The Cat

The second one remined me of a Sensible Soccer own goal.

That was all highly surreal. Tadic was so good it hurt. My mate text me saying they were comparing him to Xavi on Soccer Saturday.

Indeed. I hope I'm still going to gigs when I'm a (more) miserableold(er)git

If I said somethng ridiculous to my mates in the pub before I game I'd sure as hell expect them to bring it up 6 months later and have a go at me for it. No different here. One of mine once said during an U18 game that McGoldrick would be better than Walcott. We still mention it. He laughs at his idiocy then moves on.

I used it for Swansea last year. They get you there early so plenty of time to drink away from the ground and don't get caught up with the official coaches which can get delayed through escorts. Decent of them to put on food too.

We haven't beaten them in the last 8 games. Is that the longest unbeaten run any team has against us at the moment?

The Wytches were ear splitting at the Joiners last night. Excellent gig slightly marred by someone jumping up to turn on an air con unit that probably hadn't been used in 5 years which promptly spluttered out water droplets everywhere. Give it a few days and people will be queuing up at A&E with the symptoms of Legionnaires disease.

Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve

The family in front of us have 3 x adults, 1 x OAP and 1 x U11. No idea how they get around it but they do somehow.

It's one adult per concession in the Family Stand. The 2 that sit next to us are brother and sister. She's early 20's, he's about 15. Definitely don't need 2 adults. You need 2 adults to get a free U11 ticket in that section. That's the only time you need 2 adults.

My mate still buys a programme at every game. I have to say they are very well put together with some decent artices, especially the ones about old games and players. I don't bother getting one myself though as I'm happy to just read his. If you consider that the price of them is the same as a godawful pint of beer in the ground they seem quite good value.

I have thought for a while that it would be a great idea to categorise all the clips of Saints lurking around the internet. Could be done on a season by season basis and added to as people find new ones. Would be one heck of a task though.

Presumably that means Mane won't be in the starting XI on Saturday because he won't get back until late tomorrow unless the club are laying on a chartered flight straight after the game.

They had ads on the screen when we were there for the home game with Liverpool. Kids tickets were "from £32". Probably still sold out.

There was an offer for Stoke where ST holders could buy 2 extra tickets at £10 off each in the Chapel. That relies on people knowing a ST holder who can get their tickets rather than making it easy and allowing them to go to the ticket office themselves.

One of the reasons I've been watching Eastleigh a bit this season is because their prices are pretty low cosidering they are in the Conference now. £12 for adults, £4 for kids and under 7's free. Thought about going to Aldershot a few weeks ago but it was £17. That's only £3 less than Pompey although comes with less chance of catching a disease.

Bugger all because they play most games behind closed doors at Staplewood. Games at St Mary's get about 500, more for FA Youth Cup. When we had Walcott, Lallana, Dyer etc in the youth team we easily had a few thousand turning up.

They all get FA money although I don't know how much.

I agree with this, and it's why most clubs support is now drawn from outside the city centres and made up mainly of those living in the suburbs or neighbouring villages. It's also why atmospheres have dropped off in the Premier League because your 45 year old Bank Manager from Lymington isn't as likely to join in with songs as your 22 year old mechanic from Sholing. We were discussing this at Spurs a couple of weeks back. How many people who live in and around their ground have a chance of affording match tickets? BUt ultimately it comes down to revenue, and the clubs don't necessarily care where the match going fan comes from as long as they come.

I didn't realise our most expensive matchday ticket was £52 or that a pie was £4. Some of the other clubs pricing needs more background than a simple spreadsheet. How many season tickets do Man City make available for £299? The same with Newcastle's £15 match ticket. Presumably these are in the family stand?

You are right in that we do seem to have quite a lot of female support compared to other clubs. I just think the reasonably low costs involved in setting up a team and the benefit to the local community in doing so make it a worthwhile venture. I'd be interested in hearing someone from the club detailing the pros and cons of doing so because obviously they'd have a far more informed opinion base than us. Regards the interest in crowd numbers, there are plenty of men's clubs in the depths of non league that get only a handful of spectators. Should they not exist either? I've watched Folland (formally Hamble/Aerostructures) a few times and there's been 50 or so people there.

Go to any kids Saturday morning training sessions around the area and see how many girls are playing wearing Saints shirts and you'd realise why. It's not just about having the women's team, it's about girls growing up having more affinity with the club as a whole. Why shouldn't they aspire to play for Saints just as many boys do?

Last kick of the game. John O'Shea. Don't think Long made it on the pitch, didn't see him in the 10 minutes I saw.

Rep of Ireland with a last minute equaliser in Germany.

I remember seeing him play away at Birmingham. He wasn't very good, but then nor were the rest of the team that day.