St Landrew

Can that still be classed as an in-joke nowadays..?

Just a few seasons back [2006-07], under Roy Keane, Sunderland came from near the bottom of the Championship, to winning it. It's nowhere near being beyond the bounds of possibility that Saints can achieve play-off status.

In all honesty, I'd be happy for this forum to be just like a library if it meant Saints were at the top of the table.

Just heard Pards on Radio Solent. Some errors, and praised Oldham's effort, so rightly, he wants more. But he's pleased overall with today's performance from the Lads. Thought Lambert was unplayable at times, and was really pleased with Connelly. Can't say fairer than that.

... in his back garden tomorrow. Have a nice day off, Pards.

Like it.

Go to the thread up top people.

Is it too soon or too late to suggest our season is at last properly underway..?

I know exactly how you feel mate. 4 or 5 years of misery takes a lot of undoing. But this feeling isn't bad at all.

Is it too soon or too late to suggest that our season is at last properly underway..?

Here's mine. I can loads of things with it, like contacting people anytime I want. Amazing..! I've still kept my earlier Samsung flip-jobbie as an emergency sailing phone, but it does much the same. What will they think of next..?

Qualifying was eventful. But things almost went to plan. Just Pedrosa got on the front row instead of 4th, and second row. No doubt, he'll go off like a scalded cat, and be caught by the two in front of him, then eventually passed by Lorenzo. Oops, I've just summed up tomorrow's race before it happens. We'll see. The weather is iffy, to say the least. 1. Stoner 2. Rossi 3. Pedrosa 4. Lorenzo 5. Edwards 6. De Angelis 7. Hayden 8. De Puniet 9. Kallio 10. Dovizioso 11. Elias 12. Toseland 13. Capirossi 14. Melandri 15. Vermeulen 16, Talmacsi

I've just acquired the tiniest bit of respect for the bloke.

This guy wakes up out of a deep sleep and, feeling real horny, nudges his wife awake and asks, "Why don't we get it on, eh?" She replies, "I have an appointment at the gynecologist tomorrow and you know I don't like to make love the night before." So the husband agrees and rolls back over and starts to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, he nudges his wife again and asks, "You don't by any chance have a dentist's appointment tomorrow, do you?"

I wouldn't go along with that. I'm no Rupert fan, but St Marys was built during his tenure. Credit where it is due. Now Guy Askham is another matter.

Tbh, I don't know why any Saints supporter would want to spend time devaluing the achievements of a Saints manager whose career is long since over, with the zeal of a supporter from another club with a vengence issue. What's the point..?

Well luckily, I suppose, it's not you that decides who are the most successful managers, but the Guinness Book Of Soccer Facts. So I guess, if they say he's in the Top 20, then it may well be true. Whereas, if you alone stated it, I might question the validity of your opinion.

This is how I want to remember Matt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4iBaxOMm3c That young Mitchell certainly knows how to take a penalty. Right in the corner, just like Dad..!

Yeah, I've got that one. It's ITV's effort. Such a shame the Beeb don't issue their coverage on DVD. I'll always remember David Coleman's brilliant commentary when Saints scored. Jim McCalliog, upto Stokes, who's onside... 1-0..! Southampton Go Mad..! So much more evocative than dear old boring Brian Moore.

Whipper-snapper..!

Hmm, so the rumours that have been bubbling under the surface are starting to break through. OK, for the benefit of people who won't have a clue, here's a potted history. Here we have a bloke who is quite simply the embodiment of racing on 2 wheels. He's massively respected by F1 drivers and other top sports people. He's won 8 World Championships - 6 in the top level MotoGP and 2 in the 125 class, with the 2009 MotoGP Championship almost within his grasp. He won his first MotoGP Championship on a good Honda, which got faster with every season he helped develop it. But then Honda pretty much said all the credit was theirs, and so Rossi decided to go to Yamaha, taking the very important Chief mechanic Jeremy Burgess with him, and ride the slow, at that time, M1, just to show them. And he did, straight away, by winning the next World Championship. A 2 year gap in 2006-07 went by [coming second in the Championship each year], before he got his next on the Yamaha in 2008, and Honda only won it once in 2006, and their WC Nicky Hayden said second placed Rossi deserved to be WC anyhow. Now Yamaha have started to get a bit arrogant, and rumours have been flying around that Rossi might decide to show them too. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/8169745.stm So the reports in Italian newspapers are that Rossi may have a special Ducati satellite team built around him for 2010. Only he could be accommodated this way, as no other sportsperson [possibly other than Beckham in football] carries the profile in his own sport that Rossi does. Him going to Ducati would be like the prodigal son coming home. And if he was to win yet another World Championship with another factory, a feat pretty much unprecedented, and one I'm sure he'd love to do, it would ultimately put his stamp on the world of sport, if he ever needed to do more. And there's Giacomo Agostini's all-time win record out there within touching distance too. Now if he was on a Triumph I'd really get excited.

Casey Stoner came back with a bang, last time out at Estoril, by coming second after 3 races out with his mystery illness. Doctors apparently still don't really know what was wrong with him. Whatever it was, it wasn't there in Portugal, as he was almost fast enough to catch the super fast Lorenzo. But coming out of a corner, where he overtook Pedrosa, to take second, he broke his right footrest, and thereafter it kept waggling around, not to be trusted anymore. Rossi really struggled with his setup, and it was testament to his skill that he managed to bring it in a reasonable 4th. What it means though is that we go into the last 3 races with Lorenzo only a very catch-up-able 18 points behind, when before the last race, he was 30 points behind. There are real points incentives to winning in MotoGP, something that other racing sports could well adopt IMO. But onto Phillip Island, and one of the favourites of all the riders. I expect JT to do pretty well here, despite losing his seat to Ben Spies next season, and it should give him some evidence to suggest that Yamaha should have stuck with him for one more season. Of course, now I've said that, he'll go and fluff it. But the real race is between the factory Yamahas, and will Casey Stoner get amongst them or beat them. Either way, if he can, and I honestly expect him to be able to, as it's his home race, and he's won here the last two times, it'll mean the Championship will go to the next race at Sepang, probably closer than ever. And we mustn't leave out Pedrosa to get in there, although I expect him to come 4th. For me it'll be 1. Stoner, 2. Rossi, 3. Lorenzo. The nightmare scenario is if anyone falls off. In the 250s, Simoncelli has given himself a whisker of a chance to defend his title, but Aoyama can close his fingers on the trophy. In the 125s, Simon just needs to finish ahead of Bradley Smith, and the title will be his. I expect the experienced leader to do so, but Bradley has given a brilliant account of himself, and I expect him to be on the big bikes, and a potential World Champion MotoGP rider in just a few seasons time. How's that for a pretty track: Being Australia, free practice was earlier, so qualifying should be in the early hours of tomorrow morning [sat] with the event racing coverage starting around 3am on Sunday, with the 125s. IMO, an excuse for a very late Saturday night, and to get a few extra beers in, if ever there was one.

I would have thought at least Alan Ball would have had some say in who was the better manager for Pompey. It shows HR isn't steeped in the history of Portsmouth FC, despite it being his spiritual home. BTW, anyone seen this before..?

OK. Besides, I can add something from Youtube in TMS that wouldn't be appropriate here.

Have to say that I've always called what Keithd and Baj refer to as The Can as a Silencer. Mainly because that's what they're actually called even if they don't silence the exhaust completely. In motorcycling, probably more so than in cars, due to the nut & bolty nature of bikes, there has always been a certain tension in what people call the various parts. For example, in GB one calls it the Silencer, but it's called the Muffler or Can in the USA. There are Footrests [GB] and Footpegs [uSA] and all manner of other differences like Throttle [GB] and Gas [uSA]. You can, kind of, tell from which era a motorbike rider comes by the way he/she refers to the parts. Of course, people blur the differences using the GB for one part and the USA for another. One notable person, who has a huge collection of bikes [and cars], and is extremely knowledgable is Jay Leno, the comedian/chat show host. He often names motorcycle parts the GB way, I think because of his deep love of old British bikes like Vincents, BSAs and Triumphs. It's quite a laugh to hear him reel off a story of a particular British bike from the past and know that the little ancient anecdote he's telling is 100% correct.