Tom & Gerry

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?

At the time Tony Knapp was a big signing. It was something like £25k but it was a lot more than we had ever paid before and having got out of the 3rd Division it showed our intent to get to the 1st Division. It may not have been the bigest wow signing but it is certainly the first I remember. Also in those days going out and buying Burnside, Williams and Kirby in a few days turned us round when we were having a bad time.

I think you can - sometimes, and this was one of those occasions.

I think you can put too many new players in the team at once even if they are better players. The dilema is you put too many in and you lose the team cohesion you had last season and it takes until Christmas to gel but if you only make the odd change you might get more points up to Christmas but you won't be good enough overall. There has to be some sort of balance in between and I can see Nigel starting with a lot of the players from last season and gradually introducing the new ones.

Sounds like a great job to me. You get a big pay rise, lots of training but you don't have to do any work - Perfect.

If you are the sort of person who likes to panic then panic . It won't do you much good. I might start to panic a little if in a months time Kelvin is out with a long term injury and we haven't bought a replacement ( very unlikely I'd have thought). If it's only a short term injury then it doesn't really matter does it? Even if we were allowed 2 keepers we probably wouldn't get anything at Man City.

Wow, now I know we are back in the big time when our frendlies are on TV

That is why we should keep them, how will our new world wide audience know that?

It's a nice shirt. I won't be buying it as I refuse to let my love of Saints be exploited in that way and anyway I can't afford it - not so easy for parents and it's a free world if you want to buy , buy it .It doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me what they wear but for what it's worth I think they should stick to stripes. Yes for sentimental and traditional reasons but also for more longer term commercial reasons. In the short term a lot of people will buy the shirt but if you want to market yourself as a national and international brand surely the shirt is a good way of being recognised. Everyone can recognise a Barcelona,Real Madrid, Juventus, Man U , Newcastle, Arsenal or Spurs shirt but Saints? It changes every season.

Back in the day when a spase was a spade and the Premier league was league one they used to call these matches what they are - Public Practice Matches and you could get in for a couple of bob. £25 quid to see Saints practice, it isn't even funny.

I have no idea whether Nigel Adkins will be up to the job but he deserves his chance. As very few managers start their careers in the Premier league if someone with Nigel's record over the last 2 seasons can't be given a go then we will soon have a Premier league of just foreign managers.

Possibly, but being close to 65 is not exactly it. If anyone else has benifited I would be interested to know or is it just me?

I don't want to say too much because a loophole might get closed.

Did anyone of a certain age get a nice surprise when they logged in? Is that nice Mr Cortese showing compassion for loyal life long supporters or has there been a cock up?

Brought back some memories. In the game at West Ham that season Tom did a similar run from his own half but scored. I went to the game at York and you wonder why we oldies are amazed when people leave with 5 minutes to go and we are only 2 up.

You can have Balotelli and Tevez just give us your Rickie

You have to bear in mind that with the transfer window the way it is Nigel only gets 1 shot ( probably too late by January) to get in the right players and decide which of the present squad will make it in the prem. bearing in mind that many were playing in league 1 a year ago. So although I think we have the potential to finish much higher I would settle for 17th in our 1st season

I do love a happy ending. It would make a great book if anyone was brave enough to write it. I'd love to hear the views of some of the participants involved but there might be too many damaged egos and the lawyers might be kept busy with libel cases. At the end of the day my view is that Rupert Lowe couldn't raise the investment we needed so when he did hire a good manager (Souness, Hoddle, Strachan arguably Rednapp) they didn't think they could take the club any further and moved on. His alternative was a youth policy which whilst producing some great players, didn't produce enough to either build a decent team or enough funds in the transfer market. The alternative Wilde/Crouch gamble failed and we were left ruined. Then we got very, very lucky.

I've found the rules. Head to head - it only goes to another match if it can't be decided by that method. See point 9 http://www.football-league.co.uk/regulations/20110629/section-3-the-league_2293633_2125717#9