St Landrew

Very interesting article about players trying to break through from the Channel Islands. Significantly, Matty said his brothers were perfectly capable..!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7963488.stm Apologies if this has been posted before.

Just in case there are any F1 fans out there, BBC are showing some very good races from their previous era of coverage, as a precursor to their new time. It's an F1 Classic Races loop. Just gone has been the Australian GP from 1994, where old timer Nigel Mansell came back to partner Damon Hill for a few races after the death of Senna, and promptly won the last one of the season. More notoriously, Michael Schumacher [yes as far back as then] won that year's championship by turning his damaged car into Hill, who could have just gone on to finish the race and win his first championship. But people were new to an era of crafty tactics. How familiar they look nowadays. Anyway, as I type, another race from 1996 has been and gone, so I'll dive back into the action. BTW, if you don't have the red button, it's freeview channel 301 or if you have a few freeview boxes it's no. 28.

... we can't make the playoffs this season. Ah well, maybe next. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/table/default.stm

Yep, very impressive indeed. The best one from last season's MotoGP, which incidentally doesn't come close to that one, was from Colin Edwards on his Tech 3 Yamaha. It was during a practice session, and he low sided his bike, only to pop a well armoured elbow on the tarmac to get it back upright. All the crowd rose, and typically the Texas Tornado milked it. He's quite a character is our Mr Edwards. I'll see if I can find it on Youtube:

Ah, now that's a nice Brandy. Greetings from Plain to Simple.

Just got in. Happy Birthday Pancake. It's a good enough excuse for me to get the cork out of the bottle.

My feeling exactly. And followed, perhaps by the wisest words anyone has written on this entire thread, and perhaps the entire forum.

I don't know where people get all this love/hate emotion about a person who wasn't even remotely connected to them. Jade Goody was a tabloid and reality TV celebrity. That's it. If there were no celebrities, there would be no Jade Goody's. On the one hand, I can't think of a better situation. Not because I'd never see another Jade Goody, but because the whole celebrity culture is so facile and diverting to ordinary people who could be doing far better things with their lives. On the other hand, within the celebrity culture, a young girl of 27 has died, and has tried her utmost, in the time she had left, to make as much money for her children's welfare, as she could, and in the only way she had left to her. In her limited way, it is said that she has inspired women to arrange appointments for smear tests. That may save lives in the future. Despite JG's past, it would be churlish to deny that she has done what she could for her children. The fact that she inspired these women is an added bonus, perhaps for many other mother's children and spouses in future years. Perhaps your grandchildren will, one day, look back at you knowing that the only reason they are alive and loved is because their mother was inspired to get a smear test arranged, because of JG. You never know.

Like yourself CS, I've seen those similarities, almost as soon as Lowe and Co came back as the Board. I would add that if Lowe and Co are allowed to continue to save SFC, we will be bantering this on the verge of relegation from League One as well, possibly League Two. Our football will be terrible. The profits, if any, will be tiny, but no doubt managable, and considered successful by the same Board. They don't seem to realise that it all stands and falls on having the finest players and manager you can just about afford [or even possibly not afford for a while] to get yourself up the league. If you don't prioritise your resources into making the 1st team the finest you possibly can, you're a goner, and everything, but everything else fails. Or are we to have a rugby league/union/hockey/football club/gig venue instead..?

In your poetic way, you're suggesting that hindsight is a wonderful thing. If that's all that it was then I may agree with you. Even the densest football fan, if exposed to enough football, will eventually work out what is good for a team and what is not. However, amongst those that post on this football forum are plenty of intelligent and thoughtful people, who know that if a team does not seek to improve, season upon season, it will actually go into decline, and fall from its hard won position. In the summer of 2003, it didn't take hindsight for plenty of fans to realise that Saints were once again trying to find failure in the face of success. I remember listening to Dave Ford standing up at the AGM, wanting to know where the player signings were, that was going to make his hair stand on end. It brought a laugh because DF is bald, but the point was well made. Saints were not pushing on. They weren't even consolidating their position, but slowly ebbing away once again. On this occasion they didn't wake up in time, and the club's suicidal appointment of Steve Wigley, after an unambitious go with Paul Sturrock, landed Saints in a totally avoidable mess. The fact that Redknapp couldn't pull Saints out of the steep dive is neither here nor there. Saints need not have been in that position in the first place. All this was as plain as a pike staff to many Saints supporters, at the time. Not hindsight, not nostalgia, not rose tinted specs... At the time. And it is happening again, under the same decision makers.

You really think so..? Yes they tried very hard to improve their old stadium, and the Valley is now a vast improvement. But push onto the next level with their team..? When they were relegated from the Premiership, I didn't see any huge ambition to stay, let alone any huge ambition to improve. It's obvious that building a new, or improving an existing stadium redirects investment elsewhere from the main destination, i.e. success on the pitch. But Saints limiting factor was glaringly obvious in The Dell. Having built a new stadium, and moved to it, then the ambition really had to push on. Not to stumble, and continually point out that our catering is now top class with our new first rate facilities. It all comes to nothing unless the team on the pitch is as top class as the catering.

Join Mr Wilde's Fans Parliament, and see if you can..? Somehow, I doubt it though. Not because the FP is possibly going to be a shambles, but because RL won't be there to ask.

Saints continuing problem is that, although they initially did the right thing to get out of The Dell, they have remained the small club to which The Dell was more suited. A flurry of success under Strachan was quickly brought back to earth by a lack of ambition, which has cost Saints dear, just as it has cost them success in the past. They must make up their minds. Either they want to be a successful football club, or become 2nd or 3rd rate for the forseeable future. If they decide on ambition, the fans will return. If they decide to be 3rd raters, more and more fans will eventually decide to do other things with their saturday afternoons. And then there'll be no need for a club at all.

I could quibble with a few detail points here and there, but you've got your fundamental points correct as far as I'm concerned. I suppose I should outline my quibbles: 1] There are tenable arguments to be made. But opinions are often mistaken for fact. 2] I believe Leon Crouch to be a reasonable businessman, and I certainly wouldn't call him an idiot. One only has to realise that his business ventures have grown in the past [whatever they are doing now in the economic climate]. But one can certainly sense, the frustrated fan in him rules his heart, when it comes to Saints. But who could genuinely criticise him for that..? There. Not much of a quibble was it..?

Noticed that. Don't remember there being snow, but I'm sure there wouldn't have been in Southampton. Wembley would have been another matter, altogether. That pitch looked heavy going.

I ****ed up my recording of it yesterday, due to my using my semi-faulty DVD/HDD recorder one time too many before it goes off for its repair. I decided to dig out my old Philips Nicam Stereo VHS-HiFi recorder. At least the sound will be pretty good. Took me a little while to get used to it again. But it performed excellently on a test. Glad I kept it for emergencies.

I'm blaming you again. Millions - XTC [from Drums & Wires].

What is it with you..? Do you not check to see whether someone MAY have posted about this before you came blundering in with your thread. As it happens there were two threads in front of you. Yes, of course we saw the game. Some of us are going to see it again today [friday] as well, and this time we're not going to **** up the recording, we tried to make the first time around. :smt017:rolleyes:

I would encourage those Southampton based people who think they may be keen to ski or snowboard, to have a go on the dry slopes within the Southampton area. For those that don't know, there are different slopes at the Sports Centre, and at Calshot there is a big gradual slope, and is very good for learning on. I used to keep up my skills on the dry slopes, and it's quite nice to know that good snow is both faster and more responsive. Icey snow is bloody hard and unresponsive. Guess where you can be injured more easily..? Sadly, my back won't let me ski anymore, and my knees are crap anyway. I can still sail like a bugger though, so I'm satisfied.

You know full well what Niemster's saying Hamster. And there isn't any need for and addedd comma. This isn't TMS.

TBH, Pancake, it's deffo more suited to a technical issues forum, so I'll slide it over there and leave a re-direct here.

I notice that the face and vehicle registration number blurring, is extremely flawed. One end of a car's number plate maybe blurred, but you go past the car and look back, and the number is completely visible and recognisible once you zoom in. Not that I would worry, in any case, but some people would find it a problem. Some people would find anything a problem.

I hear Saints rotate the St Mary's pitch 180° after every game. Takes the groundstaff bloody ages, but everybody mucks in. I'm with Al De Man on this one. 360° is the way to go.

Yeah, I was shocked by this too. Not just because it was Natasha Richardson either, although by all accounts she was a sweet woman. When I used to ski I never wore a skid lid, although it's every bit as dangerous as motorcycling or just plain cycling, but for different reasons, of course. The professionals wear them, and it certainly wouldn't do any harm to at least wear a bicycle helmet.

Remember peeps that this is the Lounge, not TMS. Serious comments only please. IMO, he's a monster who is just finding out how monstrous his appalling acts were.