sandwichsaint

Sorted, got my two after a 10 minute wait, totally brilliant. Hopefully everyone else gets sorted too.

Well done Puel and well done players, two excellent results this week and it seems like the rotations/selections worked out pretty well in the end. Bigger tests ahead, Sparta and Swansea both v poor but we can go to West Ham with every chance of a positive result. We certainly seemed a bit more coherent yesterday than in the previous home games and could (should) have won by three or four. Looking fd to seeing what we can do once Boufal comes into the team. Puel also seems to be using subs well both in timing and personnel.

Think David Peach might have something to say about that.

I would 'love' this to be true ... it's almost too good to be true though! Why would they go to the hassle of selling them online and then having lengthy collections/ID at their end? Surely they would set up a sales point at the ground during the day (where they could selL against ID), or even from their kiosks in town. Doesn't make a lot of sense but here's hoping!

How do you know they didn't? And fix that bloody PA! If they can't fix it can they at least not put a slide on the big screen for the oppo's substitutions ..... and probably for quite a few that sit around me for our own subs too.

Looking at the second picture down, if Shearer bowls a bit of off-spin, right arm over, I think he's got the pose just about right.

Don't forget, no beer in the ground on Thursday ...... UEFA rules.

my streams a bit rubbish but it would appear so to me, we can do this.

Perfect, Milan cock-up the allocation and we see a mass outbreak of red on red squabbling and a massive ****-waving, best-est fan contest. Wind it in everybody, we're all Saints fans! I have no priority for this fixture, I did my aways a long time ago and in all the leagues (I've seen Saints on I think 63 away grounds in the uk), I currently have a ST at home and make a 300 mile round trip for every game. I had no real interest or excitement in the Euro draw, I knew that with allocations of 2000-3000 there was no chance of getting away tickets. Saints pull out a San Siro plum, one of the biggest club grounds in Europe, here we go, flights booked for what will be one of the landmark games in our history ... we all want to be there. I'm not claiming any preference over the 5000 people who will get the tickets (other than anybody that goes on somebody else's ticket and doesn't get in!). Not quite sure what my options are now, I have no real interest in going out there and watching it in a bar. Anyone want to buy three plane tickets?

Second, just below me .....

I called 0-0 for the two home games, damn defence can't keep a clean sheet and our pesky forwards keep scoring one per game, events dear boy, events ... I'll take a 1-1 here.

From a purely selfish point of view, as a travelling fan (300 miles a game) who can flexi out of work early, I was hoping for 1 or 2 of the home games to be 6pm kick-offs! Obvs we will get better crowds/atmosphere with the 20-00 kick-offs, just a shame families/kids will find it harder to take advantage of the cheaper tickets and seeing some new teams/players. Hey-ho, another three late nights for the middle-class, non-singing, non-travelling fans to put up with .

Horse's mouth, or at least from a very helpful man at the ticket office. I booked my home bundle by phone on Saturday. I asked about Inter away tkts, they originally offerred 4.2k which is the 'UEFA' allocation ie c5% ... we asked for more ... they came back with a final allocation of 5k. There will definitely be no more. I then asked if he knew anything of 'neutral' tickets/buying out there, tactful silence at his end!

Can't believe anyone that's seen the three games could fall for this 'most shots' guff. Watford keeper made a couple of scruffy saves, I can't remember DeGea making any meaningful save in the whole game, the Sunderland keeper played well but that was as much about managing his defence and commanding the box than actual shot stopping, although he did make three(?) genuine 'saves'. For all those that have spent the last x number of seasons calling for us to shoot more, shoot from distance and to shoot on sight perhaps a re-think is needed? But not at the expense of tippy-tappy, walk it into the net Arsenal football that we saw in the first 15 mins of the Sunderland game! Who'd be a manager eh?

So, keep the front 6 narrow, and fire long diagonals from FB to the opposite wing? Route one-and-a-half football? And are we now saying that we have a PL captain who is forbidden by his national FA to do any domestic interviews/media work? a) scarey or b) bullcr8p ?

I'd be interested in two tickets if you do have them.

1.Manchester Utd 2.Manchester City 3.Chelsea 4. Spurs 5. Liverpool 6. Arsenal 7. Everton 8. Leicester 9. Stoke 10. West Ham 11. Bournemouth 12. Southampton 13. Crystal Palace 14.Middlesboro 15. Sunderland 16. West Brom 17. Watford 18. Swansea 19.Burnley 20.Hull

Same, we've got flights and hotel booked for three people, self and adult son are ST's, we've got no aways from last season (we've got shed loads from Lge1 and the Championship if they're any good!), mrssandwich isn't a member but does have the old style membership number ... we will just have to wait and see if there really are 5000 people who will commit and go away mid-week (and if the tickets do make it to any sort of general sale/free for all then I will have to drive down 150 miles to SMS and camp outside the box office overnight (which we did for the Derby play-off game!) and miss more work next day. Really don't understand why we haven't had a bigger allocation, they might say the away end holds 5k and that's it but it really can't be beyond the wit of man to create a segregated area of 10k seats in an 80,000 seater stadium when you are expecting circa 30k home fans max! Will a lot of people travel without tickets? The hardest hard-core down to the relatively soft-core will be catered for in the 5000 allocation which will just leave those (idiots!) like me who have booked and paid on the presumption that we will get tickets who now don't have any. I have no problem buying on the day or better still the day before but it looks like it might get very bureaucratic and potentially messy if we have to start registering locally for membership schemes etc. and we then have reasonable numbers of Saints fans spread throughout the 'neutral' areas.

Spurs give caps now? Who knew, I stopped reading there.

What's that in terms of km distance/vertical metres? I'm not familiar with two of those climbs but fair play if you are doing three big climbs in a day. We've never done more than one climb in a day, but we don't have rest days, guess joining two or three climbs together in one day is the next level! Guess you might need a rest day after that!

Amazing what a quick shuffle of UEFA's balls can do for a chap. I was all a bit meh about this game and couldn't see past a 0-0 or even a 0-1. I've booked for Milan and I'm buzzing! I will now approach SMS not with a world-weary trudge but with a veritable spring in my step. Hopefully the players will feel the same: Saints-with-the-blue-touch-paper-lit 3 v Boring old Sun'land with lots of injuries 0. COYRs.

Don't go showing those locals up. What should we mere mortals be wearing? If the weather's half decent I'm thinking a nice white shirt, a very nice linen blazer, proper jeans, brown brogues, would that be acceptable? PS I'm a lover,not a fighter, so looking is much more important than doing.

No probs, I realise the two posts are several weeks apart and you have made other arrangements. Didn't realise the tunnel on the Lauteret was closed, agree that the detour doesn't look very attractive! Put Isoard on the bucket list, you won't be disappointed.

Zero to hero, what a Saintsday! I have tended to stay off the thread, I don't have the aways from last year but I saw both the home games (first away game was the nipper's wedding in Brazil, the second away game no chance due to absence of first game). Really couldn't get excited about it as zero% chance of getting any away tickets. UEFA draw-Gods do their magic and we are drawn away to a proper massive club in a proper massive stadium. I couldn't get on till 18-00 but we are sorted now, BA scheduled flights (get me, but we wanted sensible times) from LHW, out on Weds at 15-00, back on Fri at 18-30 local time, decent hotel (forgotten the name!) it's walking distance from Saints Siro stadium/station/city centre .... £830 for the three of us. It's more than some paid, but @ £280 for a three-day city break beats the club's rumoured price of £600+ for a day trip. I know it's more than some paid, but I have no chance of tkts for the other two so I'm totally made-up! This will be the mother of all away-days. Delhurst/Derby/Orient (I did the first two) have all just moved down a notch or two on the all time list! Edit, forget 'most' people would add Steau to the all-time away list. I had sprogs of 13+15 at the time and v keen to take them, I looked into going, but circumstances and common-sense prevailed (and I didn't go :()

Have you looked at basing yourself in Samoens? Just about the shortest drive from the UK. Ideal territory for a mixed group, beautiful, unspolit small town (it's really a village) ideal for rest days/downtime and there would be lots of out-of-season skiing accomodation/chalets that wouldn't be dear. Fantastic mixed terrain for the groupetto. For the hard core Joux Plan starts in the village, out and back to Flaine is a decent ride, Samoens 1600 is a total daddy of a climb (goes up from the doorstep 1000m in 10km = 10% for 10k, you won't find much to beat that anywhere), access across to the Colombier (HC) and beyond. 20k to the Ramez which was new on this year's tour and is an absolute beast (Cat1 I think but real Where Eagles Dare stuff, bleak and unforbidding, high cliffs all round, big drop offs and a tunnel, we did it in the car and it was scarey!) Day rides to Lac Geneva and you can access the whole Abondance valley via Les Gets/Morzine which is achievable for the groupetto. Have a look. Another great area we visited is Vars (south of Briancon) longer drive but opens up a lovely area. Isoard (which is a must-do, for me it's prob my 'favourite' of all of them), Col d Angelo (huge, links over into Italy, it was the roof of the Tour the year they had it and I think that's the highest the tour has been in modern times. You can also access Vars which is a tour finish, also from Briancon climb into Italy , can't remember the name of the ski resort there, begins with M, driveable (ridable!) to Galibier/Telegrapg from there. Groupetto can go South towards Gap, agai na beautiful part of the world. Bourg/Alpe D'Huez is great but there are other alternatives!