The Kraken

It would make sense. Red & white stripes are what the majority of fans want to see, but I'm not sure if they're what the majority want to buy. Doing something different encourages more sales. A Rank Xerox style kit would be a great choice IMO, and also be a nod to heritage while offering something different to keep the commercial interest going.

Stay on topic please, troll. We don't need your banal arguing here. Back on topic after it got needlessly derailed. Apparently there was an altercation of West Ham and Millwall fans in the Frog and Parrot, of all places. Most odd.

Is this not in itself trolling?

Its a fair sentiment. But something that the few haven't yet grasped is that the football world have had zero interest in them for quite some time. They are an utter irrelevance. Again.

I think he's hungry too.

Undersoil heating is already installed. It has been since St. Mary's was built; its just never been turned on.

This is it for me. Take the price out of the equation; what would we be expecting of Gaston? Apart from him costing so much I don't see a justification for such a huge improvement next season. At the moment my first choice Saints XI doesn't have him in it. Then again I was hopelessly wrong on JRod, so I'll just wait and see!

Quite looking forward to this one, and will be interesting to see how we shape up against a similar side with a similar footballing philosophy. They've also got some very good players; Michu is everything we hoped Ramirez would be, and Ashley Williams has been excellent in their defence, the pair of them have been instrumental in such a successful season. Fair play to Laudrup, he's taken Swansea on after a brilliant season last year and improved them. MP says he's looking forward to this one too.

That's a bit like 2 bald men arguing over a comb. They were both disappointing (Ramirez's goal aside).

I remember Liverpool having problems a few years back when they had games. I think up to 6 or 7 players had break-ins on game days.

They've got such an unfair reputation, haven't they?

Could have been worse. Millwall fans decided to have a ruck amongst themselves and the police at Wembley today (after giving Pompey a pasting at Waterloo station).

His header was close but he was clearly disappointed to miss the target. So despite Roger's uncomfortable adoration, Lambert could have done better with that one, even the big man himself would admit that I'm sure.

Because football is a tribal sport and the banter between segregated fans is what makes the atmosphere what it is. Everyone knows the rules, its not difficult.

Indeed. If you heard tales of a Saints fan who went away and cheered a goal in the home end I'd be amazed if they didn't come away with a slap for their troubles at best. It doesn't necessarily make it right, but you should know well enough to not do it in the first place, or you will get yourself in trouble.

That's why I said they were more direct than we were. But we were very direct at times, no doubt about it. Strachan used to bang on about not being a long ball side but looking to get good aerial deliveries into the box as quick and often as possible.

There's been a lot of these comments around. Personally I don't find it dissimilar to our time under Strachan. We were famed for working hard, having a willing runner in Ormerod put in bags of effort, played it long often to Beattie, and essentially getting in the faces of the other teams and making it difficult for them to play their game. Overall we had a team with a great work ethic who were better than the sum of their individual parts. West Ham aren't much different to that as far as I can see, albeit a bit more direct. How quickly we forget.

You've really got to be some sort of special f*cktard to openly celebrate an away goal in the home end. No sympathy, they shouldn't be there in the first place and they know that.

Kraken ratings for the game: Boruc: 6. Never really had much to do; as ever tried to get us going quickly from the back. Not much he could do about the goal, although it wasn't a great wall. Clyne: 8. Superb in defence (Jarvis never got a sniff) and a real threat going forwards. Just needs to add that ability to find the killer ball when he gets forward into good positions. Fox: 6. Got skinned early on by Vaz Te but otherwise ok, a solid display. Yoshida: 6. Did well but could quite easily have gifted Carroll a goal when Yoshi completely mistimed his jump for a header; we got lucky when Carroll shot wide. Hooiveld: 6: Once again from Jos a decent performance but a reckless and needless foul gave away the free kick that led to their goal. Cork: 9, MOTM. Superb throughout, he must be horrible to play against as he's just a complete nuisance with his harrying. If he could add goals to his game he'd be a shoo in for England. Schneiderlin: 7. A quietly effective game from Morgan, perhaps subdued by his early yellow. Still efficient and kept us ticking. Lallana: 5. Off colour and never really got going. Ramirez: 6. Similar to Lallana but got the goal. Simply appalling set piece deliveries, please for goodness sake MP get someone else to take them in future. Davis: 7. Tidy display, didn't do much wrong. Lambert: 6. Was often isolated up top and missed JRod. So close to a goal but for a great Jaaskelainen save, but otherwise didn't have the best of service to feed off. Subs: Rodriguez: 8. Excellent display in a limited time and makes you wonder what might have been had he been available for 90 minutes. Has become a key player for us under MP. Puncheon: 6. Didn't really do much but did ok.

He really does have an uncanny knack of letting down otherwise decent performances with stupid, needless mistakes.

If anything today provided me with a bit more evidence that Ramirez and Lallana on the pitch at the same time isn't the way to go. We looked much better with JRod on; Lallana and Ramirez are a bit too similar and I just don't think it has worked for the most part. Also JRod provided some much needed pace, and actually ran at the West Ham defence which put them on the back foot and created openings. Didn't think I'd be saying this only a month ago, but JRod is becoming invaluable to us. His confidence is sky high, and while his technique still needs plenty of work he was an avenue that we just didn't have before he came on and gave them all sorts of bother.

Would have liked to have seen what happened had we been able to play JRod from the start. He was outstanding when he came on and made a real difference. Decent performance but a bit toothless up top. Gaston got the goal but did little else other than woeful dead ball deliveries. Very subdued game from Lallana too. Jack Cork was immense, my MOTM for a brilliant performance and goal saving header in defence. We were the better side but West Ham are extremely solid and held out quite comfortably in the end. Can't complain really, and its another point on the board.

JRod for Ramirez please......

:lol:

Same old, for me. Some good things, some needless silly mistakes. Dead ball delivery needs work, too.