spyinthesky

Looks like there is an outline deal being progressed to provide a new 50,000 stadium at the Bramley-Moore Dock adjacent to the River Mersey. Details to be confirmed but it looks at though the Liverpool City Council will underwrite some/all the capital to build the new stadium (£300m?) but will recover an annual fee for this. Should be quite an iconic building nearer the city centre but it will be a shame to lose Goodison Park although the ground didn't have the best modern facilities. However I can remember watching a game there one Easter, back in my youth, (against Burnley I think) when the attendance was over 70,000. Have never seen Saints gain a point up there during my relatively regular visits.

Interesting that you mention West Brom. No idea what their total is but I am sure I heard the commentator say that Jake Livermore was the first English International provided by WBA since the 1990's

I saw him years ago on stage at the Mayflower (then Gaumont) as support to the Moody Blues. He had a great stage presence

Barry Good point. Well made!!

I have nothing against Jose Fonte I appreciate his contribution to the club's progress and was disappointed at his departure. However a mate of mine who is a Hammers fan told me he was sh*te again today. He is also disappointed in their keeper (Randolph - shades of our own keeper criticism) as well as Snodgrass who I thought was a decent (if ageing) buy for them

Interesting to se that Ronald is telling the media that he doesn't have a problem with Lukaku as he expects people to honour their contracts!!!!!. Interesting view.

Please no!! Many press reports about the dangers of the new trampoline parks that have been set up throughout the country. Suggest the club invests in a properly qualified trampoline coach first

Re the Barcelona game Only saw snippets on BBC However one thing that caught my eye was the second penalty (I think) where there were several players from either side well within the penalty area when the pen was taken. Ref should have insisted than the penalty was retaken. Probably would not have affected the result but who knows?

Thanks for all the input I suppose the figures underline how well we are doing on a wage bill that is considerably lower than the top teams

Can anyone please advise info on Saints wage bill? Notice that latest figures show that Liverpool spent £200m ie more than Man City and only came 8th This figure suggests that Premier League clubs pay top money to attract players and coaches yet fail to convert this to success in Europe as evidenced by the relatively poor showing of Spurs and Saints

Caceras used the ball very well Didn't have a lot to do defensively Pretty mediocre gane Sam McQeen and Harry Reed saw a lot of the ball All others fairly in and out. It would be very difficult for a neutral to appreciate that Boufal and Hodjberg cost over £25m in combined transfer fees on that showing Feel really sorry for Jay Rodrigues. Just a shadow of his former self

Still at least there are all the trophies from far away days for the fans to enjoy!!

For those who criticise Foster I guess would have gone into melt down if Gomez had been in our goal today. Foster made one decent save but cant really blame him for anything else. We do need more height and athleticism in midfield. I am a fan of Steven Davis but think he fell below his normal 7/10 level today. Jack Stephens has done better than I expected but we definitely need to replace Fonte Meantime Yoshida has done OK Nice to win at Vicarage Rd for a change but Watford reminded me a bit of the old Wimbledon Good support from the saints fans.

Well done Good for you and many best wishes for the future

Denis Rofe?

Agree Even those fans 'of a certain age' around us were singing with Gusto...... and he is a really loud singer!!

Really hope Sam makes it and with the Saints A few more 'specials' like he scored against Blackburn in the U23 cup a year or so back would be great if worn in a Saints shirt

Could well be that Saints, Bournemouth, Brighton and Reading will be in the Prem next season but that is irrelevant as all that really counts is 'real' football in Divs 3 & 4 (as was)

Any idea why the official attendance showed an apparent 5,000 short of the 90,000 capacity. Must say I didn't see many empty seats?

Duncan Yes I can see how this comment could be misconstrued. It wasn't meant the way it appears to have been read. I suppose the most frustrating thing about Man Utd is the amount of their 'support' emanating from outside the Manchester metropolitan area and it seems I poorly articulated this point. My apologies.

I have yet to see the recording of the match but I have received an unexpected amount of texts and emails from a variety of sources (all neutral) complimenting the team on its performance and the fans for their support. In the reports I have read in the papers today this theme is underlined in the press reports. eg The Times ..'Southampton attacking their hugely vocal support, kept storming forward, chasing the equaliser. Redmond had a volley athletically saved, sending up the Saints volume. A couple of stewards in our section said they were mightily impressed with the colour from our end (credit to the club for the scarves) compared to the drabness of the United end. Also we were talking to a trio of the Mets finest after the game and they said how refreshing it was to be able to police fans who were generally good humoured and well behaved and not 'part human idiots' (their words not mine) as was often the case by supporters of certain clubs. The most noticeable difference between the two sets of fans was the family make up of our group (lots of Dads with kids and wives/partners) whereas the vast majority of Man Utd fans were early 20's or middle aged, overweight and drab. There was quite a few foreign looking/foreign sounding Utd followers who presumably have been attracted by the chance to follow a successful team whilst having no particular affinity to the area where the club is based. However I suppose this is no different to the Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool's of this world. I suspect there were quite a few Utd supporters a bit disappointed that some of their provocative comments and chants were not challenged by Saints supporters leaving the game. No doubt it could have got a bit hairy leaving the ground if we had won, just as it was, in my experience, in 1976 as Utd fans seem to have a large sense of entitlement. Whilst disappointed that we lost, I am really proud of the team, the club and the supporters just as I was when we left the San Siro after a game we really should have won in Milan. We may not have won yesterday but I feel sure our stock within the football fraternity in this country and beyond has gone up another couple of notches. Lets hope we can maintain the upward rise. Well done to all!!!!!!!!

Not one foreign player 12 English 4 Scots 3 Irish 2 Welsh 1 N Irish

Correction, I looked up George Best's entry in Wikipedia. He actually made his debut as a 17 year old the previous September v WBA and started more regular appearances after the Xmas fixtures, so he was very likely to start in the Cup fixture at the Dell. All I can really remember about the game are the two Saints goals, the one from Chivers being a real cracker, and the mistake from Tommy Traynor that allowed Man Utd to score the winner. We had been knocked out of the Cup the previous season by Man Utd at the semi final stage at Villa Park

There has been a bit on the TV recently about a new film on the life of George Best,(for the youngsters on here - one of the most talented footballers of his generation. He would have been even more of a superstar these days) One of the clips shown is, I am fairly sure, from the Saints v Man Utd 3rd round tie on 4 Jan 1964 at the Dell which Man Utd won 3-2 following a late winner, after Saints were up 2-0 at HT thanks to goals by Martin Chivers and Terry Paine. Saints were in gold shirts and black shirts on the day and I am sure Tony Godfrey was shown in the clip hence the recognition of the game. 29,164 crammed into the Dell that day. If my recollection is correct, it is odd that this clip is shown in the film as I am pretty sure George Best would not have featured in the game