Tom & Gerry

It's 1960 and 3rd Division Saints are 2-1 up away at half time to 1st Division Man City in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. I'm sitting watching Grandstand with great anticipation for the teleprinter to give out the final score..Man City 1 Southampton 5 ...Unbelievable.

In 1962 there was no segregation and very little trouble. Can't even begin to imagine that being possible today.

Used to love the FA Cup but I'm not paying 30 quid for a reserve game.

I don't think some of you are taking in to account the ball that is being used this season. No keeper is confident catching the ball, few are coming for crosses and there have been numerous horrendous errors at other clubs other than Southampton.

We can all say which keeper we prefer but let's face it all of them are struggling at this level. Dave Merrington was saying we should go for an experienced goalkeeper at Anfield but the only experience Davis has in this league is bad experience and Boruc has no experience - Scottish and Italian football are no comparison for a keeper. Up till now I've backed Gazza but the only defence I've got for him now is that he only makes 1 howler a game the others make more, and that's not a great defence. Good luck Nigel.

That was the worst I've seen Gazza play, maybe as a result of the mistake against Swansea. Davis deserved his chance but didn't take it. Boruc's fitness and head didn't seem right. On that basis I would stick with Gazza for now on the basis you don't change a winning team and we've chopped and changed too much already. Lets hope Gazza gets his confidence back - otherwise it's whoever looks best in training as I'm sure both are capable of better than they have shown so far.

I don't think we will ever find a keeper that doesn't let in goals.

Goalkeeper is the one position that you have to pick on form. Past reputation counts for nothing, some keepers lose form and never get it back. Boruc and Davis have both looked fallible and Boruc has demonstrated a very poor temperament. Gazza has looked by far the most assured and despite being slaughtered for his 1 error on Saturday (which admitedly did cost us 2 points) his distribution is about 50% better than Davis. I vote to save Gazza.

I know twisting things to make dramatic headlines is what papers do but it doesn't make it right. Yesterday the headline was along the lines of "Adkins says he doesn't know how long he's got" You'd be hard pressed to find any manager who knows how long he's got.

It's next to the bookmakers or didn't you spot them? opposite the toilets or ...ah forget it. I guess it's probably a relic of a bygone age and not best placed. I only used it once but the guy got me a Skates v Saints match I didn't have for which I was very grateful. Sad and you would have thought after all these years they could have given him more notice.

The number of Managers we've had where we've been screaming at them to change it and then with 5 minutes to go and the team behind they make a change. Nigel has taken action before we go behind when he has seen that we have been struggling and as it happens it hasn't worked out. No one can know that the results would have been different if he had made no or different substitutions and I suspect that in most cases they wouldn't.

Osgood and Chivers must be in with a shout ?

I blame those 50 greatest of all time tv programmes that always put that tedious Queen record at number 1. Who is the greatest legend at Southampton football club should be a lighthearted bar room discussion not a matter for bitter recrimination. There is no way of measuring it. I'm just grateful for the contribution of all of them Matt/ Nicola/Marcus/Lawrie/ Ted/ Paine/ Channon/Davies et all

Don't they have better things to worry about and don't we?

All players make mistakes - ( from Davis in goal with his distribution to Lambert with his pass that could have put us in for 3-1)so why are people banging on about the minor part he played in 1 of the goals. You can ask what his contribution to the team is and views will vary from a lot to nothing but to bang on about his mistakes is largely irrelevant.

This may come as a revelation to some people but all players make mistakes. Some fans make mistakes - like booing Guly when he came on. That was when things started to go wrong. You are not going to beat a team like United if everyone is not together(as we live in a blame culture I know you will say that was Adkins fault for bringing him on). Funny Barnard's misdemeaners made him a cult hero but seem to have done the opposite for Guly. Why not admit we gave it a right good go but United are a world class team and just had too much for us in the end.

This. know what you mean exactly

Winning the league might increase the fanbase. Other than that cutting the ticket price is the only way. You can not turn leafy Hampshire in to Greater Manchester and I don't suppose most of us would want to.

I think they probably do, don't you? If they sell out all their games they probably have more fans than us, or a smaller stadium.

I'm not talking about once a season, once a cup final database fans. I'm talking about regular fans who don't go to every game for a variety of reasons - work, holiday or family committments or most likely cost. They would make up most of the 6000 going to the Wigan game as database fans would be unlikely to choose that game. New supporters from far flung places are more likely to be in the database variety because of the prohibitive cost of attending more. Therefore I am pleasantly surprised at the likely Wigan attendance and projected attendances for the season.I am not sure that they are sustainable for very long in to the future though. Football doesn't have to be this popular.When we first went up to the top flight in 1966 the attendance for our first match was 19900 and we couldn't always fill the reduced capacity Dell especially in the Branfoot days. I didn't say we had 45k fans, I didn't make any figures up, read more carefully.

I was trying to illustrate why the Wigan attendance was impressive. It was suggested that 6000 non season ticket holders buying tickets was poor. I was saying IF we had as many non season ticket holders as season tickets holders who pick and chose matches then a quarter had chosen the Wigan match and that was quite impressive. If we've got more than 45k potential ticket buyers that is also impressive and means most matches are likely to sell out.

Shows how impressive the Wigan attendance is. If we have less than 45k potential supporters then a large percentage of our floaters are prepared to come to a less attractive game or perhaps we have more than 45k potential supporters. The Man U game will sell out trust me.

2002-3 Middlesborough 28341 Charlton 25714 Fulham 26188

If we have 22.5 k season ticket holders and say another 22.5k fans who want to go to games but can't get to them all for financial or other reasons that means we have a potential home crowd for big home games of 45k plus away support. The fact that a quarter of them are coming to the less attractive Wigan game is quite impressive and bodes well for attendances for the rest of the season.

We would not have sold out against the likes of Wigan last time we were in the Premier league so why should we now when prices are ridiculously high and there is a recession with many people who would like to go to football unable to afford to do so?