Ken Tone

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'.

Is that con-TROV-er-sy or con-trov-Er-sy, or con-trover-sy? It's always controversial.

Well if the 'cap' fits .......

(derby; also local derby) British a sports match between two rival teams from the same area This is the definition in the Oxford on-line dictionary. Some dictionaries even omit the word 'rival'. Reading and Southampton are clearly in the same area, with grounds only 45 miles and just over an hour's drive apart according to google maps. The 2 teams compete for the same fan base in the towns in between, such as Basingtoke and Newbury, and are covered by the same local TV news show. So it's a derby game. But do we care ? No, not really, because it's not Portsmouth !

This is as likely as the story that Elvis piloted the ship to the moon, where Hitler is still living, apart from returning briefly to Earth to murder Princess Di, aided by the Roswell aliens.

Surely by betting on so many horses in one race, and each way what is more, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose overall even if one of them actually wins? Why not cut out the middle man and just give the cash away?

This the sort of thread I pay my £5 for. Can we move on to how to pronounce 'controversy' next?

Well just to add another slant to this fascinating but controversial topic --- To me a ruler is, and always has been, the correct term for a rigid meauring stick , be it a foot , 30 cm or a metre long. however a 'rule' is the correct term for a flexible measuring device, typically a metal rule of 2 metres upwards in length, that rolls up into a holder, eg

Well come on then, tell ......

Don't forget that in gaining those 6 points our goal difference would have improved by a MINIMUM of 2 more goals, leaving us at least 13 above west hamss gd, with them having to beat that in 4 wins and 2 defeats for us. So we'd need to lose quite badly , AND them win by quite large margins. If we win 2 more by better than the odd goals, then our position gets even stronger