spyinthesky

According to information contained within a Times article today. Top team on the South Coast according to this as was to be expected

All above are worthy of mention For us older boys, Dave Burnside's equaliser v Forest in 1963 (FA Cup 6th Rd replay) Mid table 2nd Division Saints 3-0 down at home to high flying 1st Division Nottm Forest with 12 mins to The old Dell went mental at a time when the crowds were much more genteel We went onto murder Forest 5-0 in the 2nd replay at White Hart Lane Around 42,000 there almost all of whom had travelled up from Southampton and a lot didn't arrive until half time

The get together, at the Atherley Bowling Club, was to celebrate a special event for Stuart Williams (a birthday?) Unfortunately Stuart has lost part of a leg, due to medical problems, hence the wheelchair He recently lost his second wife, Carol, but his first wife attended and apparently they still keep in contact, which is nice I had the pleasure to play in the same team as Stuart back in the mid 70's after his professional career ended and he was known as By-Pass Williams, for some reason. I am also old enough to remember when Ted Bates signed Stuart, Dave Burnside and George Kirby in the 1960's and transformed a poorly performing team into a decent outfit. Both Stuart and his brother Graham were full backs who originally played for West Brom and were Welsh internationals

I was in the company of an exiled Pompey supporter recently who was bemoaning the legacy of Harry Redknapp. He was rather taken aback when I told him that the Pompey News ran a campaign to get Harry a knighthood and he actually accused me of making it up. I have now referred him to the Pompey News site of the time. It is rather interesting to look back on the Pompey News headlines of the time: ARISE SIR HARRY SAY THE PEOPLE The front page of The News today shows the faces of 100 people who back our Arise Sir Harry campaign to see the Pompey boss made a Sir (Wonder if these poor unsuspecting people still have the framed photo proudly displayed on their wall) YOUR PLEA TO KNIGHT HARRY GOES TO No 10 You spoke, we listened and now it is up to No 10 After thousands of readers supported our campaign for Harry Redknapp to receive a knighthood, we took the petition and an honours nomination form to Downing Street 'ARRY'S EARNED A KNIGHTHOOD As part of the drivel to support this article, including a touching tribute from that bastion of society Mike Hancock MP, News Chief Sports writer, Neil Allen, added that people were often misled by Redknapp's 'natural charm and ready smile' 'His public persona is the Cockney wideboy come good, Happy Harry, the wheeler-dealer who just loves a risk. It's both unfair and inaccurate and an image he loathes. (Good old Factless Allen. Bang on the money as always!!) BOSSES BACK OUR CALL (I like this one!!) Harry Redknapp's management style should be held up as an example to all, according to local businesses Quote from one local business man...'He clearly knows what he is doing - he sold at the right time and bought at the right time. He'd make a very shrewd business man. Making clever choices, keeping his cards close to his chest and being very knowledgeable about his business.' There is plenty of other guff about Harry's business acumen from so called clever Portsmouth business people who may now regret their association with the club if they are one of the 1p in the £ brigade However it is fair to point out that 'Sir' Harry was only, as his mucker Del Boy would say, a mere prawn in the sandwich

A bit sceptical about the veracity of this rumour but heard recently that young Danny, a relatively callow youth of 26 years, has supposedly fathered seven children from four partners. Not sure whether his current squeeze is included within the latter. If true then I am sure he has the wherewithal to support his progeny. I guess Saints fans will hope he would be as successful with his strike rate on the pitch

If you are a 'non committed' football fan in this area and, as an adult, you wanted to take two teenagers to St Mary's it would cost around £114 In comparison, at Fratton park, it would be approx. £48. Plenty of difference in playing standard, quality of stadium etc etc but quite a marked difference

The situation at St Marys is being reflected in grounds elsewhere. You could more or less guarantee a sell out at every Premiership ground a few years ago and attendances in the Championship were also very strong I guess regular full houses are only guaranteed at Arsenal, Man Utd, Spurs, West Ham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Norwich Even Newcastle are failing to sell out every week (understandably!!) As a season ticket holder, I too wouldn't worry if there were deals for late comers provided march day increases aren't added on, £100 or so for a Dad to take two teenage sons to a game would be too much for me. The availability of free TV streams in Pubs will only affect attendances more Perhaps if the game survives in its current format, perhaps we will all be watching our favourite team on the screen screened live from sanitised stadia with massive advert back drops and filtered in crowd noises. Still, on a positive note look how far the game has come since the 80's when hooliganism was rife, grounds were outdated and crowds were pathetic compared to now

Unfortunately I have to agree with you about Soton being somewhat of a cultural backwater, although I like living here. However I would be interested to learn how Civic leaders would get their hands on the money that is 'rolling in' from the cruise business. Soton council puts no money (or effort) into the cruise business nor does it receive any direct benefit. The cruise business has been built up by private enterprise/investment and the returns benefit a number of commercial entities. I think the only direct benefit to the Council is possibly through business rates

Ratings Davis 7 At least three decent saves. Poor kicking Chambers 7 Got forward well. Some decent crosses. Badly out of position once Fox 6 Steady Cork 6 Started well. Fell away a bit second half Yoshida 7 Decent game Hooivelt 6 Reasonable display Ward Prowse 6 Did OK. One or two uncharacteristic misplaced passes Davis 8 Thought he was our best player. Neat and tidy throughout. Plenty of energy Guly 6 A sympathetic rating. Possibly a 5. Ramirez 6 A stunning goal but generally poor Lee 6 Ran around a lot with little end product

Gaston scored a quality goal and lifted one sublime pass over the defence in the first half. Apart from that he was generally pants all night Thought their left footer Emannuel-Thomas looked more of a threat at times Shame really because Gaston looked the real deal on a couple of occasions last season, particularly first half at home to Everton

Gaston scored a quality goal and lifted one sublime pass over the defence in the first half. Apart from that he was generally pants all night Thought their left footer Emannuel-Thomas looked more of a threat at times Shame really because Gaston looked the real deal on a couple of occasions last season, particularly first half at home to Everton

Oxford Brasserie used to be good Not Southampton but had lunch in the White Horse Hotel restaurant (Silks?) in Romsey recently and that was good

I really do hope that the feedback from here gets to those people at the club responsible for ticket pricing policy. I want to be entertained on the pitch but a lack lustre match day atmosphere is not good for the experience of watching football and also can't really help the players. Like the Cat I wont now buy a programme or purchase from the wonderful array of food and specialist beers on tap in the catering centre.

I went down to get my ticket this morning Ticket office well staffed but I was the only one there. Doesn't bode well for tonight. I have to say, as a long standing Saints fan, I was rather put out in having to pay an additional £2.00 to buy my ticket on the day of the match and for a couple of seconds thought about saying 'Stuff it' and walking away I have never waited so late in the day to buy a match ticket but had been trying to find someone to go with. There are 8 in our group but I am the only one going I was also mildly irritated by having to provide my season ticket details (again can't remember being asked this before) but do understand the disciplines. However my details couldn't be found initially so had to wait around until the computer came up with the information. I then was concerned about having to pay for parking. Not a major issue but an irritation All in all I left feeling rather dispirited by the experience but perhaps that is more an age related thing allied to 50 years or so supporting the Saints!!!!!!!

The whole Saints /Pompey rivalry was pretty low key until both sides met up in 1960/1 (ie for the first time since the late 1920's) when Saints were promoted from the old Div 3 and Pompey relegated from Div 1. Until then quite a few Saints fans used to watch Div1 football at Fratton Park when Saints were away. Pompey were without question top dog in the region for over 30 years. However in the 54 seasons since 1960/1, Saints have been the dominant team for 47 years and, in fact, will have recorded a higher attendance in 51 of these seasons (assuming we don't fall below Pompey's average crowd this year!!) This is quite a damning statistic, as far as the Pompey massif are concerned, as until 2001/2, Fratton Park had a higher capacity then the dear old Dell. The whole bad feeling situation really goes back to the 60's and for the vast majority of current Pompey fans, they have had to face the fact that Saints have been dominant in every aspect of the game apart from the seven seasons from 2004/5 to 20010/11, and even during this time our crowds were higher than theirs in all bar one season

Only 5,000 sold at this late stage!!! Embarrasing Shows whoever decided the ticket pricing policy is not in touch with reality I thought Bristol City would bring a good following but they have only asked for an initial allocation of 1,000 and not sure how sales are going. I think we may struggle to make 8,000 although the result today may help. I do hope that if we progress and get another home tie some degree of realism will prevail

After todays unexpected and most welcome win at the League leaders, I wonder how many this will add to the attendance on Tuesday night? Still think the club have got the pricing wrong. I will go at £18 but would have taken all my family at £10 a pop so £40 plays £18 That said really looking forward to watching MOTD tonight. Well done Saints but potential banana skin v Palace.

I was there, with my Dad, in the mid 60's after we had just come up to the old Division 2 when we won 1-0 in an evening game at Anfiled, as I recollect, not long after beating them 4-1 at home. I don't remember seeing (or hearing) any other Saints fans in the ground and my Dad and I were looked upon as something special by the Liverpool fans. They thought we were really keen to have travelled all that way for an evening game when, in fact, we were staying not far from Anfield with relatives Again, if my memory serves me correct, the prices for Boys entry for the earlier Liverpool home game had increased by 50% from 1/- to 1/6d and a lot of us in the Boys queue were unaware of this and quite a few didn't have the extra 6d to get in. Luckily I was able to get a message to my Dad who came down to the turnstile to pay the extra entrance fee otherwise I would have been stuck outside. Happy days!!

2) John PFC Westwood 3) The Pompey Myths (Dock Strike which never happened/Cancellation of the Fund Raising friendly through lack of interest etc etc) 4) The Pompey News high profile support for a knighthood for 'Sir' Henry Redknapp (some fans were also calling for Peter Storrie to be honoured!!) 5) Playing in Pink 6) Doing the Conga 7) Taking any amount of our 'cast offs over the years' (At least we paid a fee for Barry Horne!!!) The Japanese goalkeeper 9) Losing to lower league Leyton Orient in front of 3,000 or so 10) Welcoming any number of dodgy owners including the banner over the bridge welcoming someone who didn't exist. 11) Corps Ho 12) 3 admins 13) Being one step away from Non League Football 14) Losing any recent local young talent to a 'proper' football club 15) Brent Geese 16) The Pompey Harbour Drome 17) Training in the Southampton Post code area for many years 18) Players preferring not to live within the PO post code 19) A fans song with only three words 20) Portsmouth once being in the County of Southampton

Great comment!!

Suppose that's what you get for 20p!! All in all not bad value though

Piece in the 'I' today about the U21 League have promotion/relegation from next season. Article also mentions arrangements abroad where reserve sides play competitively in the lower leagues and it also discusses the possibility of Prem clubs having 'Feeder Teams' With regard to the latter there have been attempts at this in the past and I remember reading about Everton (when they were as top club) having an association with Tranmere many years ago. There were also suggestions of us having similar links in the past with Bournemouth but with their Championship set up and financial backing, I suppose the most relevant local lower league club to become a feeder club for us would be plucky Pompey!!

This could be interpreted another way ie: Points gained 31 Points not gained 83

According to the News the new regime has agreed to pay all creditors owed less than £2500 in full Any one know what the total outlay will be and will it be 100% of the original debt or 2p in the £ (or whatever) of the original debt?

And yet the Pompey News reckons Guy and Co are looking to bring in more players as the Board has increased his budget!!