Stud mark of doom

Quite ironic that you posted that iirc when Souey was quizzed about it afterwards his excuse was “I am surprised this has caused such a fuss. It happens all the time back in my country”.

This needs some pre-planning i think Tonda should pause, affix his steeliest stare, and say “what is your name”? then Adam or Alfie should interrupt with “dont’t tell him Pike” That should defuse the situation.

Quite encouraged by those statements MEFLbrough have a lot to answer for

So after all that scheming and entrapment what do boro get? no shots at goal (and no trains home to the chemical soup that is Boro) plus they have to compete with us for promotion next season, rather than Hull. nice one Gibbo

Get in!

It’s the 40th, rather than the 40th anniversary

Let’s hope they get knocked out of the playoffs, for the second time in one season, and after screwing up automatic promotion. The Treble is on.

With a white flag more like

Could Tonda have agreed to “take the bullet” to prevent much wider involvement coming out? Might explain reluctance to hang him out to dry.

To me, it now seems much more difficult to object to our punishment. We have been a disgrace - seriously considering not renewing my season ticket, in what would be my 40th consecutive year. What stands out as truly objectionable is Boro being put through to the final after losing fair and square (for once we can be sure there definitely was no effective spying on them!). The outcome should have been for Hull (who are now at a considerable disadvantage) to go straight up. Will be cheering Hull on - and if they don’t go up I hope they sue. The fact that Boro had planned this all along may well be relevant for that case.

Just one thought - do we really know Tonda instigated this practice? This slight doubt is how angry he got at the Boro manager and his comment that there was plenty he wanted to say but couldn’t. Would put a totally different spin on it if the practice was established at the club prior to his arrival and “all” he did was fail to say “we must stop doing this” when he came in as a very inexperienced manager. We may never know for sure - as saints would obviously not want to suggest the practice is long standing.

That seems preferable to the likely “kicked out of the play offs” scenario and how that is might play out. .

Think you need a zero on the end

Thanks for the avoidance of doubt, I wasn’t suggesting ignorance would be a defence - just interested in whether it might be reality.

Just a thought - is there a possibility that those at the club didn’t know there was a rule against this (seemingly unique EFL and arbitrary time limit). The senior guys are from overseas. We were in the prem (where it’s fine) when the rule came in, and for most of the time since). Also sounds as if it might be standard practice to ignore it for other clubs.