stevegrant

The 10 definites: Steve Grant, Mike Hole, Mike Fordham, Mark Keenan, Ash Ennever, Andy Porter, Mike McIntyre, Dan Armstrong, Rich White, Ant James.

I'm on the lookout for a few more players for a game against a Man United supporters' team on the morning of our game at Old Trafford next month. It'll be an 11:00 kickoff at Partington Sports Village. We've currently got 10 definites... if you fancy a game, please let me know. Current Squad: GK: Ash Ennever DF: Mike Hole, Andy Porter, Kev Thornton, Mike McIntyre, Dan Armstrong MF: Mike Fordham, Rich White, Ant James, Stu Booth FW: Steve Grant, Mark Keenan, Jules Ganley Edit: Up to 13 definites now

The blocks they've opened only provide for a capacity of just over 11,000 - 1,000 of which are the away allocation, so that suggests they're not planning on having a big crowd present. I guess with nearly 2 weeks to go, it's difficult to tell for sure, but with the tickets having been on sale for nearly 2 weeks already, surely most who have decided whether they're going or not would have got their tickets, especially as many areas of the ground with a high concentration of season ticket holders are closed?

No, that's PompeyScot.

I'd ignore the bit about the "cousin", he wants the child's ticket for himself.

Not surprised by that, he always seemed a reluctant captain who took the job on because Dimi was crocked.

Someone I spoke to at the semi-final at the weekend who seemed to be relatively ITK seemed to think that Danny Briggs was the most natural "thinker" in the team. Neil McKenzie would probably be the best short-term option, but it seems unlikely we'll have him for long (if at all) next year. Also had it suggested that Ervine might be off at the end of the year. Left out of the side for this game to give Sean Terry an opportunity (one he seems to have taken), could be some wholesale changes in the winter.

Maximum batting points secured, largely thanks to Wood, Terry and Coles. The last 100 scored in 20 overs is decent going, but suggests we'll probably struggle to bowl them out once, let alone twice

Ashley Harris being sent on loan to Havant & Waterlooville... I thought he was their next big thing who they should be building the team around?

Current home sales: 3,819

Or perhaps you could, y'know, pay the going rate for once?

They couldn't afford Cotterill. They're stuck with "Corporal Punishment" for a good while yet

Whittingham's fantastic record reads: P38 W6 D13 L19 A win ratio of 15.7%

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And yet you've managed to make it infinitely more complicated than the club's actual thought process. Impressive stuff

The difference being that both players have changed their games over the last few years as they've got older, and the system we'll play tonight (and against most other teams at international level) won't involve the two of them playing directly alongside each other getting in each other's way, as used to be the case. Gerrard plays much deeper these days, Lampard will be almost up alongside Lambert tonight. I wouldn't expect Lampard to play on Tuesday, would think Hodgson will bring in a bit more energy, which probably means Cleverley, rightly or wrongly.

According to someone in another thread, the Kingsland isn't open for the Bristol City game.

Confirmed, Lambert starts

That might be the way we go in Kiev next week but there's nothing to suggest we'll do that at home against one of the group minnows. We won 5-0 in Chisinau a year ago, and were 3-0 up inside half an hour so it's not as if we're afraid to attack. I'd expect something like this tomorrow night: Hart Walker - Jagielka - Cahill - Cole Gerrard - Wilshere Lampard/Cleverley Walcott - Lambert - Welbeck Fully expected Lambert to be on the bench originally, but now Sturridge is out there's no reason for him not to start IMO.

Florian Marange, signed on a free from Bordeaux. Played 23 times for them last season, so seems to have at least some pedigree, and must be there or thereabouts as he was chucked into their second string side at Bristol City last week. Now left out of the 25 altogether!

He's done that with one other player as well. Very odd.

Yeah, unfortunately the system doesn't appear to be able to cope with even that most basic check/restriction. I hope the club kept the receipt...

This isn't even an outsourcing issue, the club don't allow you to buy away tickets over the phone, so the call centre they occasionally use when it's particularly busy doesn't get involved here. This is a policy decision by the club - they've tried to tell people they've called in the last day or so that it's a Premier League ruling that they're enforcing (without providing any evidence that such a rule exists - there is nothing within the Premier League's 530-page handbook which makes any reference to this), and when that's then questioned, "it's club policy as well".

This has definitely been the case. As an example, we took around 4,000 to Wigan away last season. Apparently more than 500 of those 4,000 were kids tickets at a fiver a pop. There is absolutely no way that one eighth of our support up there was under 18 It's a lot more prevalent at away games where they do very good deals for kids. West Ham last season, for example, was £39 for adults and kids for a quid. I know loads of adults who bought kids tickets but because turnstiles at most grounds are barcode scanners rather than a man in a booth manually checking them, they just sail straight through. There's never anyone checking for concession tickets. I don't see why it's Saints' responsibility to check who they're selling tickets to - it's up to the home club to police their turnstiles properly. If someone's tried to pull a fast one, they should either send them to the ticket office to pay the difference, or - and this would be an infinitely better deterrent - rip the ticket up and tell them to **** off.