stevegrant

One batting point, three bowling points, 14 points for the win, which gives us 111 points. Given that some games aren't finished yet, here's how it currently stands (bonus points already gained ARE included) 1. Durham P10 132 2. Nottinghamshire P10.5 129 3. Somerset P9.5 118 4. Kent P11 114 5. Sussex P10.5 113 6. Lancashire P9.5 112 7. Hampshire P12 111 8. Yorkshire P11 104 9. Surrey P10 85

I don't blame him. You can guarantee that if we'd had a match like that where 38 wickets fall in two days, we'd have been docked points. Absolutely ridiculous decision.

82 off 19.4overs, 26 to win

70/0 off 18... seems as if we've decided to try to hit Rashid out of the attack. Nothing risky in that approach, oh no!

61/0 off 17...

It always amazes me how much criticism a manager gets when players either don't perform or don't appear to be putting in the effort they perhaps should be, and yet the players themselves appear to get off with pretty much a free ride. For what it's worth, I don't think he lost "interest", as such. He was, to my mind, fully focussed on the job. However, and he certainly didn't tire of mentioning it , our three best players from the playoff season were sold and not really replaced (certainly not like-for-like). When "working" conditions change like that, it's not entirely unexpected for some people to become a bit demoralised by the situation. That's not to defend how poor we were for most of last season, and the fitness was a major problem and reason for our mid-season slump, but I think a large slice of the blame does have to be laid to rest on the shoulders of the players who put us into that position. After all, the manager doesn't cross that white line at 2.55pm, does he? It's quite telling that a large number of last season's first-team regulars aren't even in the squad of 18 for tomorrow's game at Cardiff.

Hoggard was rubbish in his 4 overs, so Rashid's on already!

Yep, that's correct. It's a bit of a strange "quirk" in the software we use for the prediction league. If I get time, I might write my own one during the season ready for next season.

107 all out. 108 to win!

So why did he come back then, if he could command multi-million pound salaries elsewhere, and why hasn't he been headhunted since rejoining the SLH board? Surely the amount he'd stand to lose on his shares (about £500k at the moment) is peanuts compared to the amount he could earn elsewhere...

Right, I've finally managed to move the old Prediction League database and files over to the new server, so the SaintsWeb Prediction League is now up and running. The URL is: http://predictionleague.saintsweb.co.uk There are three competitions running this season: 1. Saints Predictions - basically just predict the scores of Saints games 2. Championship Predictions - predict the scores of all games in the Championship 3. FA Cup Predictions - predict the scores of all games in the FA Cup (starting from Round 1 proper).

98-9 at lunch, Hoggard gone first ball (three golden ducks in the Yorkshire innings!)

97-8 now

I don't think I have

88-7

Premier League Villa Park - Aston Villa Ewood Park - Blackburn Reebok Stadium - Bolton Stamford Bridge - Chelsea Goodison Park - Everton Craven Cottage - Fulham KC Stadium - Hull Anfield - Liverpool City of Manchester Stadium - Manchester City Old Trafford - Manchester United Riverside Stadium - Middlesbrough St James Park - Newcastle Fratton Park - Portsmouth Britannia Stadium - Stoke City Stadium of Light - Sunderland White Hart Lane - Tottenham Hawthorns - West Brom Upton Park - West Ham 18/20 Championship Oakwell - Barnsley St Andrews - Birmingham Bloomfield Road - Blackpool Ashton Gate - Bristol City Turf Moor - Burnley Ninian Park - Cardiff The Valley - Charlton Ricoh Arena - Coventry Selhurst Park - Crystal Palace Pride Park - Derby Portman Road - Ipswich Carrow Road - Norwich Home Park - Plymouth Deepdale - Preston Loftus Road - QPR Madejski Stadium - Reading Bramall Lane - Sheffield United Hillsborough - Sheffield Wednesday St Mary's - Southampton Vicarage Road - Watford Molineux - Wolves 21/24 League One Withdean Stadium - Brighton Memorial Stadium - Bristol Rovers Whaddon Road - Cheltenham Gresty Road - Crewe Elland Road - Leeds Walkers Stadium - Leicester The New Den - Millwall Sixfields Stadium - Northampton London Road - Peterborough Glanford Park - S****horpe Roots Hall - Southend County Ground - Swindon Huish Park - Yeovil 13/24 League Two Crown Ground - Accrington Stanley Fitness First Stadium - Bournemouth Griffin Park - Brentford St James Park - Exeter Priestfields Stadium - Gillingham Meadow Lane - Notts County Kenilworth Road - Luton 7/24 Total: 59/92 Old Grounds Wembley The Dell Filbert Street Maine Road Layer Road Dean Court (sort-of old!) Highbury Non-League Grounds Field Mill - Mansfield Plainmoor - Torquay United Silverlake Stadium - Eastleigh Foreign Millennium Stadium (Wales is abroad, really... ) Latham Park, Newtown Stade de France - Paris Amsterdam Arena Luzhniki Stadium - Moscow Ernst Happel Stadion - Vienna Stadion Maksimir - Zagreb Parken Stadion - Copenhagen Commerzbank-Arena - Frankfurt Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion - Stuttgart Stadion Slaski - Chorzow/Katowice Ghencea Stadium (since imaginatively renamed to Stadium Steaua) - Bucharest Ryavallen - Boras Orjans Vall - Halmstad Stade de Geneve - Geneva

No, that will be returning very soon (hopefully some time today).

It's official... we're in freefall again. 5 down now. Time for the regular Dimi/Pothas rescue act

We're looking reasonable so far, then. Even Ervine has hit some runs! Elsewhere, there's a ****ing weird game going on at Durham... Durham 146 & 108 v Kent 78 & 1-2 :shock: Could be some deductions there for Durham for a poor pitch given that 15 wickets went down on day 1 and 17 already on day 2!!

Just checked on Soccerbase, they are right with 1999. I was guessing

Would be fine by me

West Ham in 1988, 4-0 Coventry in 1998(?), 1-0

There would also be nothing to stop Lowe and/or Wilde and/or Crouch from buying the club off the administrators either, and that wouldn't leave them with their small percentages, it would most likely leave them with 100% control.

I'm not in the know, any information I've been given is third or fourth-hand at best. When the Fulthorpe/Merrington rumours were doing the rounds a few months ago, I'd heard that they had agreed a deal in principle but were being held up by having to tie up a deal with whoever was providing the bulk of the money. Whether it would be a fair assumption to make that that person or persons withdrew for whatever reason, I couldn't say. It's what I assumed at the time, rightly or wrongly. I haven't a clue as to the level of funding they have behind them, but I would suggest it would have to be pretty substantial in order for it to make a difference to SFC. At the end of the day, we're still haemorrhaging about £150-200k a week, so a simple cash injection isn't what's going to solve the problem. It's going to need a plan for funding for at least the next 3-4 years, which could mean capital investment into the business of around £40m, and that's just to break even on what we're currently spending. If the money they have is enough to buy the shares and then put in a couple of million quid to finance a half-decent transfer or somebody's high salary for a year or two, and then investigate methods of refinancing the loans, I would expect Lowe and Wilde to reject any approach as, to be honest, they could refinance the loans themselves. Yes, that's fair enough, although alarm bells would be ringing if they were holding out for a really cheap deal rather than getting in as quickly as possible to sort things out. It is jeopardising the present and the future because there is NO GUARANTEE that investment will be forthcoming. Just because this consortium are supposedly hovering, it doesn't mean that it will happen, just like the same consortium were hovering a few months ago. It is a highly dangerous, even negligent, stance to take to say "it's alright, we can mess things up as much as we like in the short-term because someone will come along and rescue us later". There may not be any sort of investment or takeover, and that is the only assumption that those in charge of the finances at the moment (and indeed anyone who holds the club's interests at heart) should be making.

Which merely suggests to me that that particular consortium doesn't actually have that much money at its disposal. Oh, and not really worth thinking about the future if people are just going to disregard and jeopardise the present, is it?