The9

He might be a Premier League keeper with limited recent action, but 15 years' worth of experience. I think the issue here is that with Lee-wotsit in goal and A. Trainee on the bench (I've already forgotten their names), they can't play any other matches at the same time and with them having to cover reserve and youth games as well might be risking more keeper injuries. Speaking of which, as Begovic has been playing for the Skates recently, am I to assume A(ge)ntti Niemi is "injured" again too ?

The linesman on the side where our fans were in the second half of the Northampton game didn't even flag for 3 throw-ins when the ball was clearly off the pitch ! He waited for the ref to signal which way the throw was - trouble was the ref hadn't had a signal from his linesman to say the ball was off the pitch, and had to notice that all the players in the vicinity had stopped playing and were going to pick the ball up in order to know the ball had even gone out. Truly a terrible linesman if he doesn't even know you stick your flag straight up when it's gone out, then point for which way the throw is afterwards (and leave it straight up if you don't know). Mind you, probably not as bad as that numpty at Eastleigh preseason with the SKINS brand undersocks underneath his lino socks. What a plank.

Not if you're any good at it and have a midfield that knows your runs you won't.

I think you are giving him rather too much of the benefit of the doubt. If he is as fast as you say then he has no need to hang right on the shoulder of the last defender, and can hold his run from a yard deeper. As it is, having seen him on Tuesday I reckon it's 30% not allowing enough distance to the last defender in the first place, 30% just not paying attention and straying beyond the last defender, 20% midfielders not releasing the ball quickly enough when he starts his run and 20% bad linesman calls when he's actually onside. Luckily we can fix 80% of that. But strikers who don't curve their runs, make crossfield runs behind the last defender instead of in front of them, don't allow a margin of error for lino calls when they're fast enough to give a two yard headstart anyway, and stand offside not paying attention a lot of the time, generally don't get much sympathy from me.

Do you mean off-side ?

But we may be (?) able to recall Poke who has more League experience at Torquay, if necessary. Not sure as I can't recall if he's got a season-long loan or not. We also have Pernecky for reserve duties.

Your problem is injuries, not ability.

I know. I chose not to join Portsmouth network and not to join the crappy and pointless group as well, once Facebook decided they weren't going to change the existing networks.

I can see us falling into 6th place if we can keep up the form of the last 6 weeks and we beat the promotion chasers in the head to head matches, because all the other sides will take points off each other. Ideally, for Saints to make the play-offs, what we want are utterly dominant Leeds, Charlton, Norwich, Huddersfield, Colchester (and most importantly Saints) sides beating all the teams not in the top 5. This will allow us to get into the playoffs with a lower total than is usual, because of the top teams taking all the points, with us in excellent form and with the -10 less important than it should be. Then it's just a matter of beating 2 teams who've been in great form all season to go up... For now I'll settle for Leeds and Norwich stuffing everyone who isn't us and the rest beating each other.

Yes, but it isn't a network, which is what the original message claims it is, and it doesn't have any of the functionality or security of a network. They may as well claim they have a petition with 6 billion unique names on it for all the truth that's involved in that claim. Anyway, a group requesting a network will be an anachronism within a month as there will be no more networks on Facebook.

Playing for Paul Allen's Seattle Sounders in MLS - though the post-season play-offs finished last week, so he's not actually doing anything.

Begovic - actually played for the Skates on Saturday in the league as well. I can see why Ipswich would want cover if they'd just lost two keepers in succession including one recalled from loan who must have been in their plans.

Just Soccerbased him : Arran Lee-Barrett (his parents' spelling not mine), 55 League games and 5 FA Cup matches for Hartlepool in the last couple of seasons - but the backup to him (and thus sitting on the bench) is a trainee with no appearances at all. Let's hope they don't have to play any reserve or youth fixtures on first team match days...

There is no Facebook Southampton network so I don't know where he's getting his figures from. It won't matter much in a week or two anyway, as they're removing networks altogether, which should please the idiots who don't understand Facebook networks and get sacked as a result.

Bart has League experience at a higher level already and was de facto first choice ahead of Kelvin at the end of the 2006/7 season before the Pride Park play-off, not sure if this is the case for Ipswich's reserves.

If they're not prepared to pick them for the team, why pay them in the first place ? There are plenty around who could be picked up on emergency loan and the FA/FL/whoever wouldn't be able to refuse if there was no alternative. There's little point in developing keepers from youth as they who tend to get better in their late 20s and 30s anyway. I'm going to set up a goalie academy in Spain for emergency loanees, who's in?

Not true, Boxing Day is the first bank holiday after Christmas and has been ever since Boxing Day began. The day after Christmas is St Stephen's Day, which is usually Boxing Day except when it falls on a weekend. Wikipedia will be happy to clear this up for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day I will be considering attending Colchester's New Ground on Boxing Day, but I'll definitely be at St Mary's on Dec 26th to see us play Exeter. Mind you, trousers saying "as Boxing Day falls on a Bank Holiday this year" (and THIS thread http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=17687) suggests he knew exactly what he was getting himself into with this argument.

We ceased being a big club in the FA Cup this season at the point where they introduced the 44 teams who got byes into the 3rd round.

I don't think so somehow. We're better than half the teams in this league even playing poorly.

We should be busting a gut to get into the Play-Offs, anything else is a bonus.

It *was* the JPT. There were non-League sides in it from 2000/1 to 2005/6 when it was called the LDV Vans Trophy. And the top division of non-League hasn't been called the Vauxhall Conference since 1998, it was called the Nationwide Conference for 2 full years before their teams were invited into that competition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_League_Trophy

A few mentions of Saints in the Southern League pre 1920 here, including the reserves winning the Eastern Division in 1923 for a more obscure fact : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Football_League Good job 2nd Scots Guards dropped out, that's all I'm saying.

Fwiw I think pretty much any team debuting in the Premier League with a catchment of the whole South West of England would sell out a 40k stadium for a few of the big games and could pack it with competitive pricing, there would be loads of Devon and Cornwall-based football fans who'd want to see Prem matches for one season at least.

I was on about Waigo.

Which they won't, because there's no shortage of stadia or bidders. It's also pretty short notice for Southampton to put a bid in... by the end of today...