spyinthesky

Speculation only No names suggested

I have never booed That said I did join in with the Man Utd crowd booing from the away end when we won 1-0 at Old Trafford last season with extreme relish. I have to say that was a great feeling!!! I guess like Duncan (Fitzhugh Fella) I have been a supporter long enough to realise these disappointments follow every team and Saints are no exception. Personally I don't think booing your team does no good. I think it is more productive to show support in times of adversity.

Looks like Hampshire Police are now involved. Perhaps this involves one of our notorious previous Youth team coaches going back to the 1980's Fact of life that, in the past, there were a number of unsavoury people associated with football at amateur and professional level. I have a good mate who suffered and personally I played for a local team manager in my teens who, unknown to me, had a reputation for getting involved in the game for the wrong reasons. Very fortunately I had no idea about this and never suffered but, on reflection, the signs were there.

We are where we are and all share a great sense of disappointment and frustration, especially after the insipid display last night. I know we can all look at 'ifs, buts and maybe's' but IF we had taken just one of the many chances in Milan and IF VVD had put away the glorious chance in Israel the situation would be a lot brighter today. That said we have been playing championship level teams in Europe with both Inter and Prague not able to play their full strength sides. Add the Hull display into the bargain (and also Liverpool where the score could have been 3 or 4-0 if they had taken gilt edged chances) and we are suddenly looking a poor side bereft of confidence and an ability to score goals. All that said, if I was the Manager with the priority of staying in the Prem, I would have the same rotation policy as Puel. The side he put out last night (on paper at least) should really have been capable of beating Sparta. They reckon the more you pay players the better chance there is of success. I reckon we pay our players (and Manager) far more than Sparta, Beersheeva and Hull but it certainly hasn't shown in the performances!!!

Martina came with a pretty poor reputation from the Dutch fans who used to post on here Nevertheless he seemed to fit into the right back role reasonably well, aided no doubt by the screamer against Arsenal. However he has really regressed this season and really looks pants in recent games. Wonder if Koeman is still interested in paying £1m for him in January?

Out of interest are you the same Heisenberg who posts negative stuff on the Ugly Inside forum?

Got to feel sorry for those who went and even more so who went to all three and had no goals to celebrate Reminiscent of the game in Denmark last year

What happened to the young lad from Dundee (?) Wasn't he a left back?

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