Kingsland Codger

I enjoyed the sentence towards the end ... "Harry Redknapp, who started the rot by guiding Southampton down from the Premier League four years ago ... " Good to see a footie journalist get something right

My point? I would have thought that was abundantly obvious; there is more to St George's Day than mere Englishness. What was your point?

If you explain to the PC Brigade you are celebrating the life of England's favourite Turk I'm sure they would be more tolerant.

Well said. At times like this one might consider the words of one of fiction's Great Philosophers ... It was a Very Windy Day, and Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet were walking in the Hundred Acre Wood. Piglet's ears streamed behind him like banners as he fought his way along. Being a rather anxious sort of animal, Piglet turned to Pooh and asked nervously, "Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?" After careful thought, Pooh, being somewhat wiser and less anxious, replied "Supposing it didn't" .

It's Mr Lowe's Orwellian-1984 style of writing history that baffles me. In his interview this morning, nothing happened before 2006. For Mr Lowe history began the moment he left the Club that year. Viewed this way, he is correct - as yorkiesaint says, he didn't run up the overdraft. But the problem began way before then. In 2004 we finished 12th in the Premiership with what then appeared to be a perfectly acceptable, young, up-and-coming manager, appointed by Mr Lowe, in charge. Mr Lowe - you were in charge from then until 2006 during which time we were relegated and then made no attempt at a promotion push. You need to explain these disastrous 2 years to us as well as the 2006-2008 period when you weren't around.

Of the many joyous things on display on Saturday, our defending 70 metres up the pitch was especially welcome. Saga, Euell and McGoldrick (and others) chased down the loose ball, blocked many Preston passes/clearances, kept them well away from the danger area and denied them any rhythm to their play. Tireless commitment and dogged determination; not the most glamourous of qualities but ever so necessary. It was reminiscent of the Beattie and Ormerod days.

Of the many joyous things on display on Saturday, our defending 70 metres up the pitch was especially welcome. Saga, Euell and McGoldrick (and others) chased down the loose ball, blocked many Preston passes/clearances, kept them well away from the danger area and denied them any rhythm to their play. Tireless commitment and dogged determination; not the most glamourous of qualities but ever so necessary. It was reminiscent of the Beattie and Ormerod days.

Harlequins

Whilst the article is reasonable enough it is hardly a piece of crisp insightful journalism. It hasn't told either the keen Saints fan nor the mildly interested neutral anything they didnt already know.

It's not so much his goals I remember (Watford apart) but the way he set them up for others. 1) Robbing the Portsmouth defender of the ball that allowed Marsden (I think) to cross to Beattie to score in the 2-0 League Cup win. 2) A midweek game at West Ham (Nov/Dec 2002?) - it was 0-0 with only a couple of minutes to go. Brett broke down the left wing, crossed to Beattie and both Beattie and the ball ended up in the net. 3) A home match against Leeds (Jan/Feb 2004?). Phillips hadn't scored for a while.The Leeds defenders had the ball and were passing it amongst themselves deep in their own half. Brett chases one down, the Leeds player passes, Brett chases again and again the defenders pass, Brett chases a third time and the Leeds defender, under pressure, passes it straight to Phillips who scored. I always felt sorry for him when we were 3-2 up against Charlton and Brett had scored two. Into stoppage time he got a break and was one-on-one with the Charlton keeper - who saved it, thus denying Brett a Premiership hat-trick. Happy days.

When someone is away on holiday is usually a good time to stage a palace coup.

Bassett and Wise were between Volemort and Burley, I believe.

Earlier this season we were losing at home but played some elegant football. Today we were utterly disjointed and there was no semblance of team work. Dreadful.

Or it could read ... the ball could have gone anywhere but reached where Holmes had cleverly positioned himself for a return cross.

I guess I'm alone in thinking he went for the ball, he won the ball and it should never even have been a free kick ...

Imagine what his reaction would have been had we been drawn against, say, Hartlepool or Macclesfield.

Dexter Blackstock - unlike all the others, he never conceded a goal ...

I'm of the view that, like it or not, the purpose of every game we play is not only to win points but also to show off our assets with a view to attracting a buyer for them; thus raising some essential income. Given the above and if we assume a player such as Lallana is worth some half-decent money then I would expect him to be put in the shop window at every opportunity.

Yes, Tessem got a very late winner from a RD long throw against Sunderland but I believe the final score mjight have been 2-1. It is also possible Crouch scored from one in the home match against Everton in our relegation year. Unfortunately I was away and missed the match so if someone who was there can confirm/deny ...

I offer the 4-2 win against Fulham in the autumn of October 2002 when Beattie scored a hat-trick - and Fabrice Fernandes playe an absolute blinder.

A couple of incidents from last night ... The Norwich keeper cleared from defence and the ball went over the half-way line on on his right, towards the Norwich winger, Croft, and Mills. Just before they both challenged for the ball, Croft stopped and then took half a step back, directly into the path of the incoming Mills. Mills had no time to check, made contact with Croft and the referee gave a free-kick to Norwich. Clever play by Croft and as the guys around me commented, that's the experience of this league for you, a more savvy full-back wouldn't have been suckered in to the challenge. So what happened in the second-half? Llallana gets the ball close to the penalty area, he works his way just a yard inside the box with his back to goal, put himself between the ball and the defender and the Norwich player is daft enough to challenge. Down goes Llallana, the referee gives the penalty and there is no way back for the Canaries. The kids are learning very fast and, hopefully, the mistakes made earlier this season will be learned from and improvements will show.

Women are allowed in free? This is discrimination against half the population and must fall foul of at least one European regulation.

Away at Bolton in 2003 (ish)?

Listen to the Randy Pausch 'Last Lecture"

At the start of the season, ahead of the Cardiff match, the pundits on Sky (McNally, Merson, Cottee and Billy Davies) were asked about Saints by Jeff Stelling. McNally, Merson and Cottee showed an appalling lack of research - none of them had ever heard of (World Cup finalist) JP; one would have thought a quick Google search ahead of their well-paid TV performance might have been a minimum requirement. Billy Davies on the other hand showed some knowledge and went on to describe Saints in glowing terms (can't remember his exact words but it was along the lines of us being a brilliant club with fantastic facilities). In short, he appeared to be putting himself in the frame in case things went tits-up. But whether he would be suitable or not is a good discussion topic but will never happen. We have no money and couldn't afford to let the Dutch go, let alone hire BD.