JRM

FA Youth Cup 3rd round tonight at St Marys v Birmingham City, £3 adults , £1 concessions . 7pm kick off. Well worth going along for those of you interested in seeing the current batch of academy players. Good to get a few fans down there to support the lads.

Exeter v Klopp will be televised 100000000000%, not sure how they can justify Man Utd v Sheff Utd - that would only work if United were away. if the game is priced sensibly (like it was last year - SOLD OUT) and the league cup and European home games were this year (even Villa at home was Sold out) then i think we'll have a big crowd, it will impact attendances in other games though, not many fans after Christmas will want to pay out for Saints v Palace 9th Jan, Saints v Watford - 13th Jan and Saints v West Brom 16th Jan! what a week of top class football @ Stadio Santa Maria.

Would be good to avoid any other Premier League or Championship clubs. If not Skates or Eastleigh I reckon Oxford would be a decent draw. Hopefully avoid Norwich away as we're going there the week before

Very much enjoyed Liverpool's defeat today, shuts up plenty of the 1980s glory hunting relics that many of us have the unfortunate requirement to work with. They've been out in force in recent weeks , I work in Surrey a lot and one particular gobshlte kopite has been telling anyone who will listen that Klopp will lead them to glory this season. It's also good to show up reactionary dlckheads like Batman above. This season is proving to be very unpredictable, plenty more twists to come , I still think Man City will be win, good luck to Leicester (must admit I'm a bit jealous of them)

Waaah waaah waaah. Someone pass this chap some tissues. It was not "awful" to watch, we created several excellent chances and completely dominated the game, the finishing let us down today. Disappointing result especially when you look at how tight the table is, but the fans need to do their bit as well, I was in Kingsland block 33 today, some people around there must live very unhappy lives and most of the vocal fans in that area are miserable as anything, with the occasional shout of "get it FORWARD" thrown in, it's as if they were getting flashbacks from when they watched us in the late 50s. I predicted a 1-1 draw today on the build up thread, going for a 2-1 win at Palace.

They were talking about our game on 5Live yesterday and one of the pundits mentioned how different things could have been if Villa had held on having gone 2-0 up away to Leicester earlier in the season, plus their 0-0 draw with Man City , I am going for a 1-1 draw today

F&ck off

I noticed an advert while reading yesterdays ECHO that Coliseum coaches are offering an excellent deal for travel to these matches as well so for those fans who like to go by coach it could be worth looking into (i'll be going by train personally but that is due to alcohol consumption requirements) West Ham away - £13 adults and £8 Children. Norwich £20 adults (not sure how much children were) pick ups at St Marys, Eastleigh, Winchester and Fleet. - http://www.coliseumcoaches.co.uk/Tours/Away-Travel and before anyone says it i don't work for them, just thought it looked like a good deal and would be good to see us sell out both these away games.

i'm prepared to bet they would want Mane, Bertrand, Van Dyke , plus the fact they have purchased four players from us in the last couple of years they are not Real Madrid, we should stop building them up as such. Looked poor yesterday against Swansea. we should be approaching this game a one we can win and give it everything. Just 150 tickets left now should be a cracking atmosphere.

He always seems to play well against us so that will be a shame. Liverpool home game was a low point last season, having those clear penalties turned down by Kevin Friend, seeing us lose against w&nker ex-players but most of all having a load of spanners in front of me decked out in half and half scarves ffs :xx

I'm pleased if they've lifted the restrictions of needing to buy correct adult / child ratio as it was a joke the rest of the stadium practically sold out for the past week yet nearly 1000 remained in the family area. They need to look at that for cup games as it seems to me when they do cheaper pricing all around the ground (therefore removing the cheaper price incentive to sit in the family area) people choose to sit elsewhere which implies it is price rather than having a safe family friendly area to sit which drives fans to buy in that area for league games. Hopefully having families spread around the ground won't impact the atmosphere too much , I think it did for the villa game.

Hope you're not bothering to go with that attitude. Put your money where your mouth is and wack a load of cash on Liverpool -1 handicap the odds look good for it at the moment. It will undoubtedly be a tough game and I can see it going to extra time / pens, hopefully the fact that they have played so many games recently will help us if it does. The crowd have got to be up for this and show how much we want it, this is our first home league cup 1/4 final since 1997, kids should be dreaming of what could be, trips to Wembley , potentially potential silverware. Let's really go for it and for once have a great atmosphere at St Marys like we used to have for cup nights at the Dell. I think Koeman will play our strongest team and we'll sneak it.

It is very good news, I think quite a few were planning to do West Ham anyway for one final visit to The Boleyn ground before it joins the list of old grounds that have gone. I think we'll sell 3000 there no problem, it's Christmas and a lot will have the next day off. Worth noting it is a 5.30pm kick off, with Bournemouth playing at Arsenal at the same time also taking 3000 so trains going up and back will be interesting if they decide to keep on with their quest of starting a rivalry and calling us Scummers at every opportunity. Might be harder to shift the Norwich tickets being that bit further to travel, recommended train route going up us via Cambridge and changing there due to engineering work on the normal line. Another factor to consider is the unknown cup games the following week as the league cup semi final 1st leg will be 5/6th Jan and FA Cup 3rd round 9th Jan. (Obviously only an issue if we beat Liverpool but that's lots of games to buy tickets for on the build up to Christmas so excellent choice by Saints to reduce ticket prices for West Ham and Norwich.

i think you are being deliberately awkward here, i've attended midweek games for a few seasons with a laptop bag, i work from different site and at home so can't leave my laptop at work, it was fine to take it in last month for Villa cup game so seems strange to me to suddenly not allow them.

Agreed, i had my laptop bag on me for the Villa at home cup game having come straight from work which gave me no other choice, they certainly were not banned then as i opened the bag and they said it was fine.

Agree that this might actually be a good game for Pelle to be out for, as he's been a regular for Italy as well a break will do him good and I think we could do with a change of tactics for this game. I expect a 2-0 defeat but you never know. Our away record this season is excellent unbeaten in the league and City have to play a tricky tie away to Juve before us.

Just in the family area, to be fair the Northam and Itchen North sold out quickly for this which I hope reflects the appetite of fans to get involved and get the place rocking. I want to be going into the new year saving my Christmas money to buy up all of the Capital One Cup final special merchandise when we make it to Wembley

I just hope everyone is well up for our next home game, if we can't get a good atmosphere going at home to Liverpool in the 1/4 final of the cup under the lights we might as well give up.

was that the one for Junior Saints after things were thrown at Beckham at the Man United home game in the lower East? and in the following game there was a police camera directed at the Junior Saints blocks from the corner of the Milton where the programme sellers used to stand:mcinnes: These sort of notices make me laugh, they can use it to produce to the FA that they have addressed any issues that have been raised by them and that was probably required to avoid a fine. The smoke bomb from block 4 is a funny one, the whole of block 4 is sat down and quite sedate so i'd have thought it would be easy for them to spot that if it did come from there. Those of you who hope they catch people with them really should go to some games on the continent to see how widely used they are there, not that i am a fan of them myself particularly but anything that helps get the atmosphere going in the sterile world of Premier League football 2015 is a positive.

i'm with you on this Steve, completely unnecessary in my opinion and a good reason to spend an extra 10 mins in the pub pre-match on Saturday.

two have just come available in block 7 Itchen Centre now if you are quick, or buy the Saints Bar option and sit in the padded seats Itchen centre. loads of family centre tickets left, low take up by season ticket holders there , and with the price the same all over the ground i am sure many have opted to sit elsewhere, the problem that presents is you can only buy in the family area when getting kids tickets as well and being a midweek game there isn't such high interest.

I can see this one being a draw as well, Stoke do not score or concede many and will come with the intention of making it difficult for us. Fingers crossed Van Dyke is fit for the game, don't want us to make many changes, hopefully Wanyama and Mane return from Africa promptly and are raring to go. anyone know if many of the Stoke first XI were involved in international games this week?

It's a good point, ISIS would struggle to get a ticket for a Cat A game with purchase history restrictions so would be far more likely to target a game like Stoke at home that goes to general sale

Completely agree with this. Plus I've taken a couple of neutral mates along to games and when needed I've borrowed customer numbers off friends / family which I'm sure is the case for most other Saints fans. Massive game this I can't wait for it, when we're we last at home in 1/4 of league cup? Stockport replay of 97? Oldham 1990 and the heartbreak of Andy Richie 94th min equaliser?

Still on general sale , 43 remaining the the middle tier. Justifies the clubs decision to take the smaller allocation of 1,493 tickets as they've been on open general sale for two days now and not sold out.