MatthewStiles

The silver lining is that shouts of "get rid" are very unlikely to be made out by players. AFAIK, they rarely hear what the manager says on the touchline let alone what someone in row Z might be shouting. However, I agree that it is annoying when you get these cretinous shouts. A big thing in the 90's was a shout aimed at Jim Magilton (one of our best ball players by the way). When he played a sideways ball the cry went up "forward Magilton" no matter if it meant finding a player in a better position to take the ball on or if it meant avoiding losing possession. I doubt that Xavi Hernandez ever got similar treatment from the Barcelona crowd. Ironically we chanted at West Ham "You used to play football" last season.

Not sure if you're arguing that they spend too much or not enough. Anyway From BBC TOP PREMIER LEAGUE WAGE BILLS 2010-11 Chelsea - £191m (up from £174m in 2009-10) Manchester City - £174m (£133m) Manchester United - £153m (£132m) Liverpool - £135m (£121m) Arsenal - £124m (£111m) However, from the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/23/premier-league-accounts-profit-debt Arsenal spend 48% of turnover on wages, only Man U spend less as a % of turnover. Personally, I think a club like Arsenal should keep a lid on things. I've had my ups and downs with Arsenal fans, like most London clubs they are arrogant sods but I would love it if a club outside of the financially doped Man City, Chelsea and Man United (though Man U are not so much being doped lately as being stripped) could win the league

There is a huge thread on this at The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/apr/17/20-years-premier-league-awards Loads of mentions by neutrals of Le Tissier so get voting I say

SFC really should get its finger out. It's not just about the fans, it's also about the team. Everton provided free coach travel to the away cup game at Sunderland and were rewarded with a brilliant turnout and great support (and they won).

Good grief, this forum is always full of comments saying the press don't like us, along comes a positive article and it gets slated because MLT got a ZDS runners up medal? Anyway, there are loads of comments that are good for Le Tiss, including many neutrals. Loved this quote from Xavi: "The man I absolutely loved watching as a kid was Matt Le Tissier after seeing the highlights of his extraordinary goals. His talent was out of the norm. He could dribble past seven or eight players but without speed - he just walked past them. For me he was sensational. We had a programme on Spanish TV with the best goals from around Europe. He was always the star. I was ten or even younger. He was definitely an idol."

I agree that the Palace ultra thing is cringeworthy but in fairness to Palace their atmosphere was so bad (I think) that something desperate had to be done. I remember seeing a six-pointer between them and Boro in towards the end of 1992-1993 (can't remember why I trekked all the way down there but I do live in London, maybe because Saints were also in the mix) and there was hardly any singing at all, just a bit of Glad All Over (and I think they sing the song as originally done, no adapting of the lyrics) and Eaaglllles at corners. Also, I reckon that their cachment area is full of Chelsea and Arsenal fans (saw a fella in an Arsenal shirt near the ground on Monday).

re Guly at the end. Just before the final whistle he got the hump with Billy Sharp I think. I suppose because Sharp had a long range shot instead of keeping possession or not passing to him.

Good post by Chez just above, agree with pretty much all of it. Once we got the second we kept possession so well, tiki-taka is not just for Spaniards. Lambert's second goal looked quality. Re: stewarding, I do wonder if there were some ticket problems. Mine got lost in the post supposedly so I went to get a duplicate, opened the envelope (marked 1 ticket) and there were 3 inside (don't worry I was a good boy and went back to point out the mistake).

The two strikes from Pompey were fantastic. Perhaps, they could have been closed down quicker but I don't think you can fault Davis. Also, Lallana I thought played very well, had some great strikes on goal. The one-on-one I would like to see again. Looked like a dive but was there no contact from their keeper on him? SDR was very disappointing, in hindsight would have preferred Guly to stay on.

Afraid, I have to agree a bit here. There was a guy behind me ranting on about "we're so sh*t, we should be playing this sh*t off the park" after about 50 minutes. You wouldn't want someone like that on the pitch would you? The challenge for Saints fan is are we going to be like Liverpool's when they won the Champions League or like West Ham's the last couple of months? I'll go for the former. In the main, we have great fans but we can go a bit quiet when things don't go our way.

No way did it cost us the game, which was pretty limited anyway (probably delayed the restart by what 15-20 seconds?). All irrelevant because it was a fantastic strike by Norris that got them the point.

The Spanish link is actually from El Correo, a major newspaper in the Basque region. The journalist who wrote the article seems highly rated having won a prize http://www.elcorreo.com/vizcaya/20091022/sociedad/agiriano-gana-primer-premio-20091022.html. The Basques take their football pretty seriously so I would say it is highly probable.

Just checked the Palace site and they only have 2 days rest as well. On the Saturday before, they are away at Birmingham.

Some nice cherry picking going on with the quotes from Van Der Vaart but thanks to the link we can also see that Van der Vaart says "Harry is a very special man, that's why I already feel at home at Spurs" On the plus side for Harry is that his teams play good football. He was unlucky with Saints, we were at the bottom of the table when he took over. We should have beaten Boro and Everton but conceded last minute goals. If we had won just one of those we would have stayed up (assuming all other results were the same). Also, he does seem to be a genuinely nice bloke. I played for an Ugly Inside team against a West Ham fanzine team at a West Ham training ground and was amazed when Harry popped in to say hello.

Slightly better quality film of the goal is at

Wonderful goal, who's the voice making the comments, sounds like Mike Channon, oh just saw it again and Mick is briefly there at the beginning. Guardian link also has Mick Channon's testimonal footage

I don't think a racist murder is worse than another per se but if there were racist murders going on in an area then people from ethnic minorities in that area would justifiably feel a bit more threatened than would otherwise be the case. I agree society (and Eltham where I now live) is less racist than 18 years ago but one of the reasons for that is because of the efforts of teachers, anti-racist campaigners etc

I guess because there wasn't the kind of forensic evidence ie DNA that linked the Acourts and Knight etc to the attack. Just to add my 2pm worth, at the time there was a lot of concern at the time about racist attacks in south-east London. The murder of Stephen Lawrence was very much seen as a racist attack, I lived in Kidbrooke at the time, just up the road from Eltham and I remember the police saying that they suspected it was a racially-motivated murder. There were lots of rumours going around about the Acourt gang as well, some of which is reported on in the media now eg http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/03/stephen-lawrence-racist-pair-suspicion?intcmp=239 Two of the gang were jailed in 1995 for attempted murder and grievous bodily harm

Yes, one of the few live games I have seen lately. Matt was a decent pundit I thought, criticised Gervinho for wastefulness, spotted the Senderos trip on Gervinho, though only on the replay (but even then it wasn't easy to see). I thought Hansen made better points later on MOTD, saying that substituting Walcott was a disaster for Arsenal because he at least offered an attacking threat while Rosicky was non-existent and so Fulham were able to more easily push into Arsenal's half.

Red Alert is right about the CPS. They would have looked for evidence that proved guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This case really boils down to one man's word against another's so I would imagine the CPS not taking it forward. One of the few pro-Suarez pieces in the media is here: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport-news/liverpool-fc/2012/01/01/comment-liverpool-fc-striker-luis-suarez-s-name-smeared-on-a-hunch-55578-30044683/

Reading the FA report, they are taking the word of one man over that of another. Evra accuses Suarez several times of abusing him, Suarez denies it. Nobody else heard anything. There is no video evidence that Suarez abused him. There are inconsistencies in Suarez's evidence but there are also inconsistencies in Evra's. For reasons I don't think are fair, the FA panel think that Evra is a more credible witness than Suarez so they believe Evra. Personally, I think the case against Suarez is weak and that is just from reading the FA panel's reasons. Given LFC's initial statement, there is likely to be an appeal I would imagine.

PFC were extremely negative, just Kitson on his own up front, I don't think Davis will have many quieter days. However, they did make it difficult for Saints, the game seemed very congested. As already pointed out, Guly had a shocker. Not just the goal, he kept on giving the ball away. Still Saints are top and with people like Lambert and Lallana we can beat anyone in this league.

Benny Hill was from Southampton so I reckon we can count him. The Men They Couldn't Hang (not so famous now but still going) were from Southampton too.

Kudos to your son and brave as well

What was so embarrassing about the Palace ultras? I was down the end nearer the Sainsbury's so didn't really notice then much. And the PA didn't half milk it when they scored. First a blast of northernish soul (Edwin Starr's 25 miles I think) and then the Dave Clark 5 with Glad All Over.