Sheaf Saint

Not too many needed I don't think. The core of our team is good enough for the prem already. Definitely need to address the RM situation. While I have been very impressed with Chaplow there at times this season, I don't think he is the man to line up there in the prem and neither is De Ridder, Puncheon or Guly. I think Fox will do OK at LB but perhaps a new RB is needed as I'm not convinced of the PL credentials of either Richardson or Butterfield. Up front, I'm not sure how well Sharp will do at that level. Obviously he has been a huge asset for us in the run-in but PL defences will be a whole new challenge. From what little I got to see of him before his injury, I reckon Chung will cause a few problems and will do well at PL level. So a new RM, a new RB and another quality striker are a must. Another CB to provide quality cover would also be a useful addition.

I know she only made a handful (probably literally!) of appearances as a sub, but....

Yep. Knew from that moment on that we had the cahoonas for a fight and that it would take something either spectacular or extremely lucky to stop us.

Chesterfield got relegated to L2 today... Which means that once the FL/FA have actually grown a pair and given Pompey the punishment they deserve for their total lack of respect for any sense of decency or fair play over the last few years, Chesterfield should still be a division or two above them!

7 years ago I watched the horror unfold in a bar here in Sheffield. At full time I was crying into my pint when the guy who had been stood next to me for most of the game introduced himself as a pompey fan. He was very gracious and I ended up necking vodka shots at the bar with him before going to meet some mates at another pub where I apparently got up and did OWTSGMI on karaoke wearing my Saints top. I didn't think it would ever get any lower than that and had no idea of the rollercoaster that was to follow. But you know what? All of other was worth it. All the hours and pennies I have invested in supporting Saints; all the years of struggle, frustration and hurt; all of it was building up to this moment today and I was actually in tears watching Jive struggling to hold back the emotion and the look of sheer joy on Rickie's face as he was held aloft by the fans on the pitch. Since I left Southampton in 2004 this site and its predecessors have been an absolute lifeline for me and enabled me to feel a part of it all still despite the distance. So proud right now - words can't describe it. All of the petty bickering on this site suddenly seems so irrelevant. How I wish I was in Southampton to join the party tonight. However you all choose to celebrate and wherever you are, remember you are not alone.

Anybody recognise any of them?

That all seems very oddly familiar doesn't it? Feel sorry for Coventry really.

FFS! You had to go and post that didn't you!

I'm discounting the business-side of things and purely focusing on the football. Besides, the '4-days away' thing always seemed to me like a massive exaggeration in order to hurry up any interested parties, and as it turned out we didn't go out of business so it wasn't really a sucker punch of the kind I'm referring to. When we lost the shootout at Derby in 2007 I felt gutted watching all those smug Derby fans come running over towards us, so that one comes close. But relegation to L1 was inevitable that season we were so dire, so when it eventually happened I was actually a bit "meh" in the end.

Since we dropped out of the PL I have become a lot more aware of just how fickle it is and how precious it is to the media in this country. All those years of us beating Man U and then reading a 3-page spread the next day about what a disaster it was for Fergie without a single word of praise for us, I naively thought that we would actually get some plaudits in the press for once. But now having tasted 7 years away I realise that the only reason we even got as much attention as we did was because we were in the PL. When I look through the sports supplements on a sunday to find 4 or 5 full-page spreads about the PL games and maybe about half a page summarising the Championship, I realise that there is something seriously wrong with the way the PL is regarded as the absolute be-all-and-end-all of football in England; my experiences over the last 7 years tell me otherwise. I have had some bloody great away days during that time and really enjoyed some of the football. Going into every game believing - genuinely believing - that we can win every one and should fear nobody is something that I never experienced for the first 20 years of supporting Saints, and it has been a real novelty. So am I not bothered if we don't make it to the PL? No. I'm not bothered from the point of view that we can still enjoy our football and look forward to challenging at the top again, confident in our ability to beat anybody else in the league. I'm not bothered from the point of view that the PL is a ridiculous bubble where the only way you can possibly hope to be truly competitive is if you can attract a multi-billionaire owner who is willing to recruit players on the most obscene wages, and I would never want to see Saints go down that path. But one thing would bother me massively if we don't achieve promotion this year... We have been in the top two, and indeed - top, for most of the season, and to see us f**k that up now would probably be the most sickening blow I have ever suffered as a Saints fan - worse even than the one I suffered almost exactly seven years ago. So come on you f**king reds! Win it for Markus!

You are very welcome Moff. I too have always considered us and Coventry to be very similar clubs. When I first started following Saints in the late 80s we were both considered to be small fish in a big pond and I remember a few really good games between us. Though I wasn't at all happy when we ended up signing David Speedie off you! But there is more to it than the football. The two cities are similarly sized and both suffered unwanted facelifts by the Germans in the 40s. I really feel sorry for you as fans because of the situation you now find yourself in, and I am so grateful that we managed to stave off the SISU threat because we could now be in exactly the same situation. Let's not be unclear - we hit the jackpot when Markus Liebherr bought us, and it seems that your lot drew the short straw. It could so easily have been the other way round. Obviously relegation is a horrible thing to experience, but I think you may find you will actually enjoy L1 in a strange way, as I did - although I was extremely glad we got out of it when we did. I wish you and your fellow fans good fortune for the future - starting on sunday, obviously!!!!!

14 pages! Is this the longest build-up thread ever seen on SWF?

I don't think a team-talk is necessary. All of the players know the stakes - win it and they are in the PL. SImple as that.

wwwwibble

I wouldn't put it past him. I watched some of his testimony today and he came across as a very erratic person; not what you would expect for the head of a £multi-billion international corporation. Although, I rather suspect a lot of it was staged. He seems to be very skilled in the art of evasion, and it did come across that each time he was asked a question that could have incriminated him if he answered truthfully he played the senile old fool card and pretended he couldn't remember. Funny how his memory is perfect when it comes to things which do not cast him in a bad light, eh?

The Pony / Sanderson kit is from the mid-late 90s, Ginola left Spurs in 2000 and Le Saux didn't join Saints until 2003 when we sold Wayne Bridge to Chelsea. It's definitely Scott Hiley.

What..... ALL science? Your opinion is that every single scientific institutuion is corrupt? You believe that EVERY single study that has ever been carried out in the area of climatology has been influenced by higher powers with vested interests in getting a particular result? With all due respect Alps (which in this case isn't much) we are all well aware from your matchday thread posts how quick you are to offer (no, impose) your opinion based on absolutely nothing, so forgive me if I would rather place my trust in the research of highly qualified and experienced academics than the opinion of somebody who has never displayed the slightest capacity for admitting the possibility of being wrong.

Which is exactly what most people in support of the idea have been saying since the beginning of this thread. Very few though, so does that not constitute a consensus if the vast majority are in agreement? Alps, even the major oil companies now accept the theory of AGW. That's right - even the giant faceless corporations who care more for profits than they do for human life and who have a massive vested interest in maintaining the 'denial' stance recognise that it's a losing battle. Well having only a very limited exposure to the scientific world myself, I would rather trust them with it than any politicians.

James Beattie?

Indeed. The whole thing is just one big positive feedback process. And if anybody is still under any illuison that the Arctic ice isn't melting...

I'm not sure how much of this game my heart can take. It's taken me 48 hours to pluck up the courage to even view this board following saturday's result.

Don't know where you have heard that from. In my experience it's just another typical small northern ex-industrial town with a small-town attitude and no redeeming features IMO. It's known as Ches Vegas around here - owing to it's vulgarity and lack of any class.

Haha, someone had to I suppose. With the PTS thread surely only having a few weeks life left in it ( until they are inevitably liquidated after the season has finished) we will need something else to occupy us I guess.

I don't think anybody can question the credentials of a team that can put together a run of 15 wins in 17. Even Barca would be chuffed with that sort of run. But I do think they have ridden their luck at times during that run, so to say they are the best team by a loong, long way is a little disingenuous. Against West Ham recently they were woeful for the first half and very lucky not to be going into HT 3 or 4 goals behind, then again at SMS last week (I don't think we need to debate that one any more than we have already) it could have been a very different story if we had taken one or two of our chances before they got their first goal. Listening to Merson on SSN the other night, it sounded like they were very lucky to get the 3 points as Forest had a number of decent chances to equalise in the last 10 minutes. None of this is sour grapes. I recognise that although we have been top for most of the season, we have at times misfired and not been at our best which has resulted in points dropped in games where perhaps we shouldn't have (Pompey x 2, Bristol City x 2 etc...) and fair play to Reading for capitlising on that in the way that West Ham perhaps should have but didn't. But the fat lady ain't singing yet ;-)