Tom & Gerry

There is a famous old song that was inspired by the church that formed our football club and after which our stadium is named - The bells of St Mary's. Maybe difficult to learn the words but perhaps it could be adapted? It would certainly be unique to us. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/heritage/9188573.The_bells_of_St__Mary_s

If we go up that game will be the Classic final derby. If we don't it will be the nightmare that haunts us forever.

There's a bloke his name is Terry Paine, he only scores goals now and again, and again, and again,and again and again and again and again and agaaain. Onwards saints supporters marching as to war with the boot of Chivers going on before, Melia is our schemer pushing from behind, Davies is our leader scoring all the time.

Horseshoe Bridge, nice 20 minute walk along the river (mind the dog poop). Back on the M27 in 10minutes. If full St Denys Station extra 5 minutes. All free.

There have been times when I thought I would never see another Premier league game so I would love us to go up. If you get a chance to go up you have to take it, if you are ready for the Premier league or not as this is a very hard league to get out of and the chance may not come again as easily as it has this season. I'd love to see what Rickie Lambert could do in the Premier league and he isn't getting any younger. I'd love to see who else in our current squad would do well. I'd love to see quality big name signings again. If we can get safe in the league we can have a proper go at the FA Cup. It might not be what it was but it is still the biggest competition we can realistically win and it has given many of us some of our best days in football. The cost of tickets does frighten me, hopefully common sense will prevail.

Guly plays because he is versatile. You can play him wide in the middle forward or back. It means that if we have got the tactics wrong at the start we don't have to make a substitution after 20 minutes. He has a languid South American style that is not appreciated by some of our supporters. He is not lazy, if he holds his position after making a pass it is because the manager has told him to cover for breakaways, something I saw him do when Richardson bombed forward yesterday, otherwise he covered every blade of grass in the 3 or 4 positions he played. We do not generally have bad players, If they are playing badly it is usually because the tactics do not suit them or they are not getting the support of other players. Football is a team game - I know that is blindingly obvious but people do seem to forget it.

I'm sure there are a hardcore who feel as you do. I was brought up in Southampton and have been to most derby's home and away since they started up again in the 60's and I am fully aware of how vile some of there supporters are. There will always be a part of me that hates them and I rejoice when they lose, but I think you and I are living in the past. We all must have friends, relatives, work colleagues or people we know that support them and quite a lot of them are nice normal people and good supporters of their team. A bit like the Rolling Stones the rivalry was big in the 60's had a revival in the 80's but has had it's day now. They are no longer fit to be our rivals. We are a far bigger club than them, the success they achieved was by cheating, and the chances of us playing them very often again after this season are remote. Some people want to build it up to be this biggest rivalry in football thing but it isn't. It's time we set our sights a lot higher than worrying about that lot.

So do I but I don't want to hear about them for 90 minutes when I'm watching Saints

As someone who is only interested in one team and couldn't care less about them and doesn't want to hear about them except when we are playing them I sometimes get the impression that some so called fans are more interested in their demise than us getting promoted. When on another thread on the matter people are asking who is David Bull, I just wonder what motivates them to call themselves Saints fans?

Very true, I can't think of any that have been in the job any length of time that have not lost 2 matches in a row at some stage which seems to be the critera by which many judge that a manger has lost his grip. Judge a manager at the end of the season by where you expected to be at the start and where you actually end up.

Seeing as what happens in the first half of the season is largly irrelevant, the real business only starts in January and given that at the moment we cannot win away even at poor teams like P*mpey, Doncaster, and Bristol City, and given that is unlikely that even we will be able to maintain the superb home form we have shown so far I would take the play off place that most of us would have bitten your hand off for at the start of the season.

However good or bad you think Bart is that was not the real Bart on Saturday. He's not the worst goalkeeper we've ever had and he's not some untried 18 year old, and yet I can't remember seeing a worse performance by a Saints keeper. Footballers are human beings (believe it or not) and it may have been that the length of time since he has played a league game made him nervous or he may have had some other problem. Whatever it was Nigel needs to get to the bottom of it because we may have no alternative but to play him again. In January I would send him out on loan to play some matches and see how he does and get in an experienced number 2 for Kelvin.

As the Echo thinks it's a 3pm kick (page 69) I don't suppose their reporter will be there for one. A few other people might miss it as a result as well.

It appears that some people are quite worried about travelling on a bus and are quite frightened that they will be seperated from their friends. Presumably they have never travelled on a bus before and do not know what to do. Let me reasure you that the journey to Skatesville is quite short, about half an hour and most of it is on a fairly straight motorway so there is not really time to get travel sick but please take a plastic bag just in case if you are prone that way. It is normal procedure to sit down in the seat allocated to you, these are usually quite comfortable, standing is not permitted. Please resist the temptation to throw things especially food at other passengers as this can make the driver quite angry. Those of you with a weak bladder should go before you depart in case of any delays. I expect you will be quite excited on the day and not just about the bus trip and will want to sing some jolly songs. This is permissible provided you do not disturb the other passengers and the driver, mind your language. So just sit back,relax and enjoy the view from your window ( ok forget that bit when entering Skatesville) and have a very pleasant day.

It was not a happy occasion when Bob Wilson broke Hughie Fisher's leg. Cliff Huxford once broke a skate player's leg and it was only a testimonial. Those are the 2 worst at the Dell

Echo says Ian Evatt

Over the years we have been compared with many clubs who in the short term appeared to be doing better than us. This was especially true during that long period when we were in the Premier league. More often than not in a year or two that club was relegated and we were still in the top flight. Where will Norwich be compared to us in three years time? If it takes us a couple of years or so to build up to the Premier league and stay there with the right signings surely that is better than going up for a year and then sinking without trace.

I've got my tickets for the Nuffield

I liked it. It was nearly always wrong but so what, so are the people at games who think they are in the know. It's part of football I wouldn't advise reading all of it just the last day. It wasn't particularly informative but it was entertaining.

Really, If it's a choice between paying the heating bill or watching Wigan, football may not be the priority it once was.

Ok a slight exageration but I can forsee crowds of well under 20k for some of the lesser teams if costs are too high. Not what we used to get in the prem.

Let's hope we keep winning long enough to get there then. Still it's a bit depressing that we will all be watching the matches on Sky by then, St Mary's will be mostly empty but at least the corporate areas will be full.

The policy seems to be less hardcore fans but paying more. It might work for a while as long as we keep winning and floating fans come but bills are going up and wages are not so don't be surprised if there isn't much loyalty from supporters if we have a bad run.

Is it? Even in football there has to be a tipping point where bad customer relations have an influence even if the team is doing well. It might start with people not arsed to go to the preseason friendlies or the early league cup games, less likely to buy a shirt or a programme but it will in the end have an effect.

When you increase the prices for some of your most loyal and long serving customers by 70% and just put it in the small print and don't offer any explanation or express any regret that you have had to do this then it's not very good marketing is it?