Colinjb

I was born in Ashford, Kent and stayed there until I was 10 years old. My Dad moved jobs and that mean the family moved on to Colden Common, as a result of spending my teenage years in Hampshire I started following Saints but I wouldn't say I was a fan yet. While I was in Hampshire I mainly supported non-league Margate as I saw them play quite a lot through my Dad's friendship with their club secretary. As time went on though I gained more independance as I grew up, through my friends I started following Saints more and more, even going to the occasional game when I could afford it. When I went to Uni in Coventry back in 2002 it became impossible to follow Margate in any serious way and my support for Saints completely took over. Match of the Day and the internet forums of the time became a lifeline. Also that we made the FA Cup final in my first year away from home and the interest that drew meant that a lot of people would talk to me about Saints as an ice breaker, by this point my support for the club had been absolutely cemented. I continue to live in Coventry with work but I remain a Saints fan, the pain of being ineligible for a ticket to the 2003 Cup Final has driven me to hold a season ticket whenever I can now afford to, I don't want to miss out on anything like that ever again.

Absolutely. That we have competition for every single place, and we are still looking to strengthen, is fantastic. It's been years since we've had such a deep squad.

Can't quite see it myself Turkish.

This. With Chaplow and Hamster as more then capable backup.

Anything short of automatic promotion will be seen as failure by some. A season of mid-table safety would however be a great foundation to have going forward, ours is after all a five year plan, not five month. Norwich set a stunning precedent last season but they are the exception, not the norm. It would be great to match their achievement but a more humble target would not be a failure, it would be a sign of progress.

There are a few Evertonians I know who will be livid at that.

Watford have just lost one of their key strikers to Swansea. To lose Sordell would be a hammer blow to them, no doubt they would need some serious compensation.

The prices I have are as follows: Adults S/Sleeve, £42 Adults L/Sleeve, £47 So a price rise of £2. Not that much actually. As a previous poster said as well the shirts have been £40 for a very long time now so that's not actually too bad. As for the £3.50.... That's the postage cost. Hardly a tax.

This is one of the reasons why I do love our manager, every now and then his media facade slips and he comes out with something quite revealing.

Even Coventry City managed a full house against Chelsea. I wonder how many were supporting the home team.

Owen Hargreaves

Whatever happened to the idiot child that dropped a fire extinguisher from the top of an office block nearly hitting a policeman?

Odd, I can't watch 'The Simpsons' on Sky Go, it's not available on the service for some reason. Very odd.

We were generally forgettable that game though.... especially with Papa Waigo playing in a defensive role to try and counteract Leed's threat from the left wing. We didn't really click until the end when Harding (I think) flashed a long range shot just wide. Was a bloody cold day too.

That. Is. Outstanding.

That and no hand pump ale in the concourses.

Sadly we didn't learn that after Idiakez, Makin etc. Murty looked ok though until his injury against Brum in the league cup. He never really came back from that sadly, remember seeing him at Walsall in December and he was defensively ok, but couldn't pass a ball to save his life. I was really dissapointed to see Paterson go, but ultimately it was right for him to leave and Barnard to come in, conviction pending anyway. Lloyd James in particular always felt like a bit of a scapegoat to me, he was after all a central midfielder played at Right back for a large amount of time.

If there's a moderator about anywhere, please lock this.

Obviously wouldn't accomodate his whippets at the training ground. His loss, not ours.

He is still part of the scene at Donny, but given he's only got about 22 appearances (according to wikipedia) since he joined full time shows that he is playing at least on and off up there. Was nice of him to have a cameo at the JPT final. Along with Davis, Mills and Wotton they provided an interesting link to our past on that fantastic day.

Let us not let a smartarse ruin a perfectly good thread now.

It is amazing to think that one way or another he was around until near the end of the January 2010 transfer window. Only 18 months ago. He, an international striker with champions' league experience was being kept out of the side by Rickie Lambert, who had never played abover League 1 level at the time. Just shows, horses for courses and all that.

For our first game in the Liebherr era, 2 years ago v Millwall, our starting eleven looked like this: Southampton: Davis, Murty, Harding, Schneiderlin (Thomson, 83mins), Perry, Thomas, Wotton, Lallana, Paterson (Gobern, 69mins), Saganowski, James (Gillett, 74mins). Subs not used: Bialkowski, Holmes, Pulis, Lancashire. Scorer: Paterson (51mins) -------------- Paterson --------- Saganowski ------------- Lallana ------- Schneiderlin -------- Wotton -------- James Harding ------- Thomas ----------- Perry ----------- Murty ------------------------- Davis -------------------------- Subs: Thomson, Gobern, Gillett, Holmes, Pulis, Lancashire Only four of the starting eleven now remain and three of the back four featured in less then half our games that year. Frankly, given our experience in League 1 level it was a really good draw that they managed against Millwall, a side who won promotion that year. Amazing to think how far we have come.

My father grew up a Charlton Athletic fan. Now he is a season ticket holder at Saints. It does happen.

From Millwall's reserves to Zaragoza, not a bad effort!