise, we're going to lose some games here and there but overall should have more than enough for this division. Save the criticism for a time when we're not in a strong position to challenge for promotion - the margins in this league are usually defined by effort, and both the teams I mentioned above had the additional motivation of their last result against us. No doubt someone will be starting a thread about Pardew's success damaging Adkins' chances now...

Here's more evidence that attendance figures aren't as important as you might think :

Facepalm.

Not necessarily, plus the lack of people to buy into their lack of history and merchandise is probably at least as responsible - people don't buy Wigan shirts in Malaysia do they ? And of course they have a number of far more auspicious local rivals, which Saints don't have to worry about.

The Emirates contract was signed in early 2003, so plans would have been in place for a couple of years before that : http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/ashburton/ Arsenal thought at the time they had to near-double their capacity in order to compete with Man U, who could accommodate crowds double those at Highbury at a time when they were clearly the top 2 teams in England. They also had an all-but guaranteed fanbase due to their recent FA Cup and League wins, London location and historical success - which has been borne out by the Emirates crowds. It was a no-brainer. As it happens, not long after they committed to the new stadium (March 2003), the revenue from Sky and especially the overseas tv deals expanded massively, rendering the gap between their respective crowd sizes far less of a factor in overall incomes. Arsenal were also at the forefront of the global football merchandising boom alongside Man U and Liverpool that went along with the higher profile Premier League overseas coverage, which gave those teams an advantage over the other Prem sides. For a double-whammy, Chelsea got all "new money" at the same time as Arsenal got skint, and the stadium debt Arsenal took on in building has hampered their ability to buy the kind of top level players they've needed to compete since - they haven't won anything since 2004/5 Premier League title, before they moved to the Emirates. In short, even when there's a guaranteed fan base, which Saints certainly don't have, there's no guarantee that a bigger stadium will improve things - of course there's also no guarantee Arsenal wouldn't have fallen away if they stayed at Highbury...

Just sticking some figures in : Approx £23m per club per season from overseas TV rights, plus about the same from domestic TV rights : http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-nets-16314bn-tv-rights-bonanza-1925462.html So that's (about) £46m per Prem club per season from the telly alone. 19 matches, £35 a ticket (guess), 30k average Prem attendance = £19.9m. Even 19 sellouts only raise £21m (plus corporate seats). Wigan seem to be doing ok from a half empty stadium that's on the telly a lot.

Rumours are complete cobblers, my boss is very ITK at AFCW (was elected to the Dons Trust Board in 2006) and said they had a committee meeting a few weeks ago to discuss their response in the event of the FA Cup drawing them together, which is the statement they put on their website immediately afterwards. FWIW, he'd also much rather not play them at all, as 50% of the gate money will go to them.

That seems quite realistic to me - except goalkeepers maybe.

Even if it was you would have the choice of literally any other game in the country to go to.

Well, there goes next month's rain-sodden stomp to St Mary's to watch them...

There are bigger issues with this - firstly the tv money in the Prem dwarfs income from fans attending nowadays, so it's not necessarily as vital a revenue stream as it could have been once, and the club might choose to take this into consideration with ticket pricing. Non-attendees are able to buy merchandise, etc without ever coming to matches, so people not being able to get in to see a game is not really that much of an issue as "branding" and looking successful on the telly is for the kind of global revenue streams currently required to compete in the Prem. No-one, at any point in this thread has discussed pricing, and how that will affect attendances. Our current ST policy, should we even still have Liebherr money/Cortese in charge, implies that a "by match" ticketing policy will be preferred, and even under the assumption that we actually get back there, you have to expect the cheapest tickets to see Saints in the Prem in a few years' time will be at LEAST £30, and the average cost will be somewhere around the £35-£37 mark. Depending on the general economic climate and the cost of tickets, there could be a LOT of picking and choosing of games even in a "first season back" scenario, and there are already plenty of clubs in the Prem who can't shift swathes of match tickets and plenty who have been cutting their prices. We've got those 30k averages from 2001-5 to look at, but there was generally more prosperity, and we don't have the attendance dip that the likes of Villa and Wigan have seen as the Prem has got more predictable and prosperity have taken a dive. If the club decided that we have such a large fanbase that "someone else" will pick up the slack, charging £50 a match ticket and with no STs (or equally prohibitively priced, with no payment plan), then it wouldn't matter how big the stadium was, we'd struggle to fill the one we have. Any discussion of stadium expansion needs to be done in the context of possible ticket prices (if only to get figures to indicate potential profit, per seat or otherwise) or it's worthless.

I haven't picked it up since the week I bought it other than to try and get the chants to work. Should have known, I still have about 4 games still in their shrinkwrap from 2008.

I thought it was nice for Thurrock to cross the half way line those two times in the first half... I've never seen such a one-sided match, yet by the end I'd forgotten they were down to 10 - Saints U-18s attacked non-stop until they got in front and then pretty much just kept the ball in the opposition's half for as long as they liked.

I had the pleasure of having Oxo's dad in front of me in the first half, and sat directly behind me in the second half. Due to the seating arrangements I couldn't see who he was talking to (light hair, beige coat, looked vaguely familiar at a glance and seemed to be an ex-pro as well), don't suppose anyone else who went happened to see who it was? Very interesting stories and no mistake!

Or a superior one, for that matter.

We're not playing Charlton on Boxing Day, we're playing them on Dec 26th.

Arguable, Leeds United's first kits in the 1920s were predominantly white with blue stripes, and there's a long history of Palace wearing shades of red (maroon or claret) and light blue (rather than royal) well before the 1970s too - they first wore Claret/light blue stripes in 1937. Keeping a recognisable style or colour is vital to a club's identity, and now branding. Palace's switching between white with red/blue and red/blue stripes is pointless and cynics would say exploitative, just as Walsall's switching between red and white shirts just looks gimmicky. This year's Saints kit is a gimmick, but there's a good enough reason for it. There aren't many who think a wholesale redesign is in order. Saints took half their history to replace the blue shorts with black but wore them non-stop for 60 years until this season (and even this season the away shorts are black, just in case)... I'm pretty sure that's a firm kit colour decision, along with the decision to go with red and white stripes with few exceptions since 1896.

Tard, tardy, someone who is late, surely..?

Only because it's a proper noun, surely, unless you are German ?

I'm going, though Christ knows why... I waver between stupidly overenthusiastic and utterly uninspired depending pretty much on the state of my bank balance alone, went to a load of away games in the Prem Relegation season and last season, yet couldn't find a reason to watch Saints v Sheff Wed in the 3rd round a few years back, haven't been away once this time round and am still not quite sure why I've decided to attend tomorrow. Then again I gave up a job and moved 120 miles 4 years ago mainly to facilitate watching Saints more often, and I own fookloads of kits so I think we should have an uberfan league. Actually, in all seriousness what I think the club should do for these kind of games is start by opening the front rows of all the stands and sell backwards. That gives a nice "near the pitch" feel which creates a different atmosphere. They could reduce the open turnstiles and numbers serving if they want to save on overheads. And I suppose for the "my seat" tards they could pay a £10 Premium to sit exactly where they want.

Yeah, but Nathan Dyer *is* cack, but you can't defend pace. God only knows how Swansea are in the top 3 anyway (though I'll be completely behind them on Sunday). Puncheon is our other player at right midfield, plenty good enough for this division. Just as Ox-Cham was obviously a possible at the end of last year, Doble has shown he has potential up front or as an attacking midfielder...

I've been singing "whites" all season in all songs that don't already contain it. And stripes for me next season please...