beatlesaint

In terms of practicalities in getting away fans from the stadium as quickly and as safely as possible the only option is to keep them near Britannia Rd which would mean the only alternative I can see is the Itchen/Chapel corner. Put them anywhere over the other side and you are asking for trouble, especially over the footbridge. You would also have the added problems of away fans mingling too much with home supporters going off in every direction. Whilst this would be fine for the majority of away fans, certainly in this League, what about when we move up to the CCC and hopefully the Premiership and you are dealing with large numbers of Leeds, P*mpey, Millwall etc fans ? Unless these supporters that have a history of causing trouble are kept in after the final whistle like in the bad old days then personally I think it is asking for trouble. They were put in the Northam/Itchen corner for a reason....and that reason had to be that it is the most obvious place for crowd control and access. Only my opinion of course.

Where have you got that from ? I thought we simply extended his loan until the end of the season when he will be out of contract with Reading. I would sign both of them without a doubt.

As another poster has mentioned we have bought 5 in and 4 have gone out either sold or on loan plus Trotman and Mellis went back to their clubs, so we have actually got one less player than we did at the start of January. Many of these players that AP wants to move on are probably out of contract in the summer so there is natural wastage to be had there. Puncheon can play anywhere in midfield and I suspect from his comments on the OS that AP will have no qualms about using him in central midfield if the need arises. Add to that the signing of Ostmebor and the soon to be fit Murty, plus Wayne Thomas which will release James to play or cover in midfield as an additional option. Central midfield can currently be made up from Hammond, Morgan, Wotton, Puncheon, James, Gillett and at a push Lallana so thats not bad for a league 1 side to be fair.

why ? We were told that we had finished on Saturday !

Couldn't agree more. We are just over 6 months into a 5 year plan to get back to the premiership, the players are now in place for the big push next season, if we dont make the play offs this season then we can use the remaining games as a glorified pre-season to get them all gelled together for next year. The future looks very bright......but people aren't happy unless they can have a moan about something, we all do it at times, so just let them get on with it. Only time will tell how great this journey we are on will turn out to be

What became of the non league lad from Crawley who was, according to his manager, coming down to have a chat with AP ? Might sign him and let him stay at Crawley until the end of the season, in which case no more would be coming in as such !!

I do wonder if all these "the JPT is a waste of time and too much of a distraction" brigade will not bother going to Wembley if we get through next week

Totally agree with that. I would start him ahead of Barnard next week unless he saves him for the JPT of course.

Seabourne and Fonte appear to be the long term partnership and as such its important for them to have games together. Fonte is class and Seabourne looked good today, I liked the look of him. Ostmebor looks ok, fairly pacey and put in a couple of decent crosses. I prefer Murty personally when fit but thats no slight on Osty ! Barnard - umm, inaffective today, Papa definitely changed the game, but he does work hard and once he gets settled in I think he will come good although again, when fit, I would have Connolly ahead of him.

Last signing Can play central midfield too. Job done

They would have announced it mid day yesterday if that was the case I would have thought. They did with Barnard.

Puncheon today, he'll be on Monday IMHO.

Every winger who has ever played professional football over hits a cross or puts it in the crowd from time to time never mind one who is 19 and was playing non league football 12 months ago. Lets see what hes like in a couple of years time shall we ?

Until that window slams shut lets wait and see. Puncheon is not a central midfield player and AP says he wants a replacement for Mellis who, I believe, played central midfield. Wether its Stock or A.N.Other I wouldnt rule out another signing before the 1 February regardless of us getting Puncheon or not.

Quite surprised Morgan is only on the bench considering we went to the trouble of an appeal !

So basically, assuming the Poopey game is live on tv we will have made almost a half a million from prize money and tv alone, before adding gate receipts. As has been suggested that is a lot of money for League 1 teams and has paid for Barnard and Seabourne with change left over

You do mean BREAD and butter dont you Duncan ? Bed and Skates should never be in the same sentence as far as I can see

Dont you think its a good plan for the manager to play it down then ? Keep the players heads clear and focused on the next game etc then when we get to 10 Feb and Poopey are the next game then build the players up and make sure they are aware how important it is ? Personally I'm glad he thinks like that, or should I say I'm glad he makes it look like he thinks that !

JPT - i want to go to Wembley.

They are two leagues above us, for the moment, so on paper they should win...... but of course football is played on grass not paper. The players will not take their eye off the ball for the league or JPT game. They are professionals, there are no local born players so they will not get as excited as we are. AP will make sure they take each game as it comes BUT you can be sure as soon as the MK Dons game has finished he will be making sure each and every one of those players knows how important a victory would be to us, the fans who have given them such great backing this season. Leave it to AP

Unlike a certain football club on the South Coast

Add the prize money for getting past the tie and it pays his wages for a fair while too

Well said Sir ! Thanks to the efforts of players, coaches, manager and new owners I have fallen in love with this club all over again. If people want to get picky wait until we are knocking on the door of the Champions League, not 6 months into a 5 year plan to get back to the Premiership !

No, they lost 1-0 today.