dellboypete

what's the latest news then? (on the injury that is - as I can't be bothered to read through the various arguments on "was it" or "wasn't it" a foul?)

Got back late last night after having a long weekend via York - where our son and daughter-in-law and our three month our grand-daughter live (handy excuse for northern games). Not much to add to the various posts except: 1. After the break Sunderland started playing a very physical game and nobody on here has pointed out that it was clear that poyet told his players to be very physical on Lallana. Several times in the first 15 mins of the 2nd half he was repeatedly targeted and eventually they took catermole off - he had already been booked and could easily have been sent off. I'm assuming Lallana went off with an injury? 2. After the game had a long chat with a load of home fans in the Tesco Extra next to the metro station where we parked. Always amazes me at the completely opposite views you get of a match (obviously I'm completely unbiased!). None of them would accept that we played them off the park in the first half - their view was that they they played rubbish, not that we had played well. I tried to explain to them that the reason they looked rubbish was because we dominated possession and should have been 3 or 4 up at half time. Astonishingly they all seemed to think that they dominated the 2nd half completely. OK - they had several periods when were under the cosh but I still think there was only one team out there playing football. 3. On the way back we stopped at the cunningly named A19 Services on the A19 (believe it or not!) just north of Teeside. Who should get out of a Golf GTI but our own Jay Rodrigues! My daughter was almost having orgasms as he was with, and I quote, "a couple of really hot guys!". Turns out they were going back to Burnley for the rest of the weekend.

Almost forgot there was a game on this weekend with all this excitement! And I'm going!!

Anybody invited KL along for a pint before the game - to get the low down? William Jameson looks the most likely so far

Just arrived in the office in St Jame's Sq , SW1- no news here and we are surrounded by hedge funds who claim to know everything

We've come a long way with NC 5 years ago this week we were just about to draw at Millwall (Having previously lost at Colchester) 4 years ago we had just hammered Oldham away 6-0 both in league 1 still can't believe where we are now

The sunseeker deal would make (a tiny eeny weeny ) bit of sense - as they have said recently that they were looking at building a new 'ship' yard in soton as their plant in Poole couldn't be expanded to build the really large boats for which demand is increasing.

I see they are going to be closing it overnight for repairs or cycle lanes or something in the next few weeks. I don't go over it very often, but have they finished the roadworks at the soton end which caused chaos before christmas?

Matt Dickenson in The Times this morning has a full page spread - obviously doesn't think to much of AVB. However there is a foto of avb looking particularly haggard - and right along side it is the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal for the homeless and destitute. It's too much of a coincidence surely. I took a foto on my mobile and sent it round and caused a lot of mirth. (It actually reminded me of the foto somebody posted on here of the Samaritans signs on the Itchen Bridge, with St Marys in the back ground when we were relegated and almost out of business)

We a sticky thread for the latest injury updates

I'm predicting that the traffic and parking in town will be pretty horrendous. Seem to be roadworks everywhere at the mo, especially at the end of the Itchen Bridge which seems to screw everything up. And combined with the queues into ikea, looks like an early start and will try to get some christmas shopping done!

Agree with this - he took us as far as he could - just very unfortunate it coincided with the false accusations against hiim. I thought he was a decent bloke and actually have been surprised that he didn't achieve more after Saints

You can't beat this - in fact it is the ring tone on my mobile

I worked in Moscow in the late 90's - during one of the coldest winters on record a "warm" front came through and the temp rose from -32 to -15 - and the sun came out - people were out on the streets in T-shirts drinking vodka at the many kiosks dotted around the city!

A good article - but much of this has been repeated in other articles since we got on the press radar in the top six of the table. Coincidentally, I was having to clear space on the tv recorder the other night to make way for our boys playing for England (waste of time as it turned out). I still had some games from the end of the Championship season and early Prem under Adkins - so I sat down and watched them (well flicking through.). What really surprised me was how much our style of play has changed over the past year or so. I know so much has been written and as a ST holder and traveller to over half away games every season I should be fully aware, it's not until I actually rewatched us that the change really hit me. In our Championship year we were never out of the top two all season, but to be honest I couldn't remember us using the long ball as much as we did (or seemed to anyway) - having said that, once we got over the shock of the first half dozen games last season we started playing some half decent football - just in time for Pochettino's arrival. I thought Pardew did really well for us, Adkins was amazing, but Poch has taken us to another level. Hopefully it will last.

and I'm finding it a bit uncomfortable - probably 'cos I'm not used to it. Then people at work fawning over saints - it's getting surreal

Just to quote that hypocritical b*stard Still can't believe he didn't take MLT to the world cup

Good plan - I hear Grimsby and S****horpe are fighting to sign him!

It was a cold dark and wet January night!! Sums it up - I was in the top tier and had most of the back 10 rows to myself - good view though! And a great second half

Agree with this - they looked very good at OT last week and were unlucky to get a point according to many pundits. It will be a really tough test for us, but I think we should be good for a 0-0

Did anyone see the programme last week "No sex please, we're Japanese?" addressed this very point (mentioned on another thread somewhere) - if the current drop in birth rate continues then the Japanese population is going to shrink rapidly - by 20 million in 40 years or so (can't remember exactly - or even near).

Some of the Manchester trains stop at Stoke - when we went up to Old T a couple of weeks ago, piles (ok quite a lot) of Port Vale fans got on at Stoke, going to their game at Sheff Utd. The train suddenly went from full to very full, until they got off at Stockport. Although I fail to see why this would push up the cost

From what I've read in the spanish press most of spain will be tuning to saints v fulham as they have heard that we have taken the barca style a step further and want to see what all the fuss in the european press is all about!!

Dead handy for Old Trafford!

Wouldn't it give a better overall picture if the positions were based solely on total points per position criteria (as above)? Rather than an average position?