Whitey Grandad

He looked fresh and lively, and quick at times. I thought perhaps he was trying a bit too hard with the little flicks and lay-offs. Sometimes when the ball is pumped up to him he needs to make it stick so the attack has time to build.

Well that's patently not true. Why are tickets in the centre blocks more expensive than those in the corners? Why are all the director's seats in the centre of the Itchen?

Did anyone else notice that the Chapel was louder than usual today?

I was in O798 so you must have been sat at the back directly behind me. I thought I could hear somebody getting excited.

If they close a stand then they don't need to pay stewards, catering staff, safety staff for that stand so it can't just be a matter of lower rows only as all the stands would need to be open. I think the club misjudged the potential crowd for this game. From the safety point of view, it must be better to have a thinner crowd spread out over a larger area?

Oh, you naive youth..

I have no recollection of the walk either. It was the Amstel brewery that we visited - my future wife and I - although we weren't married then but we still are now. I like the Amstel beer, for me it's a cross between lager and bitter, although at 19 years old anything will do. My dad worked for the railways so he got me a free pass, Enfield town to Amsterdam Central via Hook of Holland. My missus (then Fianceé) had to pay £12/10/- for her return ticket. Ah, happy days

There was a late surge in ticket purchases on Thursday morning. Because most of the popular blocks were initially closed a lot of regulars decided to wait until the last moment before buying so that they would have a choice of where to sit. After 3 visits to the TO I finally got my usual 2 seats in the centre of block 31 but I would happily have sat in the immediate vicinity. We were surrounded by unfamiliar faces which confirmed to me what I had been told by the majority of the regular STs in that area, that they would not be buying tickets if their seats were not available. I think there would have been over 20,000 sold if the main blocks had been open from the beginning.

18786 including 3017 away supporters. It would have been more if the ground had been fully opened earlier

Undersoil heating is not always best for the pitch. I understand that there are better solutions these days, such as insulating ground covers.

Let's call it Flattened Park.

If we signed all those we might get a decent first eleven out of them.

Thanks, SoldTo, those are interesting figures. What is the end date of the accounting period for those? I assume that they are a standard limited company and not a PLC?

Are you on commission? These damned agents get everywhere

Red Sea might be worth a look. I've not been myself but a friend says that the snorkelling and diving is unbeatable. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/offertypeshub/article-1209482/Red-Sea-Sharm-el-Sheikh.html

As I understand it, Gaydamak owns the land around the ground and there is a separate loan secured against the ground - £15m?

Well you can't have our billionaire, he's not for sale. I just assumed that those 5 were you and your associates. Seriously though, I hope that things get sorted out for you one way or another, there's nothing worse than sitting around waiting for bad news and being powerless to do anything about it. I had a cartoon once that said 'I feel so much better now that I've given up hope'. Relax and accept the inevitable. :cool:

What advantage is there in this 'priority'? To be able to guarantee a ticket to a game that will never be a sell-out? I have the best view in the ground and I have persevered with my season tickets even through all the rubbish that we have endured in the last few seasons because I wanted to keep that position. There is another important point that the club will miss out on a lot of ticket sales from ST holders who would normally have gone to this game if they could have bought their usual seat.

Yes, we knew that, but I think you've missed the point. One of the benefits of buying a ST, and thereby supporting the club financially, is that you will have priority on buying tickets for all cup games as is explicitly stated in the new supporters' charter. Quite clearly in this instance this has not happened. The seats in question have been offered for general sale without the STs having an earlier opportunity to purchase them. What on earth was the point of giving ST holders one week priority for buying seats in another part of a stadium which was expected to be less than half full?

Thanks, I couldn't find it when I looked before. Yours is funnier because it involves Pompey.

In my experience whenever you start getting this sort of excuse after excuse you go round and grab whatever you can lay your hands on before eryone else does the same.

Usually it means that loans to the company are converted into a shareholding thus diluting any other ownership. In the case of Chelsea I am not familiar with their current set-up.

Judge not, lest ye be judged...

I think that's more to do with players' contracts. It has been suggested that they are void after 3 missed payments which would mean that the players concerned become free agents with no transfer value. However I did see another reference which suggested 3 months without being paid, so who knows?

But enough for the Itchen, Kingsland and maybe some of the corners?