FloridaMarlin

The best testament to Target's contribution is to ask how effective Mahrez was on Sunday.

Would this be the same EU that most of Cameron's party want us to withdraw from?

FWIW I thought both were pens. In both cases, there was movement of the hand. For those who say the movement was to get the hand out of the way of the ball, the question is; "What was it doing there in the first place?" There is a lot of talk about the 'natural position' of the arms and hands and while it is correct to say that if a ball is struck at a player from three or fewer yards away there is insufficient reaction time for him to do anything about it, that argument is rather negated if he has sufficient time to react and pull his arms out of the way. But apart from that yesterday's game sums up what an unfathomable season this has been, and why we can be both reassured and frustrated. Here's a statement that will provoke debate. Leicester aren't all that good. They are top of the table and the table never lies. They are there because they have the most points, and they have that total by having won the most games, and nobody can argue they don't deserve to be there. You don't get to lead any table by seven points through luck, but Leicester have taken advantage of a set of exceptional circumstances. They are leading the table in a season when the traditional giants have thankfully been unusually poor and equally thankfully, paid the price for their poor recruitment last summer (especially Man City and Chelsea). Leicester perhaps gained some fortune in playing certain teams when they were out of form (although having said that, Leicester's own form has hardly dipped this season) and raised their game when they needed to against teams who might turn out to be rivals and some might say that's the sign of a good team. Equally, they have learned to grind out results when they perhaps don't deserve them. I don't think for one minute we are the only team to have played Leicester this season and come away shaking our heads that we should have got something from a game that we bossed for large parts, but ended up losing. They have been pretty fortunate with injuries and you can only speculate what might have been had they been deprived of Vardy or Mahrez for long spells this season. Most of their success can be down to the fact the sum is better than their parts. Ask yourself a simple and honest question. how many of their players would you individually want in our team? Vardy, perhaps and Mahrez, but would Albrighton get in ahead of any of our midfielders? Are Simpson and Fuchs better than Cedric, Bertrand or Targett? Would you take Morgan and Huth over VVD and Fonte? Ulloa over Pelle, Long or Austin? That might (and I only say might) be evidenced that you don't see as much speculation linking their players with top clubs as you do ours. Could it be that most people realise that this is Leicester's season in the sun, that they are unlikely to continue it next season and that their players - while fitting in as part of an effective unit - are not hugely bankable? If this sounds like a bit of sour grapes it's because that in making the bold statement that Leicester aren't that good, it only serves to underline how much we have underperformed this season. When I watch Leicester and what they have done this season, I constantly ask myself; "Why isn't it us?" Again, you look on paper, and we have a stronger squad and better players than they do. But football isn't played on paper. In looking to ascribe reasons why it is Leicester and not us who are top of the table, this is not a criticism of Koeman. Be honest, how many of us at the start of the season would have taken Ranieri over Koeman if we were offered a swap? Not many, I would suggest. All of which leaves me grinding my teeth in annoyance that it is Leicester who are top of the table and not us, and like most people in the country, still scratching my head as to why. At the start of the season, how many of us would have preferred Ranieri over Koeman?

From the BBC's report on the JPT final between Barnsley and Oxford Utd: "But the U's, currently second in League Two and supported by 34,000 fans at Wembley, could not seriously test Davies again in the closing stages. Surely not? Aren't Oxford typical of the two-bob, no-mark clubs in League Two that are not fit to grace the same division as p****y and should give thanks every day of the week that they are lucky enough to have the chance to play in front of the bestest, hugest support twice a season?

They burned that particular bridge long, long ago. It might well have been in their first (there have been so many it's difficult to seperate them) administration under the old Gregory regime that they failed to cough up around £60,000 to the RN for hire of facilities at Burnaby Road - after which they started using Wellington Sports Ground in Stoneham Lane - which they also failed to pay for. During a particularly wet spell two seasons ago they asked Solent University if they could hire their 3G pitch at Test Park to get some training in. Solent told them it would cost them £120 per hour to hire and the club asked the uni to invoice them. Solent said they could only have use of the facility if they turned up with cash on the day. Apparently the university doesn't demand this of local, junior league sides and are happy to invoice them. But invoicing p****y is a different matter.

The stories doing the rounds that Saints are opening contract talks with Pelle suggests to me the club have Ron who he wants to retain. Having signed Pelle, Ron clearly knows and trusts the player. That's good enough for me. In Ron we trust.

How can that possibly be? Surely only the bestest are capable of doing that? I have vague recollections of being taken to some of those games by my dad - certainly the Bristol City home game where Channon scored his first goal. He used to take some stick in the early days from the earthy dockers in the corner where we stood, many of whom frequently questioned where Mick's handbag was. I remember the 9-3 win over Wolves - who wouldn't? But many of the games towards the tail-end of that season are blurry. In contrast, I can still remember most of the games in the first season in the First Division sharply, probably because it was the first season my dad and I attended every week.

Heard some interesting tales about a certain, gruff-voiced, Scouse-accented manager being "politely asked" to leave licensed premises in the Fratton locale after his raucous and red-faced requests for an after-hours extension were also politely refused. People are genuinely bemused as to how he drives home as he is often incapable of finding his arse with his own hands. Also, the directors' lounge drinks bill is in, and Champagne Ian and co are doing local offies proud. For the last quarter of 2016 it was £25k.

The best player I have seen in my lifetime. Never mind Pele, Maradona, Messi or Ronaldo, Cruyff the player most able to take your breath away. He glided over the pitch, made everything look so effortless and nobody could hurdle tackles like him - and he needed to!

The article is mainly about referees at the lower level. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/03/21/exclusive-referees-live-in-fear-as-grass-roots-game-spirals-out/ For all the stick referees in the PL and FL get, it's unlikely a professional player will issue a death threat to him, or give him a kicking in the car park after the game. As tough as refs in the pro game might have it, it is nothing compared to the amateur game, although to be fair, all the PL refs would have come up through the ranks from grass roots football. The problems at the bottom of the game could be eliminated easily if the FA got hold of the top end of the game. Players - and we're not just talking about kids here - are influenced by what they see on TV. You don't have to be a deaf person to lip read a top pro calling a referee a f*****g c**t, and yet they invariably don't get booked or sent off for it even though the Laws of the game are quite clear cut when it comes to foul and abusive language. Having see a pro get away with swearing at ref on MOTD or whatever, a player will think he can use the same language in his Sunday League game the following morning. When he is correctly sent off by the referee he cannot understand why, and that's when the problems occur. I went to a Respect meeting several years ago when it was launched and some fatuous, suited wonk from the FA stood up and castigated all the local clubs and said we had to clean the game up from the bottom upwards. When I pointed out to him that it might be easier to do that if players at lower levels saw that equal effort was being made to clean up the game at the top level, he laughed, and said if referees in pro games applied and enforced the rules regarding foul and abusive language correctly, most PL games would be abandoned as teams would be down to fewer than seven players. I said that would be great as it would send out a real firm message, he told me I was being ridiculous and stupid. When the rest of the meeting agreed with me and shouted him down, he beat a hasty retreat. The problem with referees getting grief from adults at kids matches is even worse. The Telegraph article gives examples of rabid dads running on to the pitch to threaten refs who have given a decision against their son, and probably even worse are the screaming, keening caterwauling mothers who populate the touchlines. The FA's REspect campaign's solution to the problem of parents physically abusing referees was to issue each club with a reel of tape to put along the touchline which parents had to stand behind. As a deterrent, it's about as effective as a washing line stopping the Wehrmacht marching into Poland at the start of WWII. If the FA are serious about halting the drain of referees from the grassroots level, they would make it compulsory that every club in the country had to put at least one player, official or club member through a training course to gain a qualified referee's badge. It would not be difficult to do as the FA introduced a similar rule years ago insisting that every club has at least one person who had been on some sort of first aid course. Most grassroots level leagues have a rule that if a referee is not allocated to a game, the home team has to provide somebody to do it. Instead of an unwilling herbert in a tracksuit who never moves out of the centre circle, it would mean a club has a qualified referee to officiate. You would hope that any player/club official who had to step in would realise how much stick and abuse he will take, and would transfer that to the other players in his club. We can only hope.

Especially with City losing. I initially thought a City win would have suited us better, but we are now only four points behind Citeh - and they have to play us.

Agreed, especially as the quiffed twonk Robbie Savage is trying to get him to another club. http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/652622/Robbie-Savage-Arsenal-appoint-Arsene-Wenger-AFC-Gunners Funny how he didn't recommend Ranieri should go to Arsenal.

Just seen Diego Costa's second yellow card and subsequent dismissal against Everton. Why isn't that a straight red for sticking his head into Gareth Barry's face? There was certainly more intent there than Mane made on Peeters,

I am genuinely struggling to see what part of Mane made contact with Peeters. The initial reports are that he led with his elbow, which would have merited a red card, but Mane's arms are by his side and if any player attempts to raise his arms, it's Peeters. You have to accept that referees have a difficult job and have only a split second to make a decision, but with something like this, he has to be 100% sure and I'm afraid this borders on incompetence.

My dad first took me in the old Second Division days and probably my earliest memory of Saints games was the 9-3 win over Wolves. Saturday football for us was watching Sam Leitch's football preview on Grandstand before setting off for the game, although more often than not, we might have left in order to start queueing at around 12.45 to get a good spot. Perhaps it's my nostalgia goggles kicking in but you could divide the season into three distinct climatic sections. From August to mid-October, the Saturday afternoon matches were invariably played in bright sunshine to a shirt-sleeved crowd. From our favoured spot under the East Stand, right in the corner against the Milton Road end wall, you could look across the pitch to the West Stand which appeared huge and towering to a small boy looking up at it, but we all know now how small it was compared to other grounds. I distinctly remember the not unpleasant smell of rolling tobacco, and the view of the West Stand was tinted by a blue haze of smoke. There were regulars in that corner, among them dockers who - as I grew older and began to understand what they were saying - had everybody in stitches. Liverpool has a reputation that every member of the population is a stand-up comedian waiting to be discovered, but these guys were among the funniest men I have ever heard. Other regulars in the corner included a couple of fellows who came up from Poole for every home game with their sons. When asked why they did not support Bournemouth, they looked aghast and I think that is still the case with Saints drawing a lot of support from Poole residents who don't want to support Bompey. They worked at Poole Pottery and every home for a few seasons, they would bring my old man up an item of ceramic art, wrapped in newspaper. I am now the proud and lucky owner of a complete vintage 1960s Poole Pottery dinner set and various other Poole Pottery majolicas and vases. The August-September stage of the season was also the time when my dad's season ticket holder mate went on holiday and gave my old man use of it for a couple of home games. Like Spyinthesky, I loved the novelty of sitting up with the nobs, the not having to start queueing at 12.30 to get a good spot, but the sheer joy of being able to swan up at 2.45. The beginning of November signalled a real sea-change in football attending. The temperatures dropped and games which started in daylight finished under lights, which made it all the more exciting. It seemed colder in those days, and certainly three hours stood on a concrete terrace made your young feet numb. I used to judge how cold it had been by which house number on Milton Road we had reached before the feeling returned to my toes. That continued through to March, when matches were completed in daylight again, and those crucial Easter fixtures were nearly always played in bright sunshine, on a pitch where the goalmouths were as dusty as the Veracity Ground. Of course, things look rosier through nostalgia tinted specs, and the whole experience of attending football these days is better, in terms of facilities, safety, refreshments and so many other aspects. But I wouldn't swap those old, formative days at The Dell for anything.

It is an attractive thought, but one you can pretty much dismiss. The main reason this season has been so open is down to the failure of the traditional top four/five failing to strengthen last summer in the manner they usually do to maintain the differential with the rest of the pack. Manchester City were prime among them and they certainly on't make the same mistake this summer. It's been said elsewhere on this board that this, of all seasons, presented the best window of opportunity for an outsider to win the PL - and I think you can include Spuds among that. We should have been as well set up as any of those outsiders. On paper, we were certainly better set up than Leicester. For that reason, I think we have underachieved this season. It's interesting that the big four/five have purportedly started talks about a European Super League during a season when their hegemony over the PL - and for at least one of them, what they regard as a divine right to a Champions /League spot - is under threat.

Do we know if they settled the bill? Or, as usual, did they expect the cafe to be grateful for the privilege of serving them breakfast.

Regardless of whether it's for one player, and may or may not have prompted a sizeable fee, the amount they have spent on agents is still shocking compared to the rest of the division, and double the next highest club, Leyton Orient. No doubt, it will be another figure they can point at and in their warped, deluded minds claim it marks them out as a big club to spend that much on agents fees.

Oh dear, bit of a meltdown over there. http://www.fansonline.net/portsmouth/mb/index.php They're not happy with Cook (not long after hailing him as the best manager available) and want him out. It's turning ugly as they turn on the board, even though they were supposed to link arms and march forward together as the bestest fan-owned club in history. Some are questioning the finances and asking for accounts to be produced amid fears their wage bill for top players who would guarantee them promotion is not sustainable Most laughably, they are asking for the board of fellow super-fans to put the club of for sale so that a new owner with money will come in to buy them and bankroll them to promotion. Let's fondly remember again exactly what a new owner would be buying; a money pit of a ground that swallows money simply to keep it together and is probably only one grumpy safety inspector with indigestion away from being closed (in the north stand, some of the floor timbers are so worn and thin you can look down on the queues for the snack bars below} , the most expensive playing squad in the division, a club that doesn't own its training facilities and which has little in the way of infrastructure. And while the Phew might claim the club comes with a huge fanbase of the bestest, most passionate fans in the world, previous owners have discovered it doesn't take much for that fanbase to turn towards the directors' box and start spitting and throwing coins. No wonder they're such an attractive proposition. Plenty of life in this thread, yet. Oh and another portsmyth is being crafted. If you look at the POL page, further down there is a thread called 'Bally quote' where they are keen to revel in the little ginger man's supposed assertion that "p****y "is a tough, street fighting town" and "they sent warships to fight from this town." I was there when he made this speech, and while he did say it was a town from which warships were sent out (as you might expect from a royal navy port) I don't recall him saying the first part. Never mind, as they single-handedly attempt to revive the classic days of English football hooliganism, they will take that mythical quote and use it as their motto.

I think he's bit flaky, to say the least. A qualified lawyer, he is ostensibly an intelligent man, but it's hard to forgive his conduct in the 1998 World Cup semi-final wheen his disgraceful theatrics got Laurent Blanc sent off and forced him to miss the the World Cup final. That was a pretty reprehensible thing to do, to contrive to get somebody to miss a match he might only get one chance in his life to play in. His making light of Wanyama's red card might have been because he sees a kindred spirit in Big Vic as they are two of only seven players in the Premier League era to be sent off three times in a season.

Saw us quoted in The Times today as 20-1 for a Champions League spot. Perhaps unlikely, but we are the same price as Liverpool. It's strange how the perception of them is still of being a CL chasing club, even though they are behind us, yet nobody mentions us.

I hope the caff got the money up front. Picture the scene. The door to "The Greasy Skate" and what looks like a coach party on a day out from a correctional institute pile in. The shifty looking warder/instructor wanders up to the counter and speaks in his ticket Scouse accent. "All right lah. We are de famous Portsmouth football club. We bin walking along de front and playing crazy golf and everytin'. We're bloody shrammed and could do wid some scran. Can you do us 30 full English brekkies and don't hold back on the baked beans." "Certainly. Thirty full English with tea at a fiver a go, that's £150." "Just put it on our account lah." "You don't have an account. Not with anybody in this town." "Just invoice the club. The lads is starving. Eighteen holes of crazy golf makes a man ravenous." "Your club never pays invoices." "Will you take a cheque?" "Not if it has the letters P, F or C on it." "Did I mention we are the new trustworthy, fan-owned Portsmouth Football Club that does every thing by the book?" "Oh I didn't realise. In that case Mr Cook just leave your cash in the honesty box on the way out."

Bonne Bouche in Hamble High St. At this time of year you don't have to elbow hordes of braying, yah-ing yachties out of the way.

Some cracking stuff over on the POL message board. http://www.fansonline.net/portsmouth/mb/index.php Among the many reasons given for calling for Cook's head, is that perhaps he isn't used to dealing with the intense media attention that comes with the job. That intense media attention will be from the compliant and puppy-dog-eager-to-please News, Radio Solent, Radio Lollipop community radio and an agency to provide the three or four paragraphs that get into those national newspapers that feign interest in covering League Two. A trust member this week proudly told me they are debt free, have half a million pound in the bank and everything is going fantastically. Yes, you are debt-free as you wiped off £135m worth of debt as though it never existed. The insouciance and laissez-faire attitude with which he told me they were debt-free is absolutely astounding and really shows they have no morals and just don't and didn't care how they stiffed HMRC and the local economy. I suspect the half million pound in the bank is monopoly money but it sounds as though rather than perform the novelty for them of paying some bills on time they will be using it in the emergency loan period to fund the signing of more expensive has-beens, although the way things are going they might need it to pay off Cook (although it's more likely he will have to drag them kicking and screaming through the courts to get his severance pay from the serial non-payers). I think we naively believed the advent of the trust would create a new dawn at the Fortress of Fibs and I'm sure that some of us were even secretly hoping they would have a (small) measure of success to show that honesty and integrity pay off. But no. The trust are no different from the previous owners. They will go as far as they can and get away with whatever they can in the pursuit of success. Community-based and fan-owned? Like the child maimer , The Invisible Prince, The Pension Thief and the other undesirables, they will not hesitate to screw their own community while pulling the wool over their eyes. Two months ago he was telling me what a great manager they have in Cook, now they are already looking to replace him, and that's the problem with having a supposedly fan-owned club. The fans in charge think they know how to run a football club when they are no more qualified and have the same knee-jerk reactions to any fans ranting and raving on any club message board. As long as this bunch are in charge this thread will keep going and we will have plenty of fun at their expense.

Wasn't Gran Moda by The Bargate before Garrison's? It was later called something else, and the manager was Gay Glenn. Abraxas, I remember, was in the walkway between Above Bar and the old Hants & Dorset bus station. I once bought a chocolate brown velvet suit from there, in which I looked the canine's cojones. In the early-mid 90s (it might have been earlier) there was the short-lived Blazer in the precinct, next to British Home Stores.