Ken Tone

Well yes it is, unless the police say there is a crowd control/safety issue (surely not for this game) or the TV people dictate (also not for this game). K.

I think the club has shot itself in the foot here. It has forgotten how many fans travel a fair way to games. I'm sure I'm not alone in finding it just about impossible to get to a 7pm k.o. after work. Even 7.45 is difficult with end-of-rush-hour traffic down the A34 and M3. In effect the club has decided to make it 'take the little kids' evening for only those people actually living and working in Southampton. Fair enough, but I hope later stage games in the JPT are at normal times. Will be the first home game in any competition (as opposed to friendlies) that I've missed n about 12 years. Give them a shout for me. K.

I have no idea about this partuclar issue in the Itchen, but I echo the praise for Luker's responsiveness to supporters. I wrote to him this morning complaining about tuesday's unannounced late closure of car park B and got a reply within minutes, followed by further communication from a more appropriate employee. Personally I've got him on the "one of the good guys" list. K.

Don't think anyone really knows why they sing it. It goes back many years. Bit like Stoke and 'Delilah'. But to be fair they do sing it loud ....drowned out the northam from where I sit in the kingsland, and not just when they scored. K.

No. Trust me. It'll be a 0-0 draw at full-time, exhausting extra time, lots of injuries, then a close defeat for portsmouth on penalties. Carlisle emotionally and physically drained for saturday. Portsmouth humiliated. Ok? ;-) K.

You're assuming that Pinnacle ever really had any backers. Lynam's public statements on here were self-contradictory ... a consortium ,1 wealthy backer, the bloke from the London semi, a consortium again... Try reading his posts again. They're quite amusing in a sort of gallows humour, Walter Mitty, sort of way It seems very likely that, whoever they were, Pinnacle would in effect have been borrowing to buy us, so in effect the club would have been still pretty heavily in debt, as Pinnacle would have had to extract from club income enough 'profit' to cover their debt re-payments. So no mortgage as such , but loan repayments instead, albeit for a lesser amount than the old club debts allowing for the cheap purchase price. K.

Surely this shows a lack of understranding of how fans behave? If you think about the move to St Marys' no one designated the home bit of the northam as the main noisy home fans section. The police dictated that the away fans had part of it, and the home fans who like to be close to away fans therefore went there. We already have the whole of the chapel end as a 'home end'. It's just that the noisy fans choose not to sit there. IF the police agreed the necessary physical gorund alterations to put away fans in the itchen north -- the only possible alternative in terms of crowd managment to and from the stadium -- then the northam could indeed be given over entirely to home fans. But the reality is that then the current itchen north home fans would be just as likely to go to the itchen centre or south, as close as possible to the away fans. Why would the directors etc want to be in between away and home fans, and why would anyone buy an expensive box above away fans in the itchen? Or if (very unlikely) if the police agreed to put away fans in the chapel, all that would mean is that the noisy home fans would sit next to them there instead of in the northam. K.

Thanks Difficult to decide what is deliberate. Some handballs are in effect self defence, to avoid being hit in the face (or worse!). Deliberate, but ........ I suspect the one on Saturday was pretty much accidental, but he did seem to 'bat' the ball away a bit. K.

Where in the rules does it say a handball has to be deliberate? This is serious question. Some commentators talk about hand to ball, or ball to hand, as if that matters. Others talk about whether the player gained an advantage by the hand ball whether it was deliberate or not. As far as I'm aware, handall is handball. We lost a penalty last season when McGoldrock protected himself in the wall. Btw I saw it clearly hit his right hand and said in a bitter tone, "and that was a handball" thinking the ref had missed it, so was delighted when the lineman had the bottle to give it in spite of so few shouts. K.

The club's motive is presumably to make it easier/more suitable for young kids to go. I can't see any other reason for the change apart from an assumption by Saints that it'll be a young kids' night out rather than a normal crowd. Otherwise they'd move all evening games to 7. K.

Surely it was Strachan that was keen on yogurts? Remember the classic Delgado quote? "I've got more important things to worry about. I've got a yogurt that goes past its sell-by date today." K.

Doesn't Frannie hold some sort of saints youth scoring record, playing as a striker ? ...which made his 1 goal in a millenium at first team level even more remarkable. K.

You mean Trevor Hockey, aka 'the werewolf' ? Now there was a player. Saw him playing for Norwich once many years ago when I was at uni there. Sent off in the first few minutes. As to this thread, the set up at Saints now seems excellent, the squad pretty strong (and will be better when Holmes and McLaggon are in it) and if I hadn't seen most of the games with own eyes I'd assume we'd have won 3 or 4 by now. How we've gone 6 league games without a win with this team in this league is beyond understanding. K.

Good grief! The swear filter took out 'until' because I put it in brackets, as in ( until someone ..... ) but without a gap. Isn't this getting just a bit silly? K.

I actually think we have more chance of winning 2- or 3- nil than of 1-nil. At 1-nil, if they attack a bit near the end of the game we will go to pieces yet again as the crowd gets nervous and makes the players nervous... result 1-1 or worse. Whereas at 2 or 3 up maybe we will gain some confidence and stay positive *****il someone remembers Leeds) K.

Good grief no! It's nothing like as streamlined as that. K.

Yes I'm glad you compliment each other well Dean, but more importantly do you complement each other? I have this awful vision of the oppostion midfielders running past James and Hammond as they pause to say, "Oh well done, Lloyd. You really are good at this game." "On the contrary Dean, you are the best I've seen in this division. And such a fetching haircut too." K.

They are not brighter and they are not thicker , but that does not mean exams are easier as such . It means they are working hard and are being better prepared. When Roger Bannister ran the fiorst 4 minute mile it meant he was the best in the world. Now it is almost common place. Does that mean the mile has got shorter? No. It means that modern athletes train better and have better equipment. Ditto students. More of them achieve good grades but it doesn't mean they are inherently more intelligent, nor that exams have got easier Of course that does mean that someone who gets a grade A now might not have done so 20 yearsd ago when students weren't so well 'trained', but then Ussian Bolt might not have run so fast in plimsolls on a cinder track either! K.

Wikipedia (not reliable I know) says he's 5'10" and calls him a winger/forward. Sounds as if he started as a winger but had a successful season or two as a striker at Cork. If the rumour is true maybe Pardew sees him as a sort of generic forward ...playing on the wing til/unless McLaggon or Holmes displace him , and as back up to Paterson and Saga alongside Lambert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_O%27Donovan K.

[quote=SaintRichmond;432016" I would have adopted the Lawrie Mac approach ..... " OK, if you won't give 100% whilst we are PAYING you 100% .... then you won't get a game ...... and kindly pass that on to your Polish Team Manager " ......... THAT would have worked Where we are now I agree it's best for all that he goes, but to be fair to the bloke he WAS giving his all to Saints, and scoring goals, until Lowe in effect said "Ok if you won't take a pay cut then you won't get a game and kindly pass that on to your Polish team manager." We stopped playing him, brought in Stern John - much the same sort of player and also on big wages - and loaned him to anyone who'd pay him. It's not a good way to instill loyalty. For me he's not shown any lack of effort this season. Had a good game early on, then was dropped again. What scope is there to show commitment as a 90th minute sub? As I say it's best for us and for him that he goes given the situation and the history, but do we really have to slag off any player that goes? K.

We *do* have a good fanbase that has stayed remarkably loyal though a rough patch , but TDD is right. If you think it's tough following Saints try Chester for recent pain, but overall my respect goes to the fans of any of those L2 clubs that everyone knows will never in their wildest dreams get higher than L1 for any lenght of time. To turn up regularly at Rochdale, Bury, Hereford, Chesterfield, torquay etc demands an amazing level of loyalty -- or is it merely masochism? At least we can dream. As to whingeing at the Brum game, there wasn't any at all near me in the Kingsland Centre, where the real hardcore fans sit ;-) K.

I think you should do it. After all Pompey fans are known for their sense of humour and tolerance. What a chuckle they will have when you walk through Paulsgrove. ;-) K.

Quite. Rasiak is a proven goalscorer at CCC level, never mind L1, and will do well at Watford or anywhere similar. He just isn't quite up to premiership standards. As to lazy, well to be fair to the bloke he does put in reasonable effort. He's one of those players that looks slow even when they are running fast. His main job though is scoring goals and he does that. Saints messed him about under Lowe, so we can hardly complain that he wants out, and given that he does want out, a move to a CCC club rather than a L1 one is best all round. You could guarantee he'd score againt us if we played his team. Losing his high wages alone is a plus, let alone any fee we might get. As others say, a nippy winger would be a good replacment, becasue we don't need another striker really *if* Saga is staying. K.

The first one was a clear penalty IMO. The second was debatable. The Lambert push even I wouldn't have given. So I'd put the 2 or 3 penalties as 1, 1/2 and 1/4 = 1 and 3/4 penalties personally ;-) The ref was the worst I've seen for ages. How he missed Saga basketball dribble in the second half I'll never know. K.

Heard he was on a strop. He never was a safety player though was he? K.