um pahars

Deary me Manji, is that the best you can come up with. If you're going to be soooo bitter and twisted then at least get your caustic insults right. As much as you like to think some are living in the past, it actually appears that you're one of the few still hanging on to a tired, old , dull and boring argument. Let it go fella, let it go, it will only eat you up.

Absolutely, Walton blows his whistle when the Brighton keeper has his back to Lambert. The Ref cccked up totally on that one. There might have been a case to book the keeper for fannying around, but Walton should not have blown it whilst the keeper had his back to the action.

Someone might need to tell one of their posters that it won't really nark us given that we have taken the **** out of that statue from day one (time for another picture of it please!!!!).

You're probably right that that could have been deemed a red (don't even think he got a caution for it, Calderon did though). However, although we're not operating at the level of Gus' Brighton, we're certainly not immune to a bit of gamesmanship (Deano's dive) and trying to influence the ref (e.g. Vs Posh).

Also noticed it at the time and it looked like Chaplow said something, so was interesting to see it on the highlights. It was well after the ball and could only be intended to spark a reaction. They seemed to invest so much time and effort having a whinge at the referee (the barge after the third penalty summed that strategy up) and trying to wind up the opposition (Taricco was still having a pop at Chaplow as he trudged off), that had we not kept our cool we could have easily been dragged down to their level.

Who is the little sh*t taking a kick out of Chaplow at about 9:56?????? No attempt at the ball, late and niggly. Sums them up for me.

"To be fair, I do like the chant, BUT it is a bit much every everytime I touch the ball though..." Think that's fairly conclusive, that whilst he doesn't mind the chant itself, doing it every time he touches the ball is OTT. It's an OK chant if it's following his arrival on the pitch, or a decent piece of action, but just not every time he gets near the ball. Remember thinking at the time that it seemed to put pressure/distract him, and seems this was probably the case.

Felt that we won without playing as good as can, but that said, we never gave them a sniff so must have been doing the right things defensively. A lot of good individual performances, but no real flow to our football until the game was all but over. Think Brighton's defensive and harrying tactics played a part, but we just weren't as fluent. However, we stayed patient and never seemed to get worried or anxious, a good trait in a team. A sort of ground out 3-0 thumping!!!!! Easy to see why Brighton infuriate and frustrate so many as their style and culture of play seems to be dominated by the South-American influence of Poyet and Taricco. Petty, sly, frustrating, whingeing, ankle tapping, shirt tugging etc, all designed to distract the opposition and influence the referee. Influencing the referee may have worked as he seemed to lose it and got quite a few of the big decisions wrong. Handball against Guly's shot - Probably right call, ball to hand, but seen them given Lambert having his shirt pulled off him - Got it wrong, blatant infringement, should have been a penalty Fonte's fall - Definitely outside. Taricco sending off - Obviously don't know what was said, but he was at it all game and ref had given him a finger wagging in the first half for it. Hammond dive - Right decision, clear dive, clear booking (wasn't impressed by Hammond on that one) Lambert trip - Slight contact and enough to get a penalty Lambert mugging - No attempt by the defender to get the ball and clearly impeded Lambert, should have been a penalty They most definitely evened themselves out over the course of the game and the better team definitely won, but no referee of such a so called high standard should be getting that many wrong. As for Brighton, well in the games we have played them I have seen a distinct lack of the free flowing football I thought they ere protagonists of.

Deepest sympathies fella.

I thought Brighton were a bit small time with their orchestrated anti Adkins songs, banners and chants, so certainly don't think we should be mimicking them.

I'm not overly sure of the necessity to trawl over threads in such an "I told you so" and "look at them" manner. Football is a pretty knee jerky business and just as some of my gushing quick match reviews may have been slightly rose tinted and wrapped up in the initial euphoria of victory, so I'm sure some of my claims of "that's it, we're fccking useless, I'm not going again, we couldn't hit a barndoor etc etc etc" are also somewhat hasty.

An interesting viewpoint, but I would counter that perhaps some might feel somewhat daunted having to go through a three course meal in the presence of a small intimate gathering. There would certainly be nowhere to hide and I could easily imagine that some might feel overawed and somewhat intimidated (even if that is not the intention).

But as others have mentioned it shouldn't just be about having a moan, perhaps it should be about engaging with supporters, sharing ideas, helping to explain issues, getting wider feedback, helping the Club constructively, generating ideas etc etc etc. I can remember one forum in 2003 being really useful as people tried to convince the Club that we would need to be thinkng about accomodating 2,000 plus for the Steaua away game, as at the time Loz Coley, Cowen and Lowe were thinking we would be lucky to take 500. I could see their POV as they were basing their estimate on our average away gate, cost and logistics, whereas many pointed out that this was undersetimating the demand for this game.

As someone who has attended a number of fans forums I do think people have the wrong idea about what went on during them. There were one or two ding dongs with the usual suspects during our time at The Dell, but after Lowe had banned them (quite rightly IMHO if they couldn't be civilised) then the others over the years were very civilised affairs. The Radio Solent forums were even more civilised. No one dominated them, no one got overly argumentative or loud and most were relatively constructive and informative. I think these intimate random dinners have their place, but I also think a wider fans forum wouldn't be a bad idea either.

I think the fact they've got a new ground holding 2,500 would probably mean they would want to showcase it, plus Brizzle Rovers aren't the biggest of draws. Additionally, I imagine Totton would like to get through to the Third Round (and a huge draw) and would not want to lose their home advantage. That said, it's a close enough game that The Gas might want to bring a fair few down and with Saints away at Donny that day the attendance could be swelled. Swings and roundabouts, but on balance reckon they'll be happy to host ROvers over at Testwood.

A big enough game to be switched to SMS???

TBF you shouldn't need research to know that mani and Brown are huge United fans, along with a few of the others.

A little bit of embellishment maybe (you're right, in that I'm not overly sure we need to be coming up with direct comparisons).

Well he certainly wasn't signed by the then manager Redknapp. Not sure who bought him - Clifford, Woodward or Lowe.

To be fair I didn't read them as direct comparisons (although I know some on here think we can compete with Bayern Munich & Barcelona!!), more a philospophy we are trying to emulate (an emphasis on youth as opposed to perhaps a philosophy of immediate impact through buying players).

But Lowe used to say that LOL. I have no problem giving Lowe praise for his work with the Academy and attracting young talent and decent coaches, no problem whatsoever. My problem was his (and others) revisionist tales of how they "invented" it. I wouldn't have singled out anyone for praise going backwards (as you did), otherwise the list would be quite long (McMenemy, Higgins, Merrington, etc). I just enjoyed Crocker's acknowledgement of our great tradition in this area stretching back a fair few decades.

Interesting as I think you'll find that Mani is a massive Red, Ian Brown is as well hence he sung This Is The One at Gary Neville's testimonial and Squire is a season ticket holder at OT. Bez iss a Red, along with Ryder. Walsh from The Carpets used to run with United's firm in the 80's and I always link them to United through the song "This is what it's like to be City, this is what it's like to be small". Throw in "Giggs will tear you apart, again" by Joy Division (of whom 3/4 were United fans) and I think the Reds have more than their fair share (although City can lay claim to Oasis)

LOL. Go and do a cross reference to see if anyone who was advocating a "media silence/they're all lying scum/don't need them recently" is now posting on this thread.

I was going to mention that I enjoyed Crocker's references to an era that pre dates Lowe and where we were already recognised and established as a production line of talent. I thought it made a refreshing change to acknowledge what had happened in the past, unlike some revisionists of later years.

Indeed. Given they were raking in millions they would have been soooooooo much better off putting some of that in to a decent training/youth/academy set up, as opposed to in to some foreign mercenaries pocket. It's so short sighted that you just have to wonder what was going on down there. For the future of a football club I would have ringfenced a decent one off figure form the Sky money to upgrade behind the scenes facilities.