sandwichsaint

The publicity at the weekend may lead to some sort of change in the future, equally if people really do step back and refuse to pay the prices then ultimately prices will have to come down. Clearly there are discussions/proposals out there but whether they are the right ones, or whether they see the light of day is another matter. A cap on away prices of £25/ticket - would seem fair, all teams to charge all away fans the same price. Free transport for away fans (this suggestion from Stoke apparently?) - non-starter for me though lots of people might like it. Can't remember the supposed cost but in the overall scheme of things it wasn't massive. Every away ticket comes with a free bingo bus pass. Only good if you a) live in relatively reasonable commuting distance of your own ground, and b) you want to go on a supporters coach. Massively administratively heavy for the away team and not particularly what's wanted by the average travelling fan. We took 3000 to Villa on Saturday, how many of those would have taken a free place on a coach from SMS? .... stick a pin and I'd say 50% tops. What the clubs don't let on is how small 'gate receipts' are in the bigger scheme of things; gate money is a relatively small percentage of all receipts, and set to become much smaller again when the TV money rolls up next season. A big part of what makes our football attractive; whether that's live at the match, on TV or across a global audience, is the relatively full grounds and the partisan atmosphere that is created. Which in turn is to a large part dependent on having a healthy turn out of away fans. Personally I'd call their bluff and combine the two proposals, all away tickets a flat £20, bin the free transport (an administrative nightmare and not something that a good proportion of fans would want or need).

Silly money. I'm on a 3 man boycott of the Chelsea game. Midweek, London, a game I would usually attend 100%. I could afford it but I'm just not prepared to pay it, I would love to see us take zero fans. Then let Sky and the FA and the home team deal with that one, not going to happen though is it?

You post this every week! Why do you go to games? What do you think's going to happen if you buy one tkt at random and go on your own? Where do you sit at home games that's so much better? I wasn't there today but our support came over really good on the stream I watched; reaction on here fro those that were there is overwhelmingly positive. I really would advise you find something better to do with your time and money if you really don't enjoy it.

One=word caption contest. 'Why?'

Doing fine so far. Not quite clicked up front but it will come. Excellent start from RL.

I've never seen Delf do anything! Lets hope he doesn't find his feet against us today.

Not everyone, I called 20 Reading, 19 Villa, 18 Sunderland at the end of Nov and I'm going to stick with that for the season, reckon I've got Reading and Villa right, 18th is a right dog fight (just like it is every year!). QPR looked a lot better today, get a 10 goal striker in the window and they will stay up comfortably, 4 points from Chels A and Spuds H is 4 more than we will get!

Gambling on starting RL/JR/GR that we won't need a game changer? Missing AL Gully and to a lesser extent Myuka is bound to stretch us. Don't seew hy everybody is writing off Lee without any sort of a chance though? Quite capable of getting a goal against this Villa side. Hopefully it won't come to that, a nice 0-3 RL pen, JR, GR will do nicely! Big game for Boruc today with a couple of changes in his back 4.

Got Charlton ST mates, Seaborne has been really poor there (playing LB), they are glad to see the back of him.

Got tons of Bowie and he was always a fave of mine but I have sort of grown away from him over the years, God dammit , I'm 51 and he's 60-something, nothing lasts forever! If I could pick one album it would be Hunky Dorey, an absolute taste of what was to come; pure thinking-pop and a chrysalis album from a real-life chameleon. After that 'Heroes' and 'Scary Monsters' show someone who was at the top of their game for 30-plus years (ignoring the many Lows in between). Great artist/icon but someone who IMO would be better remembered as they were in their prime. I've no desire to seek out the new album, Spotify keeps pushing the new single at me but I haven't bothered to listen to it once. Always thought Saints should run-out to V2 Schneider, how good and original would that be? Stick your Liquidator, Z Cars and Prokofiev, Cortese's Saints should be running out to some proper European art-house! And while we are it, have we signed a Brick art-house centre half yet? Maybe the Italian Paul McGrath? If anyone wants to do some retro time-travelling on Spotify I can thoroughly recommend early XTC, I've got lots on vinyl but I haven't heard it for 30-odd years. Check out White Music 1978 and Drums and Wires 1979 - terrific, it'll make you feel like a grown-up 16 year-old all over again.

A beautifully landscaped garden/park which will provide a fantastic family atmosphere before the game, no cans, hampers welcome ('Please don't litter. Place your corks in the bins provided') . Kids not compulsory but you may well be frowned at if you don't bring one. Strictly no away fans (it will probably need a BIG fence and turnstiles, admission by match tkt only, five pound facility fee). Lots of stewards in Security.Co bibs. Club merchandise kiosks every 50m. Big screens to show highlights of the club's glorious four-year history, these can also be used to project live showings of home games to the ticket-less masses when we have a 48k sell-out in the actual stadium. Fan-football-tastic! Or we could just leave it as it is and make sure that the away fans know they are entering a 'proper' working city and they need to watch themselves; No Liberties. Sarfampton 'til I die! Stand. No surrender. Suvverners, Suvverners Suvverners! Hold me back!

What if he's sent off at 0-0 and we win 1-0? Is that 3 points he's gained us?

Bobby Stokes has a lot to answer for - you cross 'em, I'll knock 'em in.

We will sign a CB not much better than what we've got and a wide midfielder who is the Prem equivalent of Jonno quick (he won't get near the starting XI, sometimes on the bench, will play a max of 200 mins first team football before the end of the season). We will also take someone on loan from Spuds who will make one anonymous appearance and disappear without trace).What we see is what we have, there is no St Mary's money tree (allegedly).We will stay up on the last day by beating Stoke 2-1 (karma on the oatcake fanzine); where that leaves next season's CL ambitions is anybody's guess ... ?

Yoshida's great! He's mobile and determined and he reads it really well. Strong tackler and excellent at holding up an opponent when 1 on 1 against. Looks genuinely pleased to be here and loving playing for us. Good communicator and works well with Fonte. Weakness is he's not great in the air (though he spoils very well) and his distribution can be a bit hit and miss (Sunderland's goal came from his aimless hoof upfield). All in all not a bad signing at all. Hooiveld did OK today too; for me a decent GK is the number one priority over a new CB(s).

was Monk home-produced?

Really, we lost 1-0 yesterday in a must-in game. Our CHs were two of our better players. Last 4 games, 0-1, 1-0, 0-1, 1-1, we have scored 2 in 4 games and our defence appears to be OK, it doesn't suggest CBs are a number 1 priority? Nor does it suggest that GK is an immediate problem but I really don't see KD as a long term solution, flappy yesterday, distribution slow and predictable, nearly let one through his legs. What will Gazza's mental state be when/if he returns? Why did we sign Boruc? Fit but not playing. Single best thing we could do would be to sign a decent keeper for the remainder of the season (like we should have done in the summer). Second best thing would be to sign a striker who can score 10 goals in the remainder of the season. We have lots of striking options 'on paper' but no one doing it on the pitch, who do you think is going to score the goals to keep us up?

GK for me: Freidel/Robinson/Given could be worth the extra 6-8 points we need, none of the current GK s are doing it for me. Striker, any player from home or abroad, from any level who can score 10 goals in the remainder of the season would probably keep us up. For all the attractive approach play how many league goals do our current front four have? SRL 6? GR 1/2?, JP 2/3? AL 0? Not sure how accurate these stats are but it's clearly not enough. A left back, Shaw is playing brilliantly but can we expect him to play 30 games in his first season as a 17 year-old? Definitely a big cause for concern when Fox is next in line. Decent pacey wide midfielder. Puncheon has played well so far but we are very reliant on him maintaining this form, without his cutting edge he quickly becomes average. Lallana has generally been pretty good and we clearly missed him yesterday but we know he misses games and as of yesterday no suitable replacement. LOL at those who wouldn't want Downing or Johnson in our squad. They are the areas I would go for: GK / Striker / and then depending on who was available and what it would cost I would put LB/Wide mid as fairly equal priorities.

Sounds like a perfect description of the Tory party and of those that vote for them.

Steady, you'll start off Dalek's yo-yo theory again.

Probably not my 'favourite' Xmas song but it's up there in the top-5, check out Clarence's vocal and sax, gone but not forgotten.

Every MOD clip this weekend will feature a row of Santa's, the tears of a face-painted clown and a tinsel wig or six. Frankly I'm thankful for these people, they save me from going to the bother and expense of dressing like a *****.

We are going to Samoens in late March (satellite village for Flaine/Grand Massif). Third time we've been so we must like it. We are a mixed ability, mixed age party of about 12-14. Ticks all our boxes, genuine 'village' location, very authentic, rather than a purpose-built high altitude village. Snow sure, lifts generally pretty good, a few slower chairs but generally v efficient modern chairs and minimal queues, at least at that time of year. Literally miles of skiing, very good beginers areas, and the rest is mainly loaded to intermediates and 'good intermediates' rather than full on blacks and off piste, though there is plenty of that as well. Not one for the 18-30 crowd, nor the dedicated apres-skiier but for families it's absolutely perfect, plenty of restaurants and bars and all in a compact village lay out. Also done Deux Alpes, an excellent beginners resort, higher up the skiing is a bit 'samey' but perfectly acceptable; it's also renowned for it's off piste if that is your thing. Big cable cars are very good and shift a lot of people out of the resort quite quickly, lifts elsewhere are pretty basic in places. The resort and the apres is outstanding, definitely one for the 18-30 crowd! Done Chatel twice, both at Xmas and didn't really enjoy the best of conditions either time, links were shut once and we had to drive round to Morzine, massive queues up from the Morzine side in the mornings. Avoriaz pretty good but one of the busiest resorts we have done, queues and cowboys in abundance. Skied Andorra a few times with school parties, does what it says on the tin, cheap and cheerful and ideal for beginners. Surprised no mentions for Alpe D'Huez? We stayed in the satellite of Vaujany, 2 minute walk, no queues and two big cable car rides from there to well over 2000m. Almost unlimited skiing, all abilities well catered for, lots of blue, lots of proper long reds and full-on blacks. Very snow sure, very sunny, very few queues and generally good lift system . Party types are well-catered for in Alpe D'Huez itself but we loved Vaujaney, very small and very laid-back. We've tended to stay away from the 'bigger' (more expensive!) resorts - I don't feel I am, but am I missing something?

LOL at this ... the 'home' end will be 80% full at best. (I know it's segregation etc but in an MLG sort of way, shouldn't their away allocation equal 10%?)

Don Bradman, golf ball, random.