SoccerMom

Wow - never expected to learn THAT on a football forum. Thanks for the tip - a bit late to get some now, but will be useful in future.

That has to be the bottom line, really. Tomorrow the nipper is involved in this tournament at SMS, and he is so excited he says he won't be able to sleep tonight. Like many kids there, I'm sure, he will be chuffed to bits to run out from the tunnel and to play on the pitch. He really, really doesn't care if Saints are in L1, he just wants his team to go on playing football. And I just want all of this to be over so we can get on with supporting our club!

Trousers' picture on the other thread is good, then. The mounties always get their man....

Nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! x 2

A barrister who once represented me said that any good barrister could drive a coach and horses through most confidentiality clauses if necessary, but that there were often good reasons on both sides for confidentiality not to be broken. Still, could be interesting to hear a different side to many a story....

Hmm, not sure about your last, but... I blame the ref for not containing the violence on the pitch - and I may have not been very clear about it, but what I hoped I got across was that because there was such a lot of aggro between the players, I expected there would be trouble afterwards. I don't blame him for the actions of others, but had he been more competent I might have had more confidence in staying on a bit longer. Just as well for us, I guess, that I didn't. It wasn't clear to us sitting in the family area that there was already trouble brewing. Refs making bad decisions are one thing - from grass roots up to the highest levels there are refs who get decisions the wrong way, but I think it's actually worse for refs to just turn a blind eye to violent conduct on or off the ball. The man was a coward - his actions at the end of the match just confirm that for me. And you can't be a coward and be a good referee, for all sorts of reasons.

Like I said, I didn't see any of the trouble in the stands as we left a little early. But in my (long, pre-nipper, pre-PL) experience, fans get even more wound up when they see players knocking seven shades of s**t out of each other, and they are more likely to want to get stuck in after the match. There were serious handbags off the ball between Wotton and Carlisle(? - couldn't see that clearly), and there was a lot of pushing, shoving and slapping going on before the set-pieces. The ref bottled that at well. And when you get that level of aggro on the pitch that is completely uncontrolled, you generally get trouble after the game.

He was wrong. We didn't see the incident as I decided we should leave a bit early in case there was any trouble that I didn't want the nipper to witness. However, the ref did not have a good steady game - I would not have expected trouble had it been - but it was inevitable given the level of aggro on the pitch and his complete inability to deal with it.

I guess he was just being politic - but it would seem an obvious comparison (rather than Hereford, say). If Norwich do go down with us and Charlton, that would be three sides very recently in the Prem who have fallen on hard times both in financial and sporting terms who desperately need to keep hold of the fanbase to have any chance of revitalising.

Funny how he avoids mentioning Saints in all of that... But how true for all of us! Tell you who my heart breaks for, it's all the second-generation Saints fans out there who may not live in the area. My nipper can still wear his Saints strip without too much fear of mockery and reprisal, but one of his mates is living north of London and is about to give up the fight (according to his New Forest-born Dad). He gets too much stick from the Arsenal fans... But happily in the nipper's class it's the other way around - the Southampton-born Manure-shirt-sporting kids are dealt with with the contempt they deserve...

And sing "Diamonds in the lobes of their ears"....

Clearly I'm not getting enough sleep these days - I read this as "Any worthwhile business person would always have a full-back position." Sigh - well, maybe if Rupert had, we wouldn't be in this mess...

Yeah, get well soon, Paul. Have doubted him from time to time, but he's clearly got affection for the club, and we will need his sort even more next year - been there, done that, keep your head up attitude.

You prefer the homosocial environment, then?

Ah, well, maybe you're right - not always easy to tell distances from the corner. I just remember thinking, "Prat!" then "Hold on, why is he over there, anyway?" We should be so lucky that they should show our pratfalls on the Championship, anyway.

:D:D:D Kudos to you, mate! Sleep well...

What intelligence allowed smoke bombs into the stadium?????

Halfway line? Don't think so - and as I said on another thread, he was actually left of the goalmouth, and was covering Surman's behind. Anyway, KD was a hero today, as always, pulled off some amazing saves - hope they go up on youtube because they were worth seeing over and over again. What a bloke. STAY, please.

Did I see right, and did Size and Perry have a bit of a disagreement after a scare that saw the ball off for a goal kick in the end? Either they were doing some manly back-slapping, or Size was taking his temper out on the little guy. Anyway, don't think it was exactly James's mistake that nearly cost us a goal - ok, so he missed the ball and ended up on his ar*e but he was to the left of the goalmouth. Where the ? was Surman??? The ref was annoying, but in the end he could have sent SO many players off for the handbags on pitch - at least he had the sense not to do that. Gillett - what a hero. I didn't know he was even playing in the reserves yet. Was he? And why, oh why, oh why, wasn't Lee Holmes played??? If he had been on the pitch, I doubt Surman would have spent so much time out of position. Oh, well, maybe not. The nipper said to me after Forest at home, "We will still go when we're in League One, won't we, mum?" He's already over it, and praying that KD stays.

Whatever - I'm glad I got the nipper away before it all kicked off. Non-event or not, you can't help thinking that the FL are just looking for more to clobber us with - just to make an example of us, like they did Luton. But pride comes before a fall - wonder what skeletons the FL have lurking in their cupboards?

Yes, but they did ditch Holloway, and then brought in Pearson - so you can't say that no one took the blame. What makes us 'special', IMHO, is that we've had to put up with things happening at the club that are blatantly wrong to even those of us who can't claim vast knowledge of how football, as an industry if not a game, works. Bizarre experiments at critical times - which might have been 'brilliant' but which most thought were completely foolhardy; vast sums of money being spent on peripheral stuff and unnecessary tiers of business management; and all the while the fundamentals of keeping a squad well-trained and well-managed going begging. It seemed everyone and his dog knew that we were headed for disaster and also knew the reasons why, but since those at the top were inextricably linked with those reasons, there was nothing that could be done about it. We've been spectators at a slow-motion train wreck. And I tend to think that the majority in the football community rather pities us Saints fans, as it realises how bewildering it all has been. And FWIW, I think that most of us know that the squad was perfectly good enough not to go down - to a man, we've seen individual brilliant performances from all of them. Even Schneiderlin, who looked on the money when he first came pre-season, and Lallana, who I saw gift Saga a dozen sitters in the last reserves game last season (not one of which he converted, ahem). But what undoubted talent they have is useless in a demoralised, poorly prepared and poorly managed side.

we would.

Like he was on piecework? I've met traffic wardens like that...

Sad days

I'd go for song titles, me: Saint Too Proud to Beg It Saint Over Til It's Over Saint Misbehavin' Say it Saint So Saint No Sunshine And my personal favourite (though this is borrowed from friends who are fellow long-suffering supporters of the New Orleans Saints) Oh When the Ain'ts go Marchin' In (because they ain't got no points, and they ain't very good at playing football)