stevegrant

I now know how Redknapp feels... down to the bare bones

Still looking for a few more players, particularly a keeper!

I went to their game against Liverpool on Wednesday and for long periods they were the better team. Getting a point at Old Trafford followed by nearly doing the same against the most in-form team in the league suggests they were starting to get it together, with an £11m striker to come into the side next week. Arguably the most impressive feat Meulensteen achieved was to coax an excellent performance out of Darren Bent. Magath is a disciplinarian type of manager, but he's no mug either. Fulham's new signings give them a strong chance of staying up regardless of who's in charge. Kvist and Holtby have been superb since they arrived, Tunnicliffe looked decent on Wednesday and Mitroglou bagged a couple for the U21s in midweek as he returns to full fitness. For all the people saying they collapse too easily, this is true, but also inevitable when you base your central midfield around Steve Sidwell (31), Scott Parker (33), Damien Duff (34) and Georgios Karagounis (36), that's hardly surprising. Holtby and Kvist will make a huge difference there, IMO.

VENUE CHANGE ALERT The game has been moved to the 3G pitch at Langdon School as it seems unlikely any grass pitches in the area will be playable in the next couple of weeks. https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=ziGKD136Erq0.kqTnXd5DCf3E The pointer on the map shows the entrance to the school for those driving, the postcode maps to another entrance that isn't as convenient. For those coming by train/tube, it's still the same station, but a slightly longer walk.

No, I think the tax has already been accounted for with all of those, as it would have been due at the time of when they were originally supposed to be paid their wages, so my understanding is that the PAYE/NI would have been swallowed up in the CVA.

Arguably our home form AND our away form is "average". We are in 9th place in both the home and the away league tables, after all... We've only lost three times at home, one to a very good Chelsea side, one to a Spurs side who came up against our weakest defensive lineup of the season and one in a freak game against Villa that 99 times out of 100 we'd have won comfortably. Our draws have been balanced, two draws against top opposition (Man City, Arsenal) and two against mediocre teams (Sunderland, West Ham). We've won the rest, as well as 3 cup ties. I'd have certainly taken that at the start of the season.

The last time we ended a top-flight season with a positive goal difference away from home was in 1983/84, when we finished second (and that was only +1)!

A lot of people on the SFC database with a recent purchase history.

I've been told that there's a car park of some description at the venue, but we won't be able to leave cars there for the afternoon. Apparently there's a Tesco nearby where they don't seem to do any parking checks on matchdays, but will get a bit more info on that nearer the time.

Worth noting there are still single tickets available dotted around all over the place, so if you phone up or go in person to the ticket office, you might still be able to get a ticket.

Liverpool sold out in about 5 hours last season, by far the quickest home game to do so... not entirely sure why that game in particular is so popular.

Nope, about 500 short of the full allocation last season. Quite surprised it's not sold out already considering when the overall cost of a day trip from Southampton is considered, it's not much more expensive than the away game at Arsenal in November. South West Trains will still be running their £10 return promotion that day, so £52 for ticket and travel isn't that bad. The £42 ticket price in isolation is expensive, clearly, but most people don't have to pay *just* the ticket price.

Noted What position(s) do you play?

It's on my (ever-increasing) list of things to look at in the summer.

They'll get some compensation but it won't be much at all. I think I saw on an earlier page here that they pinched him from a local non-league side a couple of years ago, so the amount they'd get from a tribunal will be minimal.

Supply and demand, London premium, use any cliché you like, they largely all apply here. Despite how **** they've been this season, West Ham have averaged 34,490 for their league games, with a capacity of 35,647, which suggests that enough people are happy to pay the going rate. I think we charged West Ham £37 when they came down here for a ****ty Sunday lunchtime game that was televised. £5 more for a game in London when compared with that isn't a big deal IMO. Sure, I'd love every game to be £10 a ticket, with free travel thrown in for good measure, but that's never going to happen in a month of Sundays. Lumping in the travel costs is entirely appropriate when determining affordability at football, as it often accounts for the majority of the cost. Take the Sunderland FA Cup game, apparently they're only charging £15 for the tickets, which is great, but a cursory glance at East Coast's website gives me a return train from London for nearly £80 (and that's much cheaper than someone wanting to get the train from Southampton), so it's around £100 for a game that's live on TV at an inconvenient time. Contrast that with West Ham, and the trip from Southampton plus ticket is £52 plus tube ticket, nearly half the overall cost. Which trip makes the most financial sense? A lot of the time, travel cost is proportionate to the pro-activeness (not sure that's even a word, but let's run with it) of the individual. Most train operating companies offer cheap advance fares which go on sale around 12 weeks before the date of travel. Assuming you're still in Bristol, you can get a return to Paddington from Temple Meads for £27 on a Saturday in 11 weeks' time. The TV games for the weekend of the West Ham game were announced on 10th December, ten and a half weeks before the game, so there would almost certainly have been cheap fares available.

Yeah, example (that hopefully works ) [soundcloud] [/soundcloud]

Available on the day.

Beat you to it

Saturday lunchtime kickoff again. ****s sake.

Surprisingly easy to implement, you can now use the [soundcloud][/soundcloud] BBCode

Yep.

The deal is valid on all SWT routes (with a handful of exceptions but they're all down in the West Country), so just get the return ticket to Putney via "Any Permitted Route" (which will allow you to go via Waterloo as well as Clapham Junction) and you'll be fine.