david in sweden

He might want to ..Palace have signed PAUL HART for the remainder of this season.:smt041

can't forget him .Last time I saws him play (for Latvia v. Sweden) he was still going strong and was M.O.M. He came to keep Pahars company but it seems he could never get himself out of the Reserves. Very unfair on him really, he still looks very good in a poor Latvian side.

with everyone knocking themselves out to spell it, pronounce it ..or sing it seems to me the logic is to simply call him ......O.C.

Oh come on Minty, with a 5-0 win who needs stats ? we'll look at it tomorrow. WHOOOOOOOOOOPEE!

.and it sounds like it . I mean 5-0\\:D/....How on earth did we let them get NIL ?

I have to say that only the best journos get a good interview, and the rest only put their own words in the managers mouth and it's a total waste of time. Swedish reporters are worse than most. The Swedish language is much smaller than English, devoid of imagination for interrogative situations and they always follow a pattern. " OK, you won / lost ..How does it feel ? " well, its a big hard at the moment..!!!! " (after which you lose all interest/ or alternatively burst into laughter ) as there are few really descriptive adjectives for the situation. Either you won well ..and there are few words to describe the orgasmic sensation, or you've lost ..and who the heck wants stupid, embarrasing questions from an idiot who ought to leave him alone to die in a quiet corner. Better they stick to commentaries.

I've got an older book on Saints 1885-1987 which shows a photo from the SF v. Notts Forest with our player wearing stripes, presumably Saints wore the same for the 1902 losing final v. Sheff Utd, who I recall used to play in blue/white stripes ? Q: When were change strips introduced ? Was it compulsory from the early days ..or ? As a lad I had an old book with club shirts in and (as I recall) there were very few other clubs who had red striped shirts (Sunderland, Sheff Utd ?) although Saints used to have a pre-season Stripes v.Whites practice game, so that the white shirt may have been our " change strip" even back in the 1930's. However, most interesting was long shot of the pitch showing a (half) heart-shaped 6 yard box (!)...and a line across the pitch (roughly as current penalty area) - but from touchline to touchline. Presumably, to conform to the "old offside law " later changed in the 1920's.

but this time, it's quite unenviable. QPR have now appointed Neil Warnock as their 12th manager in the last 4 years:smt103. After all the abuse and snide articles from the media during the reign of the former " never again to be named " chairman, we now surely have lost that stigma forever. Of course it leaves Palace deeper in the sh**e than they were before and the aforementioned Neil Danns who was persuaded (by Warnock) that his success in the future lay with Palace, must be wondering what he's woken up to this morning. Even RL's worst actions can be bettered (or should that be worsened) by QPR.

Boyer and MacDougall seemed to have played together forever in many teams,but Boyer started as a junior at Derby and MacD. at Liverpool and York. They first came together at Bournemouth in 1970 but were separated when MacD had an indifferent year at Man.Utd before moving onto Norwich in 1973 and was joined by Boyer in 1974 where they carried on their tremendous partnership. MacD was first to come to saints in Sept.76, and Boyer came a year later. They actually played together for Saints for about 15 months although it seemed much longer at the time. As with all " journeyman" they eventually move on. Mac D moved to Bournemouth a second time but Boyer stayed until Nov.1980 before moving to Man.City after Channon had returned. During their Saints days they scored regularly Boyer 162 games yielding 61 goals and MacD 105 games scoring 48 times. A great time The one great mystery of their careers is that with so many goals between them they never played more internationals. MacD got only 1 cap and Boyer 7.

yes I remember - it was a Martin Chivers hat-trick, I think...and Rochdale were a very lowly placed side ..even then.

Sounds nice.. but my memory plays tricks on me, too. Vectis. Of course Ron Davies had those two BIG seasons when he was leading scorer in Div.1 (Prem) 37 goals in 66/67 ahead of Geoff Hurst, Jimmy Greaves, Allan Clarke and Denis Law ..and Martin Chivers weighed in with 22 that same year. The following year Ron scored 28 (tied with George Best) but it was that season that Chivers left for Spurs. Channon didn't get established until the late 1968 when he and Ron began scoring 25-30 TOGETHER quite regularly, but never hit the top scorers table. It was only in the early 1970's when Ron was out injured more often than he played, and then Channon really came into his own and began scoring 20+every season (after Ron left in 1973). Anyway it was great watching ...and like you I always seemed to think that it was a rare game when at least one of them didn't score. Great days !

yes Dave McLaren, though I recall that reports of the day said that he saved Wolves from a much worse drabbing ...:smt103..the mind boggles what it might have been.

Personally, I always thought that this was a " belt and braces " measure on behalf of a club's Board. If you are lacking in football knowledge, (which many club Chairmen are) lack any vision and are a little uncertain about where your club is going (which Boards often are)... then you "buy in " an old established name ; famous ex-manager or former player, and give them a salary to sit on the Board and give advice. The DOF job is to sit and wait for that day when the Board lose confidence and sack the manager, and don't have the embarrasment of handing over team selection to the reserve team coach, the guy in charge of the boot room or the groundsman. In short the DOB is an insurance policy to keep the fans happy, and help in recruitment of the NEXT manager- should there be a need. Thankfully, I don't think that we are in that position yet.

Tell me about it Duncan, as a consolation, here's a personal reflection from many years ago. As a very young parent, I asked an older colleague what it was like when the children were teenage. After a few moments thought he replied, " well, upto about 14-15, it's a bit difficult ...after that ...it's impossible " Our eldest two have moved from home now and we only have our 18 year old left ...and thats a totally another story ! Good luck Duncan ..and AP.

the MOST amazing thing being ..how can you be leading 9-3 ......after 60 minutes ..and not score any more ?

AS I quoted on another thread - were it not for the -10 , we would see just how GOOD Saints record really is..aside from those few drawn games that we really ought to have won. Try deducting 10 points from everyone else in the league..and then bear in mind that we have 2 games in hand on many teams around us ....and you get a truer picture. As I recall Leeds were not a bad side - even when they were relegated, and they manage to retain some of their better players, so inevitably they did well despite their points deduction. The play-offs are a lottery anyway, so they were just unlucky, as we were in our tie v. Derby (who subsequently showed what a b***** awful side they really were in the Prem.) When we were in the Prem, so too were Charlton and Norwich..not to mention Leeds.. and so there is quality in this division, despite changing managers and players they have all maintained their fan base whereas some teams in L1 think it is good when they get 6,000 for a home game. Many (big)clubs are victims of bad financing and not always bad management.

Interesting isn't it ..how people perceive statements/comments (implied or otherwise). After hearing the NC comments some weeks ago, it was obviously something that AP knew without being told, but I read it as it was a " veiled threat " (from NC).. to some of the players ...that they weren't doing enough. I don't believe that the relationship between NC/AP is anywhere near as "bad" as some people are suggesting, and whereas AP has to ultimately " carry the can" for whatever the seasons outcome will bring, the thought of raising a cup at Wembley can hardly be considered a negative experience. With some of the biggest gates in L1 and the proceeds of a Wembley final -most bankers who are responsible for a football club in this day and age would be pleased to look at the bottom line, (whichever league they are in.)

Think you're right there but many seem to have conveniently forgotten that AP's teams have actually EARNED 51 POINTS so far this season, which would have put them 8th...AND we have two games in hand on teams around us. SO we areain in-form team. Most seasons, at least one of the leading teams dramatically losse form round about now (which could mean that either Leeds or Norwich may even drop down into the play-off zone). AND at least one of the (current) top six will fall away and finish around 9th/10th. (For us we let's hope it's; Huddf'd, MK Dons or Bristol Rovers). SO WHAT'S THAT GOT TO DO WITH SAINTS' 41 points? Quite simply nothing is impossible and if we keep picking up wins until May. Those of us with very long memories recall that in both our prev. promotion seasons we looked nothing special at this time of the season. In 65-66, we drew a ghastly home game 1-1 with Rotherham and headlines read " Saints can cancel the promotion champagne now " ..after whcih we proceeded to finísh the season with a 10 game unbeaten run.,,and finished second behind Man.City. Similar story in 77-78 when we lost a home game 2-3 to lowly Millwall but finished with only one defeat in the last 14 games, and second behind Bolton. While we certainly won't finish second, the whole concept of getting 5th/6th place is not beyond the realms of possibility if we continue winning, and a few more 5 goal wins won't do our already exellent GD any harm either.

3-0 ..? Nice to get a win, but the OS says the score was 2-1 ?.. This was the same match - wasn't it ?

really good start thread MarkSFC I agree 100%. Everyone has a right to an opinion blah, blah, but why would any real fan want to come on week after week and slag down everyone. If our team were "perfect" we'd be above Norwich and Leeds already but at least we STILL have a club, an enthusiastic chairman and a billionaire owner. (Am I dreaming or ..) what club wouldn't want that.? I feel sorry for people who have to come on and moan every time. After 50 years as a fan.. I'm more philosphical and have seen the ups and downs, and we are on the up..even if it isn't at quite the pace some people want. I like the look of this season so far and next will be even better I'm sure ..no matter which league we are in.

Maybe teams who visit SMS should practice on a billiard table before they come.... and get to know how flat a real pitch should be :smt033

? what was the question again .. likely answer NO, or maybe YES :confused:

over 34,000 visits to this thread ...has so much electricity ever been spent in pursuit of a player who won't be signing for us because he doesn't want to ...

I think we need an AP " excuse thread " until the end of the season. Some people conveniently overlook / forget, that we did start 10 points worse off than everyone else. Despite the fact we've had some good results, and some disappointing away draws, we will still have to be ten points better than everyone else just to qualify for the play-offs. Both Leeds and Norwich have squads that have (more or less) been together for a couple of seasons. Apart from a new goalie, AP has bought a whole new team and has to make it work ASAP. Not an easy task. You have to ask yourself what people would be saying if we CORRECTLY placed in the table, based on our proper results ...and not our deductions !

in the squad, I don't think so. Some people were complaining about the surplus of players in the squad, but with the current injury list, it's a good job we have them all. Murty (sadly) is out for the rest of the season, Connolly's return is long overdue. Schneiderlin out, so too is James. We know Seaborne is new - but he's unavailable because of injury. Thank goodness that Hammond is back and that we have the three of the newer players fit enough to play. Without them, " the rest " look, for the most part, like last seasons leftovers - and we all know what happened then. None of the younger bunch look good enough to come in permanently -another repeat of last season - IMHO it's a good job that AP bought those he did when he had the chance. Pity he didn't get Danns though. Apparently, the Palace manager persuaded him that he had a better future staying with them. ..(well at least that was before they got their -10 point deduction) , and so he'll likely be playing football in L1 next season ...no matter who he's with.