Wes Tender

Thanks for resurrecting that OP, Delldays. As you rightly say, the OP is indeed a cock, but now he is one with egg on his face. I seem to recall at the time on some similar thread, likening the season to a marathon. Several other sensible people expressed the view that it wasn't worth getting all worked up about when so much of the season remained. Adkins is very sensible now refusing to be drawn when asked whether we will go up automatically. It looks increasingly likely, but it is not a foregone conclusion. No doubt the forum of West Ham fans has their own equivalent doom-sayers wailing and gnashing their teeth about how they had a God-given right to be running away with the division. Undoubtedly too, the Reading equivalents will have been slashing their wrists earlier in the season and jubilant that they are having a good run in the final straight. It is all about having some sort of reasonable perspective. Keep calm and carry on.

I go down when the extra time is announced. The reason being, that it can be hell getting out of block 42 without a head start. But I wait as close as possible to the exit to the concourse to watch the final minutes until the final whistle. I suspect that others do this too, so the impression that we are leaving is false. From that point of view, I feel that is better than those fans who miss the last 5 minutes of the first half because they can't wait to get a beer own their throat.

What a beautiful early Spring afternoon! It never gets any better than when we win, the Skates lose and West Ham can only manage yet another draw and the sun shines in a clear blue sky. Although Kelvin hardly had to break sweat, there were a couple of instances when we could have been punished by Doncaster, had their finishing been better. Certainly, I have a gut-feeling that had Sharp still been playing with them, he would have scored at least once. Conversely, had we not had him to score our two goals, would we have had another player out there today to give us the points? Who knows. But I'm really happy for Sharp that because of injuries in the squad, he had his opportunity to step up against his old team and he grasped it with both hands. It must have given him a real confidence boost and it certainly is encouraging for us fans that a leaner and seemingly fitter Sharp joins the ranks of strikers that would give Adkins a real headache over who to select if they are all fit. I suspect that each of them gives something different and that there are opportunities if injuries strike between now and the final match, to choose between Lambert, Lee, Sharp, Connoly, Guly and Barnard. Some of those could present opportunities for tactical changes, bringing on an impact player later in the game. This depth of choice extends now almost throughout the squad and belief and confidence must be growing as they begin to imagine the rewards they will reap as Premiership players, now that it is within their grasp. It was an entertaining match, with some good passing and movement from us, also a willingness to get stuck in and win the 50/50 balls. Tactically, Adkins got it spot on, taking off Lambert to protect him apparently against aggravating a slight groin strain and adding bite to the midfield with Chaplow. So we take off our prolific striker leaving only one up front and then score! Good to see Barnard come on a little later and he looked fit and up to making the most of it. Lallana, who had had a great and influential game, made way late on for Hammond, to tighten up midfield and allow Lallana a standing ovation when he left the field. Hard to pick out anybody in a Saints shirt who had a below par performance. As for the crowd and the atmosphere, it was amongst the best support this season. Over 30,000, probably helped by the connection of the match to the Skate derby, but nevertheless, it is to be hoped that any johnny-come-lately fans will have enjoyed themselves enough today and hopefully enough when we beat the Skates, to become more regular attenders. Mind you, these are the people who will almost certainly find a long lost affinity for us when we are in the Premiership. I would advise them to buy a ST in the Summer, if they wish to be assured of watching the glory teams next year. Or is my confidence misplaced that we will be promoted automatically ?

A fantastic result for a match that the form table showed to be difficult. I listened to the Radio Solent commentary and simultaneoulsy watched the WH v Middlesbrough game. One thing that hasn't been covered on this thread yet as far as I can see, is the reason that Guly was substituted, when it appeared that he was having a good game. The radio commentators were mystified and said that they would ask Adkins for an explanation. I have read his interview on the official site, but it is not covered. So was the change purely tactical? The scoreline shows that we must have been doing something right against the meanest defence in the division, so if it was tactical, the result justified it. But one of the most satisfying aspects of the match was that the second goal was as a result of one CB giving an assist to the other and in open play rather than a set piece. How can any team try to mark us out of the match when one of our CBs has scored 6 goals this season?

That is the amount of the gamble, an outlay of £6/700k for the riches of the Premiership, but as you say, if it doesn't happen, then they are deep in the sh*t. It would be a nice illustration of "cheats never prosper", but the Skates have been getting away with that for too long. But even their day of reckoning draws near.

It seems that I may be much older and therefore much more cynical than you. As D. Phil says, the Skates' parlous position on the verge of liquidation, makes this very much a buyer's market. The normal laws of supply and demand that would push a price upwards, does not seem to exist. Have you read anywere of a significant queue of suitors for Henderson's services? He's undoubtedly a good goalkeeper with potential, but if the Skates are liquidated, he'll be a free agent. Being a cynic, his situation appears to have very much more to do with the fact that this substantial sum of money for a short term loanee, swells the Skate coffers enough to give them a glimpse of completing the season, meaning that WH will not suffer the loss of 6 points against our 1 and Reading's 3. So patently WH are pulling a flanker, cynically buying an increased chance of automatic promotion. My best hope is that the Skates are liquidated before the end of the season anyway. But failing that, I would dearly love WH to have to fight their way through the play-offs, where I feel that they would not prevail.

Correction. Those are semi-literate ones.

Pathetic effort, Phil. They should have bit more colour, therefore more crispy and they should have risen to twice that height. Regarding other posts above, anybody who can't be bothered to spend a few minutes making their own and uses Aunt Bessie, might as well buy processed food for everything they eat and why not have chicken for their Sunday lunches made by Colonel Sanders too? As for all those saying that the more eggs the better, one or two is ample. The fluid doesn't even have to be all milk, as half milk, half water works perfectly well. I find that keeping the mixture in the fridge for an hour before is good. They come out better in individual puds in a muffin tin rather than one big one.

Also starring Corp Ho as the Donald Pleasance character....." I can see, honestly I can"....

The last time I looked, there was still enough freedom of speech still left, so he is entirely able to express his own opinion. As far as my limited knowledge of law extends, he has not said anything libellous and even if many others in the inner football circle haven't commented, that doesn't mean that they don't think the same. But Portsouth being awarded the Community Club of the year? The lunatics have truly taken over the asylum.

There are some bad people in the World. This is not something new. What is new is the use of modern electronic communication networks to spread information about it. However, that doesn't mean that information spread over the internet is accurate as compared against the more traditional methods of reporting via the TV, Radio and Newspapers. So what can we do about it all? Invade them and impose order? Pay money to some charity and then hear rumours that it has been misapropriated? Or just tut-tut and get on with our lives? I'm for the latter. I'm past caring about all the problems in Africa, as if you fix problems in one area, it won't be long before they crop up somewhere else. I'm plenty old enough to remember Idi Amin in Uganda, who was also a bad man. I don't recall the West doing much to prevent the genocide in Rwanda. Mind you, had there been the internet, Facebook and Twitter in those days, would it have been prevented? I very much doubt it, but there would have been much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the Internet.

He'd be as much out of his depth as those other youngsters who we blooded at an early stage. You know the ones; Walcott, Bale and Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Great job. 112 votes for Mr Maskell's article on whether they are cheating or not and the average score he now has is 1.1 stars! http://www.fansonline.net/pompey-fans/article.php?id=415

An interesting article written by a Skate, wherein he wonders why the label of cheats should apply to them. http://www.fansonline.net/pompey-fans/article.php?id=415 But then Maskell goes and spoils it all by suggesting the following:- He obviously isn't intelligent enough to work out that an owner with a large bank balance, spent on buying quality players, is going to have a massive influence on a club's "natural" position. And when the owner doesn't have that big bank balance and nevertheless copious amounts of money are still spent on players that the club cannot afford, then that would satisfy the definition of cheating as far as I'm concerned. Like most Skates, here is another one who is in denial, or just not capable of rational thought. Go on; vote him a one star.

I'll be in Thailand. Presumably somebody will be showing it over there. Providing of course that the Skates make it that far.

The in-house radio station and the catering that was the envy of all other football clubs were the acts of genius. Also, one can't fault the PR benefits of the "Tell Rupert" email address, although he gave up responding to all of the flack he got eventually. But to paraphrase from Macbeth, "Nothing in his life at Southampton FC became him like the leaving it".

A pity that in your vain attempts to psychoanalyse the reasons why many of us post on this thread, you miss the glaringly obvious one; the pure entertainment value from the comedy gold your fetid little club provides us with. Admittedly, there is also a delectable element of schadenfreude too. And in the same way that most would like your club to hobble lamely onwards and downwards because we would miss the pleasure that we derive from their misfortune, I'm sure that most would also miss your hilarious contributions too. Everybody needs a little sunshine in their lives and you and your poxy little club are the sunshine in mine.

I'll be in Chiang Mai in April. I've been there half a dozen times during the past decade and like both CM and Chiang Rai. I also love Koh Chang too, but as you point out, a bit far from Chiang Mai!

Jumping the gun a bit to state that they are going back up again. Probably, but not definitely. Our not going back up had plenty to do with two things; firstly we took the 10 points penalty that season, instead of the season before, secondly, the parachute payments were at a comparatively low level when we went down and WH have that considerable advantage. Spending money last season nearly cost us? What are you going on about?

I think that Fat Sam should take a leaf out of Adkin's book of management skills and draw a blue line under the last result, move on and concentrate on the next.

Lee not special? I suspect that most teams in this division would consider him to be more of a handful than most rival attacking players they encounter. Not only does he have good ball skills, but he has an incredible mental attitude. If we had a team of Lees, you wouldn't have any worries about them applying themselves to their utmost. What I like about him especially, is that for the first time in ages, we have a player with pace on the halfway line when the rival team are taking corners. That ties up two of their defenders and I feel quite confident that if a ball was cleared upfield, he would have a very good chance of getting it and doing something useful with it. He also has terrific movement off the ball and gets himself in good scoring positions. He must be difficult to mark and pulls defenders all over the place. He is also unselfish, a team player and will make a pass in front of goal if he thinks there is a better scoring opportunity. Lalllana was good, but for quite some time I have felt that his shooting lacks power. I agree that Lambert was certainly not mediocre. He had an excellent game.

Well, let's have a look at where West Ham have faltered so far, as an indication of their lack of invincibility. Losses to Cardiff, Aldershot (Carling Cup), Ipswich, Southampton, Burnley, Reading, Derby, Sheffield Wednesday (FA Cup) and Ipswich again. They have a difficult run in, against teams like Reading, Middlesborough, Birmingham, Brighton and Hull. Who will win the Reading match? Whichever team it is, is good for us if we can win our match that day.

No, he can't be much cop, as Lennon didn't rate him and I trust his judgement of a player's ability implicitly.

And Harry Redknapp is the other side of the coin. People only remember Harry Houdini, or all of the promotions he gained for clubs, mysteriously for some reason, forgetting that he got us relegated. That never gets mentioned.

The company is named after its founder, Walter Mitty.