SaintBobby

Im surprised only 1,300 people signed up for the installment plan last time. Im now a bit more sympathetic to David Lukers scrapping of it. I'd reckon the substantial majority will find a way to pay up front - and a good number of those who don't will spend about the same on a match-by-match basis. The club might make a total loss of only £10,000 or so by scrapping the plan, and this could well be offset by admin costs (Saints staff having to chase late payers; having to send reminder letters that your seat will be withdrawn if you dont bring payments up-to-date etc; finding a way to actually confiscate season tickets from those who have missed payments etc etc etc).

I'd have prefered Charlton to have gone up with Norwich and Leeds, but Millwall would have been my second choice. Next season, Saints, Charlton and Sheff Weds will start as favourites - with our odds the narrowest.

Wouldn't have wished death on Pompey until this season. They have cheated. They need to be destroyed and cast into oblivion forever for the sake of English football. That is all.

James was shocking tonight. I thought the right switch at half-time would have been to put Antonio on the right wing, switch Puncheon to the left and put Lallana in CM just ahead of Hammond.

Thats nonsense, surely. The starting odds were 11/10.

Interesting. What would you say the odds would have been at Ladbrokes on a Saints win after 30 minutes?

Best complaint is to the BBC - it's basically their coverage. Having to pay an extra £30 over and above my licence fee for this appalling service f u c k s me off too. Welcome to the world of state broadcasting.

Nope...but as I'm bragging about everywhere, I have £2,000 on Rickie as top L1 goalscorer (at 2/1) and he's now 4 ahead of Grant Holt. Happy days.

As a total stat nerd, I'm looking at Saints' results this season from going 1-0 down. I can't say I've completed a categorical search, but it looks like - on a cursory glance - that we may recover more points from 1-0 down than any English league team in any division since the war. As an aside, I spoke to a few bookies about this. They said that in live betting markets, the first goal is usually decisive. Of course, that's usually because it is scored by the stronger team (e.g. Chelsea 1 Bolton 0) and therefore just tends to reaffirm the pre-match odds. But in a relatively even battle - say Rovers v Saints - they reckoned the first goal nearly wipes out a recovery to win. Their best guess was that at the 30 min mark, the spot price on a Saints win vs Rovers was about 10/1 or 12/1. But we seem to do this a lot (Southend? Oldham? Leyton? Walsall? Hartelpool!) Would welcome other nerdy/statto analysis. I blame the manager. We shouldn't be going behind early this often. PARDEW OUT (note: this para is not serious)

I'll bring a squadron of pigeons. And a shotgun to pick off any last moaners. Whatever happens at the last game this season, we should shout our appreciation for a fantatsic Saints manager.

I wasn't there. But I wear his name and no. 19 on the back of my shirt. Top player. Totally delighted for him.

trying to do the maths. let's assume we win all 5 remaining games. we need Huddersfield to go W 2 D 1 L 1 or worse, right?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR That Huddersfield winner makes it a bridge too far.

looking like a pretty good investment all in all. Rickie was at 2/1 when he should have been 5/6. just hope Grant Holt doesn't score 4 for Norwich.... will be a difficult for me is Barnard starts scoring hatfuls...!

COYR. Need one more Rickie goal please. Drinks on me if he gets top scorer.

Am punching the air still. Partly cos we're winning, of course. Also cos I've got £2k on Rickie to be top L1 scorer at 2/1. Soooo close to him nailing me a £4K profit! Now make it a hatrick in the 2nd half!

Billy Sharp from Donny

Puncheon was busy - but enfuriating. I thought Antonio was quite good - except when he fluffed that 4-on-1 pass on the counter attack. Seabourne is okay-ish - but compares unfavourably (unfairly) to Fonte who is a cut above (although made a couple of unusual errors on Saturday) Kelvin was MOTM surely?

The OP is right, of course, that the positions a club is in at Xmas and at the end of the season can change dramatically. I seem to remember one season when Millwall topped their division at Xmas, but ended up being relegated in May. That said, assuming we're in League One next season, it seems to me that the target should be to win the division and accrue about 100 points. If we're falling short of that, we should be disappointed. And if we're falling way short, Pardew is doing something wrong.

Thats a betetr view than the 885 saints fans had for sure!

This thread is absurd, really. But still irresistible. Just want to throw in my 2p's worth. 1. There's an obsession with the play-offs. The term seems to have become synonymous with promotion. They are not the same thing. Even if we make/made the play-offs we would probably not be promoted. So, I think the important question is whether you expect us to be PROMOTED this season. If we make the play-offs, but then lose home and away to e.g. Swindon is that an acceptable season or not? 2. In my view, the team and club were so broken at the start of the season that we effectively started with a 15 or 20 point penalty. Pardew has constructed a team from scratch basically. Had the takeover happened in May or June, this may have been different. But it didn't. Our best starting XI (today's) only includes 3 players who were at the club in July (Kelvin, Lallana and Schneiderlin). Our subs bench is also full of new arrivals (Connolly, Antonio, Papa, Seabourne) 3. We've been unlucky that the top six or seven teams have broken away so clearly. This is partly our fault - e.g. giving up 4 points to Colchester and 6 to Swindon. But mainly it's bad luck. The points total needed for the play-offs this year is going to be on the high side, when we needed it to be on the low side. 4. We have been slightly disappointing in the League this season, in my view. Not awful. Not abysmal. But just a tad worse than I expected. Our record against the better teams is a bit disappointing. I'd have expected us to be on about 60-62 points now, not 57. Those few points may yet make the difference between being in the play-offs and not. So be it. 5. Pardew's signings have been immense. And our record in the cups (FA and CC, not just JPT) is impressive. We should - with maybe one or two squad additions - be looking to win the League next season with some room to spare. Pardew should be judged on our League position in Jan 2011. Failure to get promoted next season is a sacking offence. Second guessing now that he isn't the man for the job is just fan w*nk.

Thanks for posting this. I'm usually a little sceptical about people with charity tins - however well meaning. But your moving post explains everything. And I guess is very hard to get across in a few words to a throng of people just before a game. I will look out for the collectors pre-Charlton and will donate as generously as I can. I wish you every success.

I hate these ridiculous stories. Read the terms and cons on your ticket. If a steward is mishandling you, call the police and have him arrested for assault. If the club is breaking their agreement with you, sue them. Otherwise, shut the f*** up.

Am still trying to work out why they didn't show the Brighton v Saints game on Saturday's programme. Has Cortese banned cameras as well as the Echo? :-)

I agree with this. I know "we will walk this league" is now an in-joke, but surely.....