Pat from Poole

I was a big Beattie fan, but in my time watching Saints I'd say that Shearer and Ormerod had a higher workrate than him.

I have no qualms in saying that i think Solent are top notch. Given that we are two leagues below the Skates it is impossible to complain about the coverage they give us relative to the Skates. They put our games on the FM frequency whilst the Skates are on medium wave. My only gripe is Tony Husband's commentaries. He's an excellent presenter, but he is a real curse for Saints and has a tendency to talk far too much about the scores in other games. Adam Blackmore and Laurence Herdman (sp) are superb, as good as anything you'll hear on 5Live. I've grown to really admire Merrington's analysis as well, you can't doubt that he knows his stuff.

Cheers.

Apologies, i just realised I've raised a query about the wrong game!!!!!!!!! I'm driving to Swindon so don't need to know about trains for Swindon. Would still be interested in any advice for Charlton though. On a further point, I'm not a ST holder, do we think we'll get the whole away end for Charlton (and therefore I should hopefully be able to get a ticket??!!!???)

Given it was just a friendly I thought it was pretty decent. A lot better than you'll get today with the cricket final being on.

Does anybody know of the best way to get reasonably-priced train tickets for this game? South West Trains are currently quoting me £50 for a day return from Poole to Charlton, claiming that the cheap advance tickets have already been snapped up. When I look on the SWT website, it seems to indicate that you can't try to reserve cheap return tickets more than 45 days before the date of travel. I was hoping to pay nearer £30 to be honest, £50 is massively over the top. Something doesn't quite add up. I also understand that you can't now buy a standard adult rail card, and it has to be a family with friends type combo (not much use if you're not taking kids with you, so I'm told) Any other websites worth searching out? Somebody has mentioned Megatrain to me.

FFS Are you still wittering on about Burley? You must be his agent. Seriously. Face it, he was an utter disaster at Saints regardless of getting us in the play-offs. He wasted an utter fortune on complete crap.

If he is picked regularly and playing in a team which gives good service, he'll get us 20-25 goals this season, could be the difference between getting in the play-offs and missing out. I remember when he scored plenty in our play-off season that he regularly scored away from home where he got a bit more space. If we can get some pace on the wings and increase the speed at which we attack, he'll invariably get more space in home games as well. He is the best finisher we have. However, the wages are a definite issue.

Agreed. If you pay your money you should leave when you feel like it. Many a time I've seen us 2 or 3 goals down and playing crud and decided not to stay until the end. I think it's better to walk out than to chant abuse at them or slow handclap etc.

I know I shouldn't have laughed at that, but much LOL'age.

John Parkin? What with Murty being at Saints as well we'd have the fattest side in the country. Campbell-Ryce is quality but wouldn't drop to League 1. Alex Pearce is a good shout.

A decent list. You missed Graham Potter, Craig Maskell, Paul Moody, Alexei Cherednik and David lee though.

I must admit, I rather admired Pardew when he used to really wind up Wenger. I think at one point Wenger hated him more than Ferguson and Mourinho put together.

No, I remember reading about the MOTD2 thing in the papers at the time. Haven't looked on Wikipedia since they said the manager of the Dutch Under-21's was our new manager (when it was actually Poortvliet).

Has Pardew signed him before?

Wise did get Leeds relegated from the CCC in the first place, if memory serves.

Pardew seems a bit of an odd chap. Think he got in a bit of trouble last season when he was a pundit on MOTD2 and he was talking about a challenge when a player grabbed hold of an opponent to stop him getting to the ball, and Pardew described it as raping him. Think there were a fair few complaints from viewers, and I'm not sure if he has appeared as a pundit since. Apart from his experience at Charlton, he has a pretty good record. I don't think he could do much about Charlton going down from the Prem, but he was largely responsible for them going down from the CCC last season, which was criminal given that they would have received a SKY parachute payment last season. He has something to prove, never a bad thing.

Fret not, there's no way Adams will get the job.

Shame about Lancashire. Tough ask to make the grade in the game if you're not a born star. There just seems to be something not quite there.

He'd be superb for us. He is going to be a top manager.

It is a very long season. Many a poor decision have been made in haste.

Am I right in thinking that he played for Saints at some point in his career? He has done astonishingly well at Bury, their fans think he is a God. Think he also did pretty well at Rotherham after they went into admin a couple of years ago. There will come a point when he will get a move to a biggish club. Problem is, after all the fanfare of the last 10 days or so, most Saints fans would be very underwhelmed by him. However, I'd take him over the frankly insane Boothroyd any day. I am hoping we get Strachan or Pearson, our two best managers of the last 10 years (including Hoddle) but Knill is probably a far more realistic possibility.

Much LOLage. Rupert boasted that his young Saints were going to storm the League. And still some people defend the clown.

Sol Campbell is on about £100,000 a week at Portsmouth. Dean Windass isn't a bad shout though.

Keegan picked Wise for England in Euro 2000, if memory serves. Think I saw him play against the Germans in Charleroi and possibly also Romania. I too think Wise is an extraordinarily good bet at 33-1. Oldknow wants somebody who knows League 1, Wise knows it very well through his experience at Leeds (not sure if Millwall were in this League or CCC when he was there).