spyinthesky

I reckon you make a very fair point There were quite a few voices raised recently re Charlie Austin for England. Much as I admire Charlie, if he is truly England standard, then we really do have a problem with the national team's aspirations to be a leading football nation.

I remember seeing a piece on Ali Dia on the South Today Sports programme the day before the game and thinking to myself this new player doesn't look very good. However it was a very short clip and I convinced myself that the management team would know far more about a player than a supporter looking at the player on TV I now revel in the fact that I was probably the early equivalent of the Black Box!!!

I remember that too. One thing I will give him credit for was the balls to turn up at a rivals ground and start singing 'Play up England' etc I agree he did quieten down when the Saints fan threatened to lump him

Indeed However if the table is designed to show 'attendance' (as opposed to tickets sold, including season ticket holders etc) I guess you could query the more recent crowd figures

This is a relevant comment I am sure it irks us all that we lose good players and I am sure Celtic fans are peeved that they have lost 3 of their best players to us. However it is a natural progression Even massive clubs like Pompey lose players to even massiver clubs

Cant argue with the facts as presented However Saints have never possessed a ground with a capacity of more than 32,000 whereas all the clubs above us in the average attendance league and a fair few below had much bigger capacities especially post WW2 when attendances rocketed

Apparently they played 22 games (11 at home) in Div 2 in 1892 before having to pack up due to financial problems. Until then they were main rivals of Everton Ironically they were replaced by in Div 2 the following year by Liverpool

I appreciate the point you make. There is no scientific way of measuring 'captive' areas for football team support but relevant post code provides a reasonable indication I think

Depends on what information you work on as there is quite a bit of differing information available According to the 2011 census Southampton has a population of 236,882 which is the figure used by the council although there is a figure of 253,651 also recorded on other sites as to the population within city boundaries (don't really understand the difference). In comparison Portsmouth Council records a figure of 205,056 from the 2011 census with the 'within city boundary' figure of 238,137 I based my initial comparison on the urban area population basically covered by Post Code area. Unfortunately I cant locate the most recent figure but there is a figure from 1995 which shows Portsmouth at 476k and Southampton at 322k.

Thanks for this Have spoken to Admiral who tell me that they are still waiting information from their underwriters (which seems rather odd since they must have known about the problem for some time) However I was told that the insurance cover via Admiral remains intact and it is OK to drive the car

The Newcastle table doesn't say which years are covered within each teams figures, presumably from the date each team entered the Football League which in the case of Pompey & Saints, was 1921 The interesting thing here is that over the past 50 years or so, ie within recent history of both club's fanbase, our average crowd is 21,000 whereas Pompey's is just over 14,000, despite them having a ground with a bigger capacity for most of this period. Pompey may have won more trophies and have a larger geographical population to draw on but Saints have been able to get more paying customers through the gates

Anyone had any issues with their car insurance following the financial problems with Gibraltar based Enterprise? I only found out about this yesterday by letter from the liquidators. Affected car policy is with Admiral but haven't heard a peep from them. Hopefully they have transferred cover over to another underwriter but cant get hold of any information from Admiral atm

Sue I understand that if the electricity supply is not upgraded in Pompey Dockyard the power requirements for the new Aircraft Carriers whilst in port would have a profound effect on available power to the rest of Portsea Island. God forbid it may also affect the quality of the Championship standard floodlights at Fratton Park It reminds me of the time (in the 1970's or 80's) when the Spanish Govt had one of its regular spats with Gibraltar and the water supply was affected. At least one very large vessel was in the Ocean Dock being filled with water 24 hrs a day from numerous dockside hydrants. The water pressure in the rest of Southampton was adversely affected during this time

In principle I agree with keeping faith with the youngsters but it would be an interesting to see how this line up would fare further down the line: 1.... Lewis (or McCarthy as an over age player) 2.... Valery 3.... Target/McQueen 4.... Ward Prowse/Reed 5.... Stephens 6.... Jones 7.... Isgrove 8.... Hojberg/Hesketh 9.... Olomola 10...Redmond 11...Sims Above line up does not include Gape/McCarthy and Gallagher who are all out on loan or Seager who is long term injured. Nor does it include some of the other youngsters who played well the other night v Crawley I am just interested in how much the inclusion of proven Premiership class players would assist the emerging youngsters in a competitive game, especially towards the latter stages of the competition. However I am sure the club's management would not risk their inclusion until such time the first team are clear of fixture congestion and away from the drop zone

Yes, there were a few of us who presented ourselves at the ticket office only to be told to go to the one open entrance and hand over our cash (no receipt!!!!) Reckon the gate was less than 1,000 Shame as it was a decent performance

Gardos did Ok but no stand out fairly quiet time until the big lad Matt Harrold cam on Crawley were awful at the back first half aided by their keeper who punched a corner into his own net early on. We could, and should, have had more than four. Harry Lewis had two or three comfortable shots to save but that was all. Thought Olomola had a very quiet game then he came up with a cracker for the fourth. Thought Josh Sims was arguably our stand out player but Isgrove did OK in fits and starts and the two midfielders did well too. Very sparse crowd. Tip my hat to the couple of hundred Crawley fans who turned up to see their team completely outclassed Surprised it was pay at the gate. First time this has happened in my experience at St Marys

I hope so too Out of our crowd I am the only one going even though sorely tempted by a night in with a beer in front of the telly. I often question my sanity re my ongoing involvement with footer

When he first signed for Palace I thought it was an excellent choice However in recent times he seems to have regressed. Would not be averse to him replacing Claisie dependent on cost to acquire and wages. However would prefer a bit more height and physicality in midfield and the ability to score a goal or two bearing in mind our

Offside has been far more difficult to call nowadays. Looking at the Chelsea v Everton game on MOTD there seemed to be two clear situations where a Chelsea player was stood directly in the eye line of our ex keeper when a goal bound shot was made but the goal was given. Even if the player was completely static surely he must be interfering with play? Made me think back to one of the best 'non' goals I witnessed at the Dell. An acrobatic volley by Kevin Keegan from the left hand edge of the penalty area ruled out by David Armstrong deemed to be in an offside position some way away from the goal

So is it pay at the gate (ie ticket office) only? It is odd that the club have hardly advertised the game and we will then be subject to ridicule in some areas for a very low gate

I am struggling to find any information on the game Any ideas please?

I have it on very good authority that Cortese was in direct discussions on the Itchen waterfront opportunities when he first came to the club Unfortunately he then seemed to become embroiled in other issues (some good some not so good) so the initial enthusiasm appeared to wane as other matters took priority. However the possibilities for development remain

Yes interesting post. As mentioned in the past, it appears that most/all of the land along the Itchen river frontage, adjacent to the stadium is owned by the City Council and leased to a number of businesses (primarily aggregate companies who bring in their sea dredged products by sea) on long term leases. It has long been the objective of the City Council to 'gentrify' the waterfront and presumably they reclaimed the old Town Depot area by the Itchen bridge as part of the plan. Similarly the old TVS building site is now being developed for housing. Interestingly Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was in Southampton last week giving his support for port owners (ABP) plans to have another go at expanding the port area at Dibden Bay. Last time ABP tried this, focussing on a big container terminal, they failed but this time their plans are likely to include facilities to store cars and aggregate which may be more acceptable to local residents especially if the Government was prepared to assist with improving road and rail access to the Waterside. The relocation idea may be important if plans for HS2 and Heathrow expansion and other transport related projects proceed as these will require lots of building materials. So you could see a scenario where the aggregate wharves are transferred elsewhere with a bit of a sweetner chucked in and the area vacated turned into a mix of leisure, housing and perhaps some more amenable marine businesses.

One thing that may be worthy of consideration is the perceived value of the club. How does £200m rank against the estimated value of other clubs of similar size? Presumably if this figure was reached it would leave the Liebherr family with a net 'profit' of around £150m assuming their investment has increased beyond the initial purchase price. However it could be argued that the playing squad has a value north of £150m and there are other assets to consider including the stadium and training ground. Perhaps others with more experience in valuing businesses might have useful contributions to make. btw I agree with the majority that I hope Kat and family continue to run the club perhaps with the prospect of an additional capital injection but, as ever, we have to be careful what we wish for

First of all I am very happy with the progress of our club under the stewardship of the Liebherr family However if there was further investment to the ongoing benefit of the club I would like to see: 1. Improvement to the stadium and surrounding area in line with the attached plans 2. Development of the adjacent Itchen Quay area to include the relocation of the aggregate operations (anyone interested should look at the recently published Southampton Port Draft Plan which seems to provide for this as part of proposed Dibden Bay development). This would really improve the outlook of the river frontage around St Marys 3. Improvement of a metro style light rail system to include access to the Northam spur line and possible extension to the Royal Pier/Town Quay area. 4. Final upgrade to the Marchwood Training facility 5. Increased investment in the playing squad to make us real challengers for honours