spyinthesky

As well as McCarthy there are big doubts over Baines, Barkley and Lennon for Saturday's game

Hands up here Watching Kirchhoff on the TV during his early performances for Sunderland he seemed awful Lately however he seems a very decent player well regarded by Mackem fans I know Wouldn't mind him here

Just think there is a reasonable chance of Saints, AFCB and Brighton all playing in the Prem and Eastleigh joining Pompey in Division 4 (aka L2) next season Wonder what are the odds of that happening and, if it did, what would be the scale of meltdown with our historical/hysterical rivals if Eastleigh ended up in a higher position in Div 4?

I have both Loakes and Samuel Windsor Loakes are better quality but Samuel Windsor best value for work Make sure you always keep your shoes polished

Had a quick look on the Leicester Forums General comments are * Saints a very decent side * Simpson their MOTM especially for his 'save' * Foster played very well * 50% reckon that Leicester were fortunate to get away with both penalty shouts * They all seem very confident of winning the League now (why wouldn't they be?) Apparently they have gained the equivalent of 91 points from the same stage as last year when they were 7 points short of safety They also seem to have won 18 points more than any other team during this period * They were very appreciative of the Saints fans singing 'Your going to win the League' after the game.

Have it on good authority that Pompey Youth used to use a separate training facility along Stoneham Lane and there were problems with paying the hire charge The then youth team coach, Andy Awford,eventually had to pay by cash in advance to ensure they could continue to use the pitches

Apparently season ticket sales were the highest for 10 years this season. Any idea how many were sold?

Went up on one of the 106 coaches containing Saints fans (the Greyhound service that no longer operates) and the amount of red and white traffic on the road that day was most impressive. Understand that the trains were rammed that day too and there were quite a few foreign cruise passengers on Soton Central who were wondering what on earth was going on. Scenes inside Wembley were great and when you think that the attendance was 74,000. Take out 18,000 tickets sold to Carlisle fans (a fair turnout as they had to be on the road very early in the morning) and a couple of thousand 'neutrals' this leaves 54,000 saints followers in the crowd and it would have been more if Wembley had allowed Saints to have more tickets I reckon we could easily have sold 10,000 or so more

Good spot. Didn't realise that This reminds me of the fact that I went by myself to the game and sat in the Chapel end for a change as I had to be away quickly Remember it was a really cold night and I was watching the final minutes from the exit but was able to see the equaliser and then, with many others return to the bowl to see us win the penalty shoot out 6-5 I think

Wasn't there a game in the early rounds where we were close to going out (V Norwich?)

Last game of the season away to Man City and we would not have gone up if we had lost 6-0 Think Malcolm Alison was the Asst Manager (to Joe Mercer?) at Maine Road and he spouted off that City would beat us comfortably (it ended 0-0) similar to his bellicose statements when he managed Palace when we played them in the '76 Cup Semi Final Remember waiting to hear the result on the radio then we went up to the local pub for an under age drink to celebrate!!

I know its old news but there are a lot of us with genuine affection and respect for Nige and SRL for their contribution to Saints success story. Wonder what next season has in prospect for both of them? Possibility that Nigel will part company with Sheffield Utd who seem likely to miss out on promotion again, which won't go down well with the club owners. Likewise SRL will presumably leave WBA and perhaps end up in the Championship where I reckon he will do well in a decent team Best of luck to both of them On a separate matter interesting to see that two of our loaned out central defensive players ie Stephens and Turnbull were on opposite sides in the Coventry v Swindon game at the weekend (both of them had played regularly at Swindon in the past) a game that also featured Aaaron Martin

Based on current form and RK's playing system would possibly look something like: Forster...............(Skelelenburg) Martina.............. (Cedric) Fonte..................(Gardos) VVD Bertrand Romeu................(Claisse) Wanyama Davis.................(Ward Prowse) Mane Pelle..................(Austin) Long..................(Rodriguez) So, on above basis, no place for other players regularly included in the match day squad ie Tadic, Yosida, Targett, Juanmi, plus two keepers This would all be subject to form, fitness and system but whatever formation used it shows that when all players are available we have a reasonably strong bench, which has not always been the case in recent years.

The Royal Society suffered a huge financial loss in the 17th century when it decided to publish Francis Willughby's lavishly illustrated but unpopular 'History of Fish' The loss was so great that they were unable to finance publication of Isaac Newton's 'Principia' which proved to be one of the most important scientific texts in history Publication was underwritten, out of his own pocket, by astronomer Edmond Halley who was clerk of the Royal Society at the time. Unfortunately, following publication, the Royal Society could no longer afford Halley's salary and he was paid off in unsold of 'The History of Fish' Shades of what happened around 350 years later down the road with the 'Fishy Few' and 'History' !!

'The History of Fish' The Royal Society suffered a huge financial loss in the 17th century when it decided to publish Francis Willughby's lavishly illustrated but unpopular 'History of Fish' The loss was so great that they were unable to finance publication of Isaac Newton's 'Principia' which proved to be one of the most scientific texts in history Publication was underwritten, out of his own pocket, by astronomer Edmond Halley who was clerk of the Royal Society at the time. Unfortunately, following publication, the Royal Society could no longer afford Halley's salary and he was paid off in unsold in unsold copies of 'The History of Fish' Shades of what happened around 350 years later down the road with the 'Fishy Few' and 'History' !!

Wonder if anyone in the insurance business has an idea of the annual cost of insurance cover for the club is likely to be. The increasing value of players impacting on the cost of injury, and particularly, travelling cost must be substantial Presumably clubs use specialist insurance brokers rather than use the meerkat comparison site!!!

Horses also crop and fertilise the pitch before returning to base

Correct 60's in body Much younger in mind

Good post

Interesting I was in the lower Chocolate Box that day and when Martin Chivers got hold of the ball on the right wing, I was fairly certain the ball was over the line but he went onto to cross for Terry Paine to score. If we had drawn that game we would probably not have been promoted and where we would be now?

First phase opened in 1971 but recollect we may have had to negotiate the dual carriageway thro Hockley in 1976 en route to the Cup Final

Perhaps we can now add the 6 Southern league titles we won prior to entering the Football League in 1921 It is a bummer that Pompey do have more trophies to boast about than we do (despite all bar one being inaccurately described) However Saints have the much better head to head record and higher average attendances and have finished above Pompey in the Football league for 53 of the 89 years of competition since 1921 and for 15 years out of 22 in the Southern league

I was at that game too. Lost 5-3 after Ron Davies put us 1-0 up It would be very difficult to judge away followings at the time as I am pretty sure that almost all entrance to the ground (perhaps excluding stand tickets) were pay at the gate so there were few if any means of recording the number of away supporters However I do agree that it was fairly crushed on the terraces behind the goal where we stood

The 1966 promotion season burns brightly in my mind Went away to Norwich on the coach (Shamrock and Rambler - orange coaches. Offices next to the Bedford Place coach station) Won 4-3 Bolton (by myself as we were away on half term holiday in the N west) Won 3-2 Cardiff (coach with no heating - very cold. Trouble at the game. I got hit in the face with a hot pie thrown in to the crowd. Couldn't get the smell out of the new reefer jacket I had as a Christmas present) Won 5-3 Pompey Won 5-2 (our reserve CF Norman Dean scored a hat trick) Wolves (Saints about 10th at the time. Dave Webb made his debut at RB and scored with an overhead kick and we then went 12 games undefeated) Drew 1-1 Bristol City (went down to Bristol on the Special train. Lots of toilet paper thrown out of the carriage windows going through the viaduct at Bath and then someone setting fire to it) Won 1-0 Plymouth (as at Bristol lots of Saints fans there. No real segregation in those days. Bloke near us bottled after an argument. Not sure if the victim was a Saints fan) Won 3-2 Leyton Orient (I organised a coach from school and think the party included our rather corpulent History master. Must have been at least 10,000 Saints fans at Brisbane Road. Big pitch invasion when we all thought the game had finished. Remember a copper trying to stem the tide and got trampled on. However still a few minutes to play and we all had to return to the terraces so I went to 8 away League games and didn't see us lose once We also went to Orient earlier in the season but the game was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch and our coach driver took us to Griffin park to see Brentford lose to Hull in a 3rd Division fixture A gang of us also went up to Hull for the FA Cup 3rd Rd tie travelling overnight on a Special Train form the old Docks station. Really cold and foggy and we lost 1-0 against a decent Hull side Didn't arrive home until the early hours of Sunday morning and I have to be up at 0700 to do my Sunday paper round in the pouring rain Happy Days!!!