The9

This. I went, I have to say I was utterly bored out of my skin in the main. No atmosphere from them, barely any from us after the bloke I was with stopped singing after about 20 minutes until the sending off, the uninspired "yellows" stuff was tedious as hell, and the whole thing was basically crushingly boring and MK-style soulless. Still, we won, a means to an end.

Frankly, if that was a sending off, there were 4 others who did pretty much the same in the previous incident who wouldn't have been on the pitch. Also, how is that "striking or attempting to strike an opponent" - "raising your hands" OR "lightly pushing someone in the chin" isn't against the laws of the game anyway. Stupid to give the ref a chance to send him off (especially when he was never in charge of the match and looking for some way to stamp his lack of authority on it) but contrary to the OP, I don't think interacting with the ref is something he does much of during matches. Dunno what's going on with his hair though.

Doubt you'll get it in the ground, you could always leave it in someone's car ?

Not sure why being left footed as a left centre-back is an especially good thing ? If you assume the most vulnerable point of the defence (i.e. where the opposition is nearest the goal and most able to score from) is the middle channel, going between the two centre backs, then playing a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left provides the strongest foot for challenging for both players against someone attacking the middle channel. Playing a right footer on the right CB position and the left footer on the left means they'd both be tackling with their weaker foot if someone went straight for goal between them. Of course, there's a lot to be said for which foot the opponent prefers too, but you started it !

Seems likely, they always used to stagger it from 6 aways downwards, so if that "3" is the cutoff, that's the last increment where fewer than 800 people are eligible. To my recollection, Saints haven't had a "ballot" for tickets since we were at St Mary's - on every occasion where it was possible for there to be an oversubscription to an away section, the "write-in" option has dissuaded enough people from applying, and usually a few end up on general sale anyway due to there being a shortfall in the number eligible to apply. On that note, I'm sure everyone will be delighted to discover that despite being eligible for a ticket each, me and the missus are not applying, we're at the other end of the country the following morning. All the more for you lot then. Well, two.

Ask the Skates if their Bankruptcy FA side of 2008 would have rather played Cardiff or... um... well, they were all crap in the last 8 that season... The FA Cup Final dilemma we had was a little trickier than the JPT one we hope to face, but both are totally out of our hands, we can only concentrate on making the final. Can't complain though, we got exactly the draw I wanted in the last round, as I preferred to face Norwich in one match rather than over two, but Hereford didn't do their bit.

No, no relevance of away goals at all. As per last season's Southern Area Final, above. It couldn't be any clearer (unless they've changed the rules, which they haven't). How does that "unfair advantage" logic work ? We both play home and away, we both know there's no difference in goals scored home or away if we end up level on aggregate, and we get to take any tie-breaking penalty shoot-out at St Mary's. The only way it would be an unfair advantage to MK would be if there was no second leg, in which case a discussion about away goals would be somewhat pointless anyway...

To clear up the Away Goals thing : These are the results of last season's JPT Southern Area Final : Southern Final Luton 1-1 Brighton 17-02-2009 Brighton 0-0 Luton 20-01-2009 As you can see, it was 1-1 on aggregate and the Second leg went to penalties : Football League Trophy - Southern Final second leg - KO 19:45 Luton 1 (1) - 1(1) Brighton Craddock 2 Forster 20 Aggregate score 1 - 1 Luton win 4 - 3 on penalties

Just for the record, last year's (initial) allocations were 20k for S****horpe and 30k for Luton : http://www.football-league.co.uk/johnstonespainttrophy/news/final-ticket-information-20090224_2246525_1568489 Though as both were achieved without impinging on the other team's potential full allocation there's no guide to whether segregation can be moved. Still getting ahead of ourselves though.

My point was actually that there have been no "double" away goals ever in the history of football, and it's a stupid inaccurate phrase that means nothing and is utterly misleading, :smt015 but that's a useful link nevertheless. In the event of scores being level: - 14.4.1 at the end of ninety minutes’ play in all rounds apart from the Final; and 14.4.2 after the conclusion of the two legs in each Area Final, the winner shall be determined by the taking of kicks from the penalty mark in accordance with the Laws of Association Football. So no away goals rule at all, then ?!

It is clearly not pedantic to complain about the accuracy of something which is demonstrably incorrect. Also, it's Wikipedia, it's hardly a bastion of demonstrable accuracy, there's even a disclaimer at the top of that page requesting editing to remove fan bias. I don't recall saying it was important either. Besides, as my life appears to consist of finding obscure football-based diversions to point out to people at work whilst being paid nevertheless, before leaving at half 3 to go to see Saints, I'm pretty happy with it, thanks.

Or possibly *someone* can't detect sarcasm. NB : I mean you.

We were getting stuffed all over the park at Huddersfield and never looked remotely like getting a point long before any substitutions were made.

Checks and balances, my friend. And anyway, there's no link between the election of president and that of the two institutions of Congress (well, other than the dates of election coinciding for about 1/3 of them, and being on the same ballot paper, but then that "ticket" goes down to the ability to vote for Sanitation Commissioner so hardly a big deal). Damn sight more sensible than having "whoever the leading party decides they want from their ranks" as Prime Minister and the risible and unelected Blair - Brown handover. As for Massachussets giving a cack about immigrants ? Well, no, geography should tell you that one. Unless it's those damn Canadians ?

That's not what it says. It says "the first club to play in the top 5 divisions", which has nothing to do with automatic promotion (in fact it includes two subsequent teams who have never been automatically promoted out of non-League to strengthen this point). In 1977 when Wimbledon went up (elected) into the FL, they won the Southern League which was (along with the Northern Premier League) the top non-League division at the time. They subsequently played in the top 4 divisions (1-4) AND the Premier League, which is a division in which Carlisle have never played. They can't argue semantics in their favour over the Conference/Southern League/top non-League division but equally argue that the Premier/Old Div 1 distinction doesn't count as it works against them. You either count Div1-4 and the top non-League division(s) of the time as "top 5 divisions" or you count Prem-Lge 2 and BSPrem as "top 5 divisions", (or some combination when they were rebranding in between, eg Prem,Div1,Div2, Div3, Conf) - you can't pick and choose which top 5 divisions count to make it suit the argument just because the Conference Carlisle played in wasn't the top division and didn't even exist when Wimbledon did it.

I also have never heard of anyone travelling to a match without a ticket and trying to find someone who has a spare...

It's all a bit strange, considering it was about 7 degrees in Southampton this morning... and the BBC website says "Max temp 4" !!! ...forecast for noon in MK is "heavy snow", but it's supposed to stop snowing by 3pm.

I just clicked that Carlisle link to Wikipedia, my god there's some rubbish in that article : The writing was on the wall for Carlisle after they lost 18 of their first 21 Division Three games of the 2003-04 season. Manager Paul Simpson did all he could to salvage something from the next 25 fixtures, but couldn't quite achieve safety - 40 points from a possible 75 were effectively rendered meaningless due to Carlisle's appalling first four months of the season. Had they performed as well during the first half of the campaign as they did during the second, then they would have featured in the promotion push. Carlisle United thus became the first club to compete in all top five tiers of the English football league system (Oxford United and Luton Town, both League Cup winners, have since followed). I dunno what criteria they're using for that, but Wimbledon sure as hell played in the top level of non-League and all 4 League divisions long before Carlisle dropped into the Conference... plus if they're arguing that the Southern League that Wimbledon won "didn't count as it wasn't the Conference", then Carlisle only played in Division 1 and not the Premier League.

I should think to some of those who just want an argument with an authority figure and haven't yet got out of their schoolyard mentality, it's quite an incentive to refuse to do as they're told if they think they're "sticking it to the Pompey Man" rather than just "the Man" generally.

I heard he's injured. Holmes I wouldn't pick because Antonio did so much damage against MK last time and Waigo seems to be the man for the JPT and (assuming Connolly and Lallana are injured) we don't have anyone else who can play up front with Lambert if we want to switch from 4-5-1.

Nothing wrong with a bit of competition in the market to drive prices down... I should think Greyhound are doing this to get themselves known, and will stop what is likely to be a loss-leader once people in the area know they are operating, which leaves the local companies to pick up the slack.

That would be my team too. I don't think I've ever agreed with anyone on a team selection thread before... Incidentally, anyone know if Oscar Gobern played for MK in the JPT when he was on loan ? I am about to Google... Okay, he didn't. Oops, also just noticed you've got Lallana in instead of Wotton... so not the team I'd pick as I'd heard Lallana was injured (though this may be cobblers). Not that it's the team I'd want anyway...

Not necessarily, but there's always the possibility, depending on segregation - and seeing as it's a brand spanking new ground you'd expect it to be very configurable. All the better for it being an non-Club Wembley event, that's 15000 tickets for "resale" right there. And the low profile will ensure that there's not a wodge going to the "football community" or "corporate sponsors", etc. If we get there it'll probably be the most tickets we EVER get for a match at Wembley, and if we play Carlisle we might get more than half of the 90k.

Yes, but Wembley is Wembley.

Not as many as Leeds though...