rallyboy

Buckeroo? Alpine you cheeky scamp, rattling cages with your 'interesting' ideas! I'd just adjusted to accepting we are fighting for 2nd, not really ready to downgrade that to settling for 6th. I understand the policy of resting a key player and taking a risk with an odd game, but not to gamble the whole season. And on the Saints always mess it up idea - don't know about the rest of you but for me that feeling is history. Many feared Everton would score in 2005, and we were all certain that Villa would come back to win, but that mentality is long gone. I was quite happy Sheff Wed would never score on Sat, in fact for all I know they could still be there trying now. This Saints team has mental strength and doesn't fold at the first sign of pressure - the only one who showed signs of that was chucked off the bus and is playing a starring role in Blackpool's horrific descent. But he scored goals - yeah and I caught a glimpse of him in a deckchair reading a paper when Blackburn scored, trust in the man who has tried to manage him, unless his attitude does a U-turn leave him there where he can't do us any damage. So I see no reason for thinking we are going to implode - we didn't freeze at Wembley, teams are dreading us in the play offs, there was no sign of fear at Bournemouth, I'm happy this squad can finish the job. I just wish they'd get on with it!

haven't looked at the post-match thread as I can imagine the content. It was dropped points and a missed opportunity BUT let's not forget Walsall and Tranmere, they were woeful in the build up and decided to raise their game for us. We suffered major injury blows last night and still came through in control of our own destiny. Not happy, but not suicidal. Bottom line for me is Nige knows this league better than us, he wasn't in a panic when he saw Huddersfield, Bmouth and PBoro on amazing runs, he knew they had to blow up, and concentrated on keeping us on track. He now needs to make sure we get the bus of diamonds rowing back in the correct direction, and as a bonus that multi-talented Plymouth squad have kindly arranged us a much-needed rest period before the final assault. The current run ending with an away draw is a major disappointment? We must be making progress.

I don't know why the few are moaning about season ticket terms for next season, why don't they just take out what is described as the club's finance agreement. Surely the club's understanding of a financial agreement is for fans to order the season ticket and promise them £22 a year less expenses, over five seasons, maybe starting sometime in 2012/13.... Or does the club suddenly have a different view of debt when it's owed to them? Cheap shot, but when the barrel is full of fish you just have to let off a few rounds!

I agree with Dune, we should drive more economically.

all those extra fingers, but still incapable of basic maths. Could do with Reading turning them over as the few have two very cushy home games coming up and the form being shown by some in the playoff places is poor. Wouldn't want them to miss out on local derbies next season - unless of course they get dumped down two divisions by a court ruling.

6.69 miles Portsmouth Football Club 9.55 miles Southampton Football Club 669 - one of the neighbours of the beast?

well personally I'm glad we treated them to a few minutes of Markus songs, I'm sure they appreciate that it's done out of genuine respect and gratitude. Their attendance would suggest they still share his dream and have an interest in seeing how his project is progressing, I hope they are there when we clinch 2nd place. And if we do, anyone can sing any song they want about anyone, they can even do it in the wrong key if they like, I won't care.

a poor ref, inconsistent, some very odd decisions. Lambert was constantly fouled. Thankfully it doesn't sound like moaning as we won the game but anyone who thinks he was okay was at a different match. Or perhaps the ref took the lead of a few fans and spent the extra two hours twenty minutes throwing money over a bar meaning that they couldn't stand up, let alone enjoy the game. We have had good refs and given them credit, we have had some woeful ones - defending them whatever mistakes they make is an odd stance. Look at the Peterborough penalty debacle - 3 out of 4 dodgy decisions? Hopefully things like that don't cost us, but players deserve a better quality of official - other than their lanky centre back who couldn't trap a bag of cement and made more mistakes than the ref.

time hasn't been kind to Charlie! Saw Hugh Fisher in Bishops Waltham yesterday - not interesting, just a fact.

The dreaded booking fee beast has arrived at Fratton and the peasants are revolting - I see some rumblings about a 12.5% increase on season tickets and you only have a fortnight to get an early bird deal - and you can't use a credit card because they aren't a proper company. That's the way to tackle a recession and falling gates, hammer the customers who have stuck by you and chase the rest away forever. Once again it's an interesting business plan. Their finances look so fragile that they desperately need us to go up with Brighton to make their season interesting enough for people to attend and to up the ticket income. Championship TV money and ticket sales will cover the wages, parachute clears football debt - that just leaves new player purchases and the ever-delayed cva to plan for. I can't see any money to replace the squad unless they spend future revenues again, and we all know where that leads. They need an exciting season just to cover overheads - Scummers, can't live with them, can't survive without them. Is it July for the tax evasion cases? A points penalty would throw a spanner in the works.

re the pace issue, difficult to be nippy when Fonte has just cut you in half because you aren't physical enough!.... felt really confident after Bmouth, then I couldn't believe that Huddersfield and PBoro both won the other night. They cannot carry on the way they are going....it isn't possible, or if they do we can't complain about losing out as they would both deserve it. I thought Peterborough's run in was tough but the way they are demolishing sides they look unstoppable, but that can change... Really don't want to be having three games in hand to make up 7-8 points. I'm not sure we are going to get that stress-free, promotion sorted before the last day, playoff-dodging finale we hoped for. That aside, no one would want us in a playoff, we have big occasion players and steamrolling Sheff Wed counts for nothing if you have to come to a packed St Marys....or face us at Old Trafford. Quietly confident, but a few butterflies are circling.

‘I don’t think people will be scared off by what’s happened at Portsmouth. The worst has passed now. For sure, the future will be brilliant for the club and for us. In England and not only in England, everybody knows about Portsmouth and what a fantastic club this is.’ ....shouted a deluded, heavily-medicated and self-harming Ricardo Rocha through the barred windows of the ambulance as he was driven away from training in a strait jacket. Thick or in denial?

yep that pretty much looks like the takeover is complete and the thread is over. It's been fun, I've enjoyed the banter, we've made some friends and had some laughs, but all good things come to an end. All the best everyone. unless of course this is just the monthly spin that accompanies the build-up to the wages being due?.............will they get paid, won't they, what potential owner will be asked to pay them etc. They are worth £600M? - taking that as a bloated figure, that will be half of their entire wealth that's needed to turn the club round then - so they intend to sell some of their houses and booming businesses to do this? What an interesting and unique way of operating.

if we really want to get ahead of ourselves the masterplan behind the project must be to build a Prem team this summer... But before we start making offers for the likes of Heskey, Phillips and Bramble, shall we gather a few more points and book the automatic place out of the third tier?

went off Coventry when they signed a fully paid up member of the sex offender's register - was it 13 previous offences? Everyone deserves a 14th chance. Didn't like them much before to be honest, but if clubs stood together and said they wouldn't sign some of the convicts currently in the game it would be a positive move.

no wonder no one goes to watch them anymore, sounds like Boro was the worst game for ages. Cotterill always keep you entertained though...... When we have a poor game I come out and say “yes, we were poor”, I don’t try to spin anything. He then goes on to spin - ‘We could have been three up at half-time with the chances we had and there were a couple of calls for a penalty – you might not get one but might get another. So it sounds like plucky little pompey were unlucky not to win 5-0. He forgot to mention that Boro wasted a one-on-one late on. I wonder if he realises that after five criminal years at number 1 they are heading for 3rd or 4th on the south coast. Where's the Russian cavalry, or have they been shot again?

are we competing to be the harshest critics in the football league? Butterfield 7 - Did nothing wrong. Maybe a 9 might have been nice then? Grinding out a 3-0 win against Yeovil wasn't good enough for many, and just when I thought we had comfortably beaten one of our main competitors for automatic promotion at their own ground it seems from some of the marks that most players were off the pace and we are no better than average, which amounts to midtable form. Lambert sets up one and scores another brilliantly - this qualifies him for a 6? I understand keeping our feet on the ground as we don't look like Brazil in their prime, but the table suggests we are better than these marks. Anyone want to offer some generous marking that reflects the result? Or does this leave Bournemouth players getting all 3's, 4's and 5's?

I don't think Peterborough are as good as the table suggests, they have some tough games to come and yesterday they played against a very different Carlisle to the one that we saw, they looked drunk - and with a soft ref - again. Do some of these smaller teams not bother at grounds like Peterborough and then get all committed when they come to a big ground? We need to keep on pocketing the points and the others will fall away - we have depth in the squad, they don't. Yesterday was pivotal to the season.

sounds like we were really lucky as they should have had a penalty and they were the better side for most of the match. Then again that was from Bradbury's Solent interview. Perhaps he could have said we deserved it. If you've been gobbing off all week and you then get a good spanking on your own patch perhaps a little humility might be in order. And in contrast there's Nige on the radio now accepting that the first goal was correct, it's called honesty. Oh well, onwards and upwards. Well done all, great day.

Cortese will take that attack by the newspaper group as a fresh declaration of war, imo the Bournemouth Echo has damaged the Southampton one and set media relations back, it's more insulting than what the Sun did! I thought the intitial ban was a mistake - this makes it look justified. I wouldn't have that reporter in my ground - he insults the club, the manager, the chairman, the history, even Le Tissier - and it is clearly angled to create trouble between two sets of fans who historically have been far enough apart to have a healthy relationship. Was it the final fling in the transparent PR campaign to try and sell out their fine stadium? If so it was ill-judged and poorly delivered. That aside, 5pm Saturday....as Mick McCarthy would say.

before we define whether a takeover has in reality taken place thus rendering this thread redundant, I think we need to accept that the 755 page juggernaut has evolved into a vehicle for all Skate issues. I see no end, we've created a monster. The only way this thread can close is if pompey do nothing illegal for a bit, and are punished for all past crimes, both of which could occur anytime.* The job to edit 'the best of' into a written form should only take the thread instigator about two years. *not really!

Mack, as we like you we've had a whipround and gathered you some punctuation to use, it will help all of us. Here's some to start you off, let us know if you need more. ,,,,,,.......?!''' And do bear in mind that Grammar isn't the tattooed bird 28 years your senior who touched you up at Hilsea Lido. Re my previous mention of a rumour about ground safety at Fratton, like the ground it's nothing concrete, just a skate rumour that there had been a problem with the safety certificate for some sections of the crumbling ruins. No doubt they can shut a stand or two without having to move more than a handful of fans so it won't be too much of an issue if true.

they could dock QPR 10pts and they could still win the league, but if they don't go up it will cost pompey £400k from the Smith transfer. Looking at their fixtures I reckon it will be Leicester who beat them next - the club that Mandaric saved will finish their season, goal by Yakubu. The planets are nearly in place....tis in the scriptures.... How are those Russians getting on with due diligence on the deal that would be completed by last week, or has their backing from Tripoli hit a snag? AA may be a master at fooling courts but he isn't too hot at converting sales leads.

Chanrai can't afford to write off his losses yet, not with whiffs of parachute money still about. IMO one more defeat will end their season. But I'm wondering if many of the few realise that the massive gamble they took was to go up, not just stay up. Midtable for that squad will be a very poor return on the big wages they have paid. Cotterill has proved himself to be an average manager, I do hope he stays to rebuild, he has been close to mental breakdown for much of the season, I can't see that rebuilding again with even less money will be easy. They should beat Boro, no doubt they will win other games but when the next defeat comes, and it will, the great gamble will have failed and damaged the future of the business. It will be a repeat of their previous insanity, spending future revenue to step up a level. Lampitt and Cotterill will then have to justify their decisions, or perhaps they will just both leave and let someone else sort out the new mess. Or have we got it all wrong and as many of their fans believe, they will clear out the deadwood and bring in fresh new better players on shirt buttons, the foundations are now in place, all is rosy in the garden, a mass clearout is less of a crisis and more of an opportunity?.....yeah, right. And that's ignoring the rumour about some sections of their ground failing safety checks. And tax evasion charges. And the liquidator's investigation. While ploughing through parachute payments like Elton John at a florist convention. They are not toast, the fat lady isn't singing, I can't hear the clippety clop of the four horsemen riding up the Eastern Rd, but they are slipping gently towards lower league mediocrity with no sign of what would change that, which is funnily the same thing they needed on day one of this thread. Without investment and a new ground they will always be in decline - the playoffs are their last chance saloon, and they aren't even on the guest list yet.

is it the one with the tags still attached to his coat and hat, the one that actually looks the most like Cortese? I'm only guessing that might be him, difficult to tell as he is the one fairly central in the photo and focussed. Could be wrong... Fair play to him, best way to find out how all areas of the business are actually working, and classier than standing about in a XXXXXL Newcastle shirt having drinking competitions.