alehouseboys

As all the other skates had obviously all gone down for a slash at the same time this pic of them makes it easy to work out how many we must have had there Saturday. Each block holds just over a thousand seats, we had 4 (plus slight spillage into the far end smaller one) so must have been the best part of 4,000 up there.

I take this as the most likely scenario myself, this guy is a Wigan fan so very unlikely to be jumping to the defence of the oppo fans. If it was a Saints fan's words then you could probably write it off as just a bit of blame shifting. Again, if a Saints fan had come out and said he saw the Saints thug lump that bird then you would have to take it a bit more seriously. But this is a regular poster on a Wigan forum who says he was right there at the front of the commotion, his version of events is almost the opposite from what's being peddled.

http://thisnorthernsoul.co.uk/index.php/forum/5-general-chat/29630-fighting-after-the-game I see 'Faz' has been busy, looks like 1 or 2 could expect a tug.

Further developments... Eye-witness Grandmother of 5, Mercedes Arkwright-Sidebottom of Blackpudding Lane, explained "Seen nowt like it in all me days. Must've been thousands of 'em, soft, southern, nazi-saluting skinheads marauding on t'bridge bashing everything in sight. I was beaten to within an inch of me life, saw little Tommy flying through t'air limbs hanging by thread, some ol' dear tipped out of wheelchair and thrown over side, landed on Marg's guide dog, killed outright, and 97 year old Cecil Ecclescake was impaled on his very own walking stick. Luckily a dozen or so Wigan Yoof got between all the women and kids and backed off the rampaging hordes until they all turned and ran for their lives. Thank God for our brave lads". I think there may be something in this.

http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=558&fid=516&sty=2&act=1&mid=2113295759

You can read 2 different Wigan forums and get 2 different viewpoints... First: "After the game 50 or so southampton hooligans aged between 20 and 40 ish decidied to mount sustained attacks on Wigan families going over the canal bridge. This lasted some 10 minutes in which many Wigan fans trying to climb the stairs to get over the bridge including me got thumped. Many of those crossing the bridge were mums and dads with children under the age of ten who were in hysterics. The route from the stadium to the bridge and around the bridge on both sides is normally heavily policed but today there were absolutely none around." Second: "was right at the front of all this and although Southampton fans were doing their bit to cause mayhem there were a few wiganers doing their best to cause havoc as well. As the southampton fans started shouting quite a few lads pushed past me shouting lets get them in the canal. quite a few wiganers on the bridge were doing their best to goad them spitting and throwing coins started from the bridge and yes it wasn't pleasant for the families. at one point the southampton fans stood in a line and let those of us who weren't goading them and the kids carry on up the bridge." One says (the usual in these situations) "it was all them attacking families" yet their hooligans valiantly saved the day against the odds. The other suggests theirs started it, came unstuck and caused their own fans with kids to get involved...but read the last line of the Wigan poster's comments.

TCWTB has just been on the tele saying how pleased they were of how that chant went after the 4 hours solid of choir practice last week. He was equally elated that they could get to use the other one they'd been practicing..."Nil-nil and we f*cked it up..."

Saints fans bought up a big chunk of 'Club Wembley' on top of the official 44,000, I would imagine you could add another 10k or so.

Apparently 'Trader Vics' is popular with 'uddersfield's future managers... http://downatthemac.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=80792

Well, thank you Mr trousers. Even brillianter!

A few oop north think he's a big possiblity for 'udders. http://downatthemac.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=80792 "Pink shirt and Chinos" hey...wonder if 'dubai_phil' is familiar with 'Trader Vics'?

No Income Tax, no VAT, Does not apply to pfc, Clapped-out ground, Gimp with bell, Cheating b'stards go to hell. God bless HMRC, Bye, bye pfc Long live SFC Say liquidate pfc Liquidate pfc.

You've really gotta feel for 'The Moose' at times like these. ****.

His lack of speech was probably down to the (as the Solent 'tater put to him after last night) "tumultuous welcome" he got from the fans. "Tumultuous welcome"? he was probably speechless at how sh*te the atmosphere is at English grounds these days, last night was shocking again. When you come from a country where the support is like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELj7ozC3iLo (miles from the pitch and no roof - nice to see River Plate wearing our old kit btw) ...England's gonna come as a bit of a disappointment.

Well, it seems our 'Poche' can speak better English than maybe he's letting on (did you see him chatting with Rickie last night?) just not enough to avoid getting tied up in knots by the English media. His side-kicks can also speak very good English, maybe our fitness coach was just a familiar go-between with the players on an important night?

Nigel who?

OK, prediction time. I'll go 2-1 Saints, late winner that brings the house down. I'll also predict some of our numpty fans will boo the new boss when he's presented to St Mary's. My final prediction will be that the big screens will develop a technical fault so Sky wont be able to plaster NC's face across them for the inevitable reaction.

So are you going Monday night or not? In the 'NA Sacked' thread you said you were "shipping out" so I guess you're one of the ones that have burnt their STs (tho you didn't think NA was very "savvy" in the Chelsea build-up). And sorry to ruin your Sunday but Arsenal 2 down at Chelsea HT btw.

Tor, you'll just have to excuse us, normally we would be bigging up a new signing but today? Well, suddenly losing a good manager has overshadowed the (long drawn-out) arrival of Mr Forren. We're probably all looking forward to seeing him out on the pitch in a game or two and hope he lives up to your praise but unfortunately there's only one talking point today for most.

That's good then and they can tell the Argie it was just passionate support welcoming to the club, "they love you already", he wont understand anyway. Trouble is, next home game it'll revert back to the placid place it has become...other than a bunch in one corner of the stadium. Some OTT reactions on here today, as bad a decision as it appears to be (where's that pic of the 2 guys giving back their STs over parking charges when you need it?) The last time we sacked someone was after sticking in 4 goals in an away victory, didn't turn out too bad in the end.

...this is what we're sing, We're Southampton, we're Southampton, Mauricio Pochettino is our King" Needs a bit of work.

I'm watching here... http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/163605/5/watch-chelsea-vs-southampton-fc.html

He was mocking TCWTB so was going for the complete gimp look. As for OP, our support was OK, good numbers but for 3,000 probably not as "fantastic" as maybe it should have been. Good at times but having lost a number of chants from the promotion years now very limited. "Yellows, Yellows" and "OWTS" every 5 minutes is a bit lame and tbh, boring. And now we only seem to get the lazy slow rendition, OK when we're cruising but not particularly inspiring support for the players out on the pitch when we're still in a contest. Small rant but takes nothing away from a top result. Things are on the up.

Big result. Dodgy pen but goal was coming. They can moan as much as they like about the decision but the truth is they should have been down to 10 men for most of the game. The ref obviously couldn't see the knee-high challenge on Ramirez but just another inch and he would have heard his leg snapping. Not that the oppo going down to 10 helps us usually ala Stoke, and I could see another lead potentially slipping away as the game wore on. Had they got level, the Villa fans would have woken up and they can then make a bit of noise once they get going and we would have been right up against it. Crucial 3 points with our next run of fixtures but Chelsea only play well on Saturdays and don't like midweek home games ...unfortunately they now have Demba Ba.

...and then charged QPR fans £32 for the same seats for their next home game. City are as guilty as Arsenal. If only.