SNSUN

The sad thing is, it's catch 22. Pardew will see out August, and if he hasn't signed anyone, there's a very real chance he'll be gone based on this team's current showing. Then the next poor bugger in charge has no transfer window to do anything with the team, and has to use the players he's inherited from Pardew. Either sack Pardew now, or hope he signs someone and "his" team improve and assess how he's getting on in December, before the next transfer window is wasted. Waiting for the loan window would be folly, even waiting for the end of August would be foolhardy. I do think we'll see playing staff brought in - the question is, will they be the players we need to cover the positions we're short in? (Almost universally accepted as a pacy winger, central midfield box to box player and a tall striker...)

We are woefully short of luck. Barnard could've had a hattrick today. We did make chances, but not enough and not incisive enough. Two or three attacking signings are beyond a necessity. Thought Alex O-C showed good technique when he came on, apart from spooning our last shot over the bar.

I'm slightly losing faith in Pardew but we never seem ready for the start of the season. Sort the signings out at the start of summer, play pre-season against tougher opposition and get more luck! Everything is in the playing staffs' hands except for the luck.

I was going to this game anyway but I can"t deny I sped up with buying my tickets for it because of the circumstances. I think there'll be a big walk up and we'll sell out.

He's an annoying player, you expect one thing from him and he gives you something else that you're not expecting!

...and a remarkable bit of business by Mourinho too - not only did he get a shed load of cash for a player that people don't rate as the best striker in Spain let alone the world, he got Eto'o too, a proven goalscorer.

That makes us seem REALLY bad then... I get the feeling we'll beat Orient handsomely. No disrespect to Orient, but the whole club, not just the players but the manager, NC, backroom staff and fans will all be up for this one. Whatever happens, I'll be cheering my head off.

Effing spellcheck

Ridiculous or not, I've said all summer we should weaken the competition like last season, chuck money at Huddersfield and sign Jordan Rhodes. Young, tall and a goalgetter. Brett Pitman seems a good shout so far this season.

You jest, but I got bored of one of the old CM's once, and decided to spruce up his stats with the editor. He went on to become the best right back in the world, and quite possible the greatest footballer ever to have graced the game. :-) In that he won us our only major piece of silverware, I would class Bobby Stokes as a local legend. But the OP is right, it is a term that gets banded around too much. In 100 years time, when people read through Saints history, the name Rupert Lowe will probably feature more than any others...

Bob Crowe is a knob for taking a pay rise - I'm one of the Underground workers in danger of losing my job as it is now and perhaps having to take a £7 grand pay cut, all because LUL have decided to cut our booking office roster from 18 people to 14, and I'm the 15th man. I've been told that if I don't get a rostered spot four months after losing my position, I'll be dropped back a grade. These are so far unsubstantiated rumours doing the rounds with the reps, but it doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. I'd have to move if I dropped a grade, and I certainly couldn't propose to my missus. We'll see. I didn't vote to strike though, as I didn't know this was happening at the time, but it's irrelevant as it looks like the strike is going ahead.

COYRFFSWIFM UTS Nice idea btw

He's lost his footballing desire apparently. Not somebody I'd want to see at SMS, no matter how much experience he has. If he has lost his zest for the game, then coming here and sitting on a fat pay cheque for the hell of it is not something I'd personally like to see.

This is why I think there'll be a mad scramble of transfers in the final week of August, and perhaps a more transfer packed deadline day than we have had in years - just a hunch. I would have been all excited following it too, had SSN not decided to be arses and go private.

This should ensure a sell out for the Leyton Orient game. Get your tickets and sing your hearts out.

Ode to St Markus: We won't forget you smiling, We won't forget your grace, We won't forget your legacy, We'll miss your smiling face. You saved us when we suffered, Stuck in our hour of need, Trapped in our poor existance, With your help we were freed. You came to feed your passion, In doing so you fed ours, You've given us a future hope, To while away the hours. Alas we heard your passing, We grieve for you this day, We never will forget you, Especially not in May. For when we get promoted, We'll sing your name so loud, We'll keep you deep within our hearts, Love the SMS crowd.

This has come as a bolt out of the blue. Just yesterday I thought how unfortunate and sad it must be for Exeter City to lose a striker - to lose your chairman and source of funding is completely shocking. I have nothing bad to say about him - he came in, saved us, made us financially secure, and enjoyed seeing us win the JPT final. What a year. RIP Markus, may you always watch us from heaven with a glowing smile on your face and with your little camera taking pictures. Thanks to Pancake for the Facebook status - I wouldn't have see this news without it!

I'll be getting "Markus Liebherr RIP" on the back of my new home shirt, and I NEVER get anything on the back of my shirts. I don't think I'll be the only one in doing this. Re-naming the Itchen stand the Markus Liebherr stand would be the most obvious thing to do, a statue of Markus ending up like the original Bates statue would be in poor taste. (Though I honestly think the club have learned their lesson on that score...)

League Status. IMO the crowds we're getting here are good for League One levels, but we'd be filling the ground out in the Premiership, and that would generate more atmosphere as the plastics would return in their droves and take part. As we (hopefully) move up through the leagues, the ground will fill up and I'm sure will get louder.

The King and Castle, a Lloyds No1 bar in Windsor, is supposedly haunted. Before its last refurb, I used to get lock ins quite a bit, and there was one particular store cupboard on the stairs that was supposed to be the centre of the hauntings by a female ghost. Naturally on one of the lock ins we were telling ghost stories, and I actually offered to be locked in the cupboard for five minutes. Now I tend to believe in the supernatural, but I am relieved to say I didn't encounter anything untoward, in fact I was more freaked out by the spiders. The cupboard is now gone, but I'm sure there are one or two places in Windsor that remain haunted, including perhaps, the biggest building of them all...

Fook knows what this is then. Could be my conjoined twin's remains.

Bump this. August 23rd is the date it goes off Freeview. Arse.

I would like to hear Graham's views on this topic as well...

I tend to sit in the Kingsland South at the back, and usually no-one is singing around me, so I tend not to sing. I've always had a touch of agoraphobia so last season was the first season I got to quite a few games, and I just don't have the confidence to sing when others around me aren't. (Irrespective of once being a chorister and singing all over the world...) Exceptions to this were in the FA Cup tie with Pompey, when everyone was singing anyway, and the Wembley game, where I didn't care if no-one was singing around me, I was 100% determined to enjoy myself and sing. I've heard of people at the ground telling others to shut up - this IMO is disgraceful, it's not the effing ballet ffs. When I can finally get to a game this season, I think I'll sit in the Itchen North, they tend to sing pretty well.

Not at all - I'm hopeful of both! Neither, though, will happen.