The Kraken

This. I always cringe when those oh-so hilarious and oh-so original chaps in the Northam start up with the "does your boyfriend know you're here" chants. It's like when Saints fans get "small town in Portsmouth" directed at us; not funny, not original, just sh*t.

Agreed, he really isn't afraid to make changes on an individual game basis. Of course it does help that we have such good backup to turn to for different options; Guly up front, Chaplow out wide, Butterfield in for Richardson. Add in the different options that de Ridder, Schneiderlin and the returning Barnard will give us and we have a squad that can be rejigged at will for a variety of different formations and lineups, and a manager seemingly brave enough and astute enough to get the best out of whoever he selects.

I'm pretty sure NA doesn't think like that. For the Reading game he lamented the fact that he only made one change from the side that won the previous game, and said it was perhaps a mistake by him. The selection of Butterfield instead of Richardson (and his reasoning behind it) shows that Adkins makes decision on selection to suit each individual game.

Phil, you left out a few other things that NA commented on from the game. That it was great for JWP to get a game and how well he did. That it was good for Ben Reeves to get another run out and do well. That we managed to get Lee Barnard a 20 minute run out on his road to recovery. And that Bart got another game under his belt. Saying it was all a wasted exercise is just a childish distortion of the truth. Even the negative aspects can be of some benefit, for example the poor showing from Forte will probably reinforce the view that he's not good enough as a striker, and we therefore perhaps need to dip into the transfer market to give us more options up front.

What difference to the team does it make if I get complacent? Is Nigel Adkins going to read out an excerpt from me to the team? "Hand on lads, this random lad from the internet thinks we're doing really well and we can rest on our laurels". Its entirely ridiculous to think that anything I believe has any effect on the team whatsoever. I'm not even complacent, I still think finishing in the playoffs would be a great achievement, there's a number of very good teams in this division and a hell of a lot of football still to be played. As for the bits you've highlighted, you either have difficulty understanding or have a weird sense of humour if you find them funny. We do have genuine competition for almost every position on the pitch; if you disagree with that then you're either blind or stupid. For the Palace game we dominated posession and created more chances than they did, despite going with a complete second XI; with some better finishing we could have easily got a result there. I know that doesn't fit in with your obsessive need to be critical at all times and therefore bypass actually enjoying the moment, but different strokes I suppose.

Exactly right. Our squad is very, very good, and we have genuine competition for almost every position on the pitch plus in Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana a couple of players who every team in the division would love to have in their side. The Palace game, if anything, just shows how deep our squad is. We made ten changes from the previous league game, and it was perhaps only our slight lack of options up front with Barnard not ready yet and Connolly rested that led to our ultimate demise. Palace themselves also changed things around a bit but, as a Palace supporting mate told me at the time, they just don't have the options available to change it all as much as we did and fielded a number of genuine first teamers. Trying to find some negatives out of our current situation is just a bit daft.

The Echo have a lot to answer for in repeatedly using them for interviews etc whilst desperately avoiding highlighting just how few fans they represent. Lazy journalism to use a "supporters association" to try and add gravitas to an article. Considering how long SISA have been around, and the sheer amount of times the Echo use them for quotes, there has NEVER been an article written about them, what they do, who they are and who they represent.

I did enjoy the end bit. Cundy: "I can't believe a Saints fan is on here moaning about things right now!" Thick-Mick: Yeah but, roight, it's all very well when things are going alroight. But what about me having to pay for car parking now, eh? What about that? Cundy: *click*. Ok, up next we have Dave from Coventry.....

It is SISA we're talking about, so that's likely to be not too far from the truth.

I did find it humourously ironic that Dim-Mick rang in to complain about Cortese cancelling the fans forums and therefore not being open with teh fans, all the while hiding behind his SISA identity which is quite possibly the most introverted and closed-shop of a supporters association going.

He was given extremely short shrift by the presenter, and came across as being very bitter and really quite thick. I don't think Mike has got too much going on up top, bless him.

Aside from your figures being miles off, what is the point in this thread? It's tedious, pointless, and as jam rightly says, covered elsewhere.

With effect from next month I shall be taking up residency in Meribel for the winter season. Allez les Alpes Francaises!

I'm hopeful that Barnard can't be too far away from match fitness; he seemed to get through his 20 minutes on the pitch last night ok. And given that Connolly seems incapable of playing for any longer than 60 minutes at a time, I don't think Barnard can be too far away from giving us at least that. I'm really not a fan of Guly up front, I think he plays his best when running on to the ball and much less so when back to goal and holding the ball up.

I think the return of Barnard would be a better option, myself.

Go after the game?

I can't imagine it will do anything than go on general sale. We've previously struggled to sell out a reduced allocation before on the ballot, add in the "bubble trip" restrictions and I imagine anyone who has been to 1 away game will get a ticket if they apply.

Yep, as also perfectly illustrated with the trip to the Madjeski.

I spoke to some Palace fans who went there for the game; they said the stadium is good (as you'd expect for that price) but the location is not good and the public transport links are abysmal. Also, there's very little segregation after the game to get on the trains, given it was two rivals they were just all lumped into a massive queue together and then got pelted with stones thrown at them. I think the inside of the ground looks utterly sh*t, the huge spaces in the corners are completely ridiculous.

If Martin O'Neill gets the Leicester job I'd suggest that would make them genuine promotion candidates; it was a bit of a scattergun approach from Sven but he still signed some very good players for this level; even on 19 points they're not miles away, and as they've probably under-achieved so far if they get their act together with a new manager they could be a proper force yet. I still maintain playoffs will be a fantastic achievement this year; West Ham will be up there of course, Leicester could kick into gear, even Birmingham look like they're now putting results together (4 wins and a draw since we humbled them) and could go second if they win their games in hand. Middlesbrough also look strong, which makes this Saturday's game very important to set a marker, and we're relying massively on our incredible home form at the moment.

Chapel.

Well, there is already power there supplying the tills that are there. No idea if they're networked, and yes I agree, there probably is a reason that I haven't considered as to why it hasn't been done. I just find it disappointing that Cortese himself identified beer queues very early on as a singificant problem, and vowed to fix it as soon as possible. Yet here we are a year or two down the line and seemingly absolutely nothing has been done to improve the situation. As we've seen, Reading had the beer-backpack lads, we previously used to have bottle bars, just 2 measures that would go a good way to making the situation better.

I don't know how much the purchase and installation of a new till is, but I can't believe it's all that restrictive. And if clubs like Reading have them installed already we're only bringing our systems in line with our competitors rather than pursuing some form of innovative sales technique. In any case, it's not just about the money, its all about enhancing the customer experience (as Cortese himself has claimed). He personally said that it was thoroughly unacceptable how long it took for the customer to get served, and that the club would be looking to rectify that as soon as possible. Given the significant sums being invested in the club, surely an upgrade of sales kiosks is very much small potatoes?

I think the immediate thing that strikes me is that we just don't have enough pay kiosks behind the bars. I don't think there's a problem in pouring drinks fast enough, just that there's often only two kiosks to pay for a drink (at least it's been that way the last few times I've been there, admittedly in the Chapel so might be different in other parts of the ground). A very simple way to halve the sze of the queues would be, instead of having just 2 tills behind the counter, have 4. The system of having people pouring is already there, just there's a massive bottleneck in not having enough pay points available.