sandwichsaint

What's David Connolly doing nowadays?

Charlton have just been relegated to Div 1, club in turmoil. They have a well-organised boycott (6000+) fans refusing to renew at early bird rates and demanding regime change. I heard yesterday that up to a 1000 Charlton fans have bought cheap STs at West Ham. They can go to the 'big games', they can go to PL football when Charlton are away, and it's a bit of an insurance if their club goes tits up or they need to boycott next season, and of course they can always pass on PL tkts to family and friends or even sell them on. Bit of a no-brainer at £200-£300 a pop, makes you wonder when we are going to see a class action from Millwall/Palace/Charlton/Gillingham/Orient alleging unfair competition? The answer is almost certainly never but clearly those tkts are being sold at well below any recognisable 'market value' and the tax payer is picking up the difference.

Not sure what your point is here? It was a textbook example of how the rule should be applied and the referee got this one spot on. I only saw it on TV but I'm not sure he got much else right. For anybody that was there, Shane Long's yellow card? Danny Rose appeared to have his hands on Saints players on at least three separate occasions? Vertongen's slip that nearly put Long in on goal? Fantastic win and from the above posts it would seem no one is much bothered about the ref when we win but I thought he was shocking (tho he did miss at least two corners for them in the last 10 minutes so not all bad then).

Seriously fluffed his lines today! Oh well, looks like we've got him for next year, which is awesome, and hopefully another one beyond that. If we get CL in the next two years that changes everything but I would suggest it's very unlikely that he will be here for the next 6 years.

Incredible stat, think just how good he'd be if he could defend! But then he wouldn't be playing for us!! Out of interest how many starts do these three have over this period? It looks like we could be secretly deploying the most creative player in the league!

If it all goes tits we could always loan him to Middlesborough.

Surely not beyond the realms that he will be asked to stand down though; does he have a game this weekend? Would suggest he will have zero credibility with the players if he refs this weekend. While clearly he won't be suspended in any formal sense (unfortunately) it is entirely likely that he could be rested until the dust settles.

TBF they're still waiting for the ref's 'report' (LOL!), Clattenberg's probably a jibbering wreck somewhere having locked himself in his room and refusing to come out. Rather puts me in the mind of John Major when we exited the ERM, I don't think we'll be seeing him again this season.

Shocking performance from Clattenberg, he'd lost it by half time. There's always some sort of case for saying he 'managed the game' and that any red cards would have inflamed the situation more but rules are surely rules? Unquestionably Pochetino should have gone to the stands for entering the playing area and man handling a Chelsea player. Two footed tackle by Lamella in the first five minutes of the second half was like something from the seventies, he deliberately played the player, no intention of playing the ball at all, ticked every box for a straight red. In the context of the whole game Lamella's 'stamp' was about 10th on the charge sheet. Well done Leicester, winning it with two games to spare, bloody football eh?

I was there that day in those very same pens right behind the goal and I can clearly remember it being somewhere on the wrong side of the exhilarating/terrifying continuum, in fact it was pretty much the embodiment of 'unsafe standing'. I always have a little shudder at the memory whenever this comes up and I find it really difficult just imagining what those people went through, victims and rescuers and survivors. Clearly major strategic mistakes were made and it rapidly deteriorated into a total clusterthing with those in charge seemingly powerless to react or coordinate any sort of plan to limit the damage. Inter-weaved with the major parts it's the detail that really gets you, father and son, boyfriend girlfriend, the police eating chicken and chips in the morgue, parents unable to comfort their dead children with all bodies being declared property of the coroner, police officers more concerned with covering their own backs and getting their story into the media than providing facilities for the relatives of the bereaved. Massive respect to those in the groups and the journalists with them; these people have laid down 27 years of their lives in the pursuit of truth and justice and they have exposed massive lies and corruption within the police and media and the establishment. I'm sorry that some people had their radio and television programmes interrupted yesterday but this is probably one of the biggest domestic news stories of the last 30 years.

2010-2011, 28 goals in 58 for Reading and Rep of Ireland, but yeah, Vardy has scored 56+ this season.

TBF if Saints signed Messi, Suarez and Neymar you'd still have it that RK would play Pelle every week.

Who's going at £41 a pop? Cheap holidays in someone else's misery.

Time for Trousers to post his graphic of 'two-bald-men-fighting-over-a-comb' me thinks.

The Dutch Micah Richards? Hopefully it turns out better for us.

Is this Besiec first game back? Has looked really good when I've seen him. Entertaining 2-2 draw.

Forster Coleman Stones VVD Bertrand VW Barry Delafeau Barkley Tadic Lukaku Everton 6 Saints 5 ...... maybe they are under-achieving ..... manager RK (6-6!). that's the difference.

Should last night's Barcelona pen have been a red card? 2 v 1 at the top of the D, the first player tries to play in the second (unmarked) fd who is 10-12 yds from goal. Sliding defender (deliberately) intercepts with his arm and denies the pass The forward would have had to collect and control the pass and then beat the GK from 10 yds. In the spirit of the law it was a clear red card, in the actual rules I think the ref probably got it right (I don't know what the panel said?) Either ways Leicester would have got away it.

I am just getting the tee shirts made up now, 'I was there, our most meh 3-1 PL victory .... ever !' A solid 3-1 home win and a mere 62 posts on the post-match thread at midnight on Saturday, there is literally nothing to say!

I'll see your Matt Oakley and raise you an Anders Svensson.

Completely different situation, one rules on 'fact' the other still relies on interpretation. Goal line technology has been excellent and I can't believe anybody would go back to not having it where it is available.

That's a bit harsh, if we were 4 games away from winning the PL and ML (God rest his soul) was sat up in the stands overseeing the club he'd rebuilt and enjoying his birthday I'm pretty sure we would all have been 100% behind any birthday celebrations. On a semi-related note it was 6 years yesterday that we won the JPT at Wembley, a bit of a better atmosphere at that one!

Fine margins.

And this, dear reader, is why we don't have a fan on the board.

We lived in the midlands in the late 60's our dad used to regularly take us to see Saints away at Wolves/West Brom/Stoke/Coventry etc. I don't recall there being any equivalent of the modern away day fans in their own segregated areas at that time. You would sometimes see Saints fans, identifiable by their colours or even rosettes "!" which were popular at the time and sold outside grounds and in the streets. In the grounds we just mingled in with home fans, more in the modern day rugby stylee. People were generally pretty good about it and we (my dad) had regular bantz with the locals and I don't ever recall any trouble although obvs we were a family group of dad and two lads, complete with home made scarves, wooden rattles, and a red and white stool to stand on! We must have just about got in at the end of the 50's-60's golden era of big crowds and brylcreem. The hooliganism probably kicked off in the early 70's and that's when the heavy policing and the segregation started to be brought in.