ant

For my money Fox has been a good signing but I still don't understand why we targeted that position over others in the Summer - Dickson gave a good account of himself when utilised towards the end of last season and really could still do a job (even at LM, potentially pushing Adam onto the right?) Not sure exactly what it is about Holmes but often the rest of the team seem to cut him out when he's on the pitch. He'll be hungry for the ball in acres of space on the flank but the ball will almost universally be distributed elsewhere. Overall though I'm not entirely sure what he can add to the team other than cover. Butterfield is surely just a casualty of Richardson's contributions to the team so far this season.

No shame

Sod it, make it clear that this is last chance saloon and give him a go (assuming he's at the required level of match fitness and mentally prepared). Lots of talk at the moment about needing a right-sided midfielder slash winger - if it worked out he could be as good as a new signing. The way we're making do on the right flank at the moment I'm not even sure that risking a couple of disinterested Punch performances would be a massive gamble. We won't ever be certain of the ins and outs of the tale, but a lot of time has passed since whatever caused the spat. He's conducted himself fairly well of late, in my opinion at least. You can point to his desperation to seal the QPR loan deal, but there's a positive spin to take from that in that he wanted to ply his trade rather than sit out his contract counting the money. There's passion there if it can be redirected to the right places!

LA Galaxy.

Obviously the quote above is fabricated (or at least I hope it is!) but even if anybody does try to say that about the Blackpool goal I'm pretty sure the official stats don't count it as Rickie's - he'd be on 16 strikes in the nPC if they did. McCormack's on 10 in the league, surely we've not had more than 5 pens?

Worst bit for me was when an offside flag graphic came up overlaid on a replay of the skates' goal. Why the hell would you show a replay when the ball's in play, let alone in an attacking position?!

Not sure whether it works outside the UK, but the iPlayer website does a live stream of all BBC channels. If you can't get on that I'm sure one of the usual sites will transmit that.

Since this seems to have become the 'scrounge for tickets' thread, I completely missed when they went on sale due to it only being announced the day before One or two tickets would be grand if anybody has (a) spare/s. I'm contactable via PM, email (amplifiedant (at) gmail (dot) com) and Twitter (@antonydjames).

Initially when reading this I was getting myself all het up, but realistically if Arsenal want to keep throwing 6 and 7-figure sums our way then so be it. If we can keep the talent coming it becomes a fantastically sustainable way of balancing the books and let's face it, we won't be able to hold onto the top, top talent unless we ever become a 'big' club. It's sad that perceived loyalty doesn't come into it any more, but the days of the 'one club man' are surely numbered.

Forget kids, I might try to collect all of the Southampton ones Ah, still remember getting the first Merlin's Premier League sticker albums...

Didn't hear any booing or jeering from the Northam on Saturday, just piercing, deadly silence. In fact there was a lot of encouragement for Bart after his mistake (well, the biggest one). I have faith that even the most moronic quarters of our fanbase will get behind the whole team for this one.

Those photos of the St. Mary's construction are quality, would be a shame if they get lost. Hope somebody has the originals saved somewhere.

Yep. The Alex wins for me though as we don't have draught beer on tap in our living room, decent or otherwise.

Yeah, I'm 24 and this article really resonated. Some great and some chilling memories evoked. Solid writing style and a few little bits of info that I'd forgotten. OP - on that note, how much of this was written from memory rather than researched (purely out of interest)?

This. End thread.

Nailed it with the after-thought.

It's moments like this that I thank my lucky stars I wasn't born or raised in that sh*thole. Even the name 'Pompey' is bloody annoying, eurgh. Delusional f*ckwits.

Joe Curtis with the 6th, can't be much more than 5 mins into the second half.

Official Saints Twitter feed is updating too. Sounds like a tidy performance, wish I'd made the extra bit of effort and gone across now, even if it is bloody horrible out there.

I may, but depends how long it takes to get home when I leave in a min. The Basingstoke to Southampton drive has been taking an hour and a half in the evenings recently!

It's our bloody song, it's our bloody sonnnnn-ng, OWTSGMI [chant phonetically], it's our bloody song.

Certainly the case where I was stood. Lots of encouragement above the groans, even when he fluffed a couple of kicks straight after - it's almost like people realised that getting on your own player's back doesn't inspire them to perform better... Was pleased to hear that because the negative vibes have been building over the past couple of home games.

You want to risk putting him out of action for the whole season? We'll be seeing an awful lot more of Bart between the sticks if that happens.

To echo all of the previous posters in agreement, I believe this is a far more fair, measured assessment. Can't really add anything in fact. Simply find it difficult to direct all of the blame towards Bart, there's more factors to the situation than simply picking him as the scapegoat.

Possibly, although as you say it's more about the pride. The most ideal part of a strong win in that particular match would be the boost back up it'll the lads. They're well aware of the derby atmosphere. I thought the way Saints rallied today was admirable - they kept their heads up and kept battering the Blackpool goal until something worked. To me it felt like it was only a matter of time. Given the benefit of hindsight and just a smidge of perspective, today hasn't turned out too badly at all. Stick a bloody smile on your face, remember that we're top of the league and get behind the lads to knock the stuffing out of the dirty skates next week.