Sheaf Saint

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 ;-)

When I had a season ticket in the Itchen before moving up north in 2004, there were a couple of old codgers who used to sit right behind me and would spend the entire 90 minutes moaning and complaining how crap we were every time an attacking move didn't come off or we lost possession. They would just about summon up a cheer if we scored, but other than that it was like listening to commentary by Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets for the whole game. Makes you wonder quite what motivates these people to fork out however much for a season ticket if they don't actually enjoy watching football.

WHU 1-0 up :-(

I only ever go on my own these days. Don't know any other Saints fans in Sheffield (well, only one who is a 'passive' fan - hasn't been to a game in years) and none of my old mates from Southampton go to away games. I'm not going to let that spoil my enjoyment though - you're never alone when you've got a couple of thousand people all singing along with you!

Not with Ed "rent-a-soundbite" Miliband in charge they won't. This country is crying out for a strong opposition right now to keep the ConDems in check, and what have we got? A party led by somebody who is incapable of speaking unless from an autocue and who looks and sounds like he should be in a Wallace & Gromit cartoon.

Great battle for 2nd in the end following that cock-up in the pits from Maclaren. Really happy for Nico - great drive and well deserved. I didn't think the Merc's race pace was all that but they proved me wrong today.

What makes you assume I don't already? I have no doubt those horses trainers / handlers will be upset this evening, maybe it will even make them think twice about entering their horses into it in the future but I won't hold my breath because I know that money talks and some people make millions from horseracing. It's not just the grand national I object to, its the 'industry' in general.

Sadly the Walt Disney world of talking horses doesn't exist, so we humans make their decisions for them,

"Excuse me mr horse, I want to ride you in a race today where there is a decent chance you will end up getting shot. What do you say to that?" Imagine if you could actually ask them that... how many do you think would agree?

Footballers, and other sportspeople, know the risks and choose to take them. Horses don't get given the choice.

Oh what a surprise... another two horses dead after this year's race. But hey, it doesn't matter because a few people have won a few quid having had a lovely day drinking bubbly

Oh for feck's sake, please read my response to solentstars above. I am not blaming him for losing to Reading. I am simply contributing my opinion about one player on a thread that is all about that one player. Lastnight Guly came on when we were searching for an equaliser. Many of the posts defending him on this thread claim that he has that special ability to create something or make something happen and that is why he should be in the team, but on lastnight's evidence (and, indeed, all of the games I have seen recently) I didn't see the slightest hint of that. In that one incident that I have already mentioned, when he had the opportunity to run at the Reading defence or make something happen he completely bottled it and left it to Cork instead, which is the exact opposite of what you expect from a player who is supposed to have that bit of magic that can change a game. Perhaps he is low on confidence - I don't know. Why do so many people assume that just because I and others are critical of his individual performances that we are all scapegoating and making out like it's all his fault whenever we have a bad result?

Scapegoating? Where in either of my posts did I blame him for the defeat? That's right, I didn't. If you read my post in the reaction thread you'll see I was equally critical of certain other players as well. This thread is an ongoing debate about Guly, as he really does divide opinion. My opinion of him was that he was very poor last night and that our attacking play became very pedestrian and predictable when he came on we needed to create an equaliser. I simply posted that opinion on here, which is surely thw whole point. If you disgaree then why not offer constructive reasons instead of labelling me as sad.

There was one moment where we had the ball in midfield and were trying to build an attack. Guly had possession and time and was looking for options, and he chose to play an utterly pointless 3-yard sideways pass to Cork which lead to the move breaking down. It's obvious that NA brought him on to give us some better attacking options and he did absolutely nothing and was at fault for their third IMO.

Thought he was dreadful when he came on tonight. Far too conservative and slowed the game down when we needed to up the tempo and put pressure on the Reading defence.

Annoyed. we had them on the rack for large periods but just couldn't find that bit of quality needed to open them up - good defending from Reading you have to say, and we didn't harry them enough to pressure them into a mistake, which is exactly how they scored their second and third. Sharp was ineffective. I know he was invloved in our goal but aside from that he offered no threat at all which was disappointing. I thought Chappers was having a good game before he was subbed and SDR did show some enterprise when he came on but still couldn't supply enough quality from the wing. When we really needed to up our game to get a goal back after they went 2-1 up, Guly comes on and slows the game down completely. Totally one-dimensional in midfield and offered nothing going forward - at fault for their third goal. I really don't care if I get slammed by his supporters on here because I have not seen a single damn thing from him all season that shows he is a positive force in the team. Oh well. Reading probably deserve the title now, but I'm still confident that we will take second spot. As long as we play with the same confidence and patience as we did during our periods of dominance tonight in our last 3 games then I can't see WHU overtaking us. Blue line. Onwards and upwards.