sandwichsaint

Cup tied? (presumably?)

This! I'm thoroughly looking forward to it - have seen an average of 8-10 games a season for the last 40-something years and have only ever seen Saints play Man Utd. once previously (at the Dell when we were both in the second division 1975?, Grand National day, Buchan/Macari?/Pearson? type era). No 6-3 or grey shirts or rolling-over-and-having-our-tummies-tickled for me. I've done the hard yards and the Lowe years - why not enjoy a game like this? The FA Cup been's brilliant to me this year, Dover away at Gillingham, home to Aldershot, then away to Huddersfield has been an absolutely footie-tantastic cup run - great atmospheres at all three games, some genuinely exciting football, and a real chance to 'live the dream'. No good crying about the spilled league points now - they're gone - let's embrace this game with the strongest team we can, put up a dare-to-dream performance, and show the country that Saints are really back on the football map. COYRS!

How very very sad. FWIW I shall be wearing a very natty Bruce Springsteen/Smiths cross-over scarf that I bought in my local market.

Number 62? Surely shome mishtake?

I've seen Kleba Chala play! (away at Derby, sub for about 10 mins, was that his only Saints appearance?)

I'll get slaughtered for this one but I thought Jason Euell DAJFU. Williams and Telfer were both excellent. People forget how good Dean Richards was for us. Guthrie was good. I used to love Tommy Jenkins. Lloyd James was never going to be a Prem player but he improved massively over his two seasons and always gave '100%' for the team.

No not really; I did it for the Derby away game when a relatively small number of tickets went on open sale, drove down Sat for the home leg, drove down overnight Mon/Tue for tickets to the away, and drove to Derby on the Thursday, there were about eight of us there that night and others joined from about 5am onwards - tickets in hand at 8.30, job done. The big saving to camping out is you get away at 09-00 (07-00 today) and can return to work (as oppossed to arriving at 08.00 and leaving at 11.00 say?). What are the queues like today, haven't seen or heard much? I think people with a ST underestimate the 'stress' that some people will have to endure hanging on the phones literally all day; I was one of the lucky ones, only four hours on two lines till I got through this morning, would have done more work this morning if I had travelled down overnight and back at 07.00 this morning!

Through on the JPT hotline at 12.40 after trying both numbers pretty solidly since 08-30 this morning, well chuffed as I was 50-50 on driving down last night and camping over, £50 saved on diesel! I was queueing for 10 minutes and then the face to face transaction took at least 10 mins to go through! A couple of time saving options for the future: 1 The Carlisle tickets are issued as straight duplicates of the Man U tickets - any changes can be made via the ticket office after the game. I heard all sorts of weird and wonderful combinations (of tickets and locations) going on in the background and my guy had to wait a couple of minutes to find me my Carlisle tickets .. I was quite happy to have the same seats but lots of people appeared to be making different choices ... this was confirmed when he came back and said he couldn't do the same seats.... duh! 2 Charge 50 quid for the United tickets (and pro rata the reduced prices) and include a 'voucher' for one remaining home game (or a choice of three games) (or one specific game) which we can then cash at our leisure after the big rush subsides.... a massive windfall today for NC and BT but I can't help but think that the local economy has taken a huge four-hour hit this morning! Good luck everybody else, keep dialling, you will get through (eventually).

Anyone know how to receive this on Sky plus if you are out of area?

My car too and I absolutely love it; it's top all-rounder for somebody that wants a car that does a bit of everything and all at a reasonable price. Not sure I can get those mpg figures though. I'm happpy with 38-40 in 'mixed' day-to-day driving, and can get 44 on a long motorway trip .... you'd have to be pretty frugal to get over 50 mpg! TBF I do carry permanent roof bars and 4 bike carriers; what do these add to fuel consumption? Does cruise control add much to fuel consumption?

Chin up people - County are going strongly and if they maintain their current form they will take points off our rivals too. A dissappointing but not totally unexpected outcome, 7 points from our next three games will see us nicely back on track. PS Has anybody ever started a 'ref' thread after a game we've won or are refs only ever 'bad' when we lose or draw?

Ye, got tickets for Walsall a, Charlton a, Hartlepool a. Might queue up on the phones all day Tuesday for Utd tkts, or might drive down overnight Monday and camp out at the TO, or might just give it a miss and watch on tellybox. You got a thing with angry Jonny?

Get over yourself you bigggg girl .... you bought a ST in an area where u know that for any big game you will have to move ... some minimum wage temp in the TO messes it up.... deal with it ... you were at the game today .... get down the TO an hour before the game or get round there after the game ... job done. Don't whinge on here about how schitt the TO is ... you got your ticket .. job done !!!!! If you don't wanna bang on the boards then just do a swap on here ... you got a ticket ... STFU .. !!!!

I bet D'Urso is involved somewhere ....

If that was the outcome (eg keeping AL / AOC / Guly / Puncheon) then I think all fans would (should!) be 'delighted' - I certainly would be! LOL at the comments 'Guly's not a striker'; no he's not, he's a 'footballer'! HCDAJFU in half a dozen different roles, including scoring five in four games (or what ever it is). Not sure where a new striker would play without upsetting what we already have? RL seems to be back near to his best, Guly's on fire, and Barnard's battling for a place, with Connolly behind that and the midfielders contributing what level of striker would we have to sign to improve on 18 goals in four games? Probably won't happen in a window but longer-term we need the next level of keeper, I think KD has been a great servant and Bart does a decent job when he comes in, but Smithies (Huddersfield) or Murphy (Scunny) would be better long term bets than what we have. Let's keep the team spirit that NA has undoubtedly built and then strengthen significantly after we are promoted.

It was Blackstock away at Newcastle.

Pretty avarage player all round, certainly nothing to suggest he is better than our current three strikers, a PL hat trick against a **** poor west ham not withstanding. His sixth season as a pro and he has played 172 games and scored 44 goals which is roughly 30 games and 7 goals a season - hardly prolific for a striker (he has also scored none in seven for the Republic of Ireland). Maybe he will turn out to be another one 'more suited to the higher levels of football' but I'd be surprised if he scores any more than another 2 or 3 in the remainder of the season.

It's a real shame but I guess it's just a sign of the way the game has gone - League positions, promotion, avoiding relegation, seems to be the be-all and end-all for every team. Some of my favourite games and probably some my greatest Saints moments have been cup games, just like they will have been for everybody else. Perhaps it's different further down: I'm going to see Dover at Huddersfield on Saturday and there's a real buzz around the area - Dover have sold over a thousand (that's the equivalent of their regular home gate). I went to the Gillingham and Aldershot games which were both excellent and I guess the momentum and atmosphere just builds from round to round, I think people were disappointed when the draw was made but they are over that now, they just want to go out and enjoy the day in a proverbial win, lose or draw sort of a way. Maybe for a game like Saints v Blackpool the familiarity of live games on TV has dulled the attraction? 20 or 30 or 40 years ago people would have gone along out of curiosity to see the 'big' team and to measure the difference between the leagues, nowadays every last kick and tackle is dissected to the level where there is nothing 'new' left to see? I think NA is in a difficult place selection wise, hopefully Saints will put out a decent side, and the fans that do go (18k?) will see a decent game; my hope is for no injuries and no replay and for Saints to draw Dover in the fourth round! (not been to Huddersfield, anyone got any decent pub recommendations, seems like its always a pretty good away day when we go there)

Can't blame the players for looking to maximise their gains; does it say who has offered to sponsor his car bumper for the next 36 months? Scrapes-R-Us? Darren's Dents? HeavenlyBodies.com?

Great results over Xmas (unfortunately I've missed both games, I was sitting on tickets for Walsall charlton and daggers for my Xmas Saints fix). Let's hope we have something in the tank for Monday... COYRS!

The forecast was for -5 to -6 overnight for the three preceding days. If charlton were serious about playing the game they should have got the pitch thawed out and kept it semi-thawed over those three days. This would have been perfectly do-able with a team of people, decent covers, more than one blower, and straw bales. Ad far as I can make out they didn't do any of those things! To the point that they seemed to be taken by surprise that the shaded areas were worse affected and that they were relying on the sun to go round to help thawing ! Durso gave them an extra 30 minutes and they still didn't get it right. 100percent CHarltons fault!!!!

I thought he was a whole field of fish?

Yep, that'll be League One, where 18 months feels like a lifetime.

Z cars Nationwide Ask the family Dave Allen It's a knockout Home Internationals soccer tournament (feat Ron Davies) Proper telly (and start a 24/7 Coogan channel too)

The ref only inspects what the home team put in front of him. How did it pass a pitch inspection on friday ... what time of day was that done? Did Charlton take readings yesterday at 10-11-12-1-2-3 oclock? .... looking at the comments on their website the groundsman only 'popped in'; on xmas day! Why did charlton think they could get it on with schit covers and ONE blower (when the forecast was -5)? Where was the straw FFS??? Why did it appear to be a surprise that the shady bits were the most frozen? ..... I also wondered about both linesman being on the same touchline .... but would leave big 'blind spots' ... and would still require a touch judge on the other side ... the rules just don't allow for it. Biggest MISSED trick .... why didn't they just pull the sidelines in 2m-3m both sides ????!!!!