Wes Tender

What the f*ck? You lot can't even get your sour grapes across properly.

Who is this you are talking about? Did you miss the fact that we are owned by a BILLIONAIRE, whereas they will soon have less funds than most of the teams in British football. And why is it being big enough to want to beat them at the highest level, rather than wanting the natural order to be restored, with us in the Premiership once more and them a couple of divisions at least below us? What would be nice, would be us playing them in the FA Cup under those circumstances and reversing the result that seemed to mean so much to them. I four one would like that.

Beat you to it and glad you saw it the same way. We had options today that were effective and productive and there was always the opportunity to change it with Barnard and Connoly coming on with fresh legs if it needs shaking up.

A set-up of 4-5-1 with Papa on one wing and Antonio on the other, Hammond holding the centre with Puncheon and Lallana alongside him, is not a bad idea. Lambert is not isolated, as both Papa and Antonio have pace and are tricky players and both Puncheon and Lallana are good at picking out a pass or foraging forward themselves. So it is a balanced formation that can control the midfield when defending, with the possibilities of it switching to three up front if either of Papa and Antonio join Lambert up front in attack, or the same with Puncheon and Lallana joining him if the attack is down the middle. In fact, as has been proven this season, Antonio, Papa, Lallana are especially capable of scoring goals and surely Puncheon has the potential to do so provided that he gets his head around a role that would suit him. Today, we had such control of the game possession wise, that although it took some time for the goal to come, it looked to be likely. I too thought that the free kick to Carlisle looked to be inside the box, but watching it taken from directly behind in the Northam, it was a Bale special - unstoppable. Several around me applauded the goal by Harte. We were cruising at 3-1 and Pardew had the luxury of blooding Callum McNish, with Oxlade-Chamberlain also having been warming up on the touchline as an alternative. We maintained the pressure having brought on Barnard and Connolly and peppered their goal for the last 10 minutes, when we could have made it 4-1 again to match our Wembley performance. Carlisle had a very late consolation goal, which had an element of luck about it and was too late to bother us. For long passages of the game, our play was sublime, with accurate cross-field passing and intelligent through balls, flick-ons and running off the ball. The defence was again solid, with Harding and Fonte both invincible and a class above. Antonio comes on in leaps and bounds and is already maturing from the raw talent that we saw at the start of the season. He really does look as if he might develop into a very good player, with pace, trickery and a good shot on him. The difference between this game and that against Oldham, is that Carlisle came to play football and that suited us. But I have a sneaking suspicion that this formation might have suited us better against Oldham too and might have improved our penetration for the first goal that would have forced them to drop their defensive time-wasting tactics to rescue a point. The support today was magnificent, particularly from the Northam, who chanted solidly for the first 15 minutes without let-up and then kept up the atmosphere for most of the match. The play-offs are no longer possible, so we can play the remaining games with a carefree freedom, now that there is no pressure on us. The form that we have shown during the second half of the season should see us as automatic promotion candidates next season, provided that we can keep this team and sign up the right back equivalent of Harding and a hard-tackling midfield playmaker. This season has been much more fun than I was ever expecting, possibly because of the warm feeling that we have walking away from the stadium having won the match, something that hasn't happened very often the past few seasons. I have confidence that we have plenty enough talent and firepower in the team now to hit the ground running after the pre-season and we have the potential to go up as champions with a record number of points and goal difference.

The stand up comedy circuit is a crowded environment with plenty of good comedians. Boyle must have realised early on that he couldn't compete with the many comedians who were bitingly witty with the cerebral humour, so he took a leaf out of the Bernard Manning/Roy Chubby Brown book. With the increase of political correctness, it was easier for him to make a name for himself by pushing at the new restrictive boundaries, gaining notoriety and the attendant publicity than it was to compete with the brighter comics. He has carved out a niche market for himself and to sustain it, he has from time to time to do or say something even more controversial to keep his name in the public eye. As more and more people get to know what they will get at his shows, those who would be offended stay away, but others are more attracted to go, so that the audience is not a cross section of society, but a narrow band of the more bigotted, allowing him to be even more extreme. Eventually, his brand of humour will become dull and boring, in the same way that the F word did once the shock value declined through usage and his audience will dwindle, as people shift back to the clever comedy.

The bit that I have highlighted is the fly in the ointment as far as I'm concerned. Where is the money going to come from to build this stadium? How big would it be? It would have to be the size of ours, so cost about £40 million or more. Unless some idiot with more money than sense buys the club in League two and pays for the stadium, then they will have a hefty mortgage to sustain. Can you see a queue of mortgage lenders beating a path to their door, given their past history? We required an attendance level of 17000, so it was said, to break even before we went bust in the second division. They struggle to get much above that in the Premiership. How do you think they would fare attempting to fill a 32000 capacity stadium in the 4th division, bearing in mind that possibly when they reach that level, we might well be mopping up all of the plastics who will fill our stadium to capacity when we are back in the Premiership?

Under the picure you paint of the alternatives, naturally I'd prefer two. But your scenario number one is deeply flawed IMO. Firstly, it assumes that they would have a ground of any size and fans in any numbers to fill it. If they are wound up, Chainrai would probably sell Fratton Park for development. They often cannot fill their shed in the Premiership at the moment. For all their bravado that they have a huge fanbase that will support them through thick and thin, I don't believe it. No player of any quality would follow the club down to the Conference or wherever they would end up. It would take years and years for them with limited income and poor players to get back even to where we are now and it would only be with a wealthy owner that they could even begin to think of a new stadium and training facilities. Who would want to invest in them and then have to pay out for the basic infrastructure to rebuild them into something more investable? In the meantime, we will have climbed back to the Premiership and mopped up all of the plastics in the area. (yuk)

I take some satisfaction that even when we delve into our dealings that could be considered to be morally or ethically questionable, such as the reverse takeover and all the filth associated with it, we aren't even remotely as capable of going so deep into the sewers as them. When we changed owners a couple of times and had various chief executives and directors, they mostly acted with some semblance of honesty, or were genuine fans of our club who acted in what they considered to be our best interests, even if they couldn't deliver. The Skates have had a succession of owners over the past decade, ranging from C ockney barrow boys to people who have made their money from dubious or illegal activities and are probably attempting to launder their ill-gotten gains through the club. They have had directors and managers associated with them who are either facing, or have been prosecuted on fraud charges. We went into receivership for the sake of a few thousand pounds, whereas they have debts totalling around £120 million. Our administrator acted to a high level of professionalism and was respected in his profession. Theirs has a poor reputation and has been chastised in the past for bad and dubious practises. Because by comparison we had to suffer penalties and the decline that put us in the third division, needless to say, I wish oblivion for them. Anything less would be a travesty. They do have some decent, intelligent fans, but they are the minority. I feel sympathy for them. As for the majority of gormless, tattooed morons, the lowest form of amoebic pondlife epitomised by TCWTH W*stwood, I hope that they crash and burn. They took the p*ss and gloated when we were desperately seeking survival and salvation under nowhere near as parlous circumstances as them. I am enjoying their agony immensely. The entertainment value and sport derived from it is terrific.

And let's press for an English Parliament where only English MPs can vote on matters that affect only us.

I couldn't see the joins. Those plam trees - Southsea sea front gardens?

I'm not sure of the legalities of a situation like this. If it were simply a case that Peter owed Paul some money and gave it to John to give to Paul, then the situation would clearly be that Peter had not discharged the debt to Paul if John failed to pass it on. The situation would not have altered one jot if John went bankrupt during the process. Of course it is different with company law, where the employer deducts the PAYE from the wages and is supposed to pay it to the HMRC, but to me it still smacks of something illegal when the Skates actually had deducted that money and failed to pass it on. If you paid your money to the travel agency for the holiday you booked and they just kept it, effectively you would not have paid for the holiday and could not travel (unless ABTA baled you out) and surely it would be a criminal offence, theft. Sometimes the law is an ass and with luck the law allowing footballing debts to millionaire players to take precedence over those owed to the Taxman and small businesses will be reversed. If that reversal comes about because of the immoral and unethical issues connected to our dear friends along the road, then some good will come from this sordid episode (apart from the entertainment value that we have enjoyed at their downfall).

Very witty and clever.

I pondered this bit in David Conn's Guardian article:- So it seems that the PAYE tax was deducted from the player's wages, but not paid on to HMRC. Now I might be a little simple about this, but could the HMRC not take the position that as they have not received that money, that is still owed to them by the players? If they were able to adopt that position, then the PAYE would become monies owed to the players by the club and as such would be a football debt which would have to be settled if the Skates were to be able to continue playing football. As the law has been changed so that the HMRC is no longer in the position of a secured creditor, perhaps the Courts might accept this premise as a way of redressing the balance and avoiding the situation unfolding before our eyes, whereby an unscrupulous administator like the Android deliberately inflates the debt to lessen the chances of an unsecured creditor blocking the CVA

The Leeds ref, Walton, was worse. But people develop selective memory loss, partly because of the passage of time and partly because the stakes were higher last night, so the anger, frustration and disappointment are greater. And we only drew, whereas with Walton, we won. Also, Walton was supposed to be of Premiership standard, so his inability to do a proper job was all the more alarming.

I thought that if we were a footballing creditor, they would have to pay us in full and that it was only if we were a unsecured creditor that we could vote against the CVA. Or have I got that wrong?

Good point. SOG crashing down to the ground in flames, or holed below the waterline, whichever metaphor you prefer.

You're right. It's cleaning costs from that section of the Northam occupied by their Neanderthals who smeared faeces and peed all over the seats. Mind you, that could have been because they were sh*tting themselves when we had dominance of 70% of the game and then p*ssing themselves laughing with relief when they managed finally to overcome us.

As I edited it having realised, the stadium is an asset, not a debt, surely? But it is secured against Chainrai's debt, so he effectively owns it. I'm trying to figure out Android's angle for increasing its value. Any ideas, anybody?

Nobody else seems to have responded to this with a comment. Do you read it as I do, that it is a device to up the debts to reduce the percentage that HMRC holds as a creditor of the overall debt? The only reason that I can think of for a disparity of the value of Fratton Park, is whether it is valued as a football ground, or as development land available for housing. Naturally, the higher valuation would be the one for development, which almost infers that Chainrai who apparently owns it, has plans for selling it off. But there are covenants designating it for sports usage, so surely the valuation should be based on that premise. And anyway, I would have expected that the valuation would have to be determined by say three independent and professionally qualified land agents, not some figure plucked from the air to suit Android's purposes.

Bale was a shirt-lifter? I could imagine Rupert having those tendencies because of his Public school background, but I'm surprised at this revelation about Bale.

So we can all rest easy over the summer break, eh?

Is this the best that you can do? To post an inane response, throwing mud? It just goes to show that you are incapable of debating a reasonable post, which incidentally was not even aimed at you. I didn't even mention you by name. My response was to Viking Warrior's post and I thought I answered it with courtesy, making my points thoughtfully. I don't see him complaining, so why have you taken umbrage? If you don't have anything sensible to say arguing the toss against any of the points I raised, then I suggest that you don't post anything, in case it makes you look stupid and vindictive. And did you mean to ask whether me, Alpine and CB Fry we were one and the same person? We obviously are not, as that would easily be spotted by the administrators. Is senility creeping up on you?

I disagree. We have scouts who surely go to watch other teams before they come here and who can also probably analyse their other results against similar opposition. Now, I'm not sure, but if it became clear that when Oldham played away against the top teams, they deployed the same tactics, then it should have been clear what their game plan would be. Why, even most on here could have had an educated guess that it was probable that they would try to defend in numbers for the first half, hoping that if they stopped us from scoring, we would become frustrated, that the crowd support would diminish. Then they could always try and hit us on the break, which in fact they came close to doing a couple of times, requiring good saves from Kelvin.

Yawn. I can't really be arsed to even read what the rest of your thread is all about. The first line is perfectly sufficient to know what will follow. The whole thing is bound to degenerate into an argument between you and Alpine, mentions will be made of Lowe, Wilde, Crouch and others who are long since part of history and nobody will change their positions which are deeply entrenched. Ultimately, if anybody holds any position with their opinions, that is their right and it is futile raking over these particular coals, as there is little chance that there is much heat to be gained by re-igniting them.