Sheaf Saint

Not really. If they were actually any good then the Skates wouldn't be in their current league position because they would have acquired a lot more points prior to the deduction. This, it seems, is the irony of it all... They adopted a quality over quantity policy in their playing squad, but the quality appears to be very questionable.

Just about to turn 37. Born in Winchester and grews up in Bitterne - went to Bitterne Park Comprehensive between 1987 and 1991. I was never interested in football as a kid. Didn't get into it until I was about 13 and first went along cos my mate at school used to get free tickets from his dad who worked at the Dell. My first ever game was a League cup game against Luton in 1988/89 season. It was 0-0 after 90 minutes and we lost 2-1 in extra time. Can't remember who scored our goal. My first really strong memory of watching Saints was later that season when we played Newcastle at home on the back of a shocking run of something like 23 games without a win. I remember it was a tight game with neither team creating much, but we got a penalty in the last minute which a newly-signed Neil Ruddock duly smashed in and we won 1-0 (Newcastle went down that season). To this day I don't think I've ever experienced anything like the celebrations in the Milton End when the final whistle went that day.

Indeed, as we discovered so painfully in 2005. If Brizzle City get any points at home to Cardiff later on, Pompey will be NINE points from safety! WTFILN???

Some key stats for you... Skates last 8 games - Won 0 Drawn 2 lost 6 For 2 Against 11 I don't honestly care if they 'get away with it' now. They have a one way ticket to League 1 and there's nothing they or anyone can do about it. Balance of power in Hampshire is now well and truly restored.

43!

Wonderful stuff. 10 points from 12 now - promotion form. Sounds like we always had a higher gear in the 2nd half as well.

Full time at Upton Park 1-1!

Bloomin 'eck! If things stay as they are the Skates will be 8 points from safety. And it could get worse later if Bristol City can get some points against Cardiff.

Brighton 2-0 Pompey!

West Ham clinging on to a draw apparently. Donny getting very close to a late winner.

Wow - screamer from Hooiveld and keepers makes a double save to keep it out!

Sharp coming on

Brighton 1-0 up now as well. Happy days!

Doncaster equalise!

LALLANA!!!!! 2-0 lovely!

I wouldn't be surprised. There's no love lost between Barnsley and Donny Rovers, I know that much. The only thing that unites them is their common hatred for Sheff Wednesday.

Surely that takes them over the minimum 14 senior players now, doesn't it?

Is it though? Although western journalists are not allowed in the country, there were still plenty of reports from the time of the last election about corruption and vote-rigging. And the way in which the protests about it were so ruthlessly put down was hardly consistent with the actions of a democratically-elected government.

Thing is, I just can't see that happening now. Look at their current form - 2 draws and 5 defeats in their last seven games, having only scored two goals. Even if they were safe right now that would be worryingly bad form, but they are currently 6 points from safety and all other teams around them have shown they are capable of winning games recently. They've got a patched up squad of loanees following the departure of Lawrence and Huseklepp, and an inexperienced manager who appears to be cracking under the pressure. Put it this way, I wouldn't be in any hurry to go out and put any bets on them staying up.

Little Miss Sunshine is my recommendation. Never fails to lift me up if I'm glum.

Well it's obviously impossible to quantify. But, I really do think the threat from AQ is, and always has been, overstated. Look at the events of 7/7 here... The guys who were (allegedly) responsible for it were just a bunch of disaffected British Pakistanis with no proven links to AQ. As we saw with the August riots last year, young people with very little future prospects are easily swayed into violent action, and it is my opinion that the continued presence of UK/US troops in Afghanistan is only going to generate further anger amongst the younger generation of Muslims and increase the likelihood of something like 7/7 happening again.

And do you also think that the lives of 400 servicemen and £billions of public money spent was worth it to prevent the possibility of a handful of deaths? Like I said, I think it needs to be put into perspective... In 2009 there were 190 recorded deaths in the UK as a direct result of obesity, with a further 757 where it was a contributing factor (link) In 2010 there were 1,850 fatalities in road accidents in the UK (link) Would those resources not be better spent elsewhere?

Sorry, the figures I was looking at referred to deaths on British soil. Even so, when you add the 67 it still works out at only just over a quarter of the amount of soldiers killed. Serious question Alps, do you believe that our presence in Afghanistan has reduced the threat of terrorism?

I'm assuming this is a response to yesterday's news about 6 British soldiers killed by a Taliban bomb, as it got me thinking as well: Just what have we actually achieved in Afghanistan? I can't think of a single positive answer to that. 10 years £billions spent Over 400 soldiers now killed What do we have to show for it exactly? The invasion was ostensibly about making the streets of Britain safe from the threat of Al-Qaeda and other fundamentalist terror groups. A seemingly noble objective until you put it into perspective. Since the turn of the century there have been 52 UK citizens killed as a result of terrorism (all on 7/7). More people die every day in road accidents. That there haven't been any more than that is down to our intelligence services, but to suggest that our occupation of Afghanistan is in some way reducing the threat is absurd. If anything our presence there is only likely to create more Jihadists, not less. Whichever way you look at it, the justification given for our involvement does not stack up with the facts and figures. Clearly there is some hidden agenda with it (without going into the obvious conspiracy theories about the oil pipeline etc..) and the reasons given by this government and the previous one are just a smokescreen. I wonder if the families of the 400 dead soldiers think the sacrifice of their loved ones is worth it?

Balls. Oh well, we knew it would be a tough game. A win against Barnsley and everything will be OK.