CB Fry

As someone who lived in Shirley for twenty odd years and used to work in the greengrocers on the high street at 5:30am every morning as a nipper I can can say it got cold, but not that cold. Don't be silly. We live in a temperate climate and it is rarely this cold before Christmas. And god knows when there was 12 inches of snow in Shirley, but certainly not in the last thirty years, suggesting it isn't a regular occurance. And how many games have ever been called off at SMS due to the cold? I think it might be two, but it's probably one, and that was for actual real snow.

How does a Winter Break benefit "the fans"? Four weeks without any football in the middle of the season. That is rubbish for the fans. The fans WANT TO WATCH FOOTBALL ON BOXING DAY. That's why the grounds are packed. Stopping that is not "thinking of the fans", it's sticking two fingers up at the fans. Christ. I'm a fan and I think the idea of a winter break in a temperate climate like ours is total nonsense. Note this is being supported by fans that live in errrrrr Sweden, and Dubai. So presumably not bothered to go to the football on Boxing day for several years. So leave off the preaching and keep your noses out of British working class culture.

And neither do you, despite peppering this thread with assumptions left right and centre. The facts are the club have banned the Echo for the first time in 120 years for publishing a good news story about developing the training ground. There are no more "ins and outs" to look at. I would love to hear what you think the "ins and outs" could possibly be, and why those "ins and outs" could justify the action of banning the local paper for the first time in 120 for something completely innoculous. Maybe the Editor has run over Cortese's wife on purpose? Or on of the reporters has ****ged Cortese's mum? Come on, give us an idea.

Even more LOLtastic stuff. I understood perfectly your previous post, and it was hilarious. Why would there be "a legal obligation" for a football club to give information to a local paper. Why on earth would there be? It's just hilarious you are turning to the law. Hilarious. Not sure why it is the people saying "this is a very odd decision by the club to ban the local paper after 120 years over something that seems completely and utterly innoculous" are the people "going off at the deep end" while those screaming "fc uk the Echo, there's no law against it" (again LOL LOL LOL) are pretending to be the level headed ones. Of all the things that have happened to the club in the last one hundred and twenty years do you really think that an argument about a press release is the most appropriate event to facilitate the club banning the local paper? Don't you think the club, maybe, are the ones in your words "making too much of it". Maybe? Yeah, I'm really off at the deep end, me. Bonkers. Loopy.

LOL. Talk about take the bait*. No-one apart from the windup merchants on this forum think it was a draw and no-one apart from the windup merchants are making out they are sat in the pub saying we didn't win. So lawd knows why you and others feel the need to spout this obviousness. But the technical answer is the match last night finished in a draw and the tie was decided on penalties. That's why the final score wasn't 9-7 and the goals Lambert and all the other penalty scorers won't count in their tally for the season. Because the match finished 2-2. It's on the official site, and the BBC and, well, everysoddingwhere. 2-2. But for the obvious brigade, we won last night. Thanks for telling us. Over and over again, in different shades of the blinkin obvious. Please, can people get over it.

Why, what have the Echo done, exactly? I thought we only had "one side of the story"? Surely the perspective is needed at club level. It was a press release about developing the training ground. It's not Watergate. And, again, as we've only had "one side of the story" what exactly have the Echo done, because you don't know either. The only histrionics are coming from you, love ranting on about "there's no law against it". Absolutely LOLtastic.

Penalties are brilliant entertainment too. I could watch a penalty shoot out between any two teams anytime anywhere. Just lovely.

Twas a good interview. This is not a man who is going to settle for "just staying up" as some were trying to make out earlier on in the season. Promotion is on for this season, and I get the feeling we will add one or two significant names to the squad in Jan. Still needs to make up with the Echo though (but use the other thread for that one).

Yes, we won, but on Penalties. The match finished 2-2, which is a draw. If in doubt just ask yourself - will Lambert's penalty count on his end of season tally? No. Because Penalty shoot-outs are a mechanism to decide cup ties. They aren't part of a football match. If they were we'd have them in every single game. But did we win tonight - HELL YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

What an absolutely fantastic drawn game.

Antonio "just nobbed it into the space" according to Merrington.

Well done Norwich on scoring at the precise moment I found the dates of the area final legs and thought, yeah, I can make it to MK then. Arse.

Yeah, the Ugly Inside website is just brilliant. Blimey. At the end of the day that site is populated by spanners like us, and I think there is plenty of that in the world already. And thousands and thousands of people never, ever, ever go on forums, which was my other main point. They have lives. *You did tell people to go to cybercafes though....

Apologies Wes, I have reread your piece, I misread it. But you are still wrong. Not sure I want to live in a world where the Echo refuse to publish a story about a player drink driving in fear of upsetting the club or the player. So the Echo should ignore wife beating or drink driving and just publish stuff about Dog-walking family men. I beleive there was quite a bit of comment about BWP on this forum and people "loved it". As did the fans singing songs about it. Maybe that was just my imagination. Good-oh.

Remind me what other sites are producing new written content about Saints at the same frequency as the Echo? If by "independent view" you mean "no interest whatsoever" then yes, I agree the national press and TV stations really do have an "independent view" about Saints. As I said before "I've got an Iphone, everyone can fu ck off down a cybercafe" is not a particularly mature approach, but that seems to be your stance. And I best two parts of eff-all of the fan base sat and watched that Wycombe Game in full. And sticking up video content is not exactly challenging, or difficult. It's the other stuff that no-one else can be arsed to do, and it is only the Echo that wants to do it.

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Astoundingly good post. Great stuff. Some of the more clueless contributors to the thread should heed this. Excellent analysis. Don't disagree with most of Nick's post, but it's worth pointing out this "preferential treatment" runs to information that really no other media organisation actually want. There are some delusionals in the "f*ck the Echo" camp who seem to think that you can find on "freeview" an interview with a key player/manager/coach at the club every single day, or a summary of how we are doing in context to previous seasons, or opinions of ex-players etc. Or simply new stuff to read about Saints. Every day. When exactly are SSN going to broadcast an interview with, say Graham Murty today, or Adam Lallana tomorrow, or Kelvin Davies next week, or Alan Pardew three times a week? And for the "what about the internet" chaps, well what about it? How often is the BBC or Sky websites updated with anything other than facts or brief post-match reports/quotes dropped in by the jobbing PA hack. Anyone only has to look at the reams of comment on every Saints article on their website to see the interest and community served. Plus all the other thousands upon thousands of fans who have no interest in internet message boards. The Echo does stuff that no-one else does or frankly can be arsed to do. Not Sky. Not the BBC. Not "Freeview". No one. And no, I don't want to be spoon fed tedium from the official site. So people saying "it's all on freeview" or "you can go down the cybercafe" doesn't help things. People need a bit of perspective. New stuff to read about Saints. Every day. What a bunts of c**ts the Echo are, eh?

Debating like an adult seems to mean you screaming about everyone else "only knowing half the story" and you "sitting on the fence" while churning out the most one-sided view of the whole affair on the whole thread. Judge, jury, executioner. And I live outside the area and I've got the internet and everything but there nothing available the compares to the coverage provided by the Echo. Not even on Freeview If you seriously think this is the biggest "betrayal of trust" SFC are going to come up against in the next, say, three seasons then one can see why the closest you get to real football is through the artificial world of computer games. Ever heard of Kenwynne Jones? Or Mr Redknapp? Or Glenn Hoddle? Or Rune Hague (sp)? Or Willie McKay? Or Ben Thatcher? Or Pascal Chimbonda? Or Kia Joorabchian? A falling out about a press release really is a tiny fart in a mouse's thimble. Well done you for sitting on the fence, though

There are plenty of people in the area where the Echo is one of (if not the) the primary sources of information on Saints. You may be some geek computer researcher with an iphone but there are plenty of people who quite like to pick up the Echo for an interview with the team manager, the captain, the star striker or the latest signing. And guess what, a f*c k load of them have season tickets. It's not about the club "getting along fine" without the Echo. It's about having respect for the fans and giving them a line of communication to their football club. For thousands and thousands and thousands that is primarily the Echo. If the club want to say to those fans "we're owned by a billionaire now, screw you" then that's their lookout. Being that something like this has not happened in around 120 odd years and in that time we have been through relegations; and Branfoot; and Askham and Lowe; and administration; and Ali Dia; and Speedie and Hurlock having a fight; and BWP being arrested; and failure to move from the Dell about six times; and Wigley; and Lawrie walking out; and the Ted Bates Statue; and a hundred other major issues it kind of suggests that whatever has happened does not justify the banning of the local newspaper. If this is what happens over a good news but largely humdrum story over development of the training ground, lets hope we never sign someone like Pascal Chimbonda, or Lee Bowyer or have our manager headbutt a player, or see one of our best players go on strike to get a move, or encounter a dodgy agent etc. This is professional football and things are going to get more pressured and more difficult and in the spotlight much more from here on in, so this does not bode well.

I think subsequent versions of these threads should take out the cup games altogether, as the point is surely league form and our unstoppable progress towards the play off final . Form doesn't matter in cup games because once you've lost a game (or gone out on penalties ) you're out of the competition. And for the love of god it would stop the tedius debates about the Torquay game. Especially as the proper answer to the question was answered a lifetime ago. The match was drawn, and the cup tie was decided on penalties. We won the cup tie.

Behave. It was elsewhere already and you are seriously not comparing the redevelopment of Staplewood with LM signing Keegan are you? You'll notice the almost zero interest the actual redevelopment has had on here or anywhere. It's hardly earth shattering stuff is it? As for my namesake, no idea to be honest, I'm not an expert. Pretty sure he was a Liberal politician though. If it's a case of educated posh Englishman in the 30s facinated with Hitler, then he's not alone. One King of Britain at the time was too.

We're ready for it. We've done the relatively hard thing of winning "winnable" games which the Brighton game showed is not easy. These games should see us maintain focus and avoid complacency. We will drop some points but not many, and in a way we can "afford" to because our points per game in recent weeks is superb.

Murty man of the match so far, then?

Well the Echo would sell a hell of a lot more papers if we get to the play-off final, or the JPT Final or both, and they'd sell more papers if we were in the Prem. Successful football club = feelgood factor in city = good for newspaper circulation. And I am getting a bit annoyed with a constant refrain on this thread, that the Club have somehow upset the club by slagging them off, or looking for bad news stories. The Staplewood story was a good news story, presented positively, with no other agenda. Saints moving onwards and upwards. It was Cortese who has got arsey about it.

Correct. I really don't get why people show so much distain for the Echo. Some div further up the thread said something dopey like "when was the last time the Echo ever said anything good about Saints". Reading the Echo reporting on Saints this season has been a joy, and the positivity is flooding off the page much like it is with the rest of us. And the news about Staplewood is, err, good news. It wasn't reported like it was some disaster. But people don't read the Echo, they just decide they have a view on it and moan regardless.