The Cat

Just have to play Boufal from the start every game. Him and Djenepo will cause most teams problems. First home win since April. I'd pretty much forgotten what that feels like. Fair play to them for turning that around after what was a pretty horrible first hour.

Ralph's said before that Obafemi needs to take a lot more personal responsibility for his fitness and that the club have done all they can to help him. If he's throwing fast food down his throat all the time then he's an idiot who will ruin the chance he has to have a decent career. We had similar with Luke Shaw who wasn't allowed to move out of his digs because the club thought he was too stupid to be able to cope on his own and would just end up in Nandos every day.

Pity because they were funny lads and behind the joking had a pretty serious point to make about the gentrification of our support and wider fan problems within top flight football. It's no coincidence that our support is better when it's midweek away and there's a higher percentage of more old school lads than a normal Saturday afternoon when the demographic leans heavily towards the replica shirt wearing bingo bus fraternity. It's a sad time when people get grief for having a bit of a laugh and trying to improve the pretty dire atmosphere that has materialised at many of our games.

Dave Beasant

Oh yeah, I know. I was just being silly. There's no train picture in the boardroom these days. One of Marcus and then Channon's cup final shirt and Le Tiss's shirt from when he scored THAT goal at Blackburn away.

I'm at St Mary's right now, just popped into the boardroom. No sign of Matt Crocker. Had to chuckle at the engraved board of former chairmen where someone has scratched Rupert Lowe's name out.

They refitted the home dressing room in the summer. Is this the reason we're so bad at home?

Sports Team at the Loft last night was pretty crazy. They are picking up new fans at a quick rate. Said Southampton was the smallest gig they are playing this tour mainly because they love the So Young guys. They'll be playing huge venues this time next year.

If they aren't as good as the drummer from Black Midi then I'm not interested!

Southampton is definitely punching above it's weight at the moment. It's impossible to compare it with similar size Southern cities such as Bristol or Brighton because they have much entrenched, more established music cultures. We also don't have a decent mid size venue like the BIC which is a pity because bands would certainly play here if we did. Aside from that though the scene is good. There's often 3 or 4 gigs a night now rather than 3 or 4 a week. I used to regularly travel to Brighton and London for gigs but don't have to do it anywhere near as often now. There was even a time when Pompey had much better stuff going on but, much like on the pitch at Fratton, we're smashing them now.

Great band. They just announced a gig at Heartbreakers in December. Think it's the same day as Villa away so going to have to try and get back sharpish for that.

I've seen Mystic Peach a few times and really like them. Hoping the do well for themselves because they certainly have something good going on. Hotel Lux are ok, although they are Pompey so I probably don't give them as much credit as I should. Is your son in law involved with Honeymooner or So Young?

Fair play. There's a decent scene here now and the hard work from people like her is vital in keeping it going. Was at Heartbreakers last night, 3rd on the bill were a new band from Southampton called Web who totally nailed it. They wouldn't have the opportunity if there wasn't so many gigs going on here now.

Rarely get anyone good there now, partly due to the terrible sound, also bands that sell Guildhall amounts of tickets generally do short tours and will miss Southampton out. Can't say I blame them because the Guildhall is a rubbish venue. It's also hamstrung by being an O2 Academy who have completely lost the plot over the last 5 years. Pompey Guildhall on the other hand seem to splash out a bit more on bigger bands although it means punters paying through the nose to attend because of the fees they command. They have booked Elbow and are charging £52 a ticket FFS.

Probably because Nick was the sane one from SISA. No one really ever held a grudge against him, it was some of the other more militant members that ended up pis sing people off.

Thought it was alright. Gave both sets of fans equal time to talk about the rivalry and it didn't get hung up on the dock strikes, obviously we had the old Pompey fans saying it was true but equally it was dismissed by ours as being made up. Some of the characters they interviewed from both sides made me laugh, and they clearly did a bit of research on the respective cities histories which was pretty well done. I imagine that when they commissioned the documentary they envisaged a lot more bother around the ground between the fans which would obviously have led to more exciting footage. When there wasn't much they had to fill the time with other stuff. Surprised they didn't make more of the policing operation which kept things quiet, fans from around the world watching probably wondered what all the fuss was about especially if they've watched their other episodes.

I know a few from here, but it was very much a case of meeting through Saints games way before internet message boards were a thing. Believe it or not, Turkish is actually vaguely tolerable in real life.

Not my cup of tea but good for the city to be putting on big live acts. Hopefully it will inspiee even a few people to get down to some of our smaller venues more regularly. Southampton has seen a massive upturn in the quality of live acts playing here over the past couple of years, there's been some amazing gigs at the Joiners, Heartbreakers, Loft, 1865 etc recently. Vinilo record shop has just booked Snow Patrol for the 1865 which is a big coup not only for them but for Southampton. It sold out in less than 24 hours. Again, not really my thing but definitely good for the city. They also have a lot more live stuff planned for the next couple of years. Bringing big bands to the city is great news, all these acts started somewhere though so it's important we support the local venues they once played at and keep them going so the next generation of artists have the platform to grow. Southampton will never be the sort of draw for bands like Bristol or Brighton but we now have an amazing bunch of people working their butts off to bring good music here. I'll be at Heartbreakers tonight. The Loft and Joiners next week. It's a great time for music in the city.

If anyone can stomach sitting in the home end there's always touts flogging tickets around the ground.

Always liked him in that amazing youth team we had. Good to see he's made a decent career for himself.

Years ago I met a guy off Saintsweb. We shared lifts to a few away games and then over time lost contact. A couple of years later I had an email from him which was meant for his girlfriend. Obviously I read it. It started off innocently enough, he was apologising for a argument he'd caused, saying how much of an idiit he'd been. It then took a rather dark turn, describing in some detail how he wanted her to tie him up and abuse him. Seemingly he liked being punished, so at the moment he's probably quite enjoying being a Saints fan.

Nelly Gao apparently walks around most of the time looking royally hacked off although it's hard to imagine many people inside St Mary's spend their days with a different expression at the moment.

Copa 90 are doing a derby days feature special about the game. Their stuff is really good, check out their Boca v River Plate one. Will be released on 17th November

Another good bet at the moment is for Pompey to concede near the end if they are a goal up. Was almost too obvious that Oxford would score. I did ok out of that and backing Liverpool for the win at 20/1 just before they equalised. No earth shattering amounts but a nice little bonus.

Mine was a culmination of a few things. Highest on the list is the overwhelming frustration about the absolute car crash we have become from top to bottom. A chairman with highly questionable motives for owning the club. Players who don't seem to care. The sanitisation of modern football. Light shows, the erosion of any type of terrace culture, the lack of effort from players on extortionate wages. At the moment it feels like the club is being leeched by a number of people and the gutless performance last night just highlighted what a total disaster we have become. We have no direction other than downwards. I'd probably feel more pride in the club if we were completely skint, playing in League One with a team cobbled together from youth players and free agents like Bolton. Having been to over 1000 Saints games all over the country and Europe I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've left early. Last night was one of them. I just felt numb to the situation which isn't something I thought would ever happen.