Whitey Grandad

I can't see any spare Saturdays so I think it must be.

Your words, but I was not talking about me...

It isn't and I don't. I have two season tickets in prime position on the halfway line and I have had them since we moved to St. Mary's. If I wanted to sit behind the goal then I would have bought season tickets there. My big complaint is that I wasted 45 minutes this morning going out of my way so as to be reasonbly sure of getting my usual seat and it was a waste of my time which is very valuable to me, and I was not the only whose time was wasted this morning. There is no mention of any of these wholesale closures on the OS. Those of you who only attend the occasional match may not care where you sit or who you sit next to but we season ticket holders who have been supporting the club financially through thin and thin like the comradeship and familiarity of our matchday routine. As I say, I should have thought that the club would start with opening the Itchen and Kingsland and then progress from there, as they have done in previous matches where a low trurnout was expected.

They don't go any more. At least, the ones I knew who did, don't.

Thanks for the balanced analyses, I was merely offering an alternative veiw of our situation which took into account our deduction. Take it or leave it at your pleasure (or not). My thinking is along your lines, St Landrew, in that a playoff position is achievable if we continue with the same good form but to paraphrase Sam Goldwyn, we shall all have passed a lot of water by then.

I went out of my way to go to the ticket office this morning to get my usual seat for the FA Cup 3rd round only to be told that the Kingsland was closed for this game. The desk clerk said 'it's only Rotherham and it's two days after the new year so we only expect 16,000 and the Kingsland is a big block'. What kind of thinking is this? I and thousands of others come to watch Saints, not the opposition. On that basis I wouldn't have bought two season tickets for League 1. And the prospectus said that we would have priority for our seat for cup games, but that never seems to be the case. I walked away without buying a ticket and I was not the only one to do so. The OS is unclear on this merely stating that 'only certain blocks in the Kingsland will be open'. I post this as a warning to any season-ticket holder in the Kingsland not to bother to try and buy their regualr seat.

Indeed, by that measure we are performing very well at the moment, but we had a poor start. I have seen comments on here to the effect that it is a disgrace that were still in the relegation zone in November, when clearly that was an artificial situation which would not have lasted. By adopting the method I suggested, which is merely another way of interpreting our situation at the moment, one can get an idea of where we would finish the season if all the teams were to continue with the same average form that they have shown so far. If one or two find this concept difficult to understand, then please feel free to ignore it. Alternatively you could wait another three games when we shall be at the halfway point in the season, and, just to get some idea of how we are doing that also takes into account the effect of the points deduction, see what the table looks like with us having -5 applied. Think of it as a mid-term assessment.

You really don't understand the point of this, do you? The league table means sweet FA until the end of the season, so to get a true idea of how we are performing relative to the other teams in the same league, the only valid measure is to apply the deduction proportionate to the number of games played. Otherwise if the 10 points are applied at the beginning, their effect on our relative performance has an enormous effect at the start of the season, gradually reducing until at the end of the season to the average deduction per game that I quoted previously, which is a gross distortion. I appreciate that this concept may be a little difficult for you to understand, but the league table means nothing until the last game has been completed, and the -10 points likewise mean nothing until then.

I can guarantee that we shall reach the playoffs because I have a holiday booked for the last 2 weeks of May next year.

Not bizarre at all. It indicates where we would finish the season if all teams continued with the same average form that they have shown so far. It is not indicative to apply a whole season's worth of deduction all at once.

The 10 point deduction equates to about -0.2173913 points per game so to get a true reflection of where we sit in the table I have applied a deduction of 4.348 points (20 games out of 46) to the total of 32 that we have won, hence about 27.6 points. Aternatively you could wait until the end of the season and take the 10 points off then, which is when they actually take effect.

Pro-rata we are on 27.65 points, in 11th place just below Millwall but if the good form continues we should slowly creep upwards!

This season it's December 31st for 5 yellows. Amnesty periods for 10 and 15 are the same as before - whenever they were. Great result! I'm not sure if I'd rather we won 2-0 or whether it really matters.

I'm still embarrassed by Michael Owen's penalty run.

Indeed, I've just found it: i. Except where mutually agreed otherwise the minimum admission (except to children and senior citizens) to matches shall be: In the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Round Proper: £15.00 ii.A higher admission charge may be mutually agreed between the Clubs concerned. The Away Club's spectators can only be charged more than the home team if agreed by both clubs. iii.The price for admission for children and senior citizens must be mutually agreed between the Clubs concerned.

Don't the prices have to be agreed with the opposition who get a percentage of the gate money?

Who have we got?

I went to Bournemouth last Saturday and saw him score their only goal. I would say he was a poor man's Lambert. He knows where the goal is and makes the right sort of runs. He's obviously knocking in the goals in L2 even though he's playing in a lightweight team but I'm not sure that he could make the step up to L1. Might be worth a look if he weren't too expensive, but I'll leave those decisons to AP and his team of helpers.

He has some Wai to Go before he's playing at that level

Our gnome record is second to none.

I haven't refereed a Sunday match for a few years either, I know that getting officials for them is almost impossible now. I know what you mean about fans, though. I was at Bournemouth last Saturday and they were appealing for offside from a goal-kick!

Oops, sorry I didn't see the 'Northampton bit' :smt087 Communication between ref and lino is usually by eye contact and most refs take the throw-in decisions if there is any doubt and the ball is up 'their end' of the pitch. You'll often see them making little gestures with their arms down by their sides and their fingers trying to point. You're right, of course, ball out of play is a fundamental decision which will always be left to the lino. Sticking the flag straight up is discouraged even at Sunday morning levels because it can look indecisive. It should be done by eye contact.

Yep, it was all quite exciting at the time. :---)

I disagree. I thought all of his decisioins were spot on and as for the communication between the ref and his assistant, who knows what methods they had agreed on in the pre-match briefing?