Sheaf Saint

I have a vague memory of us smashing Chelsea 4-2 at the Bridge, possibly late 90s but I can't remember. It was before the Abramovich era anyway.

Probably the 2-0 win at Norwich under Pardew when they were running away with the league. Really didn't expect to get anything that day.

In which case, look no further than the massive dip in form we suffered when Chaplow got injured. His contribution to the overall team prior to that point was immense and, IMO, the biggest single reason we had managed to storm our way to the top of the table and stay there. However, because he was out for the best part of 3 months, and still hasn't got his previous sharpness back yet, it's unlikely that I or anybody else could claim he performed consistently enough over the entire season to deserve the award. We are the top scorers in the league, with the individual top scorer as well, so it would be scandalous if a defender was to win it (IMO, of course), therefore there is only one real candidate for me... Mr Richard Lambert, take a bow son.

I started following Saints in 1988/89 when we were on a shocking run of something like 20 games without a win and hovering dangerously close to the relegation zone. The following season - 1989/90 - is still the best season and, to my mind, the best team we have had in all that time since. Our first choice eleven that year was... Flowers Dodd Ruddock Osman Benali Le Tissier Case Horne R Wallace Shearer Rideout. We finished tenth in the old Div 1 that year with Le Tiss and Wallace bagging 45 goals between them (from the wings!) and played some of th best football I have ever seen from any side, let alone Saints (including the 4-1 demolition of eventual champions Liverpool where we made them look like a pub team). There was never a dull moment that year, and some of the games that really stick in my mind are the 4-1 home win over Norwich with Matty getting his second hattrick in a week, the 6-3 win over Luton, the 4-1 away at QPR and the 4-4 draw away at Norwich. To go back to the original point of the thread though, our current team is undoubtedly the best we have had since that point. Not just in terms of the number of good players in the team, but the whole squad ethic and positive belief that Adkins has instilled since his arrival.

Sergei Gets-men-off Brett Oh-my-rod Claus Longdickvam

I've had a few of these calls. The first time I just hung up. Second time I got a bit angry, then hung up. Now if they call I just play along with them for a little bit before telling them that I almost certainly know a lot more about IT than they do and ask how they sleep at night knowing that they are just preying on vulnerable and gullible people to make money. The way it works (as I found out after researching a little on other people's experiences) is that they ask you to go to logmein rescue or similar and get remote access to your computer. They then proceed to go into the event viewer and convince you that all the little exclamation mark warnings are a sign that there is a serious infection on your OS and that they will need to install some software to remove it. The software they install makes it look like there is a virus on your machine so they tell you they need to charge you £75 for the full version which basically just removes the app they installed in the first place. Sadly many (mostly elderly people) have fallen for it, and because they always withhold their number and refuse to tell you where they are calling from, there is no comeback if you get scammed. Some of them will direct you to a seemingly professional website (like this one) which would look really authentic to someone whose knowledge of IT is how to turn on a PC and open a web-browser, but to anybody remotely tech savvy they are blatantly fraudulent.

Oh Jesus f***ing Christ no Lambert's done himself an injury.

Puncheon on now for AL???

Uh-oh. last thing we need now is for Lallana to get injured again. Hope he's OK.

Lambert again! 2-0!

Reading 1-0 up at Boro now

Sounds like the keeper made a very bad decision there.

LAMBERT!!!!!! 1-0! Take that thank you very much!

Indeed. Remember going there on Boxing day (2005???) and we had our arses handed to us on a plate that day. Think it was Burley's first game in charge but can't be certain. Watford tore us a new one anyway - it was thoroughly depressing. Looking at the BBC build-up, apparently we have only ever won once at Vicarage Road - in 1988. Shocking! On a more positive note, they got dicked 4-0 away at Palace last week and we have only conceded one goal in our last four games.

Very talented player who could drive you mad by always, always, always cutting inside and running into a dead end. Had his moments of pure brilliance, and scored a spectacular last-minute equaliser against Everton at SMS if memory serves. I seem to remember we only got him because Fulham manager (whoever it was at the time) reckoned he had a bad attitude.

No, not everyone. Why do you have to take such a defensive position to everything? I heard Vince Cable talking about it on R4 the other day so posted what I knew, but some posters decided to ignore this very important point and proceeded to apportion blame on the government for not choosing a British bid that was never even presented.

Hahahaha that's priceless. Some gorms on their claiming we don't knopw the rules when it comes to red and yellow cards, then one of the claims that having seen the replay, Sharp should have got a booking for running over to Noble and then another one for play-acting. Not a single one of them seems the slightest bit concerned about the blatant dive from Noble to win the penalty in the first place. no siree, he's wearing a WHU shirt so he MUST have been fouled.

Teflon coated with a 10-year guarantee I would imagine

I wonder how the backroom staff who have just been laid off to accommodate his wages feel watching this video???

Thing is, if I was a Skate fan and saw one of the players whose wages had nearly bankrupted my club grovelling to the fan base to come along so he can continue to get paid, following the redundancy of 30-odd backroom staff who have to make ends meet with a real-world wage, I'm pretty sure embarrassment is not the emotion I would be feeling. It would probably be a combination of disbelief and resentment, followed by a period of rage.

A point which I made in post #3, but that still wasn't enough to stop nearly two pages of reactionary nonsense and insults. Don't know why I am surprised really.

The Nick Griffin-Question Time one had me in hysterics when I first saw it...

Not sure how they have managed to squirm out of that. Watching the highlights on BBC sport it was a nailed-on red card. Last man - shocking tackle to prevent a clear goalscoring opportunity.

It still seems bizarre to me that they can be allowed to loan out a 19-year-old with no 1st team experience and replace him with a 20-year-old loanee who also has no 1st team experience. The FL need to have a good long look at their rules in this respect methinks.

As a navy man yourself delldays, what are your objections to it? Seems to me that the requirement has been identified and the contract has been given to the best bidder (as it should be) to go ahead. It is a shame that no British companies felt able to bid but, seeing as they didn't, would you rather we gave the contracts to a foreign corporation or just not bother with them at all?