rallyboy

When struggling visitors with no manager outplay you at home, even the most ardent Whittingham fan must be wondering about the future. I was expecting a 3-0 home win that would have kept him in work until Feb, but things look dismal. How long before Connolly and the keeping coach take control? I see the packed fortress of fat is starting to show gaps as well. For those people who are disappointed that Saints didn't go top today, there's always someone worse off. And then there is pompey. It feels cruel to mock. Anyone still feel that despite lack of official sanctions and leniency by both courts and the FL, they haven't been punished yet? Look at that league table. Another couple of defeats and they are set for another year in the basement.

Couldn't sleep, had a listen. Been up 50 mins and we have scored 5 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. Ouch. Could be a long series.

The return of a former hero. In his last stint he must have been the highest paid goalkeeping coach in Premier League history, and did he bring in Niemi to drag the last few quid out of their bank? Oh well, all forgotten now.

That's odd because I'm sure Avram Grant claimed that West Ham had the bestest fans when he left fatpipes following his excellent stint guiding the plucky blue troops faraway from bigboy football. Presumably the gates at Upton Park must have dropped off a bit since Potts was ripping up the Premier League and Avram was working his magic. He wouldn't have let pompey sink like they have. Rather than wasting money on journeymen, I'm sure Avram would have splashed out on youth.

Yeah I get the album bit, the interest in football and the nostalgic quest to complete it - it's just the odd finale. Presumably he'll spend a year writing the book, get them all printed and then chuck them in The Solent too?

pompey stars pledge to put an end to hollow promises spun through local media to satisfy the easily-led. player A has issued a rallying call to the faithful saying 'we need to cut out these tired old quotes spun through templates'. The former ---- hitman is predictably standing firm behind underfire manager ----- claiming that the players will turn it round. 'The lads were gutted with the defeat at -----, especially after we had dominated the first -- minutes, so we had strong words to make sure it never happens again, there are characters in the dressing room, and we all know we need to stand up' player A went on to praise the travelling blue army for backing the team in testing circumstances. Despite the weather and distance and the clash with a one hour Emmerdale special, -- fans made the journey. 'Even though we lost and played appallingly, the fans never gave up, even after ---- was sent off, and with a bit of luck we might have nicked something for them at the death'. Despite the X-0 defeat, there is still a lively spirit in the dressing room, as demonstrated by the recent arrest of out-of-favour utility player ----- on suspicion of ----- in Southsea. That won't stop the mighty blue army packing the park to the rafters for the upcoming visit of minnows ----. But skipper ---- issued a warning to those fans who think the game against ---- will be a pushover. 'Even though they are a tiny club compared with us, ---- will be organised, and playing in such a great arena will bring out the best in them.' 'I'm not saying it is their cup final, but it is the sort of game they would expect after seven or eight ties drawn out of a velvet bag and immediately preceded by a semi-final'. While visitors ---- are on a good run compared with pompey, captain fantastic is also keen to utilise the best 12th man in world football. 'The support at ---- was amazing, and we want to repay that faith with a win against ---- on ----'. When asked about the calls for change, the plucky journeyman said 'it is up to us to show that we won't be cajoled into dull and pointless quotes anymore', adding 'the gaffer will be looking for a response, we just need belief, we need to turn fatpipes into a fortress!' Manager ----'s battling troops did have a boost this week when it was confirmed that the tactical change from machine gun paragraphs had been an overwhelming success. 'Indeed it has been'. Said a spokesman. Reflecting on the changes. With a big home test to come.

Something odd is going on... They bang three goals past someone, then the same team goes out the next week and looks like they have never heard of football let alone played it before. Is that inconsistent players or poor tactics and management? Who cares! It's bloody funny after all the gobbing off about how crap we were and how they would dominate us for a thousand generations.

Guy Whittingham admitted he and his players had let Pompey fans down and vowed: It will never happen again. That's from September. How's that plucky promise going? I see even Claridge is getting bored with the spin, he's had a little pop on Twitter about which player wil be wheeled out next to tell the easily-led what they want to hear. 'We'll bounce back, let's turn fatpipes into a fortress, I'll fire the goals, he'll cut out the mistakes, we'll put together and fight, blah, blah, yawn.'

Torres is right, I tend to ask the few that I see if the club is still trading. And those accounts just support that theory.

11 Portsmouth men were killed on the first day of Third Ypres. Seven of them were fighting with the 1st Portsmouth Pals, more properly known as the 14th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment There were at least a further 13 battalions? I thought portsmouth fought all alone out there? Though I feel dirty even addressing this latest myth about all Southampton men being cowards during wartime - it is the work of the most bitter, deluded and mentally ill, and shames the club that these few but vocal social misfits attach themselves to. Right up there with the SS tank commander tripe. God knows what they teach as history down there. As for Twitter. Could I politely suggest that a senior club official abusing rival supporters on social media is unprofessional in the extreme. Mr McInnes may be a bit of a character but I haven't seen him slagging off other clubs so I tend to take it easy on him. Ditto the likes of Farmery. But as Mr Hall has climbed into the ring and fired the first salvo it is now open season. Perhaps he's already forgotten the last time that he got all gobby online. How's the begging going? Managing to fit it in with the cosy role as a little puppet for the Trust? Dance little puppet boy dance.

is that a glorious victory to the world's top Phoenix club with a history of FA Cup success, or a savage defeat for the world's most deluded property-developing company? I wouldn't know myself as me and my cowardly mates hid in the New Forest until the Germans were chased away by the plucky residents of portsea. At least we now know that a single city won both world wars for us and saved the rest of the country. And their sensible fans wonder why this thread still burns so brightly.

a historic day - proof that they have actually paid off a debt - and filed accounts!! I congratulate them and for one post only I reinstate the capital letter that I normally only reserve for proper football clubs that work within the laws of the country and the game. Well done Portsmouth FC. Now perhaps have a look at paying off the rest, and while you are on, cut out the awful rallying warcry plucky troops nonesense still being spun in the local press. No one cares what striker pledges to fire the goals etc, you lost to Newport reserves not Juventus. Get real.

Mack manages something that lesser skates have failed to do, the thread has halted. There is no answer to that...

re the legal stuff - the majority of the info hailed by the few as investigative golddust had already been highlighted on here and dismissed as jealous scummah myths. But most posters didn''t cross the clear legal lines and follow up links with rash claims, because they realised it could get them and the site into trouble. Or shot. If however you don't have knowledge of journalism and the law, and your priority was to blacken the name of business opponents on behalf of a consortium, you might be less concerned about the ramifications of what you publish. It's all in the wording Paradise. I rarely actually name people or get too specific, even though you might have your own ideas about who I mean. For instance, if someone hadn't been charged with serious offences and perhaps spoke English, I wouldn't go too heavy on the money-laundering and pensioner theft references. That approach protects myself, and Mr Grant who publishes it - I'm sure he has to pull the occasional posts that do cross the line and attract the attention that other sites seem to have embraced. As pointed out, it could have gone away, but it was part of a PR campaign, and one that worked. The other approach is the safety in numbers policy - see Redknapp. Personally I'm wary of what I say, but his legal people would need ten years to deal with Twitter alone. More people should follow my approach. I abducted a legal expert a couple of years ago and have them on 24 hour duty shackled next to me here in the shed, ready to offer advice - but it's not all work. We mainly drink bovril and eat crisps. And talk about steam engines.

you're right Mr D, the real blow is to cashflow. A home tie in the FA Cup + a big 3rd Rd tie + a semi final in the JPT would have covered their annual wagebill, or at least a chunk of the debts. Missed opportunities - and about £40M lost to the local economy.

portsmyth - the 2013 international city of begging. And all because a bloke cherrypicked and carefully edited the investigative highlights of this thread. We really ought to chip in. How about we organise a fundraising match but cancel it due to lack of support - or have a mass walkout and boo our own players at SMS like we do most weeks? We could get the council to give us land and we could sell it for £20M. Or maybe we could have a sponsored dock strike, hand over a big cheque, but keep the money and spend it on prossies? Hopefully Europe's leading pudding-basin-hairstyled journo will make enough money from his ongoing indepth investigative project on the Trust board. Should be in the shops anyday now. Though I do fear another plucky child with a solitary tear of blue hope appeal might hit the media sometime soon...please support the man who exposed all the amazing facts about child-maimers, money-laundering, and the mafia - he wants your cash, and not stuff stolen from pensioners or 1p in the pound, he wants the lot. Then again if you've already chucked a grand down the fatpipes $hitter for no return, what's another few quid? Another pompey-related minor crisis that was entirely predictable.

on his terms, and only if he wants to. TV 'Experts' missed the point entirely and mocked his appointment as a massive mistake, highlighting that he can't even speak to the players. They seem to be confused by someone who speaks a 2nd language but who doesn't wish to be grilled in that 2nd language, leading to misunderstandings and damaging headlines. I suspect that he sees the likes of Mourinho spouting rubbish every week like a circus clown and considers a more measured approach as the most constructive approach for a proper club that doesn't do it's deals via the media.

The best way to sum it up for me is that I found it much sadder leaving The Dell than I did getting relegated. When the ground went, many of us left behind memories, and you feel like you've lost parts of your life. Whereas relegation comes knocking on the door from about September onwards and really wasn't a surprise. And anyway, I suspected that we'd be back from the third tier to third in the country within no time at all...

I loved the New York album and some of the earlier stuff, but let's not pretend that everything he produced was great. I thought he was looking well on MotD, considering.

you also have to understand that some of the bitterness that pours out on here is fuelled by living on the frontline and having to hear the deluded claims about dock strikes etc everyday. With all due respect, I doubt that Woking is full of gobby Skates who refuse to accept the league tables as fact, and gob off about how rubbish Lambert/Lallanna is, how desperate England must be, and how they are the biggest team in Hampshire with the best support in world football. That should be taken into account before sentencing nutjobs.

mongs? Nice touch. when was the last post about the takeover? Errr, six minutes earlier... As was pointed out two years ago when a certain someone described everyone on here as nutjobs and said the thread was over, it has evolved into a news portal of all things Skate. And before the pedant police arrive, I believe the takeover won't complete for approx another three or four years when the terms have been honoured - so technically this takeover is still ongoing, but a name change to the thread might be in order. The other little thing that I do on this forum is, if I'm not interested in the subject, I tend not to look at the thread. For instance, if we lose today and the mad people go bonkers, I'll not bother to look, let alone post. Ditto for a discussion on the history of the doorstop or a debate about the different gear linkages on pre-war looms - if you aren't interested, just don't get involved.

Good point Hatch, he has been very lucky as he speaks no English and can't communicate with half of the squad - according to some gullible tabloid readers. What a crazy mistake the club made there... I remember all those people from other clubs gobbing off and hoping we got relegated post-Nige, some supporting Harry and QPR to survive so that we would go down, others predicting Saints in freefall. Add in the media-organised handkerchief non-protest, and people of a mischievous nature might be inspired to say at this point, up yours. Fickle old business. Three losses on the trot and some will be asking for his head. In the meantime, what a journey!

He wants to be the best. A bit of shiny tat from a bunch of bankers doesn't quite hack it - you get no points for it. Fair play to him, and well done. Onwards and upwards.

if we are linking the two subjects, could I just point out that one Skate told me recently that Lambert is a just a lazy and overweight journeyman... The other relevant conversation I recall was as I was coming out of fortress fatpipes after our 1-1 draw. I ran into someone I vaguely know who smugly told me that we had no decent players. I said what about Lallana? His mate said he didn't know he was playing. 'He was the one who skinned your entire midfield, in alphabetical order, just in front of the dugout' I observed, waving them off to League Two, and bringing the conversation to a shuddering halt as the bloke obviously wasn't blessed with the IQ to sit the correct way on a toilet. I'm sure they're really pleased with the look of the England squad. And they claim to be football fans.

It's the nasty Football League picking on pompey again! Just like they did when they made them drop down a division when they didn't have many points, and when they horribly let them off a points penalty when all other similar clubs have been punished, and when they allowed them to trade insolvently so that they could launder more stolen money through wages that still haven't been paid, and when they allowed them to sign players during a transfer embargo, and when they turned a blind eye to blatant financial irregularities, and when they didn't investigate why the club had a a ghost owner, etc, etc. Nasty Football League, why don't they pick on someone else for a change?