Wes Tender

This is the most ridiculous solution that anybody could come up with. Why should other teams who have suffered defeat by other teams go into the hat? Much fairer in my opinion that it only features those teams who were defeated by the Skates if it is proven that they were trading illegally while insolvent. From our perspective, there were players on the pitch who had a direct influence on the outcome of the result who otherwise would not have been there. But anyway, the decision on the FA Cup will fade into insignificance compared to the nightmare that will arise in sorting out the Premiership division if Pompey cease to exist following their liquidation.

At this time of desperation for the Blue Few down the road, they have put up a similar tribute to their club from one of their fans as an example to others of what true support means. http://www.fansonline.net/portsmouth/article.php?id=1328 I think that our aussiesaint 20 deserves at least equal praise, as he has supported the club from a distance all his life and has made the supreme effort to travel great distances at huge expense to witness some matches. Thanks for posting this, Trevor; it is inspirational and I suspect that if Liebherr and Cortese read it, it will vindicate their decision to buy us, as they had indicated that it was because we were a family club that they were first interested in us.

Seems that my prediction was more accurate than yours. Did Hoolihan play today? I don't recall hearing that he made a monkey of anybody. Otsemobor seems to have had a decent game. Two goals from Barnard, but Lallana ought to have had two and Puncheon should have scored too. Apart from Colchester, it seems that we have shown Norwich to be not as invincible as their home form and league position suggest. We didn't just win; we won convincingly.

Well, I did say on that other thread that we would win today.

I've just noticed docker-p's avator and it concerns me a little. It is perfectly acceptable to have the version of the Saint p*ssing on the Skate blue shirt, but if the new Saints anniversary shirt features the red sash, how does it sit with anybody else on here that somebody who calls himself a Saints fan would p*ss on the shirt? Will you also be swearing at and threatening anybody who wears the new shirt too, docker?

Come on Nineteen. This is a thread about feeling good to be a Saint and your contribution is to nit pick a post by another querying his own personal circumstances as to why he was in Andover when he was a kid. I have absolutely no qualms about stating that I have not been this content to be a Saints supporter for many years and I invite you to either join in and share your good feelings, or else tell us why you are not enjoying the current situation.

Look SOG, do please try and get your facts right. There might have been an element who had a go because Lowe wasn't a football man, but the difference between him and ML is that if he isn't a football man, at least he is wealthy enough to invest the money into the business that will make it a success. Most were against Lowe from the start because of the nature of his arrival here on the back of the morally bankrupt and ethically indefensible events surrounding the reverse takeoever. However, I will be eternally grateful to Lowe for facilitating the arrival of ML at the club as a direct result of his incompetance. It might come to pass at some stage that NC and ML do something to disappoint or anger the fans, but from what I've seen so far, it seems extremely unlikely, as they do actually seem on the face of it to know what makes a decent business tick, both financially and from the point of view of the customers (sorry, John, fans) Anyway, I suspect that your assertion that Cortese is not a football man is also wide of the mark, as I understand that his banking expertise was specialised towards investment in sport and I suspect that in any event he is also a fan of football rather than hockey.

Nobody has challenged my assertion so far, so it must be a realistic proposition.

Even if it's difficult to park at Asda, there are other alternatives within easy walking distance. You can't really say the same about parking at either of the two Southampton pick-ups, where the money-grubbing Council have parking restrictions even on a single yellow line on a Sunday.

We're going to beat them tomorrow to throw more confusion on why they are above us.

I read somewhere that this maverick Catermole was in no hurry to buy the Skates. He was quite happy to wait a month while doing due dilligence. That at least shows some financial Kudos that appears to have been lacking in the fake sheiks. But Pompey don't have a month. They need that investment or at the very least some sort of declaration of intent right now. I can't see why Catermole would want to take them over anyway at the moment. All he has to do is buy them on the cheap if they are lucky enough to go into administration instead of being liquidated. If he buys in now, he takes on all that debt and a team almost certainly headed for the Fizzy Pop league next season, with supporters who don't even fill their crappy stadium at the moment. What will the attendances be next season if relegated? He'd have to be a financial wizard to sort out who owes what to whom and if so, he'd also fairly quickly work out that there is insufficient meat on the carcass to make it worthwhile picking at.

Like you, I'm incensed at the duplicity of the whole thing. As you mention, it is not fair that they could be made a special exception and allowed to sell players outside of the transfer window. Another aspect of that is that when the transfer window was open, they only let two players go, whilst signing in a couple of players, both of whom scored against us. Furthermore, they are hoping to sell a couple of players, Belhadj and Wilson who both played in the FA Cup match against us and Belhadj was also a scorer. So do they want it both ways? Either the two players they signed just before the match should not have been allowed to participate, or else the players that they wish to sell should not have taken part. If they were trading while insolvent, then they managed to gain an advantage with their team illegally. Sod, the f*cking FA. They will act on the basis of not wishing to enter the minefiled of having to adjust the league tables should the Skates go into liquidation. I will hope to take some comfort that HMRC will be totally sangiune about the shenanigans that they are attempting and judge the fate of the Skates purely on the grounds of whether they are solvent or not. I'm hoping that they could't care a toss about the politics of football and will wish to make an example of a football club that has ridden roughshod over their tax affairs. It might well assist them, to consider that Storrie is facing prosecution for financial irregularities and that somebody else at the club dealing with financial matters is also a convicted fraudster.

I booked two tickets. Told them that I'd join at Chandlers Ford Asda, so that parking wouldn't be a problem. Got the email confirmation stating that we were joining at Town Quay. I trust they will be amending this to show the correct details. I was told that the coaches would be leaving Wembley about half an hour after the final whistle.

There is no precedent for the string vest kit. So we could get away with the red sash version. Rab C Nesbitt could model it.

You were or are presumably a Docker. Therefore if you had your way, you'd have them playing in string vests and Doc Martin boots. No defender would be able to shoot at goal, or no striker defend, as that is not their designated job and there would be demarcation issues to resolve with the Union. You see how irritating it can be when people are stereotyped due to their backgrounds or nationalities? As far as I am aware, Cortese is an Italian Swiss. There is a difference. Frankly, as he is running the club on behalf of the owner, I couldn't care a toss what kit the team wear. I'm just grateful that we exist because of him. Would your support for the team diminish if they did wear pink off the shoulder numbers with saffron flavoured sequins, or is it based on more concrete factors such as they way they play? If you don't like the new strip, then nobody is forcing you to buy it, are they?

Fair enough to have that viewpoint, but it doesn't mean to say that you need to exchange pleasantries with him; it smacks of toadying up to him. And although he might have done good things for your club Hayling United, just make sure that he has nothing at all to do with the financial side of things. His record with running Portsmouth doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his abilities, although Hayling United might be more the level that is within his capabilities.

So it's all in the hands of the Courts now as to whether your club will even exist in a week or so. So how hollow will this defeat of a club two divisions below feel, eh? So what will you be doing? Supporting them in the Blue Square South like a real fan, or switching your allegiance to one of the glory teams? Mind you, we could be in the top 5 or 6 clubs in the Premiership in a few years, so you could support us as your local glory team, once more the pride of Hampshire. Go ahead and admit it; the pendulum is swinging firmly back in our direction and even before the end of the season you could be well below us. Even if you somehow avoid administration or liquidation, you will be relegated to the fizzy pop and will have to sell any half decent players to even keep up with the debts you have. I'd put money on you going down again in successive seasons if I wasn't so confident that you will end up being liquidated instead.

Portsmouth a step up from Basingstoke? Portsmouth is a scab on the Hampshire map. A dirty, sordid, poxy place, full of dirty, sordid, poxy people. Southsea's not too bad, apart from the cheap fish and chips, kiss me quick atmosphere that pervades the place, but the best view of Portsmouth is the one in your rear view mirror.

It might have escaped your notice that we are owned by a billionaire, somebody considerably more wealthy than the owners of ManUre and Liverpool. We can afford to splash the cash and having done so, still have no debt. Your lot on the other hand spent money that you didn't have and have a crappy stadium, one charlatan owner after another and are facing a winding-up order. This entire conversation could be totally irelevant in a week or two, as you will probably have disappeared as a club. So make the most of whatever glory you think that your Premiership club gained by beating a third division club, even if it took you over 70 minutes to gain any ascendancy after we dominated the match.

I understand that Rupert Lowe is counter claiming that he was severely intimidated when he recieved a Duck through the post from a former owner of the Skates. He opened it in front of his wife and she thought it might have contained a bomb. She asked Rupert to give up the Chairmanship of the Saints as a result of this intimidation, but although Rupert did seriously consider it, he felt that he had a duty not to leave until the club was totally screwed. He was considering reporting the matter to the FA, as the meaning was clearly that he was a dead duck, but he decided against it on the grounds that he would look like a whining pansy. Shame that the Skates chief executive is a bit of a tit and has overseen his club go massively into debt, part of which ended in his own trouser pockets. If he was good at his job, the club would never have fallen into such a parlous state. But when the management infrastructure has contained a person convicted of financial fraud and Storrie and Redknapp could potentially end up in the nick for the same thing, I am not going to worry too much if he feels intimidated by a few Saints fans goading him by waving some paper money in his face.

You haven't been on here for a while. I wonder what brings you back? It's been a comparatively easy route for you. Mind you, you made it look extremely hard work against second division Coventry, only scoring the winner in the last minute of extra time. Then you narrowly beat Sunderland who have also hit a bit of a blip, before looking second best against a third division team for over 70 minutes or so. But I would have thought that you would have foregone coming on here lest you get asked whether you are confident that your run down bankrupt little club will even exist by the end of the week. What are your thoughts on that?

I'm not about to attach any really credence to the thoughts of one whose judgement on other Saints personnel either past or present I do not respect.

What, a real owner like the last three? What is there to buy? They would be taking on £60 million of debt with a crappy 20000 seater stadium. The Premiership and TV income is disappearing down the plughole just to service the debt. At the start of the season when these fake sheiks got involved, there was the attraction of owning a Premiership team. But right now, it would take a miracle to avoid relegation, even if they avoided ceasing to exist. Surely any businessman with sufficient wealth that showed any inclination of owning a Premiership football club, would consider other clubs secure in that division, or clubs in the Fizzy Pop league with realistic expectations of returning to the Premiership with a little investment rather than the basket case that is Pompey. Otherwise, anybody would be a fool to buy them now with all that debt rather than after administration, if they're even lucky enough to go through that rather than liquidation.

Why are you such an optimist that that it won't happen? Do you reckon that the HMRC are Skate fans? They will feel quite strongly I supect, that they need to make an example of a serial offender - pour encourager les autres. And as for the Premier League bailing them out, they really can't do that without all of the other teams crying foul over it. The teams have to be responsible for their own finances and not expect the governing body of the league to bail out member teams who have been profligate with their expenditure. Chainrai? Why would he put more in? He already has the spectre of losing pretty well everything he has already put in if the club go into administration or liquidation. Why exactly would he want to p*ss even more money down the drain? Face it, nobody is going to buy Pompey with their huge debts, crappy stadium and almost certain relegation. Some tyre kickers might however be interested in buying them from administration and run them as a Fizzy Pop league club. But the directors cannot place them in administration whilst under a winding-up order and neither would it be in their interests to do so anyway, as they will lose pretty all of the money that the club owes them. It is virtually the perfect example of them being caught between a rock and a hard place; in short, they're buggered.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Their Official Site admits that we dominated two thirds of the match and that they had to be grateful for the services of their England number 1 goalkeeper to have had a chance to finish us off when we were chasing the game having given it our all. They didn't appear to dwell too much when concluding that it was easy, easy, that we are a club two divisions below them. They are right that it would have been a major upset if we had beaten them, but do not make the simple leap of logic that by the same token, the result was to be expected, therefore nothing for them to gloat about. This is obviously the same flawed logic that permeates their management, so that they are the football equivalent of the idiots who spend up to their limits on a credit card, then take out another and another credit card so that they can spend more. The sort of idiots who are then enticed by somebody like Ocean Finance to consolidate their debts into just one big one over an almost infinite pay-off period and who then realise that the monthly repayments are much lower than before, so let's buy a new car, or go on an exotic holiday. They can gloat all they like about the result against a side two divisions beow them, but I will take the very greatest of satisfaction when they go into liquidation next week and therefore oblivion. I will rub my hands with glee as their England number one goalkeeper is the first to be sold and not one single player will remain with them within weeks of the match. This will turn out to be the very ultimate Pyrrhic victory, winning the battle, but losing the war to the extent that they are totally anihilated at this level for many years, if ever they return. So have your little moment in the sun, Skates, because the weather forecast for later this coming week is not something that any Skate fan will look forward to metaphorically In reality, you Skates cannot admit that apart from a team that dominated play for two thirds of the match, you admired our Premiership standard stadium over your crap hole and you also looked over enviously towards our multi-billionaire owner who has paid of all of our debts and has a strategy to get us back to the Premiership and remain there sustainably. And although it is only a tin pot trophy, we will be at Wembley at the end of March, whereas when you meet another Premiership team, even if you get to play the game, you will be thrashed. Everybody over here is proud of our team. It was no disgrace for us being beaten by your overpaid players who have brought your club to its knees.