spyinthesky

Not sure if mentioned elsewhere but the number of English players on the field for both sides at the final whistle Saints: Callum Chambers Academy Luke Shaw " Jack Cork £750k James Ward Prowse Academy Harrison Reed " Adam Lallana " Jay Rodriguez £7m Rickie Lambert £1m Man City Ziltch

I went with Jevon and Micky Pearce Both made their way in the world Arthur Fowler was nearby. Has moved on from supporting Walford Town to bigger things

Have been invited to the occasional corporate but first time at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Went with someone who hadn't been there since the 1976 S Final win over Palace ad we were reflecting on the changes since the days when you approached a Chelsea away game with a frission of fear. Have never been 'wanded' prior to entry to a football game before. The Restaurant area was packed but it appeared a good 50% of the guests were speaking in a foreign tongue (a good percentage were Russian - understandable I guess) The food was excellent. However when we came in at Half time there were a surprising amount of people still eating their 3 course mains. Either they hadn't watched the first half or had arrived late and were making up for their lack of grub by tucking in during the break. There was no cut off time for the consumption of alcohol as is rigorously enforced in the Boxes at St Mary's There are large electric heaters in the roof space of the stand. Presumably the cost of power is sponsored by Gazprom or the like as the cost must be substantial. There were quite a few women and children around us, most either chatting away or looking at their phones/Ipads etc I expected to get some abuse when I involuntarily leapt up to celebrate our first goal but no one said a word (thankfully!!) Whilst the corporate experience was interesting (and enjoyable to a long standing Saints fan like me who was brought up generally wet and cold on the terraces), the disappointment of losing (especially after taking the lead) remains the same at whatever age

I was in the corporates at Chelsea (very interesting experience) and those regular Chelsea fans around me were all predicting a Saints win at the half way stage We looked very comfortable at that stage To be fair to the Chelsea manager he changed the teams formation and immediately this paid dividends Losing at Chelsea and Arsenal is no disgrace but it shows how far away from the top 4 we are in terms of squad strength

I just hope our players turn on the style I watched the 1-0 defeat at Marchwood a couple of years back and the Pompey lads seemed more up for it and probably deserved to win although I recollect we had 2 or 3 of our better players out through International duty

Understand that the club has purchased approx. 15,000 tonnes of sand from Southern Ireland to be delivered to the Marchwood Training Complex . Estimated cost £250k Some suggestions as to what the sand may be for. Add your own, as appropriate 1. Foundation for new pitches 2. Brazilian type beach football facility 3. Part of an Indoor Dome complex with artificial reef and lagoon etc to allow foreign players to acclimatise 4. Sand castle centre for the players children 5. Somewhere to bury the chest with all the BVI Loan money 6. To toughen up the skinny Academy U16 players who will get sand kicked in their face prior to training by the U18 squad 7. Part of a monkey petting complex. An idea borrowed from Pompey

Apparently most of the job applications have come through the Jobsite application process as part of the sponsorship deal

Anyone sent their DPF off for cleaning Apparently a company by the name of Ceramax can do it but not sure of the process or the cost

According to a new report from PWC and the think tank Demos based on a wide range of measures including health of population, job availability, affordability of housing, commuting times, income equality etc 1, Reading & Bracknell 2. Aberdeen 3. Edinburgh 4. Soton 5. Cambridge 6. Oxford 7. Preston 8. Bristol 9. Belfast 10. Norwich All subjective, of course, but I like it here and we do have the highest ranking football club!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And they never averaged over 37,000 in a ground that had a capacity in excess of 50,000

I know non competitive games shouldn't count but didn't we also score seven at Fratton Park in a testimonial (Alan Knight's) when Le Tizz took the pizz Also it is worth remembering that Pompey's 2-0 win at the Dell in January 1988 was their first win in 10 derby games and our friends were so elated that they named a Fanzine after it. We then won the next 6!! So in 27 'modern derbies' Saints have won 14 and lost 6 with 7 draws and scored 54 times and conceded 36 I guess this explains some of the bad feeling from down the road

If Matty was around now would he have fitted into the Managers style of play? Possibly not which would have meant losing so many good memories Think the likes of Keegan, Channon, Walcott, Bale, Shearer would have suited our style of play but currently, as a unit, we are playing as well as the teams of the 1980's Next few games will tell us a lot though

As ever after a great saints victory and a less than glorious performance by our neighbours down the road, our resident Pompey fan came up with the usual twaddle about the Saints always being in the shadow of that lot down the road which history proves otherwise ie we have been the top team in 50 of the 86 years since both clubs entered the league in 1921. The comparison is even more marked since 1960 when we went up from Div3 and Pompey went down from Div 1 (ie 47 plays 7!!!) Anyway the conversation moved onto who has moved from Saints to Pompey and vice versa in recent times. These are the player moves we came up with. POMPEY TO SAINTS BARRY HORNE (AND WE PAID £700K AS A TRANSFER FEE) Peter Crouch (via Villa - £1m) John Beresford (via Newcastle - £1.5m) SAINTS TO POMPEY (all frees!!) STEVE MIDDLETON PAUL GILCHRIST RON DAVIES EAMONN COLLINS IVAN GOLAC GEORGE LAWRENCE SCOTT HILEY MATTHEW ROBINSON ALAN MACLAUGHLIN DAVID CONNOLLY Mick Channon (via Norwich) John Gittens (via Middlesboro) Malcolm Waldron (via Burnley) Ian Baird (via Leeds) Colin Clarke (via QPR) Trevor Hebbard (via Derby) Dave Beasant (via Forest) Andy Cook (via Exeter) Seems to be a bit one sided Perhaps our ex players were intent on doing a bit of missionary work to the east of the County but very few, if any, seemed to live down there preferring the comforts of the SO post code area.

Funeral Thurs 14th November at Soton Crem Apparently his family have been deeply touched by all the nice comments made on various Saints (and West Brom) websites

Signed on loan for a month 'as cover' Interesting comment when Tommy's move to Dartford was mentioned on the Chelmsford FC forum ...'More fool them'... Seems like Tommy has made a suitable impression at Chelmsford Tommy has made 30 league & Cup appearances for 9 clubs in 8 years Perhaps he is a late developer!!

No as FF says he was injured pre season (the U21 game v Eastleigh) The three players are probably costing the club close to a £1m a year in wages but that is a fact of life and most of us would continue to take our contracted pay until such time as it runs out or another suitable offer comes in Separately understand that Tommy Forecast has moved on again. Any updates pl?

Are all three still with the club?

I've had three Shilton (for Leicester if I remember correctly) v Forsyth at the Dell (kicked out of hand). Think we lost? Away to Sheff Weds in December 2007(?) Header last minute in a 3-3 draw Today

It was in todays Times but I think they probably used ...doing the 92.com/stats... website

Liverpool come out top, marginally above Arsenal The figures were based on position in League positions with Top of Division 1/Prem giving 1 point and 92nd giving 92 points Total point total then divided by the number of years in the league.

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