sandwichsaint

Some karp written on here today, I called it as 50-50 last Thursday relying on nothing more sophisticated than BBC 5 day forecasts, UK travel news and sticking my head out of the window from 60 miles away - this was always going to go to the wire (if we wanted to see any football today) , or we could have just binned it yesterday (or on Friday) and saved the masses a wasted journey/ruined day..... Charlton got 40 volunteers in on Thursday to clear the streets and the ground of snow and ice ... unfortunately they forgot to look at the forecast that said -4 to -5 on Thu, Fri, Sat evenings. Let's forget D'Urso (he calls it as he sees it) and put the blame where it properly lies on GREEDY CHARLTON ... they wanted their boxing day crowd and their programme and burger money .... unfortunately they could only provide Aldi-stylee tarps and ONE BLOWER!!! WTF do blowers cost to rent for a week from a tool hire company ... 50 quid a piece? Check the link on their website where the groundsman says he was so keen to get the game on 'he even popped in yesterday!' ... check that .... a fairly large-scale sporting event which involves 20k people travelling for their much-anticipated boxing day fare .... and the home club have a paid groundsman, his assistants, a handful of YTS kids and some local volunteers, all working round-the-clock to get the game on. Err, NO! .... for this big day out the groundsman just 'popped in' at some stage. Hence why today's conditions came as such a surprise ... the areas in shade were frozen and they needed MORE THAN ONE BLOWER.... FFS! Lay off D'Urso .... GREEDY CHARLTON .... the Anti Gallitican may never make 'away pub of the year' but it does have a cracking soundtrack!

does anybody have one spare ticket in away end? we already have 4 but there are now 5 of us going, we gonna be drawing straws for somebody to go in the home fans otherwise! pm me if you can help, we will be in the anti-g from about 11-30 onwards or we can meet on turnstiles, thanks.

Run this by me again... Arsenal or Liverpool will give us 10mGBP for AoC and some say 'we are not a selling club'? That money would (easily) see us back to the prem; more realistically I would take 1m for him (fat chance of anybody paying that sort of fee up front ) and use it to buy a proven RW and two strikers, = 'guaranteed promo' = start again in NPC. Most of the players we have now are nowhere as good as we make them out to be, looking that promo is our main objective, and looking at goals scored so far, it would be prudent right now to swap AoC for Pugh! 10m my Rse!!

I had to queue on the phones this morning from 09-00 to 09-39 to buy four tickets to see Saints play the mighty Dagenham and Redbridge; not sure if that's a measure of how far we've fallen or that we are indeed a massive club - virtual queues to buy tickets for D+R FFS!

This whole thread is one big wind-up! Most of the first half of that post is copied verbatim from stuff on here 4 weeks ago - I can't believe the defamatory remarks that were put upin the second part (and have since, very wisely(!) been deleted) and I certainly can't believe NC said anything like this: > If that is anywhere near the 'truth' then it beggars belief we didn't get a loan striker in once it was clear RL and LB were both crocked ... there's running it 'sensibly' and there's running it 'sensibly' ... until we get out of this league any talk of five years and of 45k gates and of the CL is just that - talk! Let's see some action in January!

Loving your avatar! Do they do it in red and can I get a tee-shirt?

I had an Octavia 1.9 turbo diesel I bought on 22k miles in 2000, just got rid of last year at 230,000 miles! Fantastic all-rounder, 50mpg on every day driving, 40mpg+ on fast MWay cruising - had it serviced once a year. Never broke down, never not started- ever, in daily use for 10 years. Replaced cam belts / discs+pads / steering and suspension bits as needed. At 230k it was on the original: engine, gearbox, clutch, exhaust, fuel pump and injectors, and all electrical gear. Every switch, bulb, gizmo worked and the interior was still perfectly comfortable/usable. Only got rid cos nipper is driving now and couldn't get him on insurance... got £700 for it! If you can live with the badge it's prob the most car for your money.

Not sure they will be playing with -4 of frost in the ground? Looks like we now need some idle speculation as to 'Do Walsall have covers?' I'll go first - 'possibly'.

It's already been called off in my house, I was supposed to be picking junior up from Luffbro Saturday morning, going to Walsall, going home. Now going up to Luff tommo, will be well ****ed off it's on! (really can't see that it will be, LOL at those asking if Walsall have undersoil heating, this is the third division FFS!)

Funny old game - Dover beat Aldershot quite comfortably who beat Brentford quite comfortably who are beating Saints quite comfortably ... how many would Dover beat Saints by?

Was it two pound day for visitors???

Where's Chaplow, injured or suspended or gone back?

I guess the crown will be most interested in the fact that he has been wearing a plaster cast for the last 6 weeks: was this apparent injury caused 'offensively' or 'defensively'? I think we should be told.....

I think you need Help.

Shame, decent player when he plays but I think we need to go back to Derby and check if he came with any sort of warranty; they certainly saw us coming with this one.

All good positive stuff and combined with the dinner party comments it seems to show that NC is in it for the long haul and that he is deadly serious about the type of club he wants to build - a super-club if you will. It is good that the club is in such committed hands, we appear to have money, he appears to back NA and we will spend in Jan if the right players are available, or in the summer if they aren't. All good stuff and it should be a very interesting ride. Whether he really can combine the investment required (in players/wages/infrastructure) with the available income streams (trust fund(?)/broadcasting/commercial/ticket sales) and deliver crowds of 45k remains to be seen .... I guess he thinks that if anyone can then he can!

I've always understood it wasnt installed because with the pitch being virtually at sea level and close to the river it wasn't needed. I'm not sure it was ever a cost thing - it simply wasn't needed - and 'events' seem to have proved that correct over the years. Will make an interesting discussion if we ever return to the Prem (presumably we will be forced to have it!)

I saw this game too, can't remember if it actually rained during the game but I remember it was an absolute glue-pot of a pitch, the sort you just don't see now. Me, my dad and bro had seats in the West Stand down the Archers end and I remember it cos it was one of the first games we ever had seats at and that was a very rare treat indeed to go 'in the stands', seats being both more expensive and hard to get hold of. Guess those were the days when season ticket holders 'had until Wednesday' to buy their own seats - I can only apologise if we were sat in your ST seat that day.... (I'm not a ST holder, never have been, prob never likely to be ... why oh why can't Saints sell ST holders their 'own seat' for cup games? ... that can't be too hard via an electronic db surely? They used to manage perfectly well with telephones, letters, and hard-printed tickets .. I just don't get why they continue to choose to upset a certain section of their fanbase?)

And France and Italy and America again and Africa again and Australasia ... we are more likely to see Saints in the Chamions League than to see a WC in England.

Pretty sure they are for ticket holders only (ie ST or day-ticket) and you book them (coach seats) when you book your tickets - they do say no away fans allowed in the advertising. They do one from here, excellent value, match ticket and coach travel is about £20 for most games, sometimes more; I have seen ticket-and-coach deals at £12-£15 for midweek games ... ridiculously good value when you think it is 75 minutes travel time from where I am. A few of the lads from my school use it regularly (age about 12-18) and it costs them about £8 a game including travel from Deal or S'wich .. incredible! Anyways ... for about £25 you could buy a home ticket and guaranteed travel ... get off the coach, bin your home ticket, and go into the away end .. there are services from all over Kent and East Sussex ... get in!

The original was def Channon at the 76 final (you can see it clearly if you have the video or DVD), may have been reprised for Boyer in 79?

Channon strikes faster than British Leyland

While we are all having a good moan I can't believe the club are still running with the completely naff, generic 'OS'. Are we contractually obliged via the FL to subscribe to this pile of junk? I see that most other clubs (all other clubs?) in our league have something similar; I have just been on Huddersfield's and it is equally: confusing, out-of-date, cluttered, illogical, full of in-your-face adverts etc etc. Surely it wouldn't take very much for a club of Saints stature and means to produce a comprehensive, integrated, online system that delivered a decent web site and ticketing system? The fact that they haven't improved either so far says to me that the club don't much care for their supporters/customers, or that they are doing so well that they can afford to turn away potential visitors to their website (I only ever click on it for ticket details) and potential ticket sales (the same 'fee' for online booking and for phoning the ticket office is a joke - there is nil incentive to use the online service as it stands). Saints v Brighton, top of Division 3, 26k Leicester v Forest, top end of Championship, 23k Saints fans deserve better!

Yeah, that and cr8p players, cr8p managers, cr8p preparation, cr8p tactics ... I don't think we really need FIFAs big ref conspiracy to put us out of World Cups, do you?

Although the old BritishRail cost (lost) considerably less to run than the privatised railways now take in subsidies ... and the service was in many cases 'better' and with considerably lower fares pound-for-pound than those on offer nowadays.