CHAPEL END CHARLIE

I'm currently plowing my way through the 1968/9 Star Trek Season 3 box set, and I must say I'm beginning to understand for the first time why this iconic series was 'canned' back in the day. Suffering from both budget cuts imposed by NBC, and a run of poor/terrible scripts, the end was most definitely nigh for Captain Kirk and his valiant crew. Among the more noteworthy bad 3rd season stories are: 'Spock's Brain' a risible tale of the race to reunite everyones favorite Vulcan with his stolen grey matter. 'Spectre of the Gun' where our heroes have to relive a version of the gunfight at the OK Corral for some silly reason. The irremediably tedious 'The Empath', and worst of all 'Plato's Stepchildren'. Beyond daft, and not even deemed worthy of broadcast on UK screens until 1994, this yarn is best remembered perhaps for (one of) the first inter racial kisses shown on US TV. Investigating a distress call Kirk, McCoy, and Spock are soon detained by a race of arrogant immortal beings who have modeled their society on that of ancient Greece (!) and take a perverse delight in humiliating lesser lifeforms. If the sight of Kirk and Spock being made to sing and prance around like a pair of terminally gaylord loons wasn't bad enough, the image of Captain Kirk - quite literally - being ridden by a dwarf has probably scarred me for life. But never mind! because among all this dross the producers somehow managed to pull the magnificent 'Let that be your last Battlefield' out of the hat as it were - in this lifelong trekkie's opinion perhaps the finest episode in all TOS history.

Boots with steel toe-caps are the best cure for infected toenails.

I'm pleased that this outstanding soldier has received justice at last - the debt we owe these men is incalculable. But I must say that I'm also happy to see that the military take the issue of unauthorized weapons very seriously. The host of serious psychological problems soldiers can suffer from as a result of combat stress are well documented. Do we really want to see large numbers of these traumatized soldiers retaining their own lethal 'souvenirs' in civilian life? When you think about it, I'm pretty sure the answer is a resounding 'no'.

It's very cruel (too cruel for my likes) to describe any 20 year old novice keeper as a joke, but it's is manifestly obvious his errors are costing us points we just can't afford. If I were making this difficult call Kelvin would be back PDQ - I expect however that Gazza will start against Liverpool. As for his inconsistency being some kind of perverse asset, surely the essence of the goal keepers craft is that they are consistent.

Luke Shaw has done very well indeed. An exceptionally mature player for his age and a credit to both our academy and his family. I can only hope last nights injury was a trivial one, because this teenager is already a important player for us.

Why thanks for the patient explanation - it's all so clear to me now. I'm sure I can speak for many on here when I say that your radical idea that a technically gifted player with average pace, is a better bet than some mug who can only run fast, is a revelation in our understanding of the modern game. It must be frustrating for a man such as yourself, but you must understand that not all of us are on your intellectual level. So when you expound ideas that are quite this deep and insightful some of us are bound to be left trailing in your mighty wake. But Please my friend, promise me now that if you have any more pearls of wisdom of this caliber you won't hesitate to enlighten us with yet another new thread on the subject. Ta very muchly.

Good post, but courtesy this not at all over simplistic thread, we have now learned that pace is overrated and it has little or no place in the modern game - well according to the experts on here anyway. Presumably those of us still have nightmares about Bale and Lennon ripping our defence a new one just a few weeks ago must be undergoing the SWF equililent of a 'Bobby Ewing in the shower' moment then ..... But at least all those 1000's of Saints fans who only a week ago were demanding the immediate recall of Steve DeRidder have been put in their place.

Silly thread. Of course pace is important, and the role Clyne's ample supply of it had in our first goal yesterday should be clear enough for anyone who was paying attention.

Anyone who was lucky enough to be there today could only agree that we played some good football during this match, indeed for long periods we were close to being superb actually. Keep this under your hat my friends, but somehow we even managed to defend our goal adequately - which is a real turn up for the books I'm sure many of you will agree. It's kinda unfair to pick out individuals because every single one of them did their jobs very well. What I will say however is that a midfield of Cork, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Puncheon and Ramirez - always a tasty prospect on paper - is starting to deliver on that great promise. Methinks there may be even more to come from them as well. As I've voiced a few criticisms of the manager this season it's only fair that I go on the record and praise him when he gets it right - so well done Nigel. Now lets be clear, I don't think we are out of trouble, I don't even think we're nearly out of trouble. But we can perhaps allow ourselves the hope that we can climb away from the relegation zone over the next few months. As ever, only time will tell.

I've never meet the Chairman, but by most accounts from those who have he appears to have a 'robust' ego and to be not that likable a personality type. The real problem with Cortese however is not that he makes himself unpopular, but rather the fact that the set up at this club means he wields too much power for his own good. Petty minded attacks on Nick Illingsworth and the Daily Echo, ill-conceived attempts to control press access to St Mary's, even the calamitous mistakes of the last transfer window - it seems to me our Chairman seldom hears the word 'no' at this club. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes of course, but when Cortese makes them who is there around to stand up to him and tell him so? The Board is little more than a couple of glorified accountants there to rubber stamp his decisions. Our absentee owners don't appear to be all that interested (as far as I can tell) and as for the manager .... well he's just hired help employed to do what he's told and coach the Don's team isn't he? At the very hight of its power whenever a victorious Roman general returned home the tradition was that as he paraded through the imperial capitol 'in triumph' someone was always employed to stand behind him and whisper in his ear "remember you're only a man" Cortese could really do with one of those.

I've never heard of this band, but I've munched my way through so many McVitie's Digestives this morning the thread title may well be on the verge of becoming a scientific fact. But it's good for a man to have a hobby they say ......

But the question was about your preferred NATIONALITY and as England is not itself a nation state (by most definitions) but rather a constituent part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, your nationality would be British not English then. Great Britain: Annoying Johnny Foreigner since 1707

Justice has been seen to be done and Mark Clattenburg has been declared innocent. He's still a terrible referee mind you - but a innocent terrible referee.

It's nice to be nice I suppose, but the relationship between being good company, and being good at your job, is a tenuous one at best. Unlike some on here I'm not really that interested in the managers personality. I am interested however in the results his team delivers. It seems to me that many of the most successful people in life aren't all that pleasant to be around. Years ago I saw a study that concluded that an alarming percentage of top businessman exhibited psychological traits that resemble that of a psychopath. That may, or may not, be true, but Sir Alex Ferguson is beyond any doubt the most successful manager in the modern game, while Michael Schumacher was clearly the best driver of his generation. I don't think either are often accused of being all that 'nice'. What I require from our manager is that he gets results - all the rest is just more background noise.

This thread is rapidly becoming yet another example of what you might call a growing 'My Club Right or Wrong' attitude among some on here. It doesn't matter what the club do because as fans it is our duty to support it come-what-may. Well no actually, I don't agree with that. When a individual, or as in this case, an organization is clearly in the wrong, then instead of desperately hunting around for (unconvincing) reasons to excuse that errant behavior, I say we should instead stand up and condemn that wrongdoing - even if it is our family, our friends, or even our football club doing it. The court has ruled - pay the bloody bill Mr Cortese.

Aye. This, and the previous comparison with Fabrice Fernandes, sums him up very nicely.

Evidence that JROD is all that much better a player than Lee seems scanty to put it mildly. The only real way to tell if he can cut it in this league is to give him a chance to prove it. If and when he does get a go then he needs to make an impression PDQ if he wants to establish himself at this level.

I've been (very) critical of him in the past, but no one can say he's not giving it a proper go this season. That's not to say we shouldn't be looking to sign someone better mind you ....

The third, and final, series of Denmark's most successful export since Lego - 'The Killing' - made a most welcome appearance last weekend (BBC4 Saturday) and needless to say I'm already hooked. Now if you really wanted to be critical I suppose you could say that this mixture of crime, psychopathy and political intrigue does conform to a set series formula, but when TV is made quite this well then I'm prepared to overlook a certain lack of originality. The crew of a cargo ship have been found brutally murdered, and when the world-weary Sarah Lund finally gets round to investigating the case properly she soon finds evidence that the young daughter of the wealthy and powerful businessman who owns the ship may well be the killers next target .....

The proper function of the press is to report on the club, not to support it like some kind of tame media cheer leader. The article in question would appear to be fair comment - indeed the facts of the matter don't even seem to be in dispute. So why the OP finds it so very objectionable is quite beyond me.

Umm. I'll happily state that Lambert is a powerful footballer. I'd say without a moments hesitation that he's a able and proven goal scorer at all levels now. I wouldn't disagree if anyone said that he's on course to become a club legend here - if he's not one already that is. But when I think of 'class' the type of players who come to mind are the exceptionally gifted types like MLT, Glen Hoddle, or Eric Cantona for instance - I don't place Rickie Lambert in that company. Look at yesterdays goal and you'd be hard pressed to call that a 'class' goal as I understand the term - bravely taken and most welcome for sure - but somewhat agricultural in its nature. So I can't really agree that Sir Rickie is 'pure class' - but he'll do for me anyway.

Such a genuinely difficult question, I can see a case for each of our 3 keepers frankly. Gazzaniga shows promise, but it's clear for all to see that he's facing a horrifically steep 'learning curve'. Artur Boruc comes with a decent reputation but has shown little of it here so far. Therefore based on little more than good old gut instinct, I think I might opt to recall Kelvin if it were my call. I say this not because I really think he's a top class PL goalkeeper, but rather because years of hard earned experience suggests to me that he is less likely to have made the positional error that cost us a goal yesterday, or the error of judgement that was (partially) responsible for Swansea's equalizer last week. A good win against a poor QPR team doesn't mean we're out of trouble - far from it - so unfortunately we're not even close to being in a position to allow a young keeper to learn his trade 'on the job'. Fortunately those who really have to make this choice have the inestimable advantage of working with all of them on a daily basis, so they are obviously much better placed to make the call than we are. We can only hope and trust they get it right, because our survival prospects depend upon that.

I'm half way through the novel 'Super-Cannes' by the late JG Ballard. On the beautiful French Mediterranean coast a luxurious self contained business park for the new elite of European industry 'Eden Olympia' has a vacancy for a new doctor. A young British medic (with her disabled husband in tow) arrive to take up the post. On the surface this place has everything you could possibly ask for, ideal working conditions, its own housing and even private security/medical care all laid on. But just like that 'Other Eden' beneath the glossy surface of the complex sinister forces are at work. Why did the previous doctor seemingly go berserk and gun down several people in a apparently motiveless spree killing? In this utterly inhumane and sanitized world how do the career obsessed staff at the complex obtain any release from the relentless (self imposed) pressures of their working lives? I can hardly wait to find out ......

The bestest supported club in all Christendom with a mere 11k fans ? Shirley shome kind of mistake has been made .....

I don't think there's much (any) doubt that we're a significantly better team when Jack Cork plays - given the job he did for us last season this is hardly a surprise. As for the keeper situation, OK we won today but I'm starting to think there may be a case for Kelvin's recall.