Fowllyd

Or haddock harrasser? Or indeed beluga botherer - the sturgeon that is, not the whale, which be altogether too mammalian for their tastes...

Because they built stands for people to sit in perhaps?

Pollack porker? Gurnard groper? Elsewhere, here's a bit from today's Grauniad... http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/dec/22/avram-grant-african-nations-cup-portsmouth Ah, the travails of Pompey - truly a gift that keeps right on giving!

Ruth Kelly is working in the ticket office at SMS?

I thought this bit in the article was very well put: Then, reading on, it makes me realise how far we've come in such a short time - and also how far we still have to go. But at least now it's clear that we have people running the club - at all levels - who are properly equipped to get us there. And I'm sure they'll do just that.

No, he just fell to the floor, clutching his Achilles tendon...

That's a good shout - he was excellent against us in the JPT the other day.

No, it's not just you. If you add a few words of your own choosing here and there it does start to make sense though!

That equaliser vid is brilliant. I love the way that you can see Holt eventually getting up and jogging back down the pitch, way too late to help his defence. Ha f*cking ha - love it!

According to some observers, it was another player (Doherty or Docherty perhaps?) who got booked in the first half. Holt was booked in the second. And he should have been booked a second time and thus sent off for his play-acting at the end there. Norwich were an odd mix I thought. They played some lovely stuff, with Hoolahan (in particular) and Russell at the heart of most of it, but they were more than happy to kick us like hell as well.

You want some?

Yep - in fact it was Holt's theatrics that caused said concentration lapse in my view. Their players were too busy protesting to the ref, plus Holt didn't get back to help defend (and, fat or not, he's big and strong in the air). I thought the funniest part was that, having tried to to get Antonio sent off, Holt was then clearly protesting that he needed the trainer on to assist him, even though he was off the pitch at the time. Fat fool. If Norwich's manager felt aggrieved that his team didn't win then he has a point - they should have done. But, as they only went one goal ahead, the match was always open. As we've seen so many times over the years, if you don't make your dominance pay then you can lose out. Norwich did, big time.

Agree with much of that. After Morgan was replaced by Wotton for the second half, we looked way inferior to Norwich. They played a very fine passing game, with Hoolahan at the heart of pretty everything good that they did. And they cut through us far too easily. That said, we did insist for most of the second half on giving them all the space they wanted. We looked very good for the first 20 minutes or so; could maybe have scored a second in that time but didn't. The rest of the first half I saw as being pretty even. I do find it frustrating that we seem to revert to hoofing the ball up the middle far too readily. We did that for almost the entire second half tonight; given that our best spell coincided with our best passing football I find this hard to understand. On the positive side, of course, we kept right on till the death, and got our reward for perseverance. And I thought it was just hilarious that Holt's play-acting turn at our end helped us get that equaliser. He should have been booked for that, and thus sent off. Still, he got his just deserts in another, more fitting way...

The only advice I'd offer is to get him to a vet as soon as you can - may end up costing you a few quid, mind. If that's likely to be a problem (the money side, that is) then you could try the PDSA. Edit - you can find the PDSA here: http://www.pdsa.org.uk/

Don't be silly. Of course they won't need to take penalties on a train, it simply makes sense for MLT to coach them there. He has to go to London quite frequently I believe.

I think maybe you've misread something - this particular debt is actually a taxi bill, as 'Arry insisted on being chauffeur-driven from Sandbanks every day.

Interesting reading - ta for posting it. And the first comment below the article itself gives a neat, succinct summary of the Skates' current position.

Yep - check the linked post. Curioser and curioser...

Look at the more successful English teams of the era in question - Liverpool and Forest to name but two - and you'll see very little, if any, hoofing going on. A long-ball craze gained some ground in the early eighties, when Watford got promoted to the first division and stayed for a few seasons playing that way. They were emulated by a few other sides, most notably Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday. In the replay against Wednesday in 1984 they played their usual highly muscular long-ball game; we passed the ball around them and won 5-1. Saints did indulge in hoofball under Branfoot, but had never done so prior to that. You'll see long-distance headers just like those throughout the game now, just as you did then. It's a question of whether that type of play is the rule or the exception; for both teams in that particular clip it was very much the latter. The best part of the clip (obviously enough) is Nick Holmes bringing the ball under control and curling a shot round Brucie from miles out.

Now that is just priceless! Think I'll keep on giggling at that one all day...

One of the papers (quoted on the Pompey takeover thread in the lounge) said that this loan was from the same source as the £15M they got earlier in the season - to wit, a businessman from Singapore. All very bizarre, I have to say - but damn funny with it! Edit: just checked and the loaner's name is Balram Chainrai.

Wonderful - thanks for that. Nick Holmes' superb winner in the 3-2 victory against Liverpool at the Dell the previous season is on the same clip, between Keegan talking and Wallace's goal. Not that I needed to tell you that, of course! Now that 1983 game was an amazing match, won by a great goal. And Worthington's wonder goal for the Trotters against Ipswich - I could watch that over and over. When asked about the goal afterwards, Frank said that he thought about passing back to the keeper, but decided to do the simple thing. Priceless.

A great season indeed - certainly our best ever, or at least in my lifetime. A couple of points... Once the team had settled, we played with three at the back - Reuben Agboola sweeping behind Holmes and Wright (an indication of Nick Holmes' ability was how well he adapted to that position). Mills and Dennis were as much midfielders as full backs (I remember Mick Mills saying as much in an interview at the time); Williams and Armstrong formed a pretty awesome central midfield partnership. That makes three up front, though you could argue that Frank Worthington actually played just behind Wallace and Moran. So, we had wing-backs and a player in the hole, well before those terms came into popular use! We played some superb football; our defence was as good as I can remember it being, though I think we scored fewer goals than we had in previous seasons. I don't recall Allan Curtis being with us that season; he was a classy player, but had a lot of injury problems and never really looked as good for us as he had done for Swansea. I'd agree with TT about Kenny Armstrong though - and Ian Baird was our backup for Moran or Worthington! A final word on Frank Worthington. I'll never forget his pass to Dennis in the build-up to Danny Wallace's first goal against Liverpool at the Dell (the BBC's goal of the season). Frank received the ball from Mark Wright in the centre circle, facing his own goal. He took one touch, then flicked it over his right shoulder with his left foot; the ball landed right in the path of Dennis, who was haring down the left wing. Hardly what I'd call a weak link.

It's always good to see someone who's open to rational persuasion.

Was about to post much the same, then saw yours. When Williams left he was at his peak, a terrific midfielder. We all used to sing that he was better than Hoddle - and he was, too. But then he went to Arsenal - a team which, at that time, didn't really bother too much about the midfield. So he spent a couple of seasons simply watching the ball go over his head a lot of the time. Then they moved him on to Luton (I think). Comparisons to Steven Gerrard are not misplaced I think, though Williams never scored as many goals as he perhaps should have done.