Fitzhugh Fella

Yes some nice praise there which I enjoyed reading. You might want to respell At(h)letic in your blog title and also rethink your views on Mrs Thatcher though.

Maybe that's our problem - too much experimenting in pre-season. He needs to give his best 11 players a proper game playing together.

didn't look that great v Totton midweek, missed a good chance and failed to ruffle a non-League defence - jury is definitely out on him and certainly not likely to set the Championship alight.

You base that opinion on seeing him play?

For once I agree with you - I am off to a dark room to lie down.

Harlee Dean looked solid, Stephens looked classy and we had two young blond haired wingers one who was called Ben (the other was Hoskins) who looked bright but like Doble couldn't finish.

Well I got to say, although the opposition was only Totton tonight he looked a class act, was unselfish, worked hard and gave full support to his young colleagues. All our dangerous moves originating through him.

That was an enjoyable evening. Lovely little stadium that puts Eastleigh's in the shade. Proper terracing and a good looking pitch. Reasonable game of football until the many subs ruined the flow. I think I prefer Jack Stephens already to Frazer Richardson. He certainly distributed the ball with much more thought. I thought Saints the better side but Totton were only prevented an equaliser (assuming 1-0 was the final score) by the bravery of the Saints goalkeeper who had just came on. Thought Harlee Dean looked pretty solid too.

Yep noticed Puncheon was giving it 100% and encouraging the rest, I wonder if there were any scouts there tonight.

Our best player by far first half

Never met the man but my wife carried him on board an a/c once when he was with the FA and said he was extremely pleasant, friendly and charming.

One thing that did emerge from the programme is it seems Ferguson is to the Premiership what Murdoch was to the newspaper business...... far too powerful.

That was a cracker all right

I have just purchased some lovely original 16mm colour footage of Leeds v Saints 1948. Have had it put onto DVD.

Cork turned 22 in June, David

Jimmy Case by a country mile. Some of the things that meant his arrival was treated with suspicion - He was Steve Williams replacement, signed from Brighton and was a scouser........... but he ended up being, pound for pound, L Mac's greatest ever signing.

Are you NickG in disguise?

You always talk sense trousers, such a shame your whole reputation has been screwed by the fact your fave paper remains the Daily M***

NickG - no offence but you really are the king of spin and you need to calm down a tad. He is a good proven Championship player - nothing more nothing less, I think he will be an asset but he aint no obvious world beater (otherwise Leicester would no doubt have bought him) and Stuart Pearce didn't think he was worthy of a kick in the recent U21s tournament. Let's keep our feet on the ground and hope he will prosper from being at a club on a permanent contract. It will be interesting to see how he develops for sure and I welcome his arrival. There's a good chance he will improve into a Prem player, but your post is a bit OTT.

As the prof insinuates, I think a lot of it boils down to those who trust their club to do the right thing and those that don't. The argument of spending more money in the transfer market is as old as the hills. I remember we all thought Ted Bates way to cautious and then all being amazed at the arrival of Osgood (albeit under L Mac's tenure). As long as NC is still serious with his 5 year plan then I guess we should trust him. IS NA a good judge of a player? His track record would indicate so. But both should perhaps get a bit of a move on now football has reassembled.

This

Had to laugh at this - think you have read NickG pretty well, Prof

This is a bit of a surprise as I actually thought he would go to a bigger club than us. I certainly do not place Brighton in that category. I have got to say I was impressed by him from what I saw last season and would have liked to have signed him but perhaps NA has seen something that has put him off.

The trouble is a lot of people made up their minds about the rights and wrongs of this dispute from the media most of whom are regularly "wined and dined" by Willie walsh and get free tickets. I would like to bury the myth that BA crew are obscenely pverpaid. New contract crew (there are notmany old contract ones left) basic salary is around £15,000. On top of that there are allowances etc which takes pay into the lowe 20-23000. You try living in London or near London on that. One day the truth will come out about this dispute and a lot of people will be eating their words. BA were being run by a bunch of thugs who employed thuggish tactics to intimidate the strikers. Over 17 got sacked and over 70 disciplined. I myself was arrested once at Heathrow Police Station, and then harassed by Thames Valley Police. My home was targeted by the Daily Mail on three occasions. I have had death threats, and mountains of abusive anonymous mail. I could go on and on - it was certainly not a ridiculous strike. We were not striking for money but basically for the right to stand up for ourselves. I am not political these days at all but this country and the large majority of the lower earning classes are being systematically ripped off and if they sit back and say oh well we are lucky to have a job, that philosophy will be their undoing. Phil you are dead right re BA. The reason is that those who have managed BA over the last 10 years couldn't give a flying fig about the punter - it is all about greed and profit and that was one of things the crew were up in arms over as we (or they) do pride themselves on customer service, even after what they have been through.

Don't you know, people really should not criticise their football clubs!