Sheff Saint

I would love to see Saints plough a load of money into school sports at grass roots level. For Marcus you'd probably get a lot for £3-4 million and if we we're up-skilling local lads from a young age we could then cream off the best for the academy. Assuming the first team were doing well, we could then slowly integrate them into the team. I know this isn't a new idea but i think pumping money into schools is. It would really get Saints in the community and also give us a chance to get a an all Southampton born XI one day! Of course this would take years and years. It can't be done like R****ts plan of just chucking them in. It would mean integration over a period of time. If I was a billionaire football club owner, that in theory could buy any player i wanted, this would be my long term aim, to get a 100% local team. Buying good players to bring success is great for the short term but in the very long term you have to have an aim as well. You could develop the idea one stage further and pump the money into school sport in general. It would be great to have linked sports clubs to Saints, Girls football, hockey, that kind of thing. None of them are my bag particularly, but I just think that is what community is all about. It wasn't possible before, and you'd still need the biggest chunk of money ring-fenced for the first team, but if we have some spare cash, I think that would be a great ideology.

Sorry but the ref should have used his common sense. He only got pushed in the face cos he was practically on his knees trying to rip Morgans shirt off. Morgans hands weren't especially raised. And if he's playing the letter of the law the fella the went through Morgan in the first half that led the the Davis and James bookings, should have been sent off. Tackle through the back, straight red. Them's is the rules but he used his discretion on that one and that could have done some damage.

Their a proper Paul Ince team. Crafty, niggly, dirty and sly. Well drilled they may be but horrible and frustrating to watch they are. Only concern is not many teams get 3 or 4 wins over the same team in a season. And we've got the biggest two fixtures to come vs that bunch of c**ts

Great tempo, great support. Ref was useless. If he's 'Playing by the rules' why was that **** in the first not sent off for coming right through the back of Schniedern?

Any chance all the regions will be available on the red button? Virgin don't have BBC South and I'm not going to watch BBC North bang on about how amazing Leeds are.

Not at all saints related but this is amazing

100% perfect synopsis.

How great would the income form shirt sponsership actually be? I'm sure if we were in Division 3 again next season we'd not make 6 figures a season price from any new deal. That's not based in any real fact, but i'm sure it's a 'relativly' token amount for lower league clubs. Certainly in the current climate.

The BBC sport text showed Holt with a yellow. Wondered why he didn't get sent off in the 2nd half when he got booked. Mind you, BBC Sport also credited Harding with the equalizer. It wasn't even close to be Harding!

Brilliant!! Bring on the mk dons, bring on leeds!!

What a sexy mo fo

It is difficult. I was a ST from being 10 all the way until i became a bit northern. As such i think STs are the life blood and should get priority and recognition as such. I wouldn't disagree that membership was a bit of a con, but as you say, i and others spend a lot of time and money travelling to watch and you are not offically 'recognised'. It's hard, i've not got an easy fix/suggestion.

I would like to see membership's re-introduced. It's only a token thing but for those of us not practically able to get STs but still want to feel part of the club.

Sure, but in reality Rasiak and Saga wanted away, so they don't count. Gillett, Schneiderlin & Lallana might well walk into any other League 1 team, but at their age, and after last season, they really needed some big expereienced players to help them achieve. Murty and Harding were brand new. No way would Paterson, Lancashire & Thomson walk into other League 1 teams. Lancashire and Paterson will not be playing league football when there contracts here are up. We had a very weak squad on opening day. And as AP said, he needed to get into their heads. How can he now, in just under a month understand what makes them tick, where there strengths are, where there flaws were, if they needed shouting at or arm round them. We didn't have a bad team but we had a rubbish squad until September, and even then it was going to take time for them to click. I think we've got lucky that they've cliked relativly quickly. My aim for the season, realistically, was not positional. It was come March, we won lots of matches. It would mean we were ready to hit 10-11 running. As we've clicked so soon, should we still hit my orignial aim of winning lots of matches in the final third of the season, the points should look after themselves and we'll not be far away from the top 6. You can take out of context all the 'facts' you like but if we get into the top 6 we'll almost certainly have to have accured more points than any other Southampton team ever. That will be an achievement and a half.

Ahh. I didn;t think we'd lost to a League 2 team ever, i just made a bit of an assumption about the non-league. Quite a heavy defeat. I think they'd be some wrist slitters on here if we end playing Luton and losing 4-1!

FA Cup but i think they were Division 3 at the time. We lost to Shrewsbury in the League cup that year as well. We always lose to Division 4 teams in the league cup.

Never lost to a League 2 or non-league team in the FA Cup (Have we?) so we've got to back ourselves!

Further to this we get over 20k in division 3. When i went to Stoke a few years ago with Saints there couldn't have been more than 15k there, for a Championship game, and the only 'atmosphere' was a wierd group of about 30 Stoke fans in the main stand (of all stands) who spent the entire match learing at us. So well done Stoke for singing songs and getting lots of people when you're having your best season for 25+ years. And, FWIW, that same day there was a large element of Saints 'Yoff' there and i thought it was one of the worse Saints away atmosphere's i've experienced.

Seeing Rupert drive past, smug as ever, going to the game as a guest of Notts Forest. After the wretched season and few years and his complete lack of remorse in turning up there when he knew what we had gone through. He drove right past and i filled with rage. I wanted to hurt him so how. I was anti Lowe but not vehemently. I could accept the good things he had done and i appreciated some of the things he tried. But after the season that had gone before for him to stick two fingers up like that, that was the lowest point for me.

I may have skewed the results by saying top 6. It was on Friday, it was late, i was drunk, we'd just won. I'm sorry. I made a mistake. But secretly i am hoping we do it! Biggest indicator for me though is that we win a lot of matches after Christmas. If we do that and not go up it doesn't matter as we'll be ready for next season and should, er, walk this league.

God. It's difficult to give an exact time but providing we are not still 10 points from safety in March (and we won't be, we'll be out the bottom 4 by a mile by then) i reckon next season is where we need to judge. If we're not well in the top 6 next October the pressure might be on. Anyone who thinks anthing else really doesn't have a clue.

We've talked about getting a winning mentatily going at the club but after the last couple of years it's nice that we are at least getting hard to beat. Baby steps. Yeovil will be tough next week, they'll be real pressure on the players to win that. I honestly think if we can win that, scrappy or not, we could easily win the next 6. Fingers crossed!

I'm not really bothered by your thoughts. I always ignore you. Sometimes you're good for stirring debate but that's it. But you are clearly an idgiet to peddle that opinion. It's not without it's limited credit, but in the context of your usual agenda you're a Pomp*y fan or just a ****.

Maybe, but not for me. I'd prefer it if he hadn't been involved, or even had kept quiet. But has it actually diminished anything he's done for the club or city. No. Was it indicative of what was happening at the time. Yes. Was he trying to cheat any of us. No. Except maybe bookies. Who probably deserve it. Is MLT above the law. No. But in the whole context of my life it doesn't matter. Also, in the context of the game the FA have now stopped footballers from doing this. Correctly. Let's move on.

Quite. And i think, personally, while it's probably right now that footballers are not allowed to bet, you need to remember, even as recently as 1995 it was a different time. And, it's a grey area, but there is a difference between influencing the outcome of the game, and throwing in little incentives along the way. You can't have this discussion based on todays context, like everything time moves on. Basing a comedy series on taking the **** out of you black neighbour seems wrong today, and seems like it always is. But people in the 70's didn't see that. Doesn't make it right but it isn't neccesarly wrong either.