John Boy Saint

Bottom line is if he is willing to conform to the team ethic and be on the bus then worth a punt, but if he wants to be Billy Big Wotsits or a bit mardy like Puncheon then that is a hell of a lot of money to spend on a reserve team player.

Hmmmm how many of the jolly West Ham souls on the You Tube video filmed at brighton will be nicked. This has to be a Political Correctness flagwaving conviction, its football banter between 2 sets of fans, everyone knows its going to happen, yes some go over the top. Parents taking Children to a game know there is likely to be some choice language, and I am pretty certain that someone who turns up at a football who is homosexual is going to be fully aware that their is likely to be some refrence to the gay community spouted from someones mouth. When Brighton turn up it just gets more pronounced. So if someone has been done for chanting about peoples sexual leanings: how many Portsmouth fans obscenely gesturing and commenting in full view behind Saints players on national TV are going to get their collars felt by the OB???

What you guys really all go out and do it with fish this big............................. Weird!

Oi Halford!.........................Eieeeeeeeee---Oorrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say none of these monkeys represent me, brother Perry has only given me a bit of chirp along with Brother Richard before entering SMS for a supporters forum that they were not invited to. Why the Daily "bog roll" Echo give these no marks column width baffles me, because neither McMillen, Chorley, or Illingsworth represent any of my current thoughts regarding Southampton Football Club, nor probably most Saints fans. Adam Leitch: stop being a lazy bloody hack and talk to real Saints fans for soundbites, not some gobshoites who have put a Poundland spotlight on themselves by some quirk of fate.

Can I add, again on a tangent: being stood in Junior Saints corner, as it was, just before the Saints v P*mpey game in the league cup with Mrs JBS and the tiddlers. The P*mpey chimes start up and the universal response from the whole stadium being "F off P*mpey, P*mpey F off" out of the corner of my eye I see a finger pointing in time with everyone else, I turn to see my 9 year old Daughter standing on her chair belting out the words at the top of her voice. Embarrassment and admiration in the same emotion........... And she never got thrown out for such potty mouthed chanting, disgusting!!

Being sat outside the Boys gate at the Dell at 10am in the morning on a matchday just to ensure that we had a front row position for a good view from the Milton back in the late 70s early 80s. Would hang over the wall to see what advertising hording we were over, and more importantly which letter in the advert so that we could look out for ourselves on either the Big Match or Match of the Day: the latter was a challenge as having set out from Silchester in north Hampshire to be outside the gate by 10 - half past in the morning, Jimmy Hill would have said 2 words and I would have nodded off!! Appeared in the Boxing Day special edition of Playschool TV programme, filmed at the Coventry game, which we lost 2-1 back in 1978 (if memory serves). The cameras were following a family going to the game to stand in the Family enclosure which Saints were one of the first to introduce. Stood (or crushed into) in one of the Chocolate boxes v QPR on a misty day where in the first half the Archers goal would fade slightly from view. Caught bags of snacks thrown by promo girls from the pitch at half time. Ducked when a record store promoting itself had the same pretty girls throwing 7" singles into crowd, which soon came out of their paper sleeves becoming black discs of death!! Laughed when in the Milk Cup (league cup I think) v Wolves, mini cartons of milk were thrown in to the Milton Road end only to opened then thrown at the back of the goal net in the hope of hitting the Copper walking, naively, behind the goal.................. 2 cartons hit the net bounced back and hit the target!! Regularly meeting 2 girls on the Milton who claimed to be Trevor Hebberd and Austin Hayes sisters...................... Methinks being 14/15 having spent 10 years growing up out in the country me and my mate were probably being teased by City Girls! (remember back then information technology was the stuff of Sci-Fi films........ Wiki-what!!). Probably a bit of a meander off OP course here.

? Didn't realise that he had trotted out for us prior to the 2-2 Bolton 1st home game back in the top flight in August 1978.

If my smattering of Latin based European languages is to be relied on I quite like paragraph 3 (haven't found translate on my iPad still)

Always a bit of Gardening going on in the Chapel box during the game as the San Andreas fault always opens up somewhere in the box. Plus a nice little bald patch emerging where the players go through their pre match warm up drills.

Makes you feel cold just watching that! All this progress and you get a pitch like that and the game goes on, now you have a green pitch but the game is off because it's a bit Icy on the approach to the stadium.!

Ooo-errr! I thought this thread might have disappeared down the page by now. As someone said a bit of a brain fart, although after being the butt of some folks mirth, a few anomalies regarding the changes in the 70's emerge, so being born in the mid sixties an easy faux pas. Bloomin' glad my user name on here is no longer on my shirt, otherwise there would be chap at the end of Brittania Road selling Rocks and bags of gravel for the weekly stoning!! Still the root of my initial post, was probably getting a bit piddled off at TV & Radio football commentators saying West Ham would go top with a win......... Not about a 3 clear goal win. As if it is West Hams god given right to be top of the table. Note to self: don't post a silly question under the influence after midnight.

No Sh!t Shurlock!! I only questioned it because a few seasons ago there was some anomaly that came up with league positions, being close and, either, a Radoi or TV commentator said that goals scored was the deciding factor in the football league. Blimey ask an innocent possibly naive question, and get to made to feel like one of the Three Biily Goats Gruff, with all the late night Trolls coming out from under the bridge. Cheers and merry bloody Christmas!

Seeing as I am being shredded here, thanks to the t'internet and a Racing Paper website I have found the answer And was not massively wide of the mark!. If two or more teams finish level on points the team with the better goal difference will finish higher. If two or more teams have the same points and the same goal difference, the team which has scored the higher number of goals will finish higher. If two or more teams finish level on points, goal difference and goals scored at the end of the season and the championship, a promotion place, play-off place or relegation place is at stake they will then play off to decide who finishes higher. If two or more teams are level before the endof the season on points, goal difference and goals scored, then alphabetical order will determine the team finishing higher. So West Ham would have had to win by 3 clear goals at Reading, and a 6 goal swing next weekend prevents us being top for Christmas.

Maybe so: but yes the Prem works on goal difference first, but I am pretty certain that in the Championship, based on close run things in previous seasons, that GOALS SCORED comes before goal difference.

Twice today with our result already in the bag, TV Footie show hosts have said "West Ham" could go top today. Now I sit here open to being corrected, but West Ham would have had to beat Reading by 3 clear goals if based on goal difference. But as understand it in this league goals scored is the deciding factor, so at 3 o'clock, based on my understanding, West Ham would have had to win 8-0 to have gone top. Over to you good folks............

23:40 and Bart has 69% of the vote. So the Witch hunt is only from a handful of folks!

Got the impression Bart was caught in the headlights today! Turn up every single matchday to park your backside on the bench week in week out, then suddenly he finds himself starting a 1st team league game.................. And the other half a bottle of well chilled Vodka on Friday night wasn't such a good idea! That last bit was tongue in cheek from me, but a few times it didn't look a million miles away from the truth.

"**** Me!! Stay back!!: did you just see the size of that worm that just popped his head out of the pitch!!??!!" SDR " Urghhhh, that's the one that popped up and headed the ball just before Bart was going to kick it in the box!!".

On Steve de Ridder: I have a Dutch friend who supports Ajax, who were looking very closely at signing him in the summer. He said that one failing which put them off was that whilst he he has a good engine to get up and down the pitch and has immense technical ability, he is not selfish enough in front of goal: he will always look to play in a teammate in a better position than him. I think he might be going through a bit of a transition in his playing, shame in today's game he didn't ( referring back to my mate) revert back to his de Graafschap days when Guly & Lallana were queuing up in acres of space. As for Morgan, when he is on the pitch he sets the tempo of our whole play, just like Oakey did in his pomp under WGS.

Hang on a minute! We had grow faster lights before at SMS, or did we just have them on loan? They used them in the Chapel goalmouth as in the winter despite the glass roofing that end does not get the sun. They made the grass a slightly different shade of green. Or did RL sneak those ones out bit by bit in his briefcase in readiness for the wacky backy factory he knew he would need to supplement his income in the years ahead.

Let him stay where he is, he is doing a grand job: otherwise he will be making an appearance in a game of ours anytime soon. Worse Ref around, no one comes even close to Peter Walton.

No Burberry baseball cap? Or is that old hat?

Funny that, in that fateful season when we dropped through the top flight, trap door. Dennis Rofe gave the post warm up pep talk on the pitch prior to the famous Norwich game his body language was positive and pumped up. 2 weeks later prior to the final game v Man U the post warm up pep talk was given by Bond, and from the same position in the stands it just lacked the passion & looked totally uninspiring.

My Boss, who is a QPR ST holder on a very long snowy drive yesterday, refererred to the "end of the World" run featured above having suffered many years of fruitless hope. Like he said if you are going to have a wobble have it now rather than during the latter stages of the season, when your destiny becomes more reliant on others.