John Boy Saint

More likely to get ripped for making a pigs ear of those last 2 posts

I always said that Pontius Pilate and the Romans were ahead of their time................ and a bit like the moaning on here, you still had folks asking "what have the Romans ever done for us?!!".

It is if you like your stamp collection in your passport

Just a little thing for those travelling to Israel, as it states you won't get a passport stamp but a slip of paper that you have to keep safe to present when leaving the country. You get these in a few places around the world now (which is a shame). I have them travelling to China and Hong Kong. Silly as it sounds an elastic band round your passport to hold them safe is a sensible "fashion accessory", for piece of mind especially if you get a bit beered up. I would imagine that the Israeli officials might be as inhospitable, or worse, than the Chinese if this slip of paper is mislaid.

Looking at the Palace players in yellow the other night compared to our lads in their flattering stripes, if Charlie looks like he is carrying a few extra pounds then the Palace players looked a right bunch of lardy tubsters..................... even more so when they were standing next to the ref!

Nice to see the person who wrote that has a sense of humour regarding the ban on "cracking seeds and nuts" Made me think of a trip to Portman Road some years back, there was a chap in the Saints section pre match sat chatting to a steward munching through Pistachios, by the time he was finished the empty shells must have been up to his ankles.

I know that, you know that, the ref seemed to be making an issue of it, probably a bit confused that he didn't take 2 steps back onto the pitch to then lay down

Looked like Long having crawled off the pitch told the ref to get on with the penalty because he was off the pitch and not interfering with play.

There were 2 hearty coming together challenges I noted that were straight from the Football League last night, that he just let ride as the players laid in a heap on the ground. Battenburg and Dean would have blown up and been handing out a university lecture as to why 2 players closing on each other at speed are not allowed to bump into each other for any reason and given the the free kick to the "superior" team....... Oh and a yellow thrown in for good measure.

When this fixture was announced I really could not get enthused about it. After the last 2 games I felt strangely drawn to going last night, to the point where I got home and said who fancies going to football tonight. Daughter said yes Wife no (early start) I think more than anything I was curious to see the hand dealt after another shuffle of the pack by Claude. Strangely I have not felt the slightest bit uneasy on hearing the team selection for the last 3 games. I know one Swallow and all that, but something must be going right behind the hedges at Staplewood as so far no matter who is on the pitch overall it seems pretty seamless. This line that keeps popping up that "xyz team were awful", and "you can only play what is in front of you", has to stop as quite honestly I think it's us just not letting the other team play comfortably. There was a moment last night when we had the ball just outside the Palace box, they had players back behind the ball and we were just passing around to each other, not one Palace player immediately made to get the ball off us, almost through fear of their move being the one to create the hole for us to get through on goal with. Pleased for young Jake, nice strike to open his account with. Harry Reed going into Jack Russell/Rottweiler cross mode and getting right under the skin of Cabeye after finding himself on his backside, was amusing Jordie Ckassie must have felt like a giant next to the ref!! Pleased we decided to go, looking forward to Sunday now to see what the next shuffle of the pack brings. Finally: We got tickets in the Northam last night just for a change, it was most pleasant being in the noisy end and especially hearing folks trying to get the Floating Bridge song going. But I won't mind returning to the gentile surroundings of the Chapel where I can sit and get into the game without "please take your seats now Ladies and Gentlemen" in your ear every 2 minutes breaking the focus on the game.

What a pleasant change to "see" smiling faces on here instead of mass gnashing of teeth. Aside from a European final and teams from the same country meeting en route, I wonder what the biggest travelling support for the UEFA Cup/Europa League has been. I f we get near the 8700 available that is going to be very impressive in itself.

Yup!! Knocking Shop!!

at least one of us had to end up in the knocking shop!!!

Hope some street merchant is going to have half & half scarves and foam hands! ........... Pasties better be good inside

Eric my old fruit, just read what you wrote at lunchtime today...................Liquid lunch was it!!

Thought he looked a bit more aware on Sunday after being caught a few times on Thursday night. Always remember watching the build up to one of those Celebrity v old pros games when they were a novelty, Graham Taylor was the celebs manager and he was explaining that a good pro will take a mental photo as to who is where, especially behind him, just before he receives the ball, on Sunday you could visibly see that he had a new film in his camera. I also think he is benefiting from getting more game time compared to last year when he was in out of the team pretty much covering Victors misdemeanors.

Bet it would have gone a bit quicker if it had been the following week, as half term starts on the Friday after the game............ Flight tickets would have been through the roof though

Yup that night of the Mars Bar song came in pretty handy for the totting up of aways from last season.

If anyone at United thinks even for that kind of money Shaw is the finished article, then their buying policy round the twist. But after 3 managers I would imagine that the fact that they bought the future potential rather than the finished article has been lost along the way, not forgetting that he is English and home grown heavily loaded his price tag. Missing last season with a nasty injury doesn't help his cause. Looking at the United team and Joses finger pointing blame games, you can see that Shaw is probably one of the easier players to pick on. Especially when you think that not long after leaving us Mummy and Daddy Shaw were reportedly seeking a meeting with United because young Master Shaw was not getting the support and affection he was getting only a matter of weeks before from Saints............... I have no sympathy, he decided that he wanted the £100k and to swim with the big Sharks, either learn to swim faster or just become flotsam, United have the spending power to just shrug their shoulders if he wilts and fades out the door.

Thank you.......... Mrs JBS just had to call and cancel the men in white coats!!

This thread just made me think of Kelvins Testimonial with the Promotions XI, I know the foot was off the gas but there were moments in that game when past players in the sash shirts poured forward with the same swagger and elan that thrilled us all up through the leagues.

Can someone give me a sanity check, was Olomola on the bench for a first team game last season? I could swear he was in the squad for a game.

Hmmmmmm the same person who claimed Wayne Rooney is one of the best passers in the league, in the Watford analysis. That boat has sailed Danny Murphy. Interesting that Redmond copped it in the ear off Long, Austin, Davis, and when he fannied about towards the end and decided to go on another fruitless selfish run, instead of passing to Davo to run it into the corner, VVD was giving him a prolonged tirade of stick. The lad obviously has talent, just hope that someone is working to improve it because he is far from the finished article........ Just got to hope the Thierry Henry comment hasn't let all the Genie out of the bottle. As for yesterday's game, thought we looked pretty good, and it's not that the other team is poor we are just dominating them. Just need to speed up just a little in the final 1/3 and get the ball in the back of the net, rather than the oppos given time to set themselves up to defend like Ice Hockey players ................... Looking at the last 2 results: think we might have played Watford at the right time ;-)

I think too many moaners base their views on regularly beating their 4 year old kids playing FIFA whatever the year is. Also people should sit on rows A B or C and just see how different the game looks and the view of what the players actually see on the pitch, as opposed to the view most of us benefit from higher in the stands.

UPDATE Friends (eager beavers) have passed the scene just now and accident now all moved onto the hard shoulder but still queues due to rubber neckers.