franniesTache

The one thing with Puel that's always really annoyed me is people calling him boring. Some of his football away from home was absolutely incredible, if you think about games like Watford away, or Liverpool away in the league cup you couldn't accuse him of being boring. It was just that - pretty sensibly - he didn't want to lose home games, because he knew if you built a solid foundation of not losing at home you could take risks away from home when teams were more likely to attack. The problem is most of our support don't go away so didn't see that, and got annoyed at him doing something that was actually tactically pretty smart because they deemed it "boring"

Think he's looked really good so far but worried we'll over play him and need to manage his time intelligently, obviously the uncertainty around Fernandes and Dibling makes that hard but we've sen what happens when you overplay young players early in the season, and the championship is a bloody long season. Also someone needs to take our fans and force them to listen to Simon and Garfunkle or the Lemonhead's version of Mrs Robinson, because i've never heard a group of fans sing a song so badly out of time - almost double the speed - and to a completely different tune before. It's like they knew the words but none of them knew the song, so just sang the word to a completely different tune instead

Thing is people are talking about us being scrappy, or not creating but i think they're looking at the wrong thing. Downs looks like what he needs is a goal to start him off and then he'll fly. He's already been in good positions and missed a couple of sitters but he's been in the positions to miss them, which suggests to me when he finds his feet he'll score a fair few. The big question i have is creativity, if we lose Dibling (which we will) and lose Fernandes (which might happen) we don't really have anyone who can open up the sides parking the bus.

Last time we came down after the league cup game against Gillingham I said we'd end up in the play offs, i was proven right. That was based on the fact that we didn't seem to know how to win dirty and looked like a side with no cutting edge or idea how to force a result. This time round at the same stage i think we'll be top two and possibly win the league. That's based on the fact that we're playing badly but finding a way to win. Still seems to be pragmatic and understands the result is more important than the style. I'm also sure we'll come good soon and start looking far more dangerous. Ipswich is our first big test and they seem out of form at the moment, i think we have a great chance of getting something there and i'm a lot more confident than I was the last time we played them in the Championship. Which is all weirdly positive for me so obviously we'll lose 3-0 now

I've only ever bought tickets for myself that i go on (or mates who also go) so didn't realise that but that's good to know. Ah that makes sense good stuff as i have a mate waiting to qualify and doesn't till friday

Exactly my thinking too, the performance was sluggish but i wasn't hugely surprised as a combination of the weather and Northampton's "agricultural" football meant it was always going to be that sort of game I actually took a positive from it in that we look like a side that has worked out how to grind out results, i know we're not playing brilliantly right now but that gives me a lot of hope, under Martin (like Gillingham) when we weren't playing well we lost. Saying that our inability to create chances does worry me, we need to sort that soon because we'll become very easy to play against otherwise

Genuinely surprised how many Hull tickets had been sold when i logged in today, does make me wonder if people saw an opportunity to drop £4 on a junior ticket to get away numbers up with no intention of using it

They're already asking when he's going to leave 🤣 https://www.followfollow.com/forum/threads/at-what-point-will-they-realise-they-have-made-a-mistake.304807/ My favourite quote from there is "How long a contract did he get? He is that bad the players won't even need to down tools to shift him, they just need to follow his instructions." 🤣

Climbing walls, darts and shooting ranges, The Chapel Paramilitary training center is being built. Soon we will have the junior Saints better drilled than most armies and the legacy of fear of the DEF will be maintained for generations. The club will train them, then turf them out into the gulags ready to scale the walls and slaughter the away fans. WE MARCH ON (the enemy)!

Thought they were very noisy but you'd expect that from a side that are the heighest they'd been for two generations and on the back of multiple promotions Agree that the back of the chapel was decent, felt like the early days of the Itchen North, i just hope it doesn't become flooded by nippers on cheap gear wanting to gesture at the away fans, think it'll take some time to catch on too which isn't necessarily a bad thing. In terms of the Wrexham fans i definitely thought they were load but their songbook was pretty damn generic, like so many others it was the standard songs nicked from liverpool, songs about libraries and a weird version of the song we used to sing about ricky lambert that didn't seem to scan properly. Thought they were at their most impressive when they sung land of my fathers to be honest, that was really damn loud

We've moved over to the chapel this season and to be honest with you all my group are sat on our hands a little bit because we don't want it to get stopped before we have our game against the skates. Saying that it's really interesting now being that side of the ground because you realise how little you can actually hear the Northam end. If I hadn't seen the posts on here about it being a "great" atmosphere i'd have thought the Northam was silent all game because you basically don't hear them from where the away fans are. Which means the skates are going to go on about St Mary's being a library and calling us quiet. The chapel itself i thought was decent, a far few standing at the back, a complete lack of soccer am "banter" and none of the noddy shit sung in the Northam. It's so much better than the Northam creche and hopefully that little section will grow with time as more move over

The joy of being lightly caressed by Monty Don

Someone should ask Solak what the plan is to get money into the club given that they're at to, or close to their limit of FFP, and if the cash injection he has planned will be laundered through reduced costs in the gulags outside or if player sales are still the only means of funding, in which case does that mean we have to sell Dibling and Fernandes before we can buy?

So you're agreeing our start screwed us cheers.

Hopefully the club realise points on the board is the most important thing and we play players who might leave anyway. Last time round our start screwed us and we basically had to spend the rest of the season playing catch up.

One of the top ones on my list that as for some reason i've never done Hull away, weekend after the skates so i'm expecting a bit of a drop off in numbers for that one despite the northern games usually being some of the best

Think the club will see a fair bit of that this season, once again it's a balls up due to moving the away fans. If they'd been in the old spot the two bits to the side of them would've been the first to sell out. But by moving the away fans and then having one of the more expensive parts one side and the family stand the other people are obviously going to be nervous about buying there for games that could be a bit more lively. I imagine for teams like millwall it'll be the same because the home fans who'd naturally sit there won't want to.

It was shared in the COT long before the press 👀 but as with everything COT related it was shot down by bitter people, a cross that people like myself and @Turkish have to bear

So Wrexham haven't even sent out their first load of away tickets yet and i've already received my tickets for Northampton away, and bought mine for Ipswich and Watford away, and only paid £1.50 per ticket booking fee compared to the £9 booking fee their fans have paid. I might have to stop moaning about our ticket office tbf 🤣

I am frankly amazed that it didn't go to members to be honest

Hopefully the blocks to the sides are filled by decent lads and folk who want to make a racket because it's going to painful if it's the skates singing at families sat down

Not sure if it's just recency bias but it does seem like whenever we end up in the same division as them we end up getting them in a cup too. Would love a night game at St Mary's in the league cup without a bubble, reckon the whole city would be absolutely bouncing for that and the blue few would learn a few of their myths definitely weren't true. From what i heard at the time cost and time were the two main reasons, apparently organising a bubble takes a fairly long time to do for both the club and the police and the decision was more or less taken out of their hands. Especially as there was a chance the coaches would find themselves stuck in normal traffic and just become sitting targets

Bristol, Norwich and Brum all perfect opportunities for those complaining they can't get away tickets to go there. I assume along with Ipswich @LeBizzier69 will be clamouring for tickets given how "unfair" the system is

Think it was earlier in the Championship last time as we played more games, did a quick scan of my emails and it looks like last season it was United away (first away in January) that it switched

tends to move around a bit but as a rule of thumb it's usually the first or second week of December, if i was to take a guess i'd say the reset will be Norwich away on 13th December