ericb

We started charging them after we left the Dell? That has nothing to do with Cortese then. And to be honest, I don't see why they shouldn't pay. So much is made of disabled being given equal opportunities etc.

Started charging in the second season in league one (if memory serves) not the Dell, and as for why they shouldn't pay i'd like to think the club are at the core of our community and if they can do something to improve the lives of people with disabilities then they should.

Nothing to do with blind people wanting to go, I totally get that. I just didn't expect there to be THAT many blind people wanting to watch Saints V West Ham. I didn't think there was that high a ratio of blind people in the population.

There's far fewer than there was at the Dell, though that's probably to do with the fact that Cortese decided to start charging them. Something that never happened at the Dell as it was seen as a community service to provide free access to the local football club for people with disabilities such as blindness.

I know the people that look after the blind very well at St Mary's and they're superb. The stewards are second to none in terms of how they handle and look after people and the effort they go to should be commended.

This type of thing smacks of publicity more than anything else and shouldn't take away from this people

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Morgan and Toby, both are obviously good enough to regularly play for top level champions league teams with Morgan slightly shading it in terms of both ability and potential.

Then there's a gap to a few others including Clyne, Bertrand, Vic and Tadic who could get into a Champions League side but probably wouldn't hold a place down regularly (the exception there is maybe Clyne who i feel is closer than the others to that level).

Not owned, I made a mistake.

 

Despite what some might say I 've never claimed to be infallible... I'm not a religious prophet.

https://warosu.org/data/diy/img/0006/04/1393785928566.jpg

Not 100% sure. A lady sitting in front of him made a complaint I believe. Then he wouldn't leave. Started getting irate and the words "I am a season ticket holder - you have nothing on me!!" were banded about. He had one of the stewards in a headlock at one point, turned quite nasty. Police eventually waded in and he was led out. It was the same guy that was going absolutely bananas at the end of one game a while back when two chaps started giving some early leavers grief..

A complaint for what? Anything other than racism/homophobia and that woman is a complete di.ck, i can't believe people would report one of their own.

There was a fuc.kload of what I can only describe as "football tourists" in the ground today. Clearly not from Southampton, half the time on their mobiles taking photos and smiling even when Swansea scored (or at least the ones I saw in block 43 were).

If this is what success is about then I'm sorry give me league one and the championship everyday. Fu.cking hate their kind and seeing them at St Mary's is horrific.

By the way I know I'll get abuse for this but I don't care. If you smile when the away team scores and spend the rest of the time in silence holding your phone kindly fu.ck off to whatever hole you came from

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It was a really strange derby game, as it was only a few season ticket holders in the away end and not hostile at all. Was a stroll in the park. Just wish Matty scored.

Beamed it back to Fratton to play on big screens there too and remember singing about that. You're right though their away support was meek as **** and incredibly quiet too. Never really understood how they could shout about themselves after that as it was such an embarrassing turn out on their part.

Yes the home defeat 0-2 after we only drew 2-2 earlier on in the season. The 0-2 home defeat was my first taste of a derby. The next time was 3-0 at home at the Dell in the cup. My first Saints game at Fratton was Alan Knights testimonial, where the daft skates smashed up their own city, while we went home!

The cup game in 96 was something like the 7th of january if memory serves correct, should've been four too but magilton was greedy and didn't square it instead going for the hatrick (not words i think we could've written before or since).

Also remember queueing for tickets in the absolutely freezing cold outside the old ticket office from about 4 in the morning just to guarantee our normal places in the Archers block 5.

Was too young for that game but remember the '88 home game well, and my first away there was the Alan Knight's "testimonial" which was a sketchy day out to say the least. Wish i could've been there for that Moran goal, but for me it's up there as one of the most iconic in my time supporting Saints.

have you just used a fu.cking computer game to do comparison's? Jesus christ there are some dins on here.

People can support who they like, if they want to put their following into context then that's fine, but if they don't that's fine as well.

Great well in that case i'm sure you'll never complain about plastic Mancs or the like and have no issue with the game being financially skewed towards the big clubs because of their branding overseas.

A couple years back I decided to pick up following football as a hobby. Was originally going to pick one of the big teams to support, but I didnt want to be like a stereotypical American bandwagon supporter, so, knowing that some family was originally from the UK, I did a little research and traced them back to Southampton. This was back at the end of the 2012/13 season when we were relegation contenders and my first two games were the 3-1 win over Liverpool and 2-1 over Chelsea. I just checked the scores that season on BBC and other sites but come last season, with the NBCSN coverage, and started watching games. I guess you could say the rest is history.

And that is how any overseas fan should do it, not a problem at all with an overseas fan supporting our club if they're families heritage is from our fine city.

born in southampton, grew up a 15 minutes walk from the Dell and 10 minutes walk from St Mary's. Come from three generations of Sotonians, so was never really a choice, just part of life and can't ever imagine "supporting" a club that doesn't represent my birthplace, my family, my friends and our history.

This May or may not be appropriate next season

 

For I am a Hampshire Man from southampton I came

To see my saintly brethren of honour and of fame

And to tell them of my forefathers who fought in days of yore

That I might have the right to wear the sash my father wore

 

Its old and its beautiful and its colours they are fine

We wore it in league one when our football was sublime

My father wore it my youth in bygone days of yore

And at st Mary's I love to wear the sash my father wore

 

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap

Is that a hint we're back to the sash?

the post match thread on redcafe is hilarious apparently we're ****, didn't deserve to win and it's a shock that a lesser club like us should ever be able to beat them http://www.redcafe.net/threads/post-match-vs-southampton.400160/

The entitlement of their plastic/armchair/overseas contingent can't get over it and i think that makes me love what we've achieved even more.

just glad you agree with him that champions league can be done, with saints!!!

Not really sure what points you're trying to score there, a lot of people didn't believe it could be done because most people didn't expect the fairly unusual combination of things that've happened this season in terms of the teams that are usually in the champions league positions.

Personally i agree with Turkish i think we'll finish just short in the end, which'll be a shame but not the end of the world, the question is is this a change in the top teams or just a one year blip that'll be re-adjusted next season.

Sensible money would suggest the later, which means we'll probably not ever have a chance like this again.

I was a massive naysayer in the idea we could make top four. I'm still probably 50:50 that we will, but unlike before i actually believe we have a chance now and it's probably our best chance ever.

In fact despite the fact i'm going to Ipswich away (and despite how ****ed i was about how we performed in the cups last season) i'd actually be happy to see the cups take a back seat and for us to go for it.

**** yes, that was a PROPER performance from our defensive players absolutely shut out Man U and only two shots on target from them at Old Trafford is an amazing feat.

You know what i might actually take the Champions League qualification stuff seriously now!!

Still hear it very, very occasionally at games, old school football song that!

Up there with the version of OWTS started by someone shouting out "knock knock" then you basically held each word till you ran out of breath which let it spread round the dell and build.

Good times they were.

Aye, but Ipswich only really had one song if you discount their player songs and the annoying spelling out of IPSWICH..

 

Maybe we could do that at SMS, S-S, O-O, U-U, T-T etc. etc. maybe not....

What you mean exactly how we used to in the days of the milton with someone shouting "why don't you give me an S..."? In fact their chant was a carbon copy of the one we did at nearly every game for a good 20 years.

He'll go in the summer i think that's pretty obvious, and to be honest i think it's fair enough. Starting value though should be £25m given his age and the fact that players of his type to hit their peak till 27/28.

Also would be really ****ed off to see him go to a club in this country and would hope that we wouldn't do it, PSG seems a good fit from a team that need someone like him and have the money but i honestly believe he's perfect for Barcelona and would fit into their side incredibly well.

You and many more may not wear colours but, if 5/10% of fans wear colours I'd say 2 or 3 there would be (seeing as they've gone to so much trouble to let all know who they support)!

Um are you a bit special mate? Plenty of folk i know never wear colours (myself included). In fact of the lot i know (10 - 15) almost no one wears colours to games.

I like this idea, and I believe the club tried to do something like this a few seasons ago?

 

There have been several people moaning on twitter since yesterday's game that they had to move seats because of the Ipswich fans, something which has happened ever since SMS opened.

 

I've also suggested this to several people, the team seem to mainly shoot towards the Chapel in the second half (this could be because the away team choose to shoot towards their fans in the second half) but I appreciate it will be difficult to "swap" 2 whole stands of people. I'm sure the club could help with this (maybe offering discounts on ST for those displaced?).

 

I do also appreciate that many people sit in blocks 41/42 because of the "banter" with the away fans, something which I can maybe understand in the PL as there are big followings, but in League 1 when there used to be 200 Oldham fans there it was a bit pointless. Also, I'd question, are you going to football to have "banter" with the away fans, or support Saints? It should be the latter, in which case it moving to the Chapel would be a great idea. I've been to Liverpool and Sheff Utd away this season, both have "kop" stands which are where the "hardcore" fans go to support and the team know this. Both are at the other end of the ground to away fans and it works.

 

Anyway, best suggestion I've heard for a while, make it happen, would make SMS a better atmosphere IMO.

I wouldn't hold up a field as an example of a good atmosphere. It's one of the worst I've been too with the exception of the karaoke version of ynwa at the beginning and end of each game. Absolutely shocking place for noise and even makes old Trafford look decent

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As long as we don't ever go down the route of "ultras" (the most mickey mouse modern football thing around) i'm happy to try most things. Personally i think the Northam/Kingsland is actually as good as most i've heard in the premier league. I'm not claiming that's good by the way, more that it's a wider problem in the league.

The thing with the old Dell that made it better (in my opinion) is that we had little vocal pockets split up around the ground, in the days of the terraces you had a good home "end" in the Milton, though songs split between left and right, the east stand lot that liked something a bit more "in your face" with the away fans and then the Archers lot that was more of a mixture.

Obviously when the main home end moved to bikeshed we were helped by the low stand and roof, but there was a good enough pocket left in the Milton to get things going there and the east stand lot kept doing their thing whatever.

For me the problem we have at St Mary's is that we have our Archers with the Northam/Kingsland, our East Stand lot with the Itchen but we've never had those pockets of singers that didn't move like we did in the Milton so the Chapel has never really caught on.

I personally doubt it'd take massive amounts to get the Chapel going, maybe 50 people at the back who wanted to make some noise would inspire everyone else.