cambsaint

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.

Although I don't see many games I'm a little worried. Reading we should have lost; Coventry turned the tables on us and Bristol beat us and according to all reports dominated. All the other managers will be watching and it looks as if we have a weakness agianst being closed down aggressively, and against pacey forwards. If we are serious about promotion this year then imo we need to try to buy a couple of class players in Jan, pref a good central defender and a fast attacking midfielder. If we get up then they are even more necessary. I hope this doesn't appear negative, but we must guard against complacency-this team isn't the finished article.

Due to ill health this was the first match I've been to for a couple of years. My son drove me and I remembered that the first ever Saints away game I went to was Coventry away in the FA Cup in about 1964 or 5. I thoroughly enjoyed it -except for the squeaky bum bit after they equalised. We were surprisingly complacent at the start of the second half and a better team would have made life much harder. I loved the passing moves and the individual skill, but I would like to see us buy another attacking player with pace in the Jan window. The "Top of the League" chant was very good and I've never been able to hear that before! A civilised ground with good stewards, and what an excellent way to get free parking-buy six bottles of wine at 25% discount in M&S before the match!! All in all a great day out after a difficult year.

Norwich-is virtually sold out on season ticket sales alone and was in both div1 and the Championship. Its a relatively small city with a large elderly rural surrounding catchment area. When we can sell 23to25k seasons then we should consider enlarging.

If you look at Saints record of bringing top class youngsters through we probably are second only to Man Utd. during the forty odd years I've been a supporter. There have always been many richer clubs with apparently bigger and better catchment areas. Of course we can't live with the City zillions but we can carry on doing very well indeed!

The true level of the gross mismanagement that Lowe presided over can be judged by just how many ex-Saints players are still playing well in the Prem, five years on. Any half decent manager could have rescued us, but Lowe insisted on a series of no-hopers. He failed utterly to realise that a good manager provided with adequate funds is the only key to success in the Prem! He thought he could break the system and broke the club instead!

O'BRIEN - Leeds reject (aged 23) but managed 180 goals in 6 seasons. Could score from anywhere with either foot. Good with pens. I only watched O'Brien for his last two seasons; but will never forget his pens. No subtlety just a run and might kick and in my memories they always hit the stanchion leaving the goalie helpless. Unless your MLT thats te way to take a pen! I remember talking to somebody who played golf with O'Brien and apparently he always gave Paine the credit for most of his goals, apparently saying that he just had to run where they had trained and the ball would arrive inch perfect! I don't remember Hollywood looking that innocent!

In the early sixties when I and all my mates started supporting Saints, it wasn't the first choice of many living in Winchester as Saints were in Div 3 Sth, and Mobtown were in the second division and their days of infamy were still fresh in the minds of many older men. Nearly all of the football supporting masters at Peter Symonds were Saints supporters and some attended regularly. In those days probably at least half of Wintonians supported Mobtown (PS slang for P****y). Fortunately Ted Bates took us from success to success. My son was born in Aylesbury but I'm glad to say supports Saints and Hants CCC. Also Winchester is approx 12 miles from Southampton and approx 25 miles from Portsmouth. In the days before the M3 and M27 it usually took at least three times as long to get to Mobtown than Soton. Another useless piece of information-when Soton was blitzed some of the shops in Soton temporarily moved to Winchester and a friend told me that PeterSymonds was used by Winchester boys in the morning and Soton boys in the afternoon-they used to spend their afternoons watching the tanks unloaded at Winchester before being taken to the old bypass and readied under camouflage before being hidden ready fort transportation to France on D-Day. In the days of old ford prefects and the like we very rarely went to Mobtown and if so only to Southsea.

I think he has done an amazing job. It took a bit of time to sort things out and create his team, but since then the results have been incredible. Ten games ago we were worrying whether we'd make the playoffs, we had one of the hardest run-ins possible and lost one away to Rochdale. (2 points and the best goal difference in the division and one of the best home stats in all leagues tells its own story. We have been consistently top of the number of shots for some weeks. I salute all of you, I only wish my health allowed me to get to watch Saints. I can still remember going mad during our last two promotions when I was a young man. I wish I could have been there but health problems prevented that, but a hopefully successful treatment on my prostate earlier this week, and the fact that next season I hope to be closer and will get to see a few home games again. I'm also planning to retire back to God's own county; so please keep up the good work, and take Saints back where we belong!!

Over the course of a season Goal difference is an amazingly accurate indicator of final position. We have the second best in the division, we lead the table in number of shots, and are first or second in most of the important stats. Our major problem is a very difficult finish to the season, most of our opponents are in the top ten. However given our propensity to mess up against to rubbish and play better against better teams this may not be such a bad thing, at least most of our opponents will want to win and not just shut up shop with a mass defence. I hope our manager and players have a more positive attitude than most of the supporters. We are at least as good as any team in the division, and can certainly play better football than any of them.

Lowe had two massive problems, he didn't understand football but thought he did, and he couldn't get on with football managers. If we had found a good and stable manager and Lowe left him on his own, albeit with a strict budget,we'd still be in the Prem, after all most of our ex players still are.

Gabriel McGrath: Certainly no angel, would strike fear into any forward.

Bobby Stokes-Thanks (for the memory)

I would have thought that you would need to be paid to stay in Peterboghorror. I lived in a pleasant outskirts village for ten years before moving to Cambridge. I only go when absolutely necessary, can't abide the place. Stamford is nice though, as are the many of the surrounding villages.

It is very unfair to judge a manager on results gained with his predecessor's team Judge Adkins on his results with his own team. I think (and fervently hope) he'll be a great success.