JRM

Basically they will sell out 3200 very easily and can therefore afford to have complex qualifying criteria, the significance of that to us is there are plenty of other Liverpool fans who won't get tickets and therefore might be tempted to buy in the Saints end (although they would need someone with a purchase history to buy the tickets) .

There are LOADS of tickets available for this, lots of normal season ticket holders didn't buy their normal seat during the priority period so there will be plenty available for anyone who is on the database when they go on sale to them on Thursday

a) it impacts the atmosphere, 5 mins to go roaring the team on to hold on / get back into the game and instead you spend half the time getting out the way of dlckheads moving along the row to get out. A few early leavers is fine and understandable, but not on the scale you see at St Marys. b) as above as people congregate on the stairs moving down slowly watching a bit more of the game on the way out. Reminds me of the sort of people who can't wait to rush to the boarding gate at airports . Saints are definitely one of the worst clubs for this, which is a shame as our home record has been so good for the last few years it would be nice for the fans to clap the players off at the end instead of rushing for the exit.

exactly what i was thinking. Fair play to him, i think that is a quality thing for a player to do. He genuinely seems to enjoy living here as well which is great to see.

So just to confirm, rather than the talk of stadium expansion we are actually witnessing a reduction! I wonder what our official capacity is now , and how much it has reduced since the stadium opening?

Despite this being a “winnerable” game on paper it remains one of the games I look forward to least in our fixture list. For whatever reason the Stadium of Light is one of those grounds where we seem incapable of getting a result no matter what run of form we are on. One of the worst away ends in my opinion stuck up in the upper tier behind the goal , charging us £34 this year with their fans in the corners either side of us just paying £25, they get away with it as technically a different stand. Stewards up there can be quite heavy handed as well. I would love to see them relegated this year. As others have managed to summarise above we have not won on any of our last 6 visits there, the most painful being the FA Cup 5th round exit in 13/14 season with that w&nker Poch in charge, we were comfortable in the league at that time, whereas Sunderland were entrenched in a relegation battle AND had the distraction of a League Cup Final coming up, yet somehow Saints managed to put out a weak team and a performance that reflected that. Terrible storms the night before made it a tough journey for many of our fans (rail lines closed with trees on the track) , people setting off at 5am for the lunchtime kick off. Disgraceful , but expected with it being Sunderland away. Last season’s game there was also a big disappointment as our run of away defeats at West Brom, Everton, Stoke, Sunderland, Leicester, Man City at the end of the season meant we dropped out of the automatic European spots. Would be nice to get a win this week to reward the travelling fans, push us on in the league and extend our unbeaten away record . I’d play; Stekelenburg Cedric Fonte Van Dyke Romeu Clasie S. Davis Tadic Mane Pelle

I was told by the ticket office a few weeks ago we currently have over 10k members, but this number included the junior saints. the Liverpool game will definitely make it to general sale so you can buy then assuming you've got a purchase history, might just be a lack of options left of where you can buy, most likely Chapel end.

I can't comment on the events above as didn't see those, but walking down to the ground 30 / 40 mins before kick off there were a couple of groups of Bournemouth doing as much as they could to provoke a reaction from Saints fans, many of whom were just quietly making their way down to the ground, a few Bournemouth even started giving it the "Play up Pompey" and "He's only a poor little scummer his face is all battered" song, if any of these were later caught up in trouble and were on the wrong end of it, then good fair play to any Saints fans who put them in their place.

edit i see what you mean now, drawing a big team in a semi final is a bad draw as you have to play at their ground in one leg.

your reference regarding a home game to offset it for a semi final is incorrect, the Semi finals are both midweek sandwiched in to the normal fixture calendar. in this case i think it will be a good time to play Liverpool, they have to play pretty much every midweek between now and then with trips to cold venues of Kazan and Sion to come. For Premier League teams the only other round that was two legs was the 2nd round , the 3rd, 4th and 5th have always been one leg to my knowledge. This year the Semi finals are spread out with the first leg on Jan 5th / 6th (a few days before FA Cup round 3) and the 2nd leg 26th / 27th January after Man Utd away before FA Cup 4th round.

from the BBC report - "Howe made six changes to the team that started Sunday's 5-1 home defeat by Spurs - and admitted only several injuries and the unavailability of loan players stopped him making more." AFC Bournemouth 23 Federici 15 Smith 02 Francis 25 Distin 11 Daniels 08 Arter (King - 71' ) 16 MacDonald Booked 19 Stanislas (Rantie - 82' ) 30 Ritchie 18 Kermorgant (Tomlin - 71' ) 07 Pugh Substitutes 03 Cook 09 Rantie 17 King 21 Allsop 24 Tomlin 32 O'Kane 38 Cargill just had a quick look on the ticket website, there about about 450 / 500 tickets left for this mostly towards the back of the Chapel stand. Reminds me of the Man United game which was also a Cat A sunday televised game on restricted sale to people who have purchased since start of 12/13 season, i am told that season ticket holders cannot buy extra seats, if that is the case it probably slows ticket sales. will be interesting to see if Boruc features for them on Sunday.

Just count yourself lucky you weren't at the 5-0 defeat in our championship relegation year, terrible performance and I remember Kelvin Davis losing it with some of our fans behind the goal. I'm pleased with last night's results but won't give them too much thought until we are actually through as well, I allowed myself to get carried away forward planning in the Europa league for us to go out anyway. There is definitely a 'northern' look to this competition now would expect the last 8 to be ; Sheffield Wednesday Hull Stoke Everton *Manchester United *Manchester City *Liverpool So there is a lot of responsibility on our shoulders to keep the southern flag flying. I'd play Stekelenburg Cedric Fonte Van Dyke Targett Romeu Clasie Ward-Prowse Ramirez Pelle Juanmi Bench - K. Davis, S. Davis, Yoshida, Tadic, Bertrand, Seager

Aston Villa have sold out their 3129 allocation , hats off to them for that, should be a good atmosphere.

There is hospitality seats still available for £30, top view, padded seats, well worth it if you missed out on a normal ticket.

I think Villa will play a 'strong' first XI as they are not playing next weekend, instead they have Spurs away on Monday night. Games looks close to a sell out now online.

Ticket categorisation is an odd thing, Palace are putting their tickets on sale for the game against us at Selhurst park on December 12th, once again we are a Cat A game there meaning £40 tickets for our fans, not sure how we fall into that category when they have all the London clubs, plus the North West big clubs. We always seem to be a Cat B at Spurs and a Cat C are Arsenal . The Bournemouth game will sell out i think, but only just

Having to work today and being a bit bored i had a quick look, Villa at home is virtually sold out with the exception of the family corner which still have loads of availability , which is odd as it is half terms and cheap tickets would have thought this is popular. No doubt many family area regulars just bought tickets elsewhere in the ground as no difference in price, but the problem with that is the only people who can get tickets in that corner now are those taking kids. Still availability on the Saints Bar hospitality which is only £30. Had a quick look on Villa's forum, one poster claims on 200 left of the 3,129 allocation , if thats true you'd expect them to shift the remainder before Wednesday night. will be great to have a 31k crowd for a league cup 4th round game. Bournemouth - looks like about 800 tickets left spread across the Chapel end but mostly in block 15. You'd expect those to go gradually over the next week , and Bournemouth had already sold out the full away allocation.

There are actually loads of good options for food and a beer within 20 mins walk of St Marys depending on what sort of thing you are looking for and where you will be arriving from that will help people give you advice. Ocean Village - few places to go , Maritmo lounge does nice burgers. Pitcher and Piano, or the Wetherspoons for cheaper food. Oxford Street - lots of choice for food, bit more expensive. Rockstone / Portswood area Town centre / Bedford Place, Tap Room do good burgers, a few above have given some suggestions as well.

Edit Spurs should say 0-0

They were talking about Liverpool's form on sky sports news last night , I hadn't realised how much their position was being proped up by winning their first two games, after that they've only won 1 game in their last 11 (counting Carlisle as a draw in 120 mins) . They certainly like a 1-1 draw! Form - WWDLLDDDWDDDD Stoke (A) 1-0 - W Bournemouth (H) 1-0 - W Arsenal (A) 0-0 - D West Ham (H) 0-3 - L Man Utd (A) 1-3 - L Bordeaux (A) 1-1 - D Norwich (H) 1-1 - D Carlisle (H) 1-1 (aet won on pens) Aston Villa (H) 3-2 - W FC Sion (H) 1-1 - D Everton (A) 1-1 - D Spurs (A) 1-1 - D Robin Kazan (H) 1-1 - D

I've started walking back towards the main road that leads to the city centre and usually there are loads of cabs waiting just don't hang about at the end. Have done bus before as well couple of years ago which only took about 15 mins but I was on one of the first ones.

Yeah no offence mate but you've already proven beyond reasonable doubt on here that you're a bl0ody mentalist who gets a kick out of posting the same joke about finishing 17th year in year out. I Would love us to win the cup , as would most of our fans, even at the expense of a few league points.

i agree with you entirely regarding the importance of the Villa game, would be great to get through the the 1/4 finals of the cup for the 2nd year running (and this time not lose to league one opposition ) . I do think we can beat Villa without a full strength starting XI, i don't think Villa will play all their usual side either.

Hopefully Big Ron keeps Classie on the bench while he builds up his fitness and gives him a run out against Villa in the Cup the following Wednesday, would make sense to me.

yes it is because it really is a "super" Sunday this week with live games Sunderland v Newcastle - 12.00 Manchester United v Manchester City - 14.05 Liverpool v Southampton - 16.15 i think we have done well selling out our allocation for this game including the severely restricted view ones, they should be half price to reflect the fact you'll see half the game, instead of just a couple of quid cheaper.