sotonjoe

yep and you can't even phone up for them. What happens if you work for a living?

What were you expecting? Bronze buys you a seat with a cushion and access to a cash bar doesn't it?

When you say "going posh" do you mean you've opted for the 'gold package' or just the 'cushion on a seat and cash bar for £45 package'?

Good to see Holmes being mentioned. If Nige is intent on trying almost anything but De Ridder on the right, then I'd like to see Holmes on the left and Lallana on the right. To be fair, if we put Lallana on the right, we'd have all sorts of options at left midfield ... i.e. Fox and even Dickson as well as Holmes.

On sale 9am to personal callers at box office only. One per season ticket. Pain in the arse that it's personal callers only.

Well, purely from my own point of view I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the bubble didn't do much to dampen my enjoyment. Before it was announced, I was giving the bingo bus serious consideration anyway. Whilst most of my away trips this season have been done on the train and included a few beers, there were issues with the train this time round which were putting me off. I was pretty convinced that whatever train I got was going to be completely rammed. Usually I'd just get an earlier train and spend more time in the pub, but I couldn't see myself going into any pubs in Pompey. Getting the train would also mean a frustrating walk to the ground, kettled by police, having stuff thrown at me and standing a poor chance of making kickoff. So in practical terms, I didn't have that much to worry about when the whole bubble thing was announced. My main concerns beforehand were to do with how well it would be organised and to what extent I would end up waiting around in a great big herd of people. In reality it was smooth and swift. Everybody got on the buses in plenty of time and we were underway by five past eleven. Skipping the traffic lights etc meant we got there quickly. When we got dropped off at Fratton we initially had no idea where to go, but a brief pause and a bit of common sense meant we just follow everyone else! Signage at the stadium was appalling so we had no idea if we could use the turnstile we were or not, but we just got on with it and it was fine. Because we'd arrived early there was no queue for the toilets. My mate even had a cheeseburger and thoughts they were alright. Things were just as smooth going back, even though the bubble literally burst! There was no significant police escort once we'd left Pompey. Buses started overtaking each other and we had to wait at junctions and traffic lights. We got round the lack of booze by going to the pub straight after, then on to a curry house then on to a few more pubs. So we still had the usually beers on the day out just at a different time. That said, I did take a hip flask on the bus and in the ground and I wasn't searched at all. The steward on the bus said "You haven't got any booze have you?" and that was it. I even managed to take in a 2.5 squash bottle filled with water (because I am a 'big girl' / had a hangover from the night before) complete with bottle top! It's not surprising that people git flares in and miniature bottles of spirits etc.

Yeh, I was tempted to join the dots on that one too. Interestingly, I can't really remember Nige openly criticising players in that way before so I saw it as quite a significant moment. It's interesting that Derry mentions Steve's passing as well because I swear that in the Blackpool post-match interview Nige actually said Steve's crossing isn't very good, so that's obviously one aspect of his game that they're not happy with. With Morgan being a good passer you can see how Nige might be thinking when playing Morgan instead of Steve. However, I don't think I agree with that decision as I can't see Morgan being good enough on the ball to beat his man and get himself into a good crossing position. Of course, an interesting thing to think about is the role of the full backs in all this. Nige always has them overlapping and I'd say they get called on to do as much, if not more, of the crossing than the 'wingers'. I'd be tempted to play Steve even knowing his crossing isn't 100%, safe in the knowledge he could beat his man / create things and then make use of the overlapping Richardson if need be. I guess ultimately it's Steve's decision making which they're not sure of as well.

I'd like to finish top two. I'd be disappointed to make the playoffs but satisfied. I'd be suicidal (not quite literally) if we didn't make the playoffs.

Not surprised someone got there before me but, depending on how you define 'arsehole', I'd say Punch has a pretty good chance of fitting the bill. The whole Punch saga shows you how the club would deal with arseholes at the moment, but maybe things would have been a little different if Punch didn't play so awfully at the beginning of last season.

A lot of his opportunities from the bench have seen him playing up top and we were told this was on his CV when he was signed. However, I'm not sure if the fact that he has played as a striker a fair bit is because that's how Nige sees him, or simply because he was been the only attacking option on the bench in the games when this has happened. I don't have the stamina to go back and check the records but do remember seeing many games recently when Connolly and Barnard have been injured and Steve is the only 'striker' on the bench. It would be very significant if we saw Nige shopping for a right wing player in January. Personally, I'd want a striker at the top of the list.

Guly did take a while, that's fair (I don't want to get into a discussion about Guly's recent form though ;-) ), and Steve is a lot younger I suppose. To be fair, I trust Nige enough to think that he would stick with a young talented player like Steve and help him develop, as opposed to chucking him off the bus after a couple of months just because he's not playing 'the right way'. Maybe it is still early days.

When Steve was signed he was hailed as a great prospect. The obligatory Youtube greatest hits video excited everybody and his debut against West Brom preseason excited everybody even more. So why has he failed to cement a place in the team? When he has come off the bench and played out wide I have been consistently impressed by his desire and ability to run at the defence (something many of our players seem afraid to do). I seem to remember talk earlier in the season that he was defensively naive and that it would take time to make him play the way we expect and that his first team options would be limited until the management felt this process was complete. Recently though Nige made some pretty explicit comments about Steve's failures against Blackpool (his decision making at the end of the game as he ran with the ball in particular), and Steve doesn't even get a run out against Pompey in a game in which having somebody with his pace may have been a great boost late on. Reading between the lines a little (as we inevitably must, seeing as were not privy to everything that goes on), I wonder how happy the powers that be are with Steve and his development. In my opinion the fact that Nige keeps improvising when it comes to deciding who to play on the right wing suggests he still lacks confidence in Steve. Over the past few games we saw Chaplow getting tried on the right, where he did alright and it's understandable this kept Steve out the side whilst it was going well. However, since Chaplow's injury we've seen Morgan tried on the right and having seen the games I don't think he's stood out as playing particularly well in this position which is unnatural to him. It looks to me as if Nigel is trying almost every other option (options which include playing players out of their positions) before giving Steve a start. So I wonder how other people read 'the Steve situation'?

My understanding is that it's your responsibility to list the extras when you get the quote, at which point the insurer will give you their quote and make it clear whether they will insure the extras or not. You then either agree to that or not. In your case, it's up to you to work out whether you asked them to quote for the extras and / or whether you think it was made clear to you that the extras weren't included (bear in mind that it's your responsibility to read the terms and conditions in full).

Any chance you could upload those videos from bus 9 as i was on that one too? cheers

Nice to see people sat at home watching on TV having the gall to criticise the real supporters who were actually there singing their hearts out. Mongs.

Nope. Missed out on Brighton and no way of watching on TV.

I'd be tempted to swap two Pompey tickets (stadium) for two Brighton tickets as long as you have your Brighton tickets in hand.

Still a bit mythed that Nige claimed we would only buy players who would be an improvement on what we've got and yet we still find De Ridder and Fox struggling to hold down a place in the side. I think De Ridder is fantastic, but if Nige isn't confident in starting De Ridder and Fox at this stage, you've got to wonder whether they've turned out how he expected them to or whether they're still adapting.

You can get an inflatable fish that's over 20" long on amazon for about £3.

I lol'd

**** poor ... in fact!!!!

Utterly ****ed off with this. Didn't even know they were on sale yet. The fact they sold them in six hours suggests a ballot would have been fairer but of course the ticket office couldn't care less as they long as they sell them. Can't understand the total overreaction about how to allocate tickets for and police the Pompey game and that a complete free for all for Brighton. Odd.

Utterly rubbish reporting. With relations between the club and the Echo what they are, I'd think the Echo would be the last people to know if the club was suffering financially.

From where i was sat in the kingsland, his "link up play" wasn't great, his work rate wasn't great either. I remember one incident in the second half where he actually chased the opposition and put in a tackle, and he got decent round of applause from everyone to try and actually encourage him. In fact, his attitude was shocking last night if his body language was to be believed. If a pass didn't fall straight to his feet, numerous times he was giving it verbally to a team mate or shrugging his shoulders to excuse his lack of effort in reaching the ball. He wound me up something rotten last night and I certainly think a game on the bench would give him a vital wake up call. Out of his goals, many of them are simple tap ins etc and these certainly don't detract from the overall poor performance and attitude he is displaying on the pitch.

Interesting post. Not sure why you got the usual "ffs" moan from some. Good to try and put our progress in some sort of context, no matter how hypothetical.