Lord Duckhunter

Goalkeeper is the one position that you can get away with not being 100% match fit for. I expect Boruc to start at Everton and be our number 1. He was training with Everton and expected to sign a deal with them, until we managed to beat them to a deal. Surely being installed as number 1 will have tipped the balance in favour of signing for us, as he wasn't going to dislodge Tim Howard. gazza did ok, but hardly had a thing to do, and if you wanted to be really critical you could look at him for their goal. Goodison is no place to continue with this experiment and risk a Bart like Blackpool performance, it could set him back. I would go Boruc number 1, Kelvin number 2 and loan out Gazza to a Championship side if possible.

I found the doormen at the Alfred a bit strange as well, maybe it was under police orders but no common sense at all. After the game I go in there for one with my 13 year old. Both of us had Saints shirts on and yet the doormen wanted to see our tickets to prove we were home supporters. I'm sure a middle aged Villa supporter is going to come down, change into a Saints shirt from 2 years ago, get his nipper to change into this seasons Saints shirt, just to kick off in the pub afterwards. To top it all the Saints ale in there is shiete as well.

I once heard Ray Wilkins on Sky talking about this subject in relation to Bridge and Cole when England were weak on the left of midfield. He said left mid is a completely different postion and needs completely different skill sets and awareness to play there. Said that it's easier for a full back to switch sides, than to push up to midfield.

I maybe a sad old git but I do think that Clyne was a **** for jumping in the crowd. If he'd picked upa second yellow for a mistimed tackle with 10 mins to go, I'm sure a few more would start to agree. Lawro is a plum, but I thought Redknapp was ok, good praise for Nigel and "they'll do well to keep him long term" should be noted by NC.

And NC has been judging Nigel since he set foot in the door. I dont believe Sharp or Hammond were good enough and fully support ditching them. My point is that maybe NC feels the same about Nigel. Nigel is paid to make judgement calls like that and NC is also in a position that requires him to do the same. I'm not saying he should get rid of NA, merely pointing out that if he does he's just making a judgement call on NA ability in the top flight. Nigel didn't give Deano or Billy Sharpe 12 games to prove themselves he went with his gut feeling and from what he's seen in the past. NC will be doing the same.

I really do wonder at some of our posters and their grip on reality. They seem to package up opinion as fact. Benitez is in a different league than Nigel Adkins. I hope Nigel grows the club and is with us in 10 years time, but come his retirement from the game, if he's achieved half of what Benitez has he'll be the most sucsessful English manager for a generation. I can understand people saying Benitez is not for us my , but you cant knock what he's a achieved in the game. If NC is looking to replace Nigel, then the players will be impressed if a man with Benitez's CV walks through the door to replace him. For those saying it's unfair to judge NA on 4 games. 4 games is a lot more than Nigel judged Deano and Billy Sharp on. Football is ruthless..........

Adkins decided Deano and Billy Sharpe aren't good enough for the Premiership, perhaps NC feels the same about him. I think Nigel has done a fantastic job and would love to see him stay and carry it on. BUT, I feel we have more chance of staying up under Benitez. That's not to say I'm sure Nigel will take us down. At the end of the day staying up is the be all and end all.

The difference between what Neville said about us and Reading was vast. He said that our defensive shape was pretty good and had a bit of praise, whereas basically said Reading were a bit of a shambles. This suggest to me that Nigel does in fact know what he's doing, and sets us up right. It's just down to errors. Watching Neville last night highlighted how much these people know, compared to some of the "experts" we have on here. Most posters critical of our play always seem to exclude Clyne from critisism of the back 4 and keeper. Yet Neville blamed him for 2 goals. I guess it's about opinions because Fat Sam on Goals on Sunday blamed Lallana for not closing down Artetta for the third goal and Yoshi for stepping up, whereas Neville blamed Fonte's starting position and the gap between the 2 centre halves. What they both agreed on was that our shape was right. If our shape "right", then Nigel must be doing something right and maybe he does know a bit more than some give him credit for.

As an employer I sit in front of candidates and their exam results are pretty meaningless to me. I dont really understand them (what the ****s an A*) and have no faith in them telling me anything about the candidate. I end up making decisisons based on a gut feeling, and also which school they attended. Maybe I'll miss out on a few decent people, but the Grammar School and another comprehensive which has a great name here, both jump out of the page at me. It can't be right. I should be able to look at all the candidates details and be able to pick out the brightest from their exam results. At the moment I dont trust the results to give me that information.

Add Swansea & WBA as well. They've made decent starts but they've got new managers and some shiete players.

How on earth anyone can make a judgement based solely on the second half Sat is beyond me. Arsenal were playing in third gear, the game was won. Lets see how he goes when the game is competitive.

Maybe I was in an unfortunate position but I did seem to be surround by complete tw @ts yesterday. I bloke a few rows down from me kept chanting "Tottenham, Tottenham" at their supports. Another group of spotty adolescents spent as much time watching their supporters as the game. One steward told one of them to watch the match and he responded like my 10 year old girl would, pointing at a Spurs fan and saying "he's not watching, tell him off as well". ****inh hell, I must be getting old, but they got on my tits. There was no originality in any of the banter, nothing funny, it didn't even wind the Arsenal fans up, it just made us look small time.

Dont like them but fat Sam and that Skate pretty much hit the nail on the head during "Goals on Sunday". fat Sam questioned whether we are going to keep enough clean sheets to stay up. Went through the first 3 goals and were spot on. First one, MS, W-P and S Davis were all challanging Podolski for the ball and he came away with it in yards of space. Said that Clyne was not aware of Gibb's run, that Fonte couldn't step out to challange him and was therefore pointing W-P to fill the gap in front of him. Ball "went through" Kelvin, and Jos couldn't do much about it. Second one, said Kelvin had the wrong starting position and should have got it. Third one, said Lallana didn't press the ball in midfield allowed too much time and space and then Yoshida stepped up, when he should have tracked the run. Fat Sam said even if you play well the top sides can hammer you.

Green is shocking, no better than Kelvin. Wright past it, as is Cudicini. Gordon was poor or injured the past couple of years. Gomes & Friedel, wgaes maybe an issue. Gomes is pretty in and out as well. Our Keeper problem should have been adressed last year, but we persisted with Bart as back up instead of getting Kelvin some real competition. To be fair to Adkins it's easy to be wise after the event. Kelvin was one of the top 2 or 3 in the division last season, Leeds anyone. It's been a bit of a shock just how poor he has been this season. With a decent back up that would not be so much of an issue.Kelvin deserved his shot, (and he's lucky Paolo di canio's not the manager, otherwise he'd have been subbed before half time yesterday), but he deserves to be dropped on his performances this season.

My Mum and Aunt could put better tackles in that the 2 Wigan defenders and then the Keeper did a Kelvin. It's a bit easier playing for Man Utd home to Wigan than playing for saints. let's see what he's like against the top players.

I thought the staidum looked nice, but was souless.Terrible I would put the first 3 goals down to Kelvin. First he was too weak letting it sort of get through his body before Jos banged it in. Second free kick, it wasn't put in the corner, he should have reached it, and the third, like the Tevez one he went too early to cover his far post and left the near post exposed. Shocking goalkeeping. To give Arsenal a 3 goal start is just criminal. Midfield, didn't put their foot in or close people down, particulary out wide. Lallana and Lambert were poor. We knocked it around a bit at 4-1, but it's easy to play when the opposition are playing at 50%. At 4-1, had lambert buried that chance maybe they would have got a bit jittery, but it was men against boys. I thought Fonte did OK, best game this season funny enough. Some good blocks and well timed tackles. Jay Rod , looked lively and held the ball up quite well on a couple of occasions. All in all , we got what we deserved.

Has this been posted yet, cant be arsed to trawl back through pages. But, what a load of nonsense. Brian Howard believes Pompey need to adopt a ‘big-club mentality’ if they are to succeed at Fratton Park this season. “Not many will have seen it, but down in the tunnel after the Oldham game their lads were celebrating as if they had just won the FA Cup. “Sheffield United would probably also make the claim, but I believe Pompey are the biggest club in this league. “We have to get used to the fact that the mentality of most sides will be that coming to Fratton Park is their cup final. They will pull out all the stops to win. http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/LatestNews/news/Howard-We-re-A-Scalp-3695.aspx

If this is going to get political then people need to have a look at the actions of Jack Straw. An investigation looked at it in 1997 and he failed to act. I dont recall any Labour politican hounding Thatcher or Major over this and to his credit Milliband has not made party political points, like some on here.It was the families and the people of Liverpool alone who exposed this, politicans of all persuasions were just not bothered enough (Andy Burnham and a few others apart). The culture of 1989, particulary with the Torys, but the whole establishment of the time, including Labour figures, was the Football fans were hooligans. Football was not the happy clappy sport it is now.

What truely depresses me is that this could have been any number of clubs supporters, including ours. Yet people still seem to want to blame Scousers. Maybe it's a hangover from Heysel, when they were to blame, maybe it's stupid Harry Enfield stereotype's, I dont know. ****ing hell, these were normal, everyday people the same as supporters from all over the Country.Had a load of teenage girls died at a crush at a Wham concert in '89 I'm ****ing damn sure it would have been investigated correctly and people charged. I defy anyone to read Trevor Hicks story and how he lost his 2 girls and not be moved to tears. I just hope that it is trolling on here and that we dont have supporters who really beliveve the nonsense they post. What happened to the 96 was a tragedy,and the cover up was a national disgrace. Lets just hope that people are now called to account and the families may get a tiny bit of peace.

Talking of drink driving, I play 5 a side with a copper. He said that they are now targetting people who drive in the morning after a night out. When he's on the early shift he has to drive round noting cars left in pub car parks. If someone comes and picks the car up before about 10pm, they make an excuse to pull them over and give them a breath test.He works for Dorset police, but I'm sure Hants will be the same.

I find it unbelievable and really sad that despite The Taylor report and "new" facts coming to light since, people on here are still peddling nonsense and lies. The Taylor report said that ticketless fans played no part in this and that there were no more ticketless fans than at any other similar game. The issue was that the pens in the middle were not shut off , therefore you had too many in those pens and not enough in the ones to the side.There was a programme on ITV Monday night where witness' said the year before the central pens were blocked off once they filled up, the next year this didn't happen. Taylor also concluded that drink played no part in this, so can we stop with this nonsense once and for all and debate the facts. I cant help feeling that people's judgement is clouded by the fact the victims were scousers. It could easily been our supporters at any semi final pre Taylor.There were Southampton supporters who didn't have tickets, there were Southampton supporters who had a drink and there were Southampton supporters who rushed from the pub at the last minute. Football supporters must take some of the blame, it was their behavour over the years which resulted in the pens. But the police must take 99% of the blame.There was no valid safety certificate for the stadium (hardly H&S gone mad). On the ITV programme witness' said that the year before the police staggered the fans arriving at the game, by setting up check points to check tickets and control the movement of fans along the way to the ground. The KO should have been delayed and this relayed to the supporters outside, there would have been no need to open the exit gate, which coupled with not closing off the central pens, was the heart of the whole thing.. It's all well and good saying people shouldn't push, but come on. Semi Final of the cup kicked off, most of us would want to get in ASAP. We have then ended up with a horrific cover up as the establishment closed ranks and ignorant British people bought into it. Statements changed, lies leaked to the press and MP's, inquests not fulfilling their role. The saddest thing for me is not the behaviour of the establishment, I expect that from them. But the behaviour of a large number of football supporters, who still to this day buy into the lies, buy into the cover up. A nudge and a wink, "you know what Scousers are like" sort of attitude, implications that the families and wider community actually like being the victims here, that they enjoy the grief. Whereas they were just football supporters doing what you or I do every week.96 of them, over half of them under 25, went to a football match and never came home. Yet nobody has been held to account.

Connery will do anything to see Scotland become independant................................, apart from live there .

I dont get it. Particulary in Newcastle's case. They rest players and play a weakened team in the Europa League to save them for the Premiership, where they try and finish high enough to qualify for the Europa League.

Exactly. You must have an estimate from the original quote. I would make sure that you have that money put aside and if and when they send you a bill pay it. If they say "we forget to bill you, why didn't you remind us", just say "I forgot as well". What can they do about it. I wouldn't do it to a mate, but you've done nothing wrong. I'm sure if one of their suppliers forgot to bill them, they wouldn't ring up and prompt them.

We should play "Skate Bingo", tick off the words and phrases that'll come up regulary. Bound to be a few mentions of plucky Pompey, great fans, fighting against the odds, team put together in a few days, ect ect ect............