stevegrant

Says who?

The monkey chicken thing still gets me

This is SFC, we never do anything the easy way...

They do, but we had the same players out for the first leg as well. With their problems, I'm cautiously optimistic now, whereas a couple of days ago I was fearing a ****-up of epic proportions.

In true Kevin Keegan style, I would LOVE it if Jacko got involved there I really hope someone's still got a copy of that "design" for Bournemouth's ground and surrounding area with the petting zoo

Would they attempt to claim backdated PAYE/NI from the players' new clubs then? I don't see how they'd be able to enforce that...

Interesting that Cardiff and Southend are due at the same time...

Yep. Would be interesting to know the "public opinion" on HMRC essentially tossing away circa £7.5m of public money with the long-term benefit that they know damn well they'll be getting paid in full and on time by football clubs in the future... It would be good to see the Premier League implement the same tax rules that the Football League brought in last year - any club not keeping up-to-date with their tax liabilities will be placed under a transfer embargo.

I suspect they'd get bugger all, as the vast majority of the assets have been used as security for previous lending. I guess they could technically take ownership of the players' contracts and demand transfer fees to release them, but that would seem a bit unlikely.

They were able to prove that there were genuine investors in talks though...

unless the authorities can prove negligence on the part of the shareholders, of course...

I'd assume that's in preparation in case (i.e. when) their appeal is thrown out later today

Depends on the context, really. I've missed three games all season home and away, but I still think there are some question marks. Yes, we've come a long way in a short space of time, etc (insert cliche here! ) but since mid-December, we've laboured a bit in most games. There's not the same intensity as we had in the games against, say, Gillingham, Walsall and MK Dons (league game), and I think the loss of David Connolly has had much more of an impact than has perhaps been generally accepted. The conditions have played a big part in the last couple of away games (Brentford and Exeter), but the added quality that we have in the side should still be good enough to see out a winning position in those games.

The league was obviously #1 priority at the start of the season, and in essence that remains the case, but I said that I believe a top 10 finish would be a "decent" return, if it was coupled with a cup run, and I still stand by that. The playoffs are an outside bet now (as, in reality, they were back in August), 15 points to make up in 18 games is a tall order, but I think the size of the gap is largely due to the surprise form of the likes of Swindon and Colchester - neither of whom were expected to challenge at the start of the season. While I've been slightly underwhelmed by our performances since the middle of December, we have won every game at home. Away from home, it's difficult to really pin-point the reason why we've gone from 10 games unbeaten to 5 league games without a win. Lambert hasn't looked quite as sharp, Lallana likewise, perhaps both could have done with a rest at some point, but they're so pivotal to the way we play - do you want to take a chance of dropping points against the likes of Stockport and Exeter at home, or should we be playing a full-strength XI every game? It's a tough call, but ultimately that's the sort of decision Pardew's paid for. Regardless of the merit of the JPT, a trophy is a trophy, and it's a realistic target for us this season. With no cup win for 34 years, I'll certainly be making the most of the day at Wembley if we get there. While the importance of the league should never be ignored, it should also be noted how much of a galvanising effect a trip to a cup final has on a team and the fanbase.

Chelsea don't do it so much, they tend to be quite direct at times as they've got the tools to do that, but yes, I get really annoyed watching a team of 5'6" midgets try to thread eye-of-the-needle through-balls past a team of 6'3" giants. There is also no more pointless move in football than Arsenal getting the ball wide and putting crosses into the box...

I strongly suspect him losing the captaincy isn't *just* because of the affair. There are a whole host of other allegations and past indiscretions - many of which will probably be in this weekend's papers - which added together make his position completely untenable. If he'd had any sort of half-decent advice from anyone, he'd have "honourably" resigned, rather than wait to be fired by Capello.

Interesting timing of that Vickery article, considering Higuita was inducted into the Dean Windass Hall of Fame on the Football Ramble podcast this week

No idea, tbh. The suggestion is the latter, but I don't think it's been confirmed anywhere. Certainly not on their OS anyway...

What about Chainrai though, as he presumably is now both a secured lender AND a director...

That genuinely wouldn't work. The main reason PO were so bad in the first game was because they had a squad of 24. I can barely remember them having a shot. Despite what the scoreline may suggest, the second game was much closer, when they had a squad of 15 or 16.

Not really, just shows how crap they are that they're still comfortably behind the likes of Hull, Burnley and Wolves

8pm kickoff, so still 15 mins to go

I predict "Nothing", as they'll go into administration the day before the hearing.

From what Scott Minto's been saying on Sky, it sounds like Pompey's entire season wrapped up into 90 minutes - plenty of possession and chances, but fail to take them and get punished at the other end. Shame.

Except of course I had already published the song list for the wedding on the church's website...