kwsaint

Noticed the following on the BBC Hampshire website. Northam Rail Bridge replacement It also mentions that the footbridge from Northam Road down to SMS would be replaced. This is long overdue as the current footbridge is completely inadequate and a bottleneck after games. My guess is that this is all dependent on the council getting the necessary government funding. Thoughts?

It's all very well saying that it's up to the constituents to make a decision, but many of us treat general elections as an opinion poll on the main parties, rather than consider the individual candidates. We had that nice Gerry Malone as MP in Winchester for five years in the nineties. He rarely made an appearance in the constituency and continued to live in London with his family. He didn't even vote in Winchester in 1997, choosing to make a postal vote in Aberdeen. He lost by 2 votes in the General Election, but lost by over 21,000 in the subsequent by-election. Which was when he really found out what we thought of him. The vast majority of MPs do try to serve their constituents as best they can. And having second jobs can be very useful, either for keeping skills current (eg medical skills) or for supporting legislation. But there does need to be a better way of managing this (Independent panel?) so that MPs are not neglecting their primary purpose. And to leave it to constituents is simply not enough. The other issue to address is MP's pay. They do need to be paid more. I know that the current backbench MP's salary is healthy, but it is not enough to attract the really able. Many can get much more in the private sector. In my view, I would rather pay them considerably more, and put much tighter controls on secondary incomes. Maybe that way we would get a better calibre of MPs who are actually focused on the job in hand

Emery will walk in and assess the Newcastle squad and say- 'Ooh, you are awful...but I like you!'. Not mine sadly. Copied from the comments section of the BBC article. Made me smile, although I guess that you must be of a certain age to appreciate it.

Saints v Middlesbrough - October 2011. Came up on YouTube a few days ago and realised that it was 10 years ago. Makes you wonder where the years go. One of the most enjoyable games of the Championship promotion season. The third goal was brilliant - 28 passes. Brought back some good memories. Link below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLGo5-p0J1A

Call me old-fashioned, but I really like the band playing 'O when the Saints' before the game and getting the crowd going. Makes a nice change for the team to come out to 'our' song. They seemed to manage to sort out their timing on Saturday and stopped it sounding like a funeral march Your thoughts?

Started watching in the early seventies. So for me: Shilton Van Dijk, Wright, Bridge, Golac Paine, Le Tissier, Ball, Williams Channon, Keegan

Did they play in 1945? I thought it was cancelled because of the war.

Looks like this could happen relatively soon? Government plans to lift football standing ban https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58357046

Niemi or Shilton. Would gladly have either back We need an organiser, so either Ball or Paine for me. As an alternative I would love to see the Ale House gang play today, if only to see how long they would stay on the pitch for. So maybe John McGrath and Brian O'Neill

We finished 2017/18 fourth from bottom and only just survived in the premier league. We had blown the VVD money on poor players and were in a complete mess. Three years later we have got rid of most of the deadwood and are still in the PL somehow. We have a manager committed to the club and some promising young players. Not always convinced that RH gets his tactics right, but at least all the players are playing for him. I think that we will be bottom 6 again this season but hopefully have enough to survive - especially as I think that all the teams coming up will struggle and Palace are in a shocking state. Which is a position that three years ago at the point that Hughes took over I would have gladly taken.

To be fair, the King Power expansion does look stunning. Maybe they can return the favour and give us the plans so that we can expand the Kingsland. If they did that to the Kingsland then the views from the top tier over Southampton Water and the Isle of Wight would be good. https://www.givemesport.com/1621191-leicester-city-leaked-images-of-clubs-king-power-stadium-expansion-look-stunning

Don't think that the government is mandating everyone to have the vaccination. It's just that not having the vaccine has consequences for individuals that choose this option. So anyone working in a care home either has the vaccine or doesnt work there, as the consequences of passing the virus on to old people can be fatal if for any reason they havent had it either. It's perfectly reasonable for a responsible government to make this decision. If the evidence was clear that making everyone attend games be double-jabbed would greatly cut down transmission, then a sensible government would make it a condition of entry. The problem is that it really isnt clear if it would work. This present government tends to float ideas to see what the reaction would be, rather than act in a more structured way which just causes confusion and irritation.

The discriminatory argument is irrelevant. I have been to East Africa and had to produce a Yellow fever vaccination certificate to travel. The freedoms of the individual get trumped by the decision of democratically elected governments to make decisions in the best interests of the population as a whole. There is no such thing as absolute freedom without consequence and those who claim that it is an infringement of their human rights clearly dont understand how human rights work. It's really a matter of whether insisting on vaccine passports will actually work, both from a health perspective and also practically. You can still be a carrier having had the double vaccine, although likely to get it more mildly and inflict a lesser viral load on others. Plus as has been mentioned, lots of under 18s won't have been jabbed. So there is bound to be some transmission at mass gatherings of people. It's just a balancing act of trying to reduce risk. My personal view is that clubs should close all concessions and get people to move through the concourse area as quickly as possible as that is where the highest risk of transmission is. Not sure that insisting that everyone is double jabbed will make that much difference at outside sporting events, although for indoor events and night clubs it would probably make sense.

Would feel OK in the stands, but the close confines of the concourse would be a concern. More than likely would put a mask on going in to the stadium, get through the concourse as quickly as possible (no pre-match cup of tea) and then take it off once in a seat. Not being an SNP fan, but Nicola Sturgeon has judged the situation much better than Boris and his chums (again). My personal view would be to open stadiums to full capacity, but keep concessions in the stadium closed to keep concourse clear - and to make mask wearing compulsory going in and then removed in the stands (which is what I plan to do). It's having lots of people in a confined indoor space that is the problem. Outside is fine as you get such a low viral load even if you come into contact with someone with Covid. Doubtless some would disagree with the above

Moyes nearly came to Saints in the early 2000's from Preston. Sticking point was that he wanted to bring his own backroom staff, Rupert Lowe wanted to keep the existing staff. He ended up having a good stint at Everton. I seem to remember RLs decision to promote from within working out really well in 2004/2005. Next season won't be pretty. There is a big gulf between the top half and the bottom half. We are firmly in the bottom half. It all depends on how the transfer window goes in my view. Hang on to Ings, and bring in a couple of reinforcements, then we may well be just about OK. Poor window, lose Ings, and we are in trouble.

Winchester City

Tough watch, but essential viewing. The abuse that Higgins, Bennell and others inflicted stays with these guys for life, but these people never think of the effect that their actions have on the victims. Child safeguarding is much better than it was 30+ years ago, but this stuff still happens and we all need to keep our eyes open. Sadly it hasnt gone away. (JustinSFC - Watch the first 10 mins of either of the first two programmes and then come back and tell us if you still think the same)

West Ham in 1980

Thanks for posting the links. I was about to start a thread on the same topic. The problem was widespread across football, and I suspect to a much lesser extent still is. Fully agree with the Kraken that this needs a wide audience, even though it is going to make for unpleasant viewing. The damage done to the victims lasts the rest of their life. (Mods - can we please bump this thread to the main forum?)

What we are all forgetting is that Saints are a very young side. Had to look these up: KWP (23), Tella (21), Bednarek (24), Dialla (21), Adams (24). Minamino and JWP are 26. Salisu didnt play yesterday but is also 21. The approach has been to replace the deadwood by either progressing academy players or bringing in good young players from abroad or UK - because that is all that we can afford to do. We all know that we need to get cover at full back in the summer, but hopefully the players that we have will continue to develop. This season has been very up and down, but I think that we will continue to progress next season. But I think that we need to keep RH to do this.

Go on YouTube. You should find some ideas there. Agree with FFF - do it properly and don't rush it or bodge it. The previous owner of our house had built his own extension and we had to sort a number of things out where he hadn't done them properly - a builder friend of mine did check it out before we bought the house so we knew about them. Main issue will be making sure that it doesn't leak from where it is attached to the side of the house.

Are you thinking of when we beat Brighton 3-0 in the 2011/12 Championship season? Peter Walton was the ref for that game and was shockingly bad. We got two penalties - one was outside the box (Fonte) and the other was when Lambert went down when hardly touched. But he missed two stonewall penalties - both for assaults on Lambert from crosses. Brighton were a horrible Gus Poyet team at the time so didn't deserve much sympathy. In the return game they again targeted RL and contrived to get him sent off.

We surely have to stick with Ralph. When he arrived we had blown the VVD money on a random set of misfits (Lemina, Elyanoussi, Hoedt, Carillo), had no money to spend on new players, and had to get rid of a number of players to trim the wage bill. We could easily have gone down and run into all sorts of problems. We are still in the Premier League, and on our day able to give the top teams a run for their money. We can see what he is trying to do, and can also see his frustration. There are clearly issues around having a Plan B, and what to do when we are behind and teams have shut up shop. And we do need an old head on the pitch - what we could do with an Alan Ball or Jimmy Case now. But this is a really odd season. No proper pre-season, and the games are coming thick and fast. Players look jaded. And it's not just us, Liverpool have exactly the same problem. Think that we just have to see the season through - we won't go down - and build again next season. Just have to be patient.

Think we have short memories. Even with the two 9-0s the current situation is preferable to the dire football served up by Puel's last few games, Pellegrino and Hughes. Get some of the injured back and things will start to look brighter. It's just going to be tough for the next few weeks

My first thought when I saw the tackle was that it reminded me of Oscar Gobern at Bournemouth in 2011. No malicious intent, just complete disconnect between brain and foot