SaintBobby

Not me. I expect us to win the league (or at least come second) even if we play badly against Plymouth and lose 3-0. Norwich lost their first game 7-1 at home last season and stormed the league. It's hard to see what could realistically happen until about game 7 or 8 at the earliest for most people to change their initial position. Basically, I think the evidence I have to base my prediction on now isn't going to be out-trumped by 90 minutes of football next week.

I think we can be sure that AP is going to deepen the squad. He has said so in an interview this evening, I believe - that we need 2 or 3 more players. He is addressing the central midfield problem - witness the trial for Carter. Ok, he hasn't solved it necessarily, but he is clearly addressing it. Also, while it would be ideal to sign players earlier, let's not throw a hissy fit about it. If the new players all arrive on the last day of August, that's not ideal from a footballing point of view, but it's not a disaster either. The deadine for new signings - or judging whether and how many new signings we will make - is empahtically NOT August 7th.

Gees. If you're predicting play-offs, we probably are nailed on to win the division. Mind you, no team has ever entered the play-offs and been odds on to win them, so that should mean you think we'll still be in League One for the 2011-2012 season. I dont. I'm confident of promotion - probably as champions, but maybe as runners-up.

What's your prediction for our finishing position this season? Would it be reasonable to assume we will end up about ten places higher than this, given your prediction for last season was about ten places too low?

Don't agree on the club's brand being worth zero (outside of Hants). Also, it's worth quite a lot inside of Hants. Sure, Saints aren't Coca Cola, but then I guess they don't have a squad of IP lawyers or brand managers either. If they believe the branding is being used in a way that is bad for the club, they should stop the branding being used. This might be petty in any given instance. But it isn't definitionally petty.

Lol, I know. that's why I added the :-) or should it have been a ;-) ?

Wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I quite enjoyed it. It's an alternative to the official programme rather than a fanzine, really. Probably not really opinionated/mocking/radical enough for my tastes, but could find a mainstream audience amongst the fanbase. In the "where are they now?" section, saying that Claus still "pops up in the papers" and suggesting the reason for the Bridge-Terry fallout is only "alleged" was a bit anodyne for a fanzine, I thought. Read more like something on the OS! I'd think most hardened Saints fans would have found the 20 question quiz a bit easy, but maybe we're not the target audience. A few typos/errors - but no worse than many official programmes. 1. "Ricky (sic) Lambert needs no introduction" 2. Wasn't Chris Marsden's wonder goal v Ipswich, not Leeds as suggested? Wish you every success though and hope you make it a regular thing, I'd definitely buy future issues - and for a quid it was a bargain. It was well laid out, nicely presented, unpretentious and did pretty much exactly what it said on the tin.

You're still really sore about that Wycombe result aren't you? :-)

You're not just leaning on that "plenty of games still to go" crutch are you? :-)

Protecting your intellectual property doesn't mean banning everyone from using it in any circumstances. Popular, mainstream bands like Coca Cola or Guinness are utterly ruthless though in shutting down the use of their imagery on unofficial sites. I think they are right to stop Saints Trust using the logo. Nick Illingsworth has every right to express oppositional views about Cortese/the club management, but in turn Cortese has every right to stop him using the club's official branding.

Ok, I'm definitely going down the conspiracy theory route then....

It's annoying. I don't think we're going to get him and he's just the sort of player we need - pacey winger who can also play up front. If we can get better, great....but no one leaps to mind...

Maybe I'm being too harsh. I thought they both could have done better for the first Reading goal though. And there was a foul up in the second half when the Reading striker hit the side netting. Like I say, I usually expect 100% perfection from those two, so tend to notice if they are only playing at 90% of their best.

Yes. Definitely. I'm certain we are. I feel reinforced in that view by the performance of today's starting XI. Even without Lambert, Lallana, Schneiderlin and Puncheon, we looked pretty good ( well, until the 3rd and 4th string came on). We do still need a central midfielder, a winger and a centre forward. But mainly as cover (not necessarily staring XI players if everyone's fit). If we do buy one or two players who are so good, they walk into the starting line-up, that's great. But not a necessity. We're ready for a promotion campaign as we are. Right now. That's not the same as being nailed on to win the league though...

Same people involved, just a different branding. I think the club are right to protect their intellectual property in any event.

I'd give the team a 6/10 on today's showing. Good points: 1. we were at least a match for Reading until we put half the academy on the pitch 2. both the new signings looked good - a particular highlight being Butterfield's dead ball delivery 3. Barnard was very hungry and Connolly had some good touches Bad points: 1. centre backs surprisingly unsteady, especially Jaidi - maybe I hold the Fonte-Jaidi axis in such high esteem that I'm surprised if any errors creep in 2. we really lacked pace and am not sure where in the present squad we can find it from 3. although we ended up with our 4th team on the pitch, it's clear we don't have great depth Mitigating points: 1. Four of our very best players were missing 2. it was clearly treated as a run out, we ended the game with all of Reeves, Tafazolli (sp?), Pulis and Doble on the pitch - as well as Wotton and Martin. I doubt we will have to rely on these players as heavily in the league season.

I agree with those that say Illingsworth has probably been blocked/banned (i.e. it is unlikely to be an administrative error). However, we know that the club have had a number of complaints against him (for instance, unauthorised use of the club's crest/logo). I'm pleased the club came down hard on this. After the Silverspoons fiasco, I wrote to the club asking them to take all possible actions to ensure that the Saints Trust was not seen, or likely to be seen, as officially sanctioned by the club. This - or other disputes - may have at least contributed to a decision to not sell him a season ticket. Especially if these disputes have been protracted and antagonistic.

Thanks - as mentioned elsewhere - if anyone can provide with with an email address for the Trust/Nick Illingsworth that might actually elicit a reply, I'd be grateful. Please PM me. I did receive an initial reply. The reply said they would address my complaint in full within about a week. That was about 14 weeks ago. I have received nothing since. Simply receiving a holding reply doesn't constitute dealing with the complaint. It's not just the £60 I was mugged for - it's the complete lack of contrition and basic courtesy that is also so galling.

Played in the away kit and had sold out of the sash kit in virtually all adult sizes. There were maybe 50 or so kid sized home strips left. Huge demand? Bad planning on numbers to order? Or cynical marketing ploy? (they shifted a lot of away kits in the store from what I could see) Or all three?

Did you "slam a few birds" after necking some pints with Illingsworth? LMAO

Not bad overall. Poor from Jaidi and Fonte for first goal. Lack height. Not sureabout Mills on the right wing at all

As asked for here, and on the other thread, if you or someone else can provide an email address for Illingsworth or the Trust that works and that they reply to, I will forward the correspondence. The email address on the holding page of their website bounced, by the way. If you have such info, but can't or don't want to provide it fair enough. But I am unable to discern other possible email addresses for Illingsworth or the Trust through telepathic means!

If you want to PM me or tell me an email address where he or Saints Trust actually reply from, that would be great. Or he can PM me here direct. I have emailed Saints Trust already to try and sort this out.

Then he can PM me on here (as I said in the otehr thread)...or reply to the emails I sent him and his organisation over the past 12 weeks! It's taken 4 months and me beginning legal action to trigger this. Not a courteous way to treat fee-paying customers.

Because Saints Trust took in £20,000 of income for an event that was nothing like they advertised? The lack of contrition - and failure to reply to emails after months makes it much worse. People shouldnt be allowed to get away with that.