stevegrant

Yep, booked direct with Virgin, collected my tickets from the machine at Southampton Central when I got back from work last night

I don't think that's possible, to be fair

More to the point, I don't get why people appear to be rejoicing at the idea, given what we've just been through ourselves. What short memories...

105 overs per day.

Squad announced today for the second test, no surprises. 14-man squad comprising the 11 who played at Cardiff plus Harmison, Onions and Bell. Flintoff is an injury doubt, he's having a scan on his knee - apparently the same knee he injured in the IPL. Great. We've not beaten the Aussies at Lord's since 1934

I am now also booked on that one - was going to stay overnight but will be much cheaper to do a day-trip. Think I'll stay at a mate's in London on the Friday night so I don't have to get up too early...

Dowie wouldn't be a bad shout, IMO. Got Oldham to the play-offs in this division in his first managerial job, so he knows the league.

SISU.

I would like to think he has more sense than that. Here's hoping I'm right... Don't forget that Adams was linking himself with the Celtic job when they had absolutely no intention of going anywhere near him, so I suspect these links are just him trying to whore himself around.

I think the corners that were closed last season will remain so until demand is definitely there. From an e-mail I got from David Luker, these are the blocks that count as "wing" blocks: 4, 10-11, 27-28, 34.

Or if you book in advance, you can get a return for £4, although you are booked on a specific train in each direction.

Presume you mean the Queens Park? I would be very surprised if that wasn't home-only as well. I might head towards the town centre and get a taxi to the ground.

As far as I'm aware, yes.

Yes.

Should also add that the Family Enclosure has been extended to cover the entire Chapel Stand.

Costs still have to be controlled - until those holding the chequebook can be sure that we've got enough guaranteed revenue coming in to cover the additional cost of that area with the policing and stewarding costs it incurs, it's an understandable (if somewhat frustrating, as I'd like to move back to block 3) decision.

See my post above. As with last season, block 4 only.

Worth bearing in mind that blocks 1, 2 and 3 are still closed.

I think a draw's pretty much nailed on now with the likely rubbish weather tomorrow. I wouldn't be totally convinced that the Aussies will get a lead though, if you remember back to the Oval test in 2005, they were 264/1 and ended up 367 all out, and that was a typical batsman-friendly Oval pitch.

Harry Redknapp hates the director of football role as well when he's the manager, but that didn't stop him taking Mandaric's five pieces of silver when Graham Rix was in charge down there... If Keegan (or anyone else for that matter) was offered the right terms, they'd soon forget about their hatred of that role.

How did they do that?

I get up to London that early every day during the week - there's no chance I'll be doing that on a Saturday! I've been looking at a slightly later train up there, probably arriving in Carlisle for about 12.30, with a return on the Sunday at lunchtime.

Little bit unfair on Richards as he wrote a substantial cheque to the club when we went into admin.

Wilde lost money as well - should he be reimbursed? No, didn't think so... I don't think you'll find any Saints fan who's not grateful for him putting his hand in his pocket to cover the wage bill. That goes without saying, and you only have to look back at the many threads that have discussed it to see that people who generally don't have any time for Crouch - myself included - have given credit where it has been due for this. Using it as a stick to beat those who have genuine reasons for believing he shouldn't be involved in the club is plain wrong. The fact of the matter is that the money he put towards Pinnacle's exclusivity period is money he has wasted and he really only has himself to blame, and I suspect he's probably annoyed with himself that he didn't do a bit more investigation on that front. It's certainly proven costly for him personally. Fortunately the delay it caused didn't have fatal implications for the football club.