sandwichsaint

Cards on the table - Saints born and bred but Hampshire exiled. 4th generation me, pretty much all my family on both sides are Saints fans, insisted on my 2 lads being bought up in the faith, and they've done me proud in this respect! My first game v Sheff Weds 1966-67, I've seen Saints here there and everywhere since then, home and away, rain or shine, come hell or high water! Never had a season tkt (tho would love to!), financial circumstances/other commitments/geographical distance has always mitigated against it. I think my 'personal best' is the JPT season when I saw about 20 games home and away. I saw 15+ games last year and have seen 5 this year so far so hopefully will see somewhere between 15-20 for the remainder of the season. I'm not an uber fan but I think I do my bit: I have three points in relation to this thread: I hate it (Hate It!) when a big game comes up and it's first dibs to season-ticket-holders-plus-one ! WTF does this come from? Big game - ST holders can bring a friend/partner/hanger-on, over and above PAYG customers? Sorry, I don't get that. This one I do get, but it's equally annoying! When it comes to a big game the tkt office wants to know how many HOME games you have been to. I understand that the club gets revenue from 'home' tickets and nothing from away tkts, but in what system does three home games trump six away games? For the allocation of Wembley tkts for one ... Which brings me to my third gripe... I think 'local fans'/ST holders totally underestimate the size of our exiled/travelling/latent fan-base. A common truism on here is that 'everybody who wanted one got a tkt for the JPT final', I can tell you for a FACT this isn't true. That season my eldest and I had been to about 40 games home and away (and we got Wembey tkts, but it was very, very tight), my other nipper was away first year at uni and had only seen about three games that year (but up to 10 a year for the previous five year); he didn't get near a tkt. Mrs Sandwich had probably seen 4-5 games a year for the previous five years but she didn't get near a tkt ...... would people please not keep posting posting on here 'that everybody who wanted a tkt got one'. I could have used two more, and I'm sure that other people could too. They would certainly have been put to better use than the ones that I was sat with (top rows, directly behind the goal: people on mobile phones, people in jester hats, people going down early for a pie at HT, people that didn't know the names of any players ... I have to think I was in section for the players's families/SMS staff etc.???) Finally a story for you. A young lad about 9 joined our local cricket club a couple of years ago and he regularly turned up to training in a Saints shirts, good lad! Got talking to the parents and the whole family mum/dad/nipper are massive Saints fans; never picked up the connection but they live 160 miles from SMS and are Saints through and through. They are not of massive financial means (in fact they are of modest means) and dad has had some cancer-related up and downs, which have led to them having some understandable family up and downs. Dad is now fully in remission and runs a local Sunday football team - these guys are absolute salt of the earth, honest as the day is long, family types. Nipper is 11 now and is absolutely Saints mad (he knows more about Saints than me!) ... he's been to SMS three times .... no lack of passion there .... just a lack of opportunity and of a lack financial wherewithal ... for this family, to travel 160 miles to a match, pay for tickets and all the rest of it is literally a once-a-year, high-days-and-holidays (birthday treats) event. It literally makes me cringe the thought that one day they might buy tkts in block 43 and be jeered at by fellow Saints 'fans' - if that's the choice I'm embarrassed on their behalf and I'd rather they went to watch Gillingham or Charlton! Funny old game football.

Fack me! Where is the face-palm thingy on here?! One question! Why would you pay LOTS of money to build EXTRA seats, and then GIVE THEM AWAY? The club will make far more money over the next (five) years by slapping 5 pounds on every seat - pure profit! When we have spent that money on stabilising and then improving in the PL we will be able to gauge the demand for 'extra' seats.

If you have to ask the question, it's because you don't know the answer.

You driving there?

It gets worse! Q2 Who managed Swindon, Chelsea, England, Portsmouth and Spurs? FFS!!

That gully's krap... can't believe he's been picked for another away game!

80's FFS? Football was way better in the 70's .....

Fair play to him, thought he was going to be missing due to his bereavement?

Stay ?

Great draw for Totton, real chance of getting further from here. Dover went out on Saturday so no chance of last year's heroics being repeated; did Aldershot 2-0 in round 1, won 2-0 at Gillingham in round 2 (and against their ex-manager too), and gave a very good account of themselves away at Huddersfield in round 3 in front of 2,500 travelling fans .... happy days.

For me KD is probably our single most-improved player over the last 12 months. He's always had the shot-stopping ability (Brentford away a couple of years ago anybody?) and has always had that 'players' player' mentality, an absolute model pro in all respects. Always used to be a question mark over his consistency, his communication and his command of the area, and to a lesser extent (for me anyway, about his distribution). This year he has put all those negatives behind him and looks a man totally on top of his game, and very at ease in the roll he plays within the team and the group. Undoubtedly more great work behind the scenes by the ex GK and pychologist that is NA. This season I think he has been one of our stand-out players (one of many) and I feel very comfortable with him between the sticks. Definitely no vacancy there for the foreeeable future. None of that stops us looking for a third GK though although not sure Steel yesterday (why would boro sell?) is any better than Smithers or Flinders? Only saw the stream but thought Emnes looked v good and would definitely give us options in the wide areas - again why would Boro sell at the moment, and he will most probably end up on the bench at a 'big club'.

It's not just Chaplow tho is it? Look at the improvement in Kelvin over the last 12 months, in Hammond, in Lambert, and indeed in Chaplow, and in others as well. Adkins is just ticking all the boxes: the players are fit, they want to play, they want to play for each other and they want to play for Saints! NA has clearly set out the vision and equally clearly all the players are buying into it; once you have that you can start winning games of football, and NA has shown he has the nouse for us to consistently do that. What are the odds on us going unbeaten at home all season? We have beaten W Ham, Midds, Leeds, Millwall, Brum .... and to be honest none of those have got near us..... what's left? Cardiff? Seaweed? Hull? Palace? Pomski? Reading? Derby?Ipswich?... can you see us losing a home game on this form? ... I can't! COYRs

cheers mate!

anybody got anything?

I wouldn't have a problem with that, Martin did well at Reading and again on Tuesday at Palace. Fonte needs to get back to fitness and last season's form asap, tho TBF he was very good second half at Derby. Guess NA sees a lot more of them than we do so pretty sure whichever call he makes it will be the right one. Good to see some competition though, shame we haven't got a couple more of the youngsters challenging for a genuine place in the starting X1.

Surely Morgan has to start? KD Fr. HV JF. DF Chap. Morgan. Cork Gully. RL. Lallana (SDR) In a flexible 4-3-3, 4-5-1 sort of a way. Tuff on Hammond but we need to play our strongest side. We are at home, let's grab the bull by the wotsits and play our game. COYRs!

I'm available for cheap season tkts - can use 2 or 3 if anyone has any spares.

Hopefully it won't be less than 26,234, have to do without me tho, derby, reading and palace means a pause for money reinforcements this week.

Fair play to him! What an honest assessment.

A game of two halves. First half we were very good and looked well on top without really carrying a goal threat. Second half Palace raised their game and we didn't really have an answer. Bart 7, looked confident on what little he had to do, no chance with the goals. Butter 5, looked understandably rusty, crossing was very hit and hope. Martin7, solid Cork 7, wasted here, would rather have seen hoov and play Cork in mf Harding 8 in the first half and 4 in the second. Needless penalty, Holmes 6, put over a couple of really good crosses but didn't do enough to force his way into the Saturday team. Morgan 8, outstanding in the first half, over run in the second. Needs to start on a Saturday. WP 6, decent effort and understandably nervous. De rudder 4 massive disappointment and showed why he doesn't start on a Saturday. Great for first 15 mins but went rapidly downhill after that, palace defenders played him very easily. Forte 1, shocking display. Didn't look interested at all, v weak for a big bloke too. No where near food buff for the standard we are aspiring to. Reeves 7, worked hard throughout and always looking to do the right thing. Subs 4 too little, too late. Overall it went much as expected, first half we made a really good go of it, second half was like stepping back in a Saints time machine. Blue line- move on, we need a big performance on Saturday.

I enjoyed it . 15 quid, good night out, no one forced anyone to go did they?

What's the next word after massive?

Where's Dickson in all this? I know he played poorly in last round but surely he's good enough TDAJFU tonight?

Is it right they've moved the away fans down to the other end this season? Same side but down into the supermarket corner rather than up against the Holmesdale stand? Heard this second hand via a Palace ST holder, bit of a shame if they have.

Really looking forward to this. If NA is playing them then I'm pretty sure they are good enough! In the context of us being top (I'll write that again TOP!) of the Champs and under fairly big pressure to go straight up this is a 'relatively' low-key game and a great opportunity to blood the yoof. I for one am really looking fd to seeing the next generation; I always remember seeing Lallana come on for 15 mins away at WBA and you could see in those 15 mins that he absolutely had it, tomorrow night we will get to see a couple of our new top-boys playing mens football for a full 90 minutes. Brilliant! You stay in the pub or send your tkts back - 2000 of us will be there backing the team - Saints to win on pens after 2-2 at 90 mins and 3-3 at extra time, loving the league but you can't beat floodlit cup football!