rallyboy

in the Northam I just go with Lockets, but I did stumble into the upper Kingsland once where the finest bone china and cake stands were a must. I know crisps are banned in the Chapel as they exceed the permitted noise levels.

I see no indication that the current poor pompey attendances are due to a boycott, I have seen no march calling for the Russians to step down. That makes the comparison irrelevant. I suspect they just have a small fanbase, and there is nothing wrong with that - lets dress it up as a quality* over quantity experiment. It is a simple commercial issue - they are now getting squeezed from west and east by progressive modern clubs with good facilities, and the fickle few do like shiny things, so no wonder their heads have been turned. It's over. *Sort of.

thanks for taking points off one of our promotion rivals, nice one.

the drugs and porn reference was about football club owners generally - porn re West Ham, Birmingham - and there are South American teams and no doubt some in europe with all kinds of 'interesting' funding. Though if our financial authorities investigations are to be believed you have your link with organised crime and no doubt drugs, but the jury is still out on that one. And Chanrai is a loan shark - he lends money to those outside of the banking system at whatever rate he fancies. And because the child-maimer only made some of his money from arms dealing, doesn't make it okay. Fred West only spent some of his time torturing and murdering women - generally he was a nice bloke. People just bang on about his negative side!

A breakthrough! We'll take that as a first acknowledgment that the cup was bought with blood money and as well as massive debt, the businessmen involved left a trail of limbless children across foreign lands - all in the name of plucky little bestest pompey. That's progress anyway, unless of course Ho you believe that landmining kids is just pushing the limits of capitalism? I'm sure there are companies out there that we all deal with and if we knew all aspects of their business dealings we would be uncomfortable with some and take action. There is one thing knowing that big banks have funded dodgy businesses, it's another knowing that every penny being put into your football club comes directly from arms dealing, drugs, money-laundering or XXX porn? Being associated with companies is one thing but it's not as blatant as an arms dealer or an international loan shark standing in your director's box waving to the fawning sycophants. There are some 'unusual' club owners out there (Bates, West Ham) but pompey have topped the league for owners that you would like to distance yourself from for several seasons, and are still currently several points clear. Still celebrating the cup but glossing over how it was funded? There's a careful juggling act.

I told you Gosport had gone all red and white! Really poor attendance for a local derby, the ship has been well abandoned. Any news of the missing 240,000 from Southsea Common? It's like Cambodia all over again. Another couple of weeks like this and they will no longer be rivals but an irrelevance - and that will end this thread. Funny how quickly six years goes by.

according to the exhibition in Fareham museum on the rivalry, pompey fans are known as 'Skaters'.... They also seem to gloss over the whole prossie-bothering and sex-offending management, cancer charity theft, child-maiming funders and tax evasion years as well - or is all that for the next exhibition as much if that era is still ongoing and under investigation?

Could be embarrassing??? It is! We were two divisions beneath them not long ago and all was well in the garden of the few. It may be early days but things seem to have turned around somewhat... Stattos out there will tell me how many places behind them we were at the worst point, what has the shift been from behind to in front, presumably when we were locked at the bottom on minus ten - 65 league places? Though Cotterill says they deserved something yesterday - so I guess they will get some points for that when the FL discusses it.

and with the world famous Gus Poyet's amazing diving and time-wasting circus up next! That will be worth a few cards for the frustration alone. I'm confused, who do we dislike the least this week?....I guess a draw and four red cards would suit us best.

tight gits! - if Chambo is worth £12M then Puncheon must be worth about £2M. Do Man City need a door stop or a coat stand? Just offload him, or hope that the ongoing lesson in who is in charge eventually forces a change of attitude. If he does a total U-turn he has a role to play - barring that he'll be training with Joey Barton between tumbleweed in a deserted field.

yeah Gemmel - they paid off the outstanding cancer charity with a full public apology and confirmed that the small creditors had all been paid in full as well. They are now starting the CVA next month at 50p in the £ to clear the debt as quickly as possible, and the Russians have confirmed that Cotterill will have to make do with younger players or frees that will fit into a £8K a week wagecap, as the last thing they want to do is trade insolvently. They also apologised for the misleading financial statements that have been presented to courts over the last two years, just before returning the fa cup that had been illegally obtained through deception and financial irregularity - the fa accepted their apology and scrubbed their name from the records. Lampitt admitted that he was only in there to protect the image of the football authorities and confessed that he felt out of his depth, the team also went on a sponsored and incident-free trip to the States that really helped their preparation for the new season. They beat Real Betis 4-3 in front of a packed Fratton Park before overcoming the mighty Boro on the opening day in front of 1,200 travelling fans, the goals coming from £6K a week Ben Haim and £4K a week and totally uninjured Lawrence. The club also intend to finance the ward at QA that had to be closed when the taxpayer was robbed. Other than that it's been pretty quiet. Oh, and the few pretended they hadn't seen us destroy Leeds on the telly, though several of them look pale and anxious at the thought of the rematch.

I think we'll all remember where we were when we heard. His work goes on, playing the game the right way and managing the business sensibly. He would have been chuffed to see what we did to Leeds - and I'm sure he and Nicola would have chuckled at the deal that Arsenal were forced into. Always remembered.

that business with the coach is crazy, they could have lost half of their fanbase in one crash, thank god no one was hurt. Massive club, sleeping giant, biggest on the south coast, Cotterill doing a fantastic job etc.

if any of the subs do decide to have a blast through Sweet Lamb or Kielder I suggest they could do with FIA-approved seats and six point harnesses. If however they want to be footballers, they should just sit quietly on whatever they are given and await their chance. Very good point about the yellow lines though, personally I found it difficult to celebrate any of our goals at the weekend as I was too concerned about - a. the genre and tempo of songs being sung and how they would be judged by an audience that didn't attend b. the guttering on the roof of the bike sheds. sort it out Nicola, we are a laughing stock!

watching on Saturday it must be obvious to him that he could be a major star in this league and with the squad we have assembled he would shine. I wish him well, especially as the deal sounds good for us, but it doesn't seem a shrewd career move. He may prove us wrong and push his way straight into the first team, but I think he's more likely to sit on a bench while his old mates rip up the championship. And Cortese's firm stance against big clubs window-shopping and the performance against Leeds has put a few million on the pricetag of the likes of Lallana. No longer are we a pushover for insulting bidders.

nice ground, pity they have built such a crap away dressing room in an effort to gain a tiny advantage. If they really want to annoy other teams why don't they dive about, abuse officials, waste time - or perhaps target the opposition's top scorer with a reckless tackle and send him home on a stretcher? Despite Poyet gobbing off they couldn't match our points gained after the St Marys game, then they paraded feeble little banners at the Withdean and Fonte had a big wee in their party punch. Happy days. Felt sorry for Leeds, fancy getting undone by our hit and hope, 'Dagenham long ball' game. Poyet does look a fool when he says stuff like that, you have to feel sorry for the bloke in the stand who had paid to enjoy the new stadium and ended up sat next to a bloke in a tracksuit spouting rubbish.

the thicko from Stockport twice announced that pompey the sleeping giant is the biggest club on the south coast. Presumably he doesn't have a telly. Or access to attendance figures. Nor a league table. Or a grasp of geography. Today is day one of the next 27 years, and more. Nice.

yeah it'll be quite scary playing in front of such a big crowd. When you've taken 50,000 to Wembley, then you can make out your support is big and loud. Didn't hear a peep for an hour at St Marys last time, expecting it to go quiet early doors in the December game too. One of my skate mates said they are going to ruin our Christmas, I told him that come April we will feck your whole season good and proper. 6 years gone, 36 hours to go.

tell us about the strike Mike - I've never seen dates or facts.

there was no strike, an urban myth to be filed alongside the other 100 - Cortese is trying to sell the club, we don't own the ground, we are bankrupt, our owner was a tank driver, all that sort of rubbish that is paraded as fact in sh*tty Portsea pubs by cross-eyed, sister-fiddlers. Personally I was pretty indifferent until they came to our place and abused Ted Bates. That's when it changed for me. The acceptable face of rivalry was replaced by an underclass who couldn't even respect the dead. Their shallow apologies for that and everything since has just made it worse. Though it's different if you live in Soton and never see them, those of us who live on the front line have no choice but to dislike them. Two days until we have the chance to restore the natural order - for a generation or three. (normal generation, not a pompey 12 year one)

Crabby old boy, are you mischievously Ho-baiting?... When he comes back with one of his mind-numbingly pedantic and boring explanations for every point in that rant, it'll be your fault! And you left out the bit about the Arsenal game where they cheered the opposition once the game was lost, but prior to that had been dishing out homophobic and mental illness abuse to their future hero and unpaid cup final captain. Just another little rewrite of history and those songs can be forgotten. Nasty spurs fans should be locked up, yeah check out the Arsenal game a couple of years earlier before you get on your high horse about that one buddy. Pales into insignificance when you think that there is a cancer charity out there short of funds tonight yet Lampitt is counting up the cash from Havant and Waterlooville. How do they sleep. Anyway, I 4-1 am looking forward to us reclaiming our position above the few. We've been below them for about six years, I'm hoping we have to wait less than 70 hours for the return of sanity to the south coast. In fact, if Nicola steamrolls his masterplan through, these may be the last three days that pompey are above us for a generation. There's a thought.

I can see that pompey gave H and W the fixture, perhaps to save themselves from legal action, but surely the amount involved isn't worth bothering about? Requiring £2K from a non-league club may give an indication of the current state of their finances. Seems a bit pointless and another great PR opportunity missed - could have passed it straight to the cancer charity that still awaits the return of their stolen cash. Any small creditors impressed?....

I'm surprised they haven't bothered to add to their squad too much, I take it they have seen the fixture list and the start date?...... I really thought they would have brought in another 5 or 6 overpaid journeymen by now. Which begs the question, have the Russians got any money at all? And if they have, why are they not using it?....

could we cut down on the cheering as well, far too many people seem to be having fun, it's just not on. Polite applause IF deserved is a far more dignified way of displaying emotion, and that's only if we really have to get involved in that whole soppy side of things. I recall when Barnard scored the winner against MK Dons I just caught his eye and gave him a simple nod of my approval, though he was too busy walking over to the supplier of the cross for a sturdy handshake. This flag organised by the fans for the fans as a thank you that we were not able to give personally is the thin end of the wedge, I feel so strongly I may be overcome with rage and forced to hold my fist out with the thumb pointing downwards. You'll be telling me next that grown men shed tears when Matt scored against Arsenal.

Do explain how the current owners are the 'fire' in that baffling little cliche? Moving debt from several outside uncontrollable companies with a tendency to call administrators at the first sign of worry, to the owners taking it inhouse, is more like 'frying pan to middle shelf of the fridge after half an hour on the kitchen top'. We have owners who invested set up costs at what I believe to be a sensible level so they could grow the business towards self-sufficiency. Starting with a broken business it needed investment and that was likely to show in the first year accounts. It did. No problem. If the 2nd year accounts indicate that no progress has been made then that would be a problem. That hasn't happened. Instead the owners have created a business model that is working and could be sold to investors as a going concern, at a profit. So please explain why you think we are now in a worse state than we were pre-administration??