rallyboy

yeah, credit where it's due - this could be the first financially-viable appointment by the club in over ten years. Apart from the compensation package that they can't afford... I believe they were lucky yesterday, I heard the forest boss saying that his side dominated the game, were on the wrong side of some decisions, and should definitely have won - so you have to feel sorry for him. In fact you have to feel sorry for anyone who ever considered him to be a sensible manager and were chanting his name a month ago! Thanks Steve for wasting a couple of million and a year and a half! Another legend to join Storrie etc. Let's hope his old mate Lampitt continues with the hilarious 'quality over quantity' social experiment.

we are in a false position, we haven't played anyone above us yet.

as several of the experts around me always shout, why can't we just kick the ball up the field when we are pressured - what could go wrong? I recall it worked so well when we gave the ball back to Everton that time and let them have one last attack... So more big aimless kicks and less of this fussy ball retention please - we might give a goal or two away this season through playing it around. And score about 100.

sorry Matt but signing a few old journeymen on delayed payments and fixing a toilet flush isn't investment - signing some good players and launching a realistic design for a new stadium that doesn't involve the £100M compulsory purchase of dockyard and waterfront and a promo still from Blade Runner would be investment. In the summer they just spent the club income, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that there is an injection of fresh money (not more loans) to put the club back on track. And I take it no one wants to take the job until Cotterill and Forest have been and gone - imagine starting with a 3-0 home defeat to the bloke who took them to obscurity? Then again if pompey win I guess it will be despite Forest being the better side and the ref letting them down etc...could be confusing.

latest rumour I just heard this evening from a member of the few (who I see socially every few weeks!) - the Russians agreed a price of £12M for the club. Amount still owed - £12M. Therefore, man still in control of all things pompey - Chanrai. I accept no responsibility for the credibility of this rumour, as it originates from the spiritual home of the urban myth it is buyer beware. But quite damning if true, so lets run with it! It might explain the lack of investment, just try to cover the overheads and worry about the sale price and CVA another day...

my understanding is that one of Hayling's most famous financial experts did indeed recently have cause to hold a celebratory party regarding his good fortune with a problem. Sometimes good fortune can be linked to a transfer from dock to witness stand, but realistically I guess the whole botched affair is fizzling out in a blur of freemasonry and legal failings. A pity really because even the very few deserve answers and you get the impression now that there will never be any conclusions or detail released about the last few years of blatant criminality. That said, why do we still have to put up with pub myths coming from the east? Stands being shut, 13,000 free tickets at SMS, free for the unemployed, free kids, I'm not sure any of our supporters are actually paying - no wonder we can't afford to own the ground and are heading towards administration again buried under massive debts because our owners have given up and have been trying to sell for over a year.... Dock strike, tank commander? - makes me chuckle that so many of the deluded are dim enough to believe everything they are told by toothless, pothead, sister-botherering, lucky heather vendors. Then again Lampitt has relied upon this slowness of thought to spin his way to their current glorious position without anyone demanding his immediate resignation.

surprise, surprise, they win a corner away from home and suddenly its all open top buses again, commemorative horse brass, civic receptions, and Ho returns to put us right on all matters pompey. Pray do tell - what is the latest exciting news from the club that time forgot? Because from where we are, you have a bunch of owners who have done...er...nothing. The team is struggling way below the position those players should be in. Lampitt and Cotterill spent more on a useless striker than we did on Lambert. Halford is on massive money and looks awful. The attendances have collapsed. The ground is crumbling. The CVA is an elephant sat in the corner. But the spin continues. Please advise how much of this is incorrect... And thanks for the favour last night, a result that helped neither of you but cheered us up - we'll try and help your relegation battle when we go to Coventry.

so basically they have put down a bit of carpet and plan to fix a toilet. While on the pitch the overpriced and overpaid squad is having an absolute nightmare, but at least Ben Haim is now getting his HUGE wages. And when did they talk Spurs out of their million quid? Did I miss that?

I do enjoy messing with their minds. For door-to-door I just stare and don't join in when they ask questions, which throws them as they are trying to create a conversation. I also ignore ID cards when they wave them, they hate it when you don't interact. I'm not rude, I just tend to tell them that I don't really have any interest. If they persist, I act even more weird until they leave - it is fun! The phone is different - zero tolerance - there is a company called Phruit Marketing that has been caught out selling random details of people out of the phonebook and telling companies that these people are hot leads for finance/conservatories/double glazing. They ignore the TPS and are very annoying so I take action whenever I get a call.

I have yet to visit a ground anywhere in the country where I haven't got at least one moron sat within five metres of me. The Northam is no different, most people are sound but there is an idiot behind me who slags off Kelvin even when he has just saved a penalty, there is a bloke to my left who pleads with players to hoof the ball up the pitch at every opportunity, despite the fact that we have played our way up approx 46 places in a year and a bit by NOT doing this. So for me, most people in the Northam are cool and are there for the atmosphere - no better nor worse than at any ground in the country. People who slag off their own fans at games - idiots. And no doubt you'll have an idiot within a few metres of you tomorrow night - but you'll also have plenty of sensible people who just support their club as best they can. If we can keep it down to maybe 100 bellends out of 25K I think we are doing alright.

in media circles O'Driscoll is considered to be the dullest man in Europe. No more lunatic quotes, no more grabbing the microphone - we may be in for a boring few months until he can get a proper job.

on the arm would be one of the traditional areas to think about.

great cross and finish for the first one, great move and finish for the second - and the third one will be used in future as a great example of stylish ball retention, even showboating, but with end product! If West Ham and Boro are the calibre of opposition we need to worry about, we are the real deal. Stars all over the pitch, well done Nige. I'm off to a meal out in Waterlooville where the tumbleweed will be blowing around the streets as they try to ignore the league table. Another happy day. I love football. And well done to the Kingsland, great noise today, especially the excitable little group in ties that looked like they had never been allowed out before let alone to a big game - top marks for enthusiasm!

when Eddie Howe says he is staying at Burnley 100%, will Lampitt manage to negotiate that down to 20% over five years, meaning Howe will actually be at Fratton most of the time, less expenses?

bit of bombshell news for the minority, so brace yourselves..... Life may not always be this good.... If you aren't enjoying your football now, you may be beyond help! We might even find that grinding out a 1-1 draw against Everton/Villa/Whoever isn't quite as exciting as beating West Ham in the 2nd tier. So for your own sanity, enjoy what we are seeing, tis a golden era - take in the moment. There will be plenty to moan about in the future, don't run out of frowns yet, I'm sure you will need them at some point. And as for people ringing radio stations to copmplain about our lot - isn't that a bit insulting to teams who are really struggling? I bet our former top flight buddy Luton Town feels really sorry for us.

so it wasn't the wages or the ridiculous transfer fees, it wasn't even the massive agent fees that pushed them to the brink - it was the fact that one of their toilets flushes too much. Note to board, make fans wait until they can't get the lid down before flushing in future, the water bill savings will keep the CVA on track and allow the new arena development to get going.

it sounds like the MOD accountant was perfectly correct. But incredibly insensitive and stupidly unaware of the PR damage caused by the clumsy handling of it. What gets me about these types of decision is that it wasn't 'the MOD' who handled this poorly, it was a human being - someone actually sat there one day and thought to themselves, 'shall I tell the family we have deducted money because their kid was killed?'...and they decided it was quite clear, he was dead, he didn't work the hours he was supposed to - rules are rules, must let them know. Perhaps the individual concerned may consider the enormous PR damage next time for the sake of £400 - the tabloids must think it's Christmas, they didn't even have to make this one up. So yes, technically correct decision but appallingly dealt with - shot themselves in the foot then reloaded and did the other one. There is an old adage that rally drivers have one accident a year to remind them where the limit is - in that tradition I try to agree with Dune once a year if I can. Think that might be twice now, but it is October.

its okay, we'll have the world cup soon as the rest of the world loves us so much, and then the FA will pay for the new harbourdome. No doubt we'll win it as well with our next 'golden generation'. If that's too long to wait pompey just need to ask for investment - and the next collection of loan sharks and property developers will see an injured animal in desperate need of short term cash and move in for the kill. Though Redkeith makes a valid point about fitting the home crowd into two stands.... They could turn the pitch now and only have three stands. That would screw the child-maimer, he wouldn't have any options for selling the bit where the goal has a pavement behind it.....then again he could build his own stand and undercut them...maybe not, that's as mad as the harbourdome idea.... And I'm not sure if they have the money for repainting the white lines let alone some turf.... Or perhaps Storrie and Lampitt have driven them up a business cul-de-sac and they are fecked!

wasn't breakeven approx 14,000? - and that was before they fell about £10M short on transfer fees. With the current wagebill running too high as well the russians will have to chuck money in to stand still. So how long before we're treated to confirmation of a further delay of the CVA payments? That should come in January I reckon - a letter to creditors saying there isn't funding to pay the CVA yet, at the same time as they will outbid bigger clubs and sign two or three players on silly wages. Same sh=t, different transfer window.

Ruined is a bit harsh - all they did was stole money intended to improve the short lives of terminally-ill children, you're making out it was something really bad... Everyone makes mistakes, easy to do, you collect money for a charity, pretend to hand it over to get your photo in the paper, put it in your own pocket. Go home that night and think, mmmm, the cancer charity probably needs it more than we do.....feck em, let's spend it on loanees instead, they can stick their little wheelchairs where the sun don't shine.* And I'm sure all of those local businesses raped by the club will have got over it by now - forgive and forget as they say in Mossad. Disappointed they haven't been talking to Avram, nothing quite as funny as an old man shuffling around a dirty industrial estate with his club tracksuit trousers around his ankles and his little chap sticking out like a wrinkly hitchhiker's thumb. *I think Ho is also appalled but will tell us they have paid it all off, though despite Lampitt's claims, the jury is still very much out on that one. The crime is so bad that I don't care if it is all cleared, it should NEVER have happened. Presumably Ho has been banged up as a result of his blatant disregard for a court injunction.

the lesson I took from it was if you are going to be 1-0 and down to ten men, do it against Reading and not Man City.

quite a difficult time to be negotiating I would suggest - then again if they think you are the best one for it they will pay more than for a lesser candidate, so if you get the job offer you will have some leverage - but use it carefully. I've seen people try to haggle and look very greedy, an ugly trait to display before you even start, and enough to lose you the opportunity. If you really feel you are worth more you can always go for a review after three months, then six...or if you really want the job just take the £18K or whatever when it is offered. Either way I'm sure you will be on more than my initial £25 a week! In the current climate I reckon haggling over salary will be the least of your concerns, good luck with it. Cue older people with lower starting wages.....

I was with Jonny on that one - thought I might be safe on a Saints forum! Never mind, looks worth watching - and saves Mrs RB spending the whole evening desperate to tell me the score.

it may be no bad thing to have a humbling moment after the West Ham game, we didn't look like champions tonight and that should motivate players. And I would rather have that wake up call in the style of a tough away point than a battering from Millwall on our own patch having spent a fortune. Good point, great goal, Saints march on.

if you have dominated a game, produced the best performance of the season and still failed to register a goal let alone a point - isn't it time to be a little bit worried? Surely playing poorly and getting turned over is one thing, but finding that your best isn't good enough indicates a real problem. That said, I expect a win over mighty Donny in front of what must be a slightly improved crowd now that they realise they need to attend to get tickets for their cup final - 13K?