The Cat

Came from a horrible ball out of defence from Lyanco but people like him because he fist pumps after making tackles

You should hear the bloke behind me in the stadium. 10 minutes in and he'd already judged him as "not up to it" and "not good enough to play men's football"

My son's friend is in the U16's so has played with him. Apparently Ballard was decent last season but wasn't rated anywhere near as highly as Doyle. He then came back after the summer and just absolutely started smashing it to the point where quickly got moved up the age groups. Probably benefited from playing up at U18 a bit last season when we had a load of injuries but this season he's gone to the next level. Ballard, Doyle and Dibling from that age group look like they could be very interesting players. Wouldn't be surprised to see them start making first team squads later in the season for experience.

10 years ago, maybe longer. It was incredible for a few years. Amazing beer, ridiculous burgers and food. Great atmosphere. Legend has it Dani Osvaldo went in there one evening and bought everyone's drinks. Went downhill after the owner Max and his wife split up, he then bought another place (what was Chambers) and the Rockstone seemed to lose its sparkle. That was around the time he started arguing with reviews on Trip Advisor. It's been through a couple of different owners since I believe.

Only a couple of times. Surprised it shut down with that sort of attraction.

Agree with Wool House & Dancing Man, both excellent. Unfortunately I'm never in that part of town before a game. No mentions for the Rockstone yet which shows how far that has fallen. It used to be our regular for a good few years. For those people east of the Itchen Bridge there's also Olaf's Tun in Woolston which is top quality but only has room for about 10 people.

I've watched bits but never a whole game. It's largely funny because it's so bad, especially the refs who just seem to make a load of stuff up as they go along. The use of VAR has made our refs seem highly competent.

Barely go out before games now due to a lack of time but we normally go to Belgian & Blues if we do. Sometimes we stop in Cricketers in Woolston before walking over the Itchen Bridge but it's a bit crap. If you're coming from Bitterne way then Unity has some top beer and would be my choice.

Quality for gigs too. Love going there.

I find this sort of statement a bit silly really. People don't have to give into their kids and spend £50 or whatever on a shirt just because they whinge about having one. I have 2 teenagers both who have had season tickets since they were 6. In that time I've probably bought about 7 shirts in total and maybe twice have paid full price and that was probably a birthday or Xmas present.

Got told today about the recent funeral of a work colleagues brother who was a massive Pompey fan. They organised something Pompey related for the funeral, somehow Westwood found out about it and then just randomly turned up. He didn't know the bloke and no one there knew him, he just decided it would be ok to go along because the bloke also supported Pompey. Weird.

Ashley Giles has stepped down. Strauss to take temporary charge.

Sure I read he wants to play for another African country? Was it Nigeria? Maybe I dreamt it.

Has to be the way. Too risky to make wholesale changes. Town will be busy before the game, the Saturday shoppers might get a bit of a shock seeing so many pissed away fans wandering around.

You're forever a Saint. Best wishes to you and your family.

Did Newcastle panic buy anyone at the last minute? I was out at a gig so no idea what's going on.

Big game this afternoon is Sholing v Cirencester. 3rd vs 1st, a chance for Sholing to close the gap after their great win against Totton midweek.

Would be interesting to have him here and see exactly how good he is now and whether Ralph can get him back on form. As fans you never really know what's going on in the background at other clubs and the reason why a certain player is being overlooked for regular selection.

Maybe he'll say he was impressed with the atmosphere at St Mary's much like Lovren said he was at Anfield.

They only lost 2-1 despite having a player sent off after 7 minutes and some random in goal. Gambia are through. This tournament is just so crazy.

I'm giving Spurs a swerve because of the travel. Every season I go through the same thought process that it's just bizarre to have a stadium in London that is so poorly served by easily accessible tubes or trains. Going to Man Utd though.

Could have some sort of anonymous voting system. Give the club their seat number and they automatically get moved to into the middle of the Kingsland and forced to pay £80 per game to sit there and listen to each other shout bollocks.

Hopefully you're the nipper behind us who spends the whole game shouting "SHOCKING REF, THAT'S SHOCKING. SHOCKING" even when it's clearly the right decision.

I wouldn't sell him, instead get another player in that position who is better and have Redmond as back up/rotation. The players to get rid of are Djenepo, Walcott and probably Elyounoussi.

He's an upgrade but not a massive one. Generally a very good shot stopper but his kicking really isn't great so we wouldn't be in a much better position distribution wise. Got sent off for his part in a post match melee with Cardiff a few weeks ago so has been suspended since. Didn't do particularly well on their goal either. He's also a bit error prone. Imagine pelters McCarthy would get if he did what Johnstone did against Derby recently. I'd personally go all out for Henderson in the summer. Will cost loads more than Johnstone in transfer fee and wages but is far superior.