Ken Tone

Look, I'm a touchy-feely, wishy-washy, middle of the road, liberal, and even I say just chuck him out. Oh and by the way, sack May for cocking it up big time. Don't let the politicians pin it on some poor minion who'll lose his job to save her face

Yes I agree. PFC are about the same size of club as Preston or Huddersfield. Big history from way back, but now natural inhabitants of L1, or maybe NPC in good years. Hence my earlier post about returing to L1 not realy being a punishment --it's where they shoud have been all along.

And I hope you enjoy it. I'd go, but I'm afraid I'll embarrass the 'proper' away fans by singing the wrong song, being middle-aged and enthusiastic, or god forbid, .... sitting down ..... or even ....eating a sandwich. Oh the shame! Btw if anyone looks at the thread on away attendances and tries the link given http://www.footballforums.net/forums/showthread.php/277307-Championship-Away-Following-2011-12 they'll see that anything over 3000 will be the biggest away following by anyone this season at Middlesborough. Only the 2 Yorkshire clubs, Hull and Leeds ,for whom it is a local derby of sorts, have come anywhere near that. For a game live on TV at a bloody silly time, 6 hours drive away, I reckon that is actually pretty impressive.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/championship/9212717/Championship-clubs-to-vote-on-tough-financial-fair-play-plan-that-would-have-cost-QPR-a-15m-fine.html Well, possible new rules that the NPC clubs are about to vote on. We'd be ok because the Liebherrs converted the debt into equity, but most clubs whose owners only lend them money would be stuffed. Designed to stop another portsmouth etc presumably. Wonder how Reading would have fared under this. With £3m spent on a 34 year old, their policy changed radically with the half-way takeover by the Russian? That money must surely be a loan, for now at least, since the Russians have not yet been allowed to actually buy the club properly?

No. It'll take them to start L1 next season with a further points deduction before I'll feel less aggrieved. Bottom of NPC/top end of L1 is their natural home given the size of the club and their real resources. It's only been the artificial inflation of their spending that has got them up above that in recent years. Merely returning next season to where they should have been all this time anyway, is no punishment. They need to have a further deduction, or they will have effectively succeeded in cheating their way to a good run in the PL and a cup win with no real punishment, all paid for by the charities and others, including me as a taxpayer, that they have defrauded. If someone nicked your booze and went out, having a really good time and getting drunk at your expense, would you consider it enough punishment if they merely got sober afterwards, but neither paid you for your property nor was arrested? Their spending spree over the past 6? (8?) years is much the same in principle. In fact, they went out on the town several times at our expense.

I think that it is slightly worse than that. If we draw one , lose one, W.Ham only have to get a net gain of 5 goals, not 6, because if we are equal on goal diff , then goals scored count. At the moment I think we have scored only 3 more than them, so if we drew and they won 2 more, they'd presumably end up having scored more than us. So in short if we only get one point from the 2 remaining games then our goal difference must worsen by at least 1, and W.Ham might only have to win by 2 nil each game. And if our defeat was by more than the odd goal...... So if it's all the same to you I'd rather we won at Boro

True, but as someone else has said it was sung after sky sports reported that Reading were losing. I know, as a pathetic armchair fan that couldn't go to the match because I was afraid I might embarass Turkish, so I was listening to Radio Solent , watching sky sports and refreshing on saints web forum and the BBC web site, all at the same time. I heard the chant just after Sky put up the score 0-1 at Reading ...which by the way they did not correct for a long time.

Not in the NPC yet I know, but someone is surely going to buy Jordan Rhodes. Why not us?

Was thinking about this. I wouldn't put it past their manager to ban radios, phones etc to keep his players from knowing the scores of the other games. So those of you that are at the match might just mention (loudly) the pointlessness of them winning to their players ...even if it isn't true!

It would be interesting to see how he'd fare with Strachan if he aked him the same inane questions. Wee Gordie didn't take prisoners with the media.

Yes, but would be pretty tricky. With one draw and therefore one loss, our goal difference would go down by at least one (from the defeat) so West Ham would have to win both by only 2-nil each to better us, because by then they'd have equalled our gd but scored more goals, so would go up instead. If we lost one game 3-nil and drew the other, then west ham would just have to win both by any score. That 6-nil win of West Ham's against gutless Brighton really hit us. So in reality we need 1 win or 2 draws.

I read Birdsong some years ago, and really rated it. I gave up on the TV adaptation ... thought it was rubbish. Do read the book.

Just looked at the play-off dates --just in case ---and saw The npower Championship Play-off Semi-Final dates have been confirmed as follows - 1st legs 6th v 3rd - Thursday 3rd May 2012, kick-off 7.45pm* 5th v 4th - Friday 4th May 2012, kick-off 7.45pm 2nd legs 3rd v 6th - Monday 7th May 2012, kick-off 4.30pm* 4th v 5th - Tuesday 8th May 2012 OR Wednesday 9th May 2012**, kick-off 7.45pm. *Note - If Brighton & Hove Albion finish in third place, both ties will reverse i.e. Brighton's HOME leg will take place on Tuesday 8th or Wednesday 9th with the AWAY leg on Friday 4th May. ** Note - The exact date will be confirmed following the FA Cup Semi-Finals. The Final will take place at Wembley on Saturday 19th May, with a 3pm kick-off. Brighton won't finish 3rd of course, but why the special case? Home/away makes a lot of difference in the play-offs.

Yes. You do wonder why any business or organisation ever allowed them credit after last time (or the time before , or the time before that, or .....) 'Cash in advance or nothing doing' will surely be the message for the future IF they survive. For example why are St John's Ambulance still attending games given they are owed c£50k?

I had a courtesy car a while ago with built-in DAB that worked well. I'd really like to have DAB in my car as I'm a big fan of Radio 4 extra, and when I listen to sports on Radio 5 on medium wave the reception is rubbish North of Winchester but much better on DAB. So I looked quite closely at these PURE sets and read a lot of reviews. Most were pretty positive about the reception, but many said how messy the wires to the aerial and the power plug were inside the car. Plus my car has a heated front windscreen so I worried that the metal in that would mess up reception viathe aerial stuck inside. I'm still wavering. So please buy one Dell Days, and report back, so I can decide!

But if the creditors think they will get more than the £3 million from liquidation, they will not agree. If they don't agree then either Birch has to liquidate and sell off the assets, or it's gets complicated, and they certainly get a further points deduction.

So for me, firstly Birch seems a decent enough bloke trying to put as postive spin on an awful situation as he can without actually lying. Secondly they may or may not get a further points deduction for failing to pay the old CVA. Thirdly they're stuffed unless they get a buyer in the next month or so, who will have to pay c£5-10 million up front and then also fund a loss (because of the wages) for the next year or two. And even that depends on how the charge on the ground is interpreted by Chainrai and his lawyers. I got through as Fred, Bluey and Albert Road, but strangely my posts from Russell Hobbs, R O'Wenta and B.Reville all failed!

As an old friend of mine once put it..... 10% of **** all is still **** all.

Me again. And I think I am right!

That was me. I thought the no more points claim earlier was a bit far-fetched. In short , he doesn't know but is just hoping.

So allowing for a bit of hype, they probably have about £80,000 or £90,000 in their escrow account , equating to £800,000 or £900,000 pledged, and this apparently from fewer than 8/900 people, since some have pledged much more than £1000. The '250,000' on southsea common for the cup parade have really come through for them haven't they? What is more, some of those 8/900 people will be timewasters who will not actually find £1000 if it comes to it, and are just spending £2.50 (the admin fee) to make a gesture. So even if more pledge now, they will never raise more than a million or two --absolute tops -- not enough to give the creditors more than liquidation would, and so not enough to let Birch sell to them rather than liquidate. In short there is absolutely no chance of a fans buy-out, except maybe for buying/setting up a phoenix club after liquidation.

If it weren't for the football creditors rule, they could offload the high wage earner now, as Rangers have done because the SPL does not have the football creditors rule. The players' contracts are just contracts of employment, so legally they can be made redundant, sacked, etc, in exactly the same way as any other employee. The threat of the FL witholding its golden share is all that makes the players any safer than any of the other poor sods who Birch got rid of when he first arrived. The absurdity of the football creditors rule means that the people who are crippling the club financially are safer than the ones who work for relative peanuts.

Ah. Saw this just after I posted. If parachute payments are part of turnover, that gives them a much higher wage ceiling. So their only problem will be not being able to afford to pay them.... which has never botherd them before!

Blimey! IF they survive into L1 they're going to be in big trouble. Ben Haim's wages alone equate to about the whole first team's wages of many L1 sides. What will be their turnover in L1? Maybe £7 million? Ben Haim (£1.8 million a year), plus a few of the expensive 'stars' such as Halford or Mullins returning from loan (another £2million between them?) and they'll only have about £700k (ie about £12k a week) left for the whole of the rest of the squad. Add in a 15 point deduction for exiting admin without a cva, and life next year will not be 'Rosey'.