cambsaint

After watching this afternoon as long as we keep it to non-embarrassing levels I shall be happy. I seriously wonder if we can though after less than inspiring transfer activity.

Sir Alf Ramsey

If we were Ranger's fans, then we'd be furious if a club used a legal loophole not to pay any compensation. Personally I think we've done the right thing as long it goes to help the new club get going again.

In defence if one is trying to perform a very skilful and difficult manouevre then it only needs a touch to knock one off balance. Of course falling if not touched should be a yellow card at least. I still recall one unsimulated fall in the penalty are in the 60s when Jimmy Gabriel chinned a CF in the middle of the penalty area as everyone else was running forward- I wouldn't want those days back again.

To paraphrase Churchill: Many forms of (Government) of settling results have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that (democracy is) penalty shoot-outs are perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that (democracy is) penalty shoot-outs are the worst form of (government) of settling results except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Coventry certainly offered very little at home in both league and cup. Really can't see anything other than a home win. Surely even Saints can't eff this one up. I seem to remember that our last two promotions were pretty tense affairs, and I was at both decisive games, but we won then and we will win on Saturday.

The referee was wrong, but to blame hime for Saints inability to beat 11 men fair and square is ridiculous. The current attitude of trying to get players sent off for two non-dangerous yellows sickens me. There is reasonable doubt that it was a clear scoring chance. Yes we would probably have won against ten men, but if you can't 'park the bus' away and defend a lead in the Championship, just imagine how we'll fare against players of genuine pace and guile in The Prem. I expect that we will go up by beating Coventry, I saw both away victories and they haven't much to offer.

You really can't expect all fans to chant. Do you really think that 40yo+ fans are going to sing very much? In the sixties (1960's) I'd get home hoarse-now I'm in my sixties an occasional OWTS is quite enough!

Did we have a left sided defence in the first half? Every time they attacked down the left we looked dreadful, is Ince really that good? God knows what a pacy Prem player will do to us if we go up.

One of the problems Labour face is that they now have very few real working people as MPs any more. In my youth many trades unionists who had actually held proper jobs were actually selected instead of political activists and researchers. I am now almost an OAP and the resentment that most of my friends and associates have towards the way the country is being run is amazing. I can quite see splinter parties such as UKIP taking a larger slice of the vote even though many of their candidates are pretty eccentric. The Tories won't be forgiven for their theft of the age allowance, even if a stupid Union allowed the threat of a petrol strike to get it off the front pages.

I can usually laugh at football chants, but the chant about his wife disgusted me. Some things are so personal that they should be kept private.

I read that this morning and it made me very angry indeed/ Hard to believe that you would fly soldiers into a battle theatre in an outdated plane that isn't even fit for Ryanair cattle class! However as the MoD employ more admirals than we have ships then we can guess where the money goes. An acquaintance is a Squadron leader who is much too expensive to pension off and he seems to have an enviable sinecure as a liason officer with the USAF.

I liked it when Saints were in Div1 and Mobtown as we then called them were in div3 or 4. I would enjoy the opportunity to see them playing the likes of Cambridge Utd or Histon and getting beaten. On a more serious note, many of their long standing loyal fans are apart from their one aberration quite decent people. I don't think that we should wish them to lose their team through no fault of their own. However I do want their recent owners to lose every penny they put in. On balance a new AFC Portsmouth like Wimbledon may be the best answer.

Selfishly we don't want any risk of injury or loss of focus from one of our most important players during a promotion run-in that is worth £50 mill to the club.

I have to agree with the sentiments that we are too obsessed with Pompey or as we called them in my day-Mobtown. When I first started watching Saints the rivalry was frelatively friendly but that was because Mobtown was the better club. More people went from Winchester to watch them as Saints were still in Div 3 South. We couldn't afford it and went to Saints and this coincided with our promotion to Div2. In my early teens I saw my first adult fight between the Pompey Mataloe and a Southampton docker at the Milton Rd end-I'm pleased to report that the Mataloe was led away with a busted and profusely bleeding nose-this was in the early 60s a few years before the onset of organised violence. Eventually Ted Bates built Saints into a Div 1 side and we largely forgot about Pompey. One of my all tiime great days out was on a Steam excursion with some mates we found ourselves in Shrewsbury pub on a Saturday lunchtime and saw Pompey were playing Shrewsbury in Div 4 at Gay Meadow. We went and hugely enjoyed watching then get thrashed and hurled plenty of abuse much to the amusement of the handful of adjacent Shrewsbury supporters. I actually studied a course at Portsmouth Uni-then Poly which wasn't available at many Unis and to my horror my first year digs -(that really dates me)- were in Grayshott Rd almost opposite Nottarf. The rivalry was pretty friendly (except for the loonie thugs) in those days and I used to slip out for a swift half in the pub opposite Nottarf most nights. I thoroughly enjoyed my three years in Portsmouth especially my last two living on the front in Southsea. My Saints mates used to come and kip down if there was a good group (the good old days of Student Union Gigs with top bands) or party and if there was a good gig at the Guildhall. There are some awful parts of Portsmouth, but Southsea and the area south of Fratton (including the delightfully named "Fawcett Inn" was perfectly Ok. You just made sure you didn't get in a navy vs civvies fight in the centre on a weekend or were anywhere near a Navy cops nightstick in particular. Moss Side in Manchester was much more dangerous for students even in the sixties. We still loathed Pompey as a football club but would never have taken it to the ludicrous extremes that it has reached today; and I can't really understand why it has. A few renditions of anti-Pompey songs are great but the incessant obsession that sometimes occurs is just silly and in my opinion hints at insecurity. Of course I'm a very boring old fart, but even in the worst of the hooligan days all we'd sing was a few goes of "If I had the wings of a Sparrow, If I had the a*se of a crow, I'd fly over Fratton and sh8t on the barstewards below". We were more intent on that day's opposition and supporting the Saints than continually churning out anti-Pompey songs.

Four thoughts: Definitely a sending off in the present climate and probably even ten or twenty years ago. Hopefully an additional game if they are stupid enough to go ahead. Isn't kicking the ball when the goalkeeper has control a foul on the goalkeeper, or is the foreshortening effect that makes it appear that Kelvin has it in his hands, holding it to his body. I've replayed this three times and it certainly looks as if the goalie has control. This incident led directly to all the trouble and in any other country it would have been a foul for sure. Finally back to the thread title: The vast majority of us can be happy with the fact that our arses are much prettier than Fat Sam's face.

PS Dont forget Plaistow is pronounced like Plaster in the local lingo.

My son and I did Upton Park to Mile End several times in the Prem days (Late in laws lived near Mile End), without too much trouble. If you want a drink and a curry afterwards I'd try Brick Lane, providing you can still get a train back. But if I were doing it tonight I'd probably either walk to Plaistow or better still try for a bus to Stratford and The Jubilee Line.

They could always go via Hamble, and give the police dog teams and the heavy boys in the riot squad (or whatever they call them) a bit of practice!

It seemed to me that given the appalling conditions it would have been a reasonable tactic to try to take advantage of them and see if hard low crosses into the area and shooting when there wasn't an obvious pass on may have given rise to lucky slips, ricochets and have caused confusion. Not pretty but in the conditions possibly well worth a try. We just don't seem to be able to win ugly.

Appalling first half, very good last thirty minutes. There is still a place for route one if all nice pretty short passing opportunities are blocked off, and I thought we were guilty at times of playing very pretty but ineffectual football. Some of the youngsters looked good, and I liked the young chunky blond lad who came on in the second half and immediately syarted putting hinself about. It was noticeable that some of Coventry's senior players wanted to give the youngsters a good whack to welcome them to the big boy's game, but he wasn't phased at all. Unfortunately I couldn't see his name or number -new specs needed!

Not strictly Saints related but it really made me laugh and I think it deserves a wide circulation! ""You're in a shoe shop, second in the queue for the till. Behind the shop assistant on the till is a pair of shoes which you have seen and which you must have. The female shopper in front of you has seen them also and is eyeing them with desire. Both of you have forgotten your purses. It would be rude to push in front of the first woman if you had no money to pay for the shoes. The shop assistant remains at the till waiting. Your friend is trying on another pair of shoes at the back of the shop and sees your dilemma. She prepares to throw her purse to you. If she does so, you can catch the purse, then walk round the other shopper and buy the shoes! At a pinch she could throw the purse ahead of the other shopper and "whilst it is in flight" you could nip around the other shopper, catch the purse and buy the shoes! BUT, you must always remember that until the purse has "actually been thrown", it would be plain wrong for you to be in front of the other shopper and you would be OFFSIDE!

As long as its F Lee and not F Yew!

I've just been looking to see which away games my son and I can realistically get to in 2012. Now my family have left Winchester and due to poor health home games aren't a realistic option any more. What struck me very forcibly is that we have eight very difficult away games aginst our promotion challengers that we can only realistically hope to get 6 to 10 points out of, and 10 is being very optimistic imo. Home doesn't look too bad, but there are a few potential banana skins. This reinforces my opinion and it appears to be widely held that if we really want to go for promotion this year we must buy three or four quality players to strengthen the squad. Imo we need a good centre back, a pacey creative attacking midfielder, an extra striker and cover for goalkeeper, but I don't see Bart ever playing so badly again. Not original thoughts but depending on the outcome of the Jan transfer window I'll know just how serious the family are in gaining promotion this year!

Three names from the pst I haven't noticed: C B Fry. (Sir) Alf Ramsey, Derek Reeves. Has anybody mentioned Peter Osgood, who enjoyed a marvellously entertaining finale to his career at The Dell.