lordswoodsaints

in the 80's i was involved with fighting at football,i used to go to nearly all the away games and the biggest fight you had was just getting to the ground,the police would be so hyped up expecting trouble that you would get kicked and punched just getting off of the train,innocent fans and troublemakers alike. perhaps i deserved it back then(live by the sword die by the sword and all that) but today i certainly dont,if i want to goto football wearing expensive designer clothing does this mean i am going to start trouble?....of course not,in the same way as having a different tone of skin doesnt make you a terrorist. in 1979 i was 12 and my mate who i used to go to football with was 13,we were walking down hill lane to the dell with our new flags that we had bought at wembley (saints v forest) we got as far as the cemetery and a van load of young coppers got out,surrounded us,ripped up our flags and snapped the sticks,slapped us about ,pushed us on the floor and kicked us......they picked us up and told us we were not allowed to walk down hill lane and that we had to walk the long way round through shirley,laughing about it as we walked away..........from what i can recall i didnt have any designer clothing on and i wasnt a hooligan,just a kid walking to the ground with his mate as we had always done as we were season ticket holders. from that day i lost any respect i had for the police and 30 years later i still dont but i no longer go looking for trouble as i did.my kids go to football wearing their designer clothing,they are not troublemakers but sometimes they get a bit of hassle off of the police,is this because they wear designer clothes?,is it because they are teenagers? or is it because they are tarred with the same brush of being a potential trouble maker because of a mixture of designer clothing and being a teenager?......of course it is,does it make it right?

i wear stone island but do i deserve to be stopped and searched as much as somebody who wears umbro?....of course not. are you saying that wearing expensive clothing and foowear makes you more agressive on match days?.....nonsense..............if that is what you are saying then how many times has a bloke wearing a £800 armani suit been stopped going into the ground....it just wont happen. in days gone by i have been stopped,abused,kicked and punched just for being a football fan.............the biggest thug group in the country is the old bill,they can do virtually what they like and usually are never brought to justice. discrimination of a particular group is a dangerous game,wearing stone island,armani,boss,fjall raven etc etc doesnt make you a football hooligan,you are whatever you are but draped in expensive clothing. if you are an aggressive person without the clothes then you will be exactly the same with them.......simple as that.

this was one of the things that was suggested and they seemed enthusiastic about doing some more stuff in the community. hopefully this will happen at a lot more of the smaller venues around town because i think the big get togethers seem to get out of hand and they seemed to get hijacked by the loonies who will never be happy regardless of how well we are doing. the smaller venues are a more personal, friendly experience, anybody who comes along to stir the sh1t will feel uncomfortable in this sort of atmosphere.

yes i did,i think he must be mistaking me for somebody else,somebody who loved his job as much as i did wouldnt have done any of those things.:-)

they answered every question thrown at them,there were one or two questions about finances which probably could have only been answered by those at the top (lowe/wilde) but they didnt shy away or try and change the subject like politicians do.

try and focus on the positives from last nights meeting and you might even find yourself enjoying suporting saints again. tbh JP is a good,honest decent bloke and a breath of fresh air,i hope he is given the oppurtunity to succeed,at least he has the guts to meet the fans face on in these hard times and he didnt wilt under pressure in fact he enjoyed answering the questions thrown at him.

it wasnt extensively advertised but more word of mouth,emails etc. i did think about putting it up on here but it would have attracted a load of negative arse wipes and besides i like a bit of elbow room.

no,it was open to anybody but as the pub is only small it was kept a bit hush hush. my old man was the compere so naturally i was invited.

you got it.

i know for sure he earned more than £4k. he also had a clause in his renegotiated contract that allowed him to earn as much as the highest paid player at the club and i think that at the time beattie was earning £16k so he must of at least matched that.

real good night with the lads and they are very approachable and willing to talk. cant remember everything but here is some stuff i did remember. lee will be back in 4 weeks. svensson was fit last week but wanted an extra week,he will probably be available for saturday. lowe not interfering in the team selections,but a weekly meeting is held between JP,wotte,lowe and the coaching staff to discuss the team.lowe only came into the changing room to wish the team good luck. JP and wotte said that since their arrival that they havnt been surprised by any decisions made and that they have been fully aware of everything going on at the club when asked about sterns departure. if we fill the stadium then nobody will be sold in january,wotte asked the question that 'if you have a choice between administration and selling somebody to stop administration then what would we do?' wotte said that there are a number of very good youngsters coming through and a very good 13 year old striker but wasnt prepared to mention any names as it would add pressure to the youngsters. JP said that he met stern and that he wants to come back asap as he loves it down here.also forecast said he didnt hesitate when he got the call as he rates the club highly.was very surprised to hear JP say that dexter blackstock wants to come back. holmes was asked the question about fans booing and he said that the fans are entitled to boo if they are rubbish as the players are there to entertain the fans. spoke to lee and jp about the players throwing their shirts into the crowd,lee confirmed that they have to pay for them and i told JP to get the players to throw the shirts win, lose or draw as this will go a long way with the fans. JP said that we have an option to extend the loans of all of the loan players if they decide to. there is a lot of other stuff,which i will add when i remember it. overall the night was very good and lee,tommy,jan and mark came across very well and were willing to talk to everybody.the russian taxi driver and his mates were present but didnt really probe too much.the press were there but didnt interfere but im sure they will find a negative spin to the evening.lee holmes is a top bloke and i hope we can keep hold of him.

i dont mix with you lot anymore,you got me into too much trouble.i only mingle with the stars now but i will lower myself next thursday though for a good ole **** up with you peasants.

those days have long gone griffo.....im nearly 42,i cant run as fast as i used to ;-)

are you trying to start a gay rumour? is that why john went to bristol?

ive got one of them as well,he finds it difficult to seperate his working life from his home life......basically he is a knob.

i see that our 1976 win over manu plays a big part in the advert for the fa cup currently being shown. its about fvcking time our great giant killing win has been recognized and given the air time it deserves. usually every other giant killing game is shown except ours.

im meeting with JP,wotte ,lee holmes and forecast in a few hours, anything realistic you want me to ask them? obviously they have been told to dodge certain questions,but anything not to fruity will be answered.

section 60 gives the old bill the right to do anything they wish virtually without any comebacks.........believe me.

i have it on good authority that rupert logs on and whacks himself.

nothing will happen overnight as is the case with man city,you cannot go out and buy the best eleven players in the world and employ the best manager in the world and expect to then win everything.......it just doesnt happen like that. i would stick with what we have got until january and then introduce maybe 3 or 4 decent players for jan to play with and see what he can do. if at the end of the season we are still floundering then perhaps a change of manager will be needed. but it aint going to happen so we have to get behind what we already have in place and make the best of what we have got,players and manager.

tbh we had more to lose than the other 2,and it was more of a shock to the system than it is for them as well.

we would have loved this information in the 80's......no trawling the pubs or waiting by the station.

he is one of the players i will be sad to say goodbye to,but perhaps we could afford to buy him in january if certain other players are sold.

'country for sale,country for sale,come and get it while its cheap.'

seems fair enough to me,it means more to the fan that catches it if they know that the player has to pay out of his own pocket i suppose and they aint exactly going to go hungry.