St Landrew

Talking about disappointment, it's HT and Arsenal are 1-0 up, with Ashley Cole scoring. I'm about to throw my toys out of the pram. Oh no, Hassan Kachloul has scored, 1-1. Phew..!

Oh sh!t TBF, you've just used the cringeworthy...!

Let's switch that uber-pedantic mode back on just for a moment. As JB was in a restaurant, and not a self-serve, the can I get could have been adjusted to can I have, where can has now changed it's context to is it possible. Uber-pedantic mode off again.

Sausage.

Well we won that one 1-0, so I thought I'd see how well we'd do at the last competitive game at The Dell. No score yet..!

Tell us what you think tomorrow then.

Not at all. I'm in sport socks, shorts and a Saints T-shirt at present, and if I had any ginger wine I'd make a whisky mac too.

Know what you mean, Saintkip. There are even posters who anticipate the so-called happy-clappers [i.e. the ones who are prepared to see the overwhelming positives] by saying... and don't remind us where we were 6 months ago..! I suppose it's proof that anyone can get used to anything. Makes you wonder whether they could have got used to the extinction of SFC, or relegation to League Two..?

As it is blended you might as well go the whole hog and make a whisky mac; i.e. a shot of whisky, a shot of ginger wine, and a small top up of either ginger ale or lemonade. Very warming, but don't bother with ice.

As you well know Alpine, Saints are featuring in 3 competitions and require strength in depth if they are going to achieve what they require in 5 seasons. Also, there will be various changes in players, because many will not make the entire journey up the leagues. Connolly, as has been reported on here in several threads, is out of form, according to Alan Pardew, and therefore has not been picked of late. I don't see it as being the last we'll ever see of him though. I'm sure he'll be back, and I'm sure you think so too.

It has often been said that a Wenger Arsenal side will always give the opposition a chance, by the way they play.

Brooker also has a newspaper column, I believe. He wrote quite a nice article about the Cadbury takeover, which rang true on several points with me. Yes, I occasionally watch Charlie Brooker on TV too. At the moment I'm halfway through the first half of a certain FA Cup Final from the mid' 70s. Aside from the Saints players, and putting my unbiased hat on, watching Steve Coppell reminds me what a very, very good player he was. Eventually IIRC during this match, Peachy and Holmes had the measure of him. Of course, on the opposite wing, Peter Rodrigues made Gordon Hill invisible all by himself.

Think you're on about Brian Moore there [not former England captain, Bobby, and not the ex-rugby Brian either] who, nice bloke that he was, was IMO, an even worse football commentator than John Motson, and that's really saying something. I've always noticed Jack and Bobby Charlton's bias, whenever they've been called upon to give an opinion. Their slant on things is often unique to them because all they can see is their team, and their region, whoever they played for and supported. Southampton was like a foreign land to them, and hence of no consequence. Snopper, I can always forgive Andy Gray because he often commentated during MLT's better goals. He would heap just praise upon them and never, ever understate their quality. For that contribution alone, he can talk complete bullsh!te for the rest of his days, and he's OK by me.

Anatomy of a Murder Never seen it before, never wanted to. It was definitely off my radar, so to speak. Well, it turned out that after Saints had appeared on the Football League show, I did some channel flicking before intending to turn off the TV. A good job I did, because this film was just starting. Don't know why I stuck with it initially, but over two and a half hours rushed by, and I didn't want it to end. This is a courtroom drama film, about a murder and a rape, and like all the good courtroom dramas, it is pure theatre and a chess game, rolled into one. It also had a slightly quirky quality all of its own, because of a certain character. James Stewart is probably better than I've ever seen him, and there are excellent performances from all the supporting cast. Duke Ellington made a cameo appearance and wrote the film soundtrack too. The quirkiness was down to the judge, a certain Joseph N. Welch, in real life, and he was great in his role. The other trivia of note was the controversy the film caused, in 1959 America, by mentioning the words panties and spermatogenesis. Innocent enough today, and the film neatly deals with their usage. I know this film won't appeal to everybody, and the simple fact that it is in black & white, and was made in the late 50's would be enough for many to pass it by. It's probably why it has got past me all these years. But as a story it is better than 99% of films written after it, and made in the best traditions of US liberal cinema, alongside for example 12 Angry Men, in 1957. Highly recommended, 9/10.

I saw the programme last night and I still don't know how Lambert scored the goal, attributed to him, so cheers for the link.

Good points, JB. I suppose it is in the manner of the saying, I'm good. To me, I'm good means... I'm a good person. Well, that might not necessarily be true. I'm [feeling] well will be taken as true. James Brown, brilliant though he was, wrote: I feel good, I knew that I would...If the lyric had required him to write well instead of good, I'm sure he would have done so. What I'm suggesting is, he chose good because it was convenient and the lyric demanded it. It started a whole new way to tell people how you felt. Actually, I have few problems with, I feel good, or I'm feeling good, which is probably due to the Grandmaster of Funk. EDIT: Forgot to mention - not too bad. Very English, isn't it..?

Bloody ridiculous. Understandable that Togo withdrew from the ACoN, but that decision makes no sense at all.

...author of Catcher In The Rye, has died. It's one of those events where something goes off your personal map. You think these people will be around forever, but they are mortal, after all. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8486169.stm

OK, I'll admit it. I was working yesterday, with Talksport's Hawkesby & Jacobs on, in the background. It appears someone has done a survey of sports fans, and how their expectations and reactions affect their enjoyment of their chosen sport. Apparently, it appears clearly that some football fans enjoy it more when other rival teams lose, than when their own team wins. Also, some fans are almost totally negative, and barely achieve any enjoyment of the sport they attach themselves to, yet are completely captured by the whole thing. It made me feel very satisfied with being average.

Hmm yeah, I know what you mean. These people are always slightly too far away for you to tap on the shoulder and ask if they can just keep the output down for a while, or they are so bloody p!ssed off, it's not worth the effort for the adverse reaction you're likely to get. Happily, they don't occur that often, and in any case, Saints usually play well enough nowadays to shut them up. Obviously, not today though. It also makes me laugh that someone can shout at an individual from 50 yards or so away, and expect their words to be clearly heard above the general hubbub.

Err... as, by popular demand, we have a Post Match Reaction thread, quite clearly 3 points... enough said, isn't.

I suppose the worrisome issue is still that without captain Hammond in the team, Saints lack an immediate get-up-and-go spark. It's very difficult to have a player on standby who'll perform as vital a function as Hammond does, and who'll only get a game when the skipper is either injured or being rested. Wotton does as well as he can, but I often wonder why we signed him in the first place. Clearly he wasn't going to improve a, then championship, side as he wouldn't regularly feature in this L1 team, if given the choice.

It was a very different 2nd half after Papa came on. I had this page running during the game [very useful too, I've found] and before his appearence, I think I noticed only 4 shots on target.

So that people might make the effort to join in. Didn't work for you..?

Puncheon on Solent. Neil Warnock says there has been a £600,000 offer for Danns from Saints, but dismisses it.