Wes Tender

Your mention of Hartlepool in the same post as Liverpool makes it worth repeating the comparison between our support and that of the Skates. Recently they took just 390 fans to Liverpool, one of the greatest clubs historically in World football, for a midweek match. Also recently, we took over double that number of fans to a midweek match at Hartlepool, one of football's non-entity teams and a further 80 miles distant than from Skatesville to Liverpool. This really does illustrate why our fans are better than theirs.

Was I being judgemental? I was just making the point, judge not lest you be judged also. I also stated my opinion that the most reasonable viewpoint was one of live and let live. I have no objection to those who went out on the lash, provided that they behaved themselves and the same applies to those who got their enjoyment through Mexican waves, face paint, dressing up, etc.

Seems that we're after Ryan Dickson from Brentford. Early days for a projected summer signing, but do we need another left back? We already have Dan Harding and Mills. http://www.ealinggazette.co.uk/sport/football-ealing/brentford-fc-ealing/2010/03/30/southampton-face-competition-for-bees-defender-64767-26139461/

All very well a section of posters on here coming forth to give their views that Mexican Waves, face painting and silly hats are all juvenile and annoying, but you hit the nail on the head. These types of activity are associated with families attending events like this and Mum and Dad throwing off their stuffy dignity to encourage the enjoyment and sense of belonging for their children, who can have fun and take away happy memories of the occasion. If that means that many hundreds of youngsters began their first initiation into becoming life-long fans of the Saints, where is the harm in that? On the Wembley way, I encountered somebody who we used to sit next to at The Dell, a managing director of a decent sized local company in a respectable profession. He was there with his wife and children, his face and hair covered with paint in red and white stripes, as were theirs. As many others have said already, the correct approach is an attitude of live and let live instead of arrogant judgment. Ironic that some of those embarrassed with these things belong to the swill eight pints and puke, swear and generally make themselves look like idiots through unsociable behaviour brigade.

Interesting to read the latest set of reports to come out of The News and to note the number of posts on them that have been deleted as unsuitable. I'm presuming that they contained derogatory remarks posted either by us lot over here, or scathing comments made by some Skate about us. I confess to some enjoyment at reading such a comment by a Skate thicko and reporting it as derogatory and childish and nothing to do with the article. It suggested that after our visit to Wembley, the Skates would have to disinfect and fumigate the seats. A subsequent visit to the article in the News showed me that the offensive comment had been duly removed. The comment had been made by the same moron who suggested that Pardew ought to get a job as a painter and decorator (which he once was) as he now had a paint pot. Good sport to be had here.

It doesn't matter that he doesn't have a photo of the cup being passed to him, as he will have a recording of him taking a photograph of the cup if he wishes to retain a keepsake of the occasion on a DVD. The club will probably make a DVD of the match for sale, so he can nip down to the shop when it's available and get himself a copy.

This has all been discussed before. It is under Jackson's Farm, which is probably why Liebherr bought us.

Enormous wealth? It's only about 20% of what our owner is worth. The general consensus regarding financial prudence when investing in a football club is that you don't spend more than 10% of your fortune in the process. Pompey will take about 20% of Cash's supposed wealth and I can't see him being foolish enough to plough that much into the festering hole that is Pompey.

Who the hell is this bloke Durham you speak of? Can't say that I've ever heard of him. Obviously not as well known as Ricky Lambert, who at least has the distinction of being one of the top goal scorers in British football.

You're the one with the avatar symbolic of you p*ssing on what could be the club's special edition 125 years anniversary shirt. You're hardly qualified as an arbiter of good taste, are you?

A group of us had fun chanting at the Carlisle fans going up their ramp at the end of Wembley Way where it meets the stadium, "your ramps too big for you" On the coach on the way there, there was some singing. Somebody started the chant, "we're the right side, we're the right side, we're the right side over here" Naturally this was taken up by chants "we're the left side" My son and I were right at the back, so had the opportunity of singing "we're the backside" to much mirth from the rest of those sat further forward.

Must be one of the greatest jokes of recent times, as over 50000 victims fell for it.

Did I read it right that we are the first team to win it with four goals, that no other team has scored more than three in a final?

If you're planning a one night stop on the way there and back, work out roughly where you'll be and have a browse of the Logis website. The Logis are character hotels at a reasonable price and along the road you can recognise them by their distinctive logo. http://www.logishotels.com/en.html Otherwise, I always liked staying at the Camanile hotels which are all over France, well presented and at good prices. http://www.campanile.com/hotel/en/hotel-00.htm If it's just a case of getting your head down at the cheapest possible prices, then Formule 1 hotels fit that bill. http://www.hotelformule1.com/gb/cartographie/france.shtml

One of my favourite players and a superb bit of business getting him in. It is easy to give player of the season to Lambert out of sentimentality for a striker and to overlook the contribution that Harding makes week in, week out. Yes, Lambert's goals contribute to the number of wins we have, but if we let in more goals at the other end, it could easily have negated the prowess of the goal scorers. When we have a back line including Harding, Fonte and Jaidi, the contribution they make is immense and not to be under-estimated.

Was Peter Storrie involved anywhere in the process?

And if you thought to look a bit further than the end of your nose, these are also the people who will quite possibly have enjoyed their first experience of an important Saints win so much, that they become life-long supporters. Still, carry on sneering if you don't think that there's any substance in what I say.

Why do anything? Why not stay at home if you weren't going to enjoy being there and participating? What is it with you anyway? Was it below your dignity? Does it make you feel you feel superior, criticising others for enjoying themselves in whatever way they see fit? So it doesn't encourage the players in your opinion; but then again, it doesn't do any harm as far as I can see and IMO it unites us as a club because it gives a feeling of belonging, of shared experience. Fine bit of work Dicken's "A Christmas Carol", eh? You must model yourself on his Scrooge, pre-conversion.

Depends on whether you want to get down there fast, or whether you consider that the joorney there is part of the holiday if you take it at a more leisurely pace. When we had a gite at Beziers, we drove straight down south from Caen, stopping at Limoges the first night and then it is an easy drive from there to arrive late afternoon. It's a very pretty route down and we stopped at Cahors for lunch, which is also worth a look. It's South of there that the climate gets noticeably warmer as you get closer to the Mediterranean.

Just back through the door. The coach journey back to Southampton was endless. But who cares? Nothing could dampen the feeling of euphoria that I feel. I look forward to several more trips to the grand stage in the future, perhaps to defend the cup next year, play-offs or preferably automatic promotion, but perhaps a proper FA Cup final too.

There is the cheaper South of France and then there is the expensive one. From the Spanish border to Marseille is cheaper. There is a sandy beach along a lot of the cheaper part and lovely towns like Carcasonne, Narbonne, Beziers, Montpellier, etc. Places like Carcassonne and Aigue Morte are worth a visit, as is the Camargue if you're along that stretch. The Cote D'Azur has some glitzy places and lovely scenery and is expensive, but like all places, cheaper accomodation and eateries can still be found with a little digging. Personally, I liked Menton better than Cannes and Nice. What we did was to rent a Gite on the coast near Beziers and with the car, we were able to see most of the area between Perpignon and the Camargue. We did the Cote D'Azur staying just across the border in the slightly cheaper Italian Riviera.

It really is difficult to know from what perspective these Red Top rags are approaching this. The Times wrote a very fair and balanced piece and perhaps these two tawdry rags thought that therefore they ought to introduce a different perspective, although their sneering snide piece does them no credit at all. So what has happened here to arouse more than a fleeting mention of a team in the third division of British football? Well. of course there are several aspects of our current situation that have made us newsworthy. The number of clubs in British football who have a wealthier owner than us can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Furthermore, as far as I'm aware, there has never been an owner as wealthy in the third division. We have a manager who has recently managed in the Premiership and it is unusual that he has dropped not one but two divisions to come here. We have the best strike force in the division and several players who would not look out of place one or even two divisions higher. We are in a very exclusive club of those completely without debt and with a Foreign owner and chairman. It is obviously too much to ask that this pair of gutter press journos would hold us up as a model of how to run a club effectively, against the current climate, where even the top most fashionable clubs in the land are mired in massive debt and could implode at any time. In effect, we ought to be a non-story at least, if they did not desire to praise what we are doing right here. But one has to expect that because of who they are, there are undertones of xenophobia and petty jealousy rearing their ugly heads. They can predict that soon we will be moving up the divisions, threatening their darlings in the top division, but doing it the right way, sustainably, steadily, professionally. What a stupid remark to make that because Cortese's background is in banking and that because he has only been here a few months, he is somehow unqualified to comment on how the club, or indeed football is to be run. Is football not a business? What are the qualifications of these two hacks that justify their comment on business matters? And anyway, who cares what these idiots say? The people who really matter are the fans of this club and as far as I'm aware, the vast majority are perfectly content with where we are and where we are going. These idiots are writing in a national publication for the benefit of others interested in football, but frankly, it is only the fans of this club who have any right to feel either one way or the other about it.

Yes. And we'll use the same shade of red that personifies your current predicament, the same red that you're deeply in financially. Mind you, as you're also deep in the sh*t, yours ought to be more accurately a sort of reddy brown.

It would be far more appropriate as deep in the red and marooned. Somebody in the pink enjoys very good health, so that is totally inappropriate both for the health of your average Skate, or for their club.

My God! That third goal by Lambert was incredible. Completely worthy of the number 7 shirt.