VectisSaint

Certainly looked like there was a bigger gap between the pitch and the Kingsland stand. I actually thought this happened at some point last season as well. FA Rules have a minimum and maximum pitch size, as long as we are within that we have the right to change the size of the pitch. Maybe it is to save money on the amount of new turfs required or to cut down the amount of fuel used by the lawn mowers, or the amount of water sprayed on it at half-time or even the amount of money spent on white lines (which is very expensive) I think watering the pitch at half-time yesterday by the way was a bad move. Just after the break the ball was whizzing off the pitch, whereas in the 1st half it was much slower.

What a short-sighted and patently stupid view. The lad has been convicted and sentenced (perhaps rather leniently). What he did was wrong, and he has beenpunished for it. Why should he not represent Saints again (just because we are called Saints diesn't mean our players really are). You would have got rid of Wayne Rooney I suppose. Once someone has done their time (or their community service) that should be it. I might have a different view of someone who is convicted of more serious offences, rapists, murderers, etc, since I don't think they should be let out in the community again anyway, but for a petty burglar, your views are way over the top.

You thought he was poor yesterday, sheesh? He still tries to do too many tricks IMHO, but he put in so many excellent crosses to players in the box who were there to benefit from such balls it was unbelievable. The fact that the Blackpool players did not convert any of the excellent crosses says more about their ability than Hammills. I was a very outspoken critic of Hammill last season, disappointed that a professional footballer would do so little to take care of himself despite the crass stupidity of our so-called manager and his training tactics, but yesterday I saw what we should have seen last season. Now that he is fit he is clearly able to show the talent that GB screwed up last year. I take my hat off to the lad for turning it around.

Well you weren't watching the same game then. To call Dyer a waste of space is complete rubbish. When he first came on he changed things dramatically initially, we had been totally ineffective down the right in the 1st half. Dyer initially made some good runs, and caused Camara all sorts of problems. Eventually though, as I alluded to, he started to fall back into his old ways, by running at players instead of trying to go past them or play 1-2s to beat them. He clearly has pace to burn and showed plenty of effort, pushing to get the ball back when he had lost it. There is also the ******** other people spout that he does not track back, well sometimes that is true, however he must be doing something right if he clears the ball off of the line in one attack!! He was not great yesterday, but there are some small minded people on here who only have the handbag pilferer in their mind and will not see that Dyer is a talent that needs to be nurtured and encouraged like all the other youngsters in the team. You would do well to remember that he is one of the youngest players in this very young team, not yet 21, its just that he has been around the 1st team for longer than some. I have confidence that JP can make a much better player of ND, once he learns to look up more (he could also do with beefing up a bit, but in a good way, not in the Burley way). By the way did anyone else notice how slim Hammill is this season. Evidence for all to see of the huge damage that Burley did with his "training" methods (or lack of them) last season. The little fat boy is fit again, and now looks like a decent player.

And you won't this year either, they play in Sheffield at the Don Valley Stadium.

No, I am not hiding behind anything at all. It is nothing to do with semantics. Try familarising yourself with the rules of the game if you do not understand them. You are of course not alone. As I said even the pundits on the TV do not understand the rule. Sometimes I think it is less understood than offside. The incident being referred to cannot be considered deliberate by any stretch of the imagination. People are clutching at straws when they know full well that without the ref and his assistant today we would have been tonked, it would have been injustice in the extreme to Blackpool if they had been awarded anything for the handball. But then injustice is often seen to be done.

I think some of the criticism of Dyer on here today is a bit misguided. When he came on for a while we looked quite effective, he drifted out of the game then for a little while, but he was more of a threat than many others. He does seem to lack a bit upstairs, too often he just seems to run straight into opponents, but all in all he was not the worst offender out there in my opinion.

Respect to the ref today, without him and his assistant we would have lost 4 goals at least Many other officials would not have had the balls to disallow 3 goals in one game even when they are correct decisions. He actually seemed to have a good game, played advantage well (of course as Saints fans we would disagree because it was often for Blackpool), ignored silly appeals for non-existent handballs, ffs how many people including sky pundits do not appreciate handball has to be DELIBERATE. The drop ball situation was unfortunate in that Blackpool did not play the white man, and kicked the ball long down the pitch, but drop ball is the correct decision in such a case. Penalty was nailed on, indeed we were lucky not to have conceded more. Time wasting by Blackpool was evened up by adding 4 minutes stoppage at the end of the game. I felt all afternoon that the ref was actually trying to help us get back in the game.

How naive can you get? If you can't see how them having the ball in our net 4 times this afternoon, in the way they did shows how much Blackpool outplayed us then I give up. They should have scored 3 or 4 other times as well. Yes they were goals quite rightly disallowed in each case, but each time they were very close decisions and many lineos would have bottled out of disallowing them (especially 3 times in one game). We were given a lesson in how to attack today by a poor CCC side, and there is nothing anyone can say that would convince me were were lucky not to have been beaten by 6 or 7. The defence was appalling (sad to say Killer was completely outpaced, outjumped and out muscled on several occassions), and but for some excellent saves by Kelvin we would have been completely undone.

Although we shouldn't boo our players at home, it has to be said that today was an absolutely ****e performance. No punch up front until John came on, very poor midfield, Gillett was shocking and simply awful defending. Quite honestly if Blackpool had scored 6 it would not have been flattering. Hate to say it but Killer was shocking. Good job Kelvin kept us in it, and thanks also to the lineo for making 3 very brave (but correct) decisions. On top of that it was clear that JP did not have a Plan B today, even when John came on, he dropped McG back into the hole instead of going 4-4-2. We will win very few at home based on today's display, not helped by the crowd barracking, as Sky said we really do have some poor supporters.

Interesting article, didn't realise he was the Gemmill mug. The thing that I noted in the article was the bit below: His name is not familiar to English football fans and it's fair to say his appointment was not well received by all supporters at St Mary's - some swiftly dubbed him and assistant Mark Wotte the Dutch Donkeys Now I know not everyone was pleased at his appointment, me included, and there were many insults bandied around, but I really cannot recall anyone ever referring to them as Donkeys. I'm sure these journos just make this stuff up.

It seems like Jack has been released from hospital and is back home which is great news. Mick is recovering from op to wire his jaw but is not expected to be released until next week and remains in intensive care. http://www.mickchannon.tv/news.php By the way there are some great clips on the site, not just of the gee-gees, but also some footy related ones, just go to Extras on the web site menu...

By the way, Stephen Crainey could also feature, though he hasn't played so far this season.

Old boys or fat boys

Bloody hell Lordswood, that brought a tear to the eye... I said something similar on the other thread before I read this one.

Hope the boys do Racehorse proud on Saturday - a suitable goal celebration would perhaps do the trick. Mick will need cheering up, 3 good mates gone recently with today's news, Tim Corby and Bally and Ossie as well. For those of us who are a bit older, Mick (and maybe Ron) are our true heroes, no offence to MLT, but I was a bit old for heroes when he graced the footballing stage. Get well soon buddy...

Punctured lung as well, evidently

Bloody hell, I need to read later posts first in future, was seriously concerned there for a few minutes. Best wishes Mick for a speedy recovery, hope its not the windmill arm. Be nice to know if Mick8 is ok as well (just realised it was his 14 year old son, Jack, still hope he's ok as well)

I guess then he will be The Loan Ranger ?

But if his old man doesn't even think he's good enough to play, why should anyone else? Usually you pick your own kid for a team before anyone else, due to the rose-tinted specs effect, but in this case even Pulis does not have enough faith in his ability to risk him in the 1st team either at Stoke or anywhere else he has been. Still as I said earlier we do need a scapegoat replacement now that we no longer have Jasmine. Everyone else in the team (with the possible exception of BWP) are just to nice and liked by the supporters. We need someone else to slag off when the inevitable happens and we lose a game.

No, he is on loan until January. The original rumours were for all season, but that is not the deal. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=10497

By the same token, Phillips should not have slagged Saints off when he left, we were the reason his career was resurrected. People do not dislike him because of what he did on the pitch but the nasty comments he made, which were complete unneccessary.

Are you just being Sarky? Horses indeed, new fangled things, they will never replace our oxen in my opinion.

Hellboy 2, is that a new name for Rupes since his return?

Surely we won't be using him as an outfield player will we? Even Burley never resorted to that, though at times we did wonder whether he would.