The9

The long and short of it is that the Prem hasn't had a club in admin before (they haven't yet, as of 08:49am) so they don't have a load of loophole-closing regulations like the Football League have because teams like Boston United started doing things like going into Admin at half time of their last match of the season when they were clearly going to be relegated anyway. So the -9 will apply now. And there will be a -10 in the CCC next season if they're not in and out of admin before they take their place in the Football League. There's some great stuff in here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2010/02/portsmouth_fc_in_crisis_qa.html Sample quote : Q: So this is all the taxman's fault? A: Erm, well, only if you think paying VAT, PAYE and National Insurance is optional.

Surely the club would have flogged off anything not screwed down this time last year? I'd be surprised if there was anything left, the reserves didn't even have hooped socks as they'd run out for a few months this time last year.

Manny Omoyinmi was the West Ham played for the record. There was also a Welsh side who won the League and then had all their points deducted for fielding an ineligible player all season, think it was Welshpool but can't be sure. Stuff all to do with the original point but amusing. AFC Wimbledon played a player who had been retired and hadn't played for two seasons but was with Cardiff previously so needed international clearance and they didn't get it.

Is THAT who it was ? I know Reeves has 44 allocated to him as of preseason but we haven't actually listed anyone between Otsemobor (40) and Reeves' number anywhere official.

I bet they don't go to adverts during the pre-match handshakes like they usually do. Of course the only right and proper thing for Terry to do is withdraw from the England squad until next season himself, there are far more CBs around than left backs... FWIW I think Bridge has been very shrewd, he's got no reason to put up with the hassle and doesn't want to be seen to be "ok with it". I don't feel sorry for him because it's his decision to make, but everyone knows he's the obvious first choice left back with Cole injured and is effectively giving up a World Cup place. Ashley Cole's meant to be fit beforehand anyway, so all Bridge is really doing is taking himself out of the squad, rather than the team for South Africa. Does expose a dearth of decent left backs though.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. I know that's probably irrelevant, I've just never had reason to use it in context before.

Pretty much what I already said. Percentage game, neither team has the players in position to attack conventionally at kick off, so you get it somewhere where you can't concede due to an individual mistake and try to build from there.

And how exactly does that detract from the point that it works better on bad pitches ?

You'd hope so. You can't buy any cheap kit, only training/leisure gear.

If I want to hear the PA in the Northam I just go to the loo, it's the only place you can hear it. Usually have to put up with a load of smoke though.

Do not get me started. I wrote a hefty tome to the club about this plasticising of the matchday experience (and music after goals) last season. We went into Administration the day after, so I suspect it was not noted. All I'll say about it is that if you're not there for the football and being part of football's natural atmosphere, you shouldn't be there. And if you are, THEY shouldn't be there. If anyone is there for the half time entertainment or being told when to cheer, then they won't turn up when its not there. And according to Leicester Uni's stats on the age of football fans, there are far fewer of them than there are traditional football fans who don't wan't to see any of that kind of cack.

"Allow time for parking" is one thing, but even so, "take an hour to travel the 5 miles from the A404" I was not expecting. My satnav had us arriving at 6:50pm until we got to a mile from the M40 junction and I missed kickoff by 10 minutes! If it wasn't for me dodging around backstreets we'd have been even later, and we allowed PLENTY of time. Their crappy "lock-in" car park policy after the game was rubbish as well, but as the traffic was snarled up all the way down the one road in/out for 40 mins anyway before we were released I guess it didn't make much difference. And FWIW the girl at the kiosk was far more interested in playing coy with the boy she was working with and p1ssing about teasing him with my change than actually serving us during the second half. :smt070

We didn't do it last season... I think we might find that flogging STs cheap, along with "discounting the old kit to £10" may be a thing of the past.

I'm just going to post up Redknapp's "youth" team that got knocked out of the League Cup by Mansfield for the sake of argument (again), just so we can have another look at where they are in comparison to Saints now : Southampton: Smith ,Cranie ,Kenton ,Mills ,Baird ,McCann ,Delap ,Folly (Walcott ,72 ) ,Dyer ,Jones ,Blackstock (McGoldrick ,81) Subs not used McNeil,Tejera,Gillett, That's 4 Prem : Baird (Fulham), Delap (Stoke), Walcott (Arsenal), Jones (Sunderland) 6 CCC : Smith (Forest sub gk), Cranie (Coventry), Mills (Reading), Dyer (Swansea), Blackstock, McGoldrick (both Forest) 2 Lge 2 : Kenton (Cheltenham), Folly (loan from Plymouth) 1 SPL/retired : McCann (Falkirk 2009, may have retired as hasn't played this season) Is that better than the current team ? The CCC league team for the next match showed 11 changes, just for the record : Niemi ,Hajto (Jones ,68 ) ,Lundekvam ,Darren Powell ,Higginbotham ,Oakley (Cranie ,86 ) ,Wise ,Quashie ,Kosowski ,Ormerod (Walcott ,68 ) ,Fuller Subs not used: Smith,Delap

I was reasonably optimistic till I went to Wycombe and saw one of those rubbish away performances people who went to Brentford and Exeter were on about. We were worse than away at Swindon, and that was the last match before the team started improving. However, bigger picture and all that... I think there are levels of moaners : There are perennial moaners, who'd find something wrong in a Saints Champions League win. There are the kneejerk "too quick to criticise" mob who usually don't consider the bigger picture. There are the balanced posters (everyone thinks they're one of these). Then there are the optimists. Then there are the rose-tinted happy clappers. I'm sure everyone else will have fun deciding where certain posters fit, but I'm not sure they need to do it here...

And Worldnet, JPT Final, birth of your first child (didn't we tell you? LOL) etc...

Just for a bit of balance, some more stats for 6th Place finishes : (League One) 2009 : Scvnthorpe 76 pts 2008 : Southend 76 pts 2007 : Oldham 75 pts 2006 : Swansea 71 pts 2005 : Hartlepool 71 pts (Div Two) 2004 : Hartlepool 73 pts 2003 : Cardiff 81 pts 2002 : Huddersfield 78 pts 2001 : Wigan 75 pts 2000 : Stoke 82 pts So it has been ten years since any 6th place team has needed as many points as the OP suggested we need, and some seasons you can get in with only 71. Arithmetic mean is 75.8, modes 71, 75, 76. Stats from the last 10 years suggest the most likely points total we'll need is 76, who cares how many points you need to come 3rd ?

You've ignored two more convenient methods for frankly spurious reasons, but you're still complaining about the only remaining option ? This one's down to you, I'm afraid. I'm sure I could have gone to the trouble to be inconvenienced as well if I'd wanted to, but I booked online and by postal application via a mate to get my tickets and I haven't had to spend more than 30 seconds on it.

So our structured, block-by-block, transparent, preferential, limited ticket sales is "small town" compared to Carlisle's "sell 9 tickets to anyone asap" approach ? Okay... We've made it harder because we want to sell to people in a fair way at appropriate times. Based on historical attendances there are probably more potential buyers per ticket for Saints 44,000 than for Carlisle's 25,000, so structuring it is not difficult to understand. The alternative to making people wait is a massive free-for-all and everyone queueing for hours on end unnecessarily, whether they're a one-match passer by or an ST holder who hasn't missed a game for years. You might also like to consider that you can print 9 tickets for one person with one payment almost as quick as you can for 1 ticket, but it takes a lot longer to process 9 separate applications for 1 ticket each and take those 9 separate payments, so Carlisle probably have lower transaction times per ticket sold and can sell them more quickly anyway. The fact that we're still shifting ST-holder tickets at a rate of around 7,000 a day into Thursday and also that there's a match on Saturday for which the TO has to be able to sell at the windows too have all informed the process, which I think the TO have got spot on. If they made MK-buyers or General available from now, no-one would be able to get a Walsall ticket.

Feel free to link, I'm pretty sure that most cases where a player is on the squad but doesn't get on the pitch result in warnings or minor fines, it's only regarded as affecting the integrity of the result if they actually play. I seem to recall a recent case where a team was loads of goals ahead and brought on an ineligible sub and they were either chucked out or forced to replay, but that's useless and anecdotal without a link too.

I should think one of the reasons Carlisle are selling theirs first is so they can limit sales to local customers or database once/if Saints' tickets sell out. There's nothing to stop Saints people choosing to buy tickets in the wrong end whilst their own team are still pre-General sale, but you'd have to be some kind of mental... Best case scenario is all the JCLs and plastics end up in the wrong end, they wouldn't help the atmosphere much anyway.

There are precedents for naming ineligible subs and they usually involve the tournament organisers totally ignoring it, as the player didn't get on the field. I wish we'd just let it go...

Because it allows you to get players forward to press the ball from the throw-in. The alternative being faffing about with it in your own half until the strikers get forward, risking giving it away in your own half (albeit to opponents who are equally short in attacking numbers at that point). Makes sense on bad pitches especially.

They were SO friendly that hundreds of our fans got stuck outside for up to half an hour after kickoff due to their shiiiitty parking plan and total lack of organisation. They were crap, couldn't cope with the piddling crowd they did get, and I know at least 3 people who have no intention of going there again. But the halftime on pitch was the highlight of the night.

Last nights half time almost made up for the 80 minutes of crap surrounding it. Two teams of kids taking pens, having to run straight to the kick from the touchline as part of their run-up due to half-baked planning and time constraints, and then the scorers ridiculously over-celebrating. Most of those kids probably spend longer doing aeroplanes and pulling their shirts over their heads than practising kicking, but it was pretty funny. Nice of the MC to assign the kids to us and or them too, we got behind them instead of ripping the p155 at some local kids like people normally would.