Fitzhugh Fella

Have you ever known anyone really in the know to reveal a source? If they did they soon would be "not in the know".

saw this band in the Halfway in Chandlers Ford a couple of weeks back - excellent

Ok if they do get liquidated and then return as a Phoenix club what does it take for them to inherit their history ie Lg Championships etc. For instance Aldershot and Wimbledon, 2 recent examples, both inherited their past automatically although I gather in the case of the latter MK Dons relinguished their "trophy cabinet" to the Dons as an act of friendship. Will the new AFC Portsmouth be able to clain they won the Cup in 1939 for example? And on another subject I reckon I could raise £700 in one night down my local pub.

I spoke with him many times during the 2nd Lowe regime and found him very helpful and a massive Saints fan interested only in the club's well-being. A ST holder in the Kingsland as well.

I think Tommy McCook also did a great version of "Oh When the Saints" if I am not mistaken.

Don't write him off too quickly - I am not sure Sharp is that much better. Don't forget he got an extension to his contract only last season and NC gave a character witness statement in his court case. A loan is likely.

Delighted with survival and I reckon deep down NC would be too as it entitles us for the bigger payments due the following year.

I was pleased when NA rehabilitated him last season but then disappointed with some of his performances. He has only done the business for us in the few months after his arrival and that was in league One. Don't think he is Premiership material.

Signing the darling of the Kings Rd was a big deal back then - we couldn't believe it and the home gate went up by 10,000 for Osgood's debut. Brian O'Neil's arrival was a big deal too. More recently David Armstrong was a bit of a coup.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2852867,00.html for those disposed to a bit of history, this is something I wrote for the OS

Class

Chilworth is very cheap £12 for 18 holes if I am not mistaken. There is also a course at Dummer (nr Basingstoke0 but not sure it is open to the public - quite hilly

David Bull's obit now on the site http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2850718,00.html

For me their ill-gained Cup win also has to be expunged from the record books.

Thanks Mods a good compromise

Think it about time this thread was switched back to the main board and made a sticky. It should never have been moved in the first place, as it is - as 66533 posts have indicated - very close to Saints fan's hearts. There are still quite a few users of this forum who are not aware of this glorious demise discussion of our fishy neighbours. And now as the end is surely nigh a wider audience needs to witness the final rites ....surely?

Always the smart arse?

Indeed it was at St Andrews and in it he recalled walking down Soton High St shortly after he signed and seeing the Charlie Wayman cafe and thinking "Oh my God I am replacing an institution".

I know there are not many on here who would remember him but Eddy Brown died last night aged 86. He played for us between 1950 and 1952 (59 games 34 goals). He was Charlie Wayman's immediate replacement and in one of the Saints history videos he is quoted as saying how hard it was to replace such a great player. He was an extrovert with a huge personality, becoming a male model and then later a sales rep in Preston. He attended the launch of the Ted Bates book. A FA Cup runners up medal was won while playing for Birmingham in 1956. His 189 career goals from 399 games is very respectable. A lovely man he was always ready to help us historians out with a piece of info or the loan of a photo.

Thanks Ron, but the players are usually as much in the dark as the fans - remember Alan Ball saying upon being invited to the Potters Heron when KK was unveiled he thought he was being set up for a "This is your life" programme.

The club is aware that the existing site is poor and are working on producing a new one within the next week or so. They are "tied in" to the old provider and are staying with ...for now.

I’ve always speculated how some transfers happen, especially these days where they seem so protracted and painstaking. It was interesting to note in the Jay Rodriguez deal we agreed a fee with Burnley before we even spoke to the player which I guess is the appropriate order for signing someone under contract. But then I read yesterday’s interview with Vitesse’s Alexander Buttner who it appears was invited over to Southampton last week and was impressed with what he saw. http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11700/7858948/Buttner-favours-Saints-switch Now it seems whilst having the player keen to move we are now attempting to cut a deal with his club, so a reversal in protocol compared to the “JayRod” transfer. I wonder why? Presumably Vitesse okayed the visit? In the old days transfers were handled so differently. Ted Bates once described to me his first signing as Saints’ manager – “Without any money at the time I wanted to buy Jimmy Shields from Sunderland who was available for £1,000. At my request the Supporters’ Club lent the money and I duly signed him in the North East in July 1956 on my way to Scotland with my wife as part of our summer holiday”. Poor old Mary Bates had to get use to her holidays being planned around Ted’s transfer targets. Sometimes Ted would drive to meet a player, sign him and bring him back there and then in the back of his car. Brian O’Neil for instance arrived that way. As Bates put it “when I heard he was available I travelled to Burnley and conducted the negotiations for the transfer with Chairman Bob Lord in a meat factory which he ran”. Ted then drove Brian south to join his new club. And of course Ted famously and illegally signed Mick Channon on a Sunday just 24 hours before the young Wiltshire lad was due to put pen to paper for Bert Head’s Swindon Town. Perhaps my favourite Saints’ signing story goes back to 1898 when our trainer Billy Dawson was back in his native Potteries enjoying a close season break. He read in a local paper that Wolves star Harry Wood had yet to agree new terms with his club and so he tracked Harry down to his local in Walsall and persuaded him to join the Saints there and then for a fiver a week. He arranged for the forms to be sent up via a train and Wood signed the paperwork at Birmingham’s New St station. Wood was made captain, played over 270 games for us including two FA Cup finals and his son, Arthur later became our goalkeeper. Life and football was much simpler then.

Seriously my first thought when I saw this picture was "I am in the Liverpool club shop". That is the main reason I hate this kit. It looks like we are trying to emulate a bunch of dodgy scousers.

Lemmings? Blind Loyalty? More money than sense? Nothing else constructive to do on a cloudy Sunday? Consumerholics? Myopic? I could go on. The kit is crap full stop. Liverpool-look-alikes, and if you are happy with that.....?

Occasionally a little gem comes along