itchen

Excellent. If the incidents were as mild as you claim then I am sure the charges will match. After all, we'll all be paying their solicitors from our taxes to make sure that the charges are the lowest appropriate ones and are vigorously defended if the evidence is weak. But if their actions are proved serious enough to warrant prison sentences then they only have themselves to blame. And the police knock at 5 o'clock to have the most chance of cathing the person in. Do you not agree that to arrest them at a subsequent game as you suggest might, in fact, engender further violence from others? Would you not be complaining on here about police provocation in those circumstances? But I know that, whether to wind people up or because you genuinely believe it, you will always be here to speak up for the knuckle-dragging minority.

Excellent post, I completely agree. Of course, I want promotion. I think this team could do well in the Championship. And as long as it remains a mathematical possibility I'll be hoping for it. But, if it doesn't happen this year I know the reasons and most of them are beyond Pardew's and the current team's control. We all know we had a dreadful end to last season and an awful summer and start to this one. But, since then, I've been loving going to games knowing that we are more than likely to win and that the manner of our playing is generally very entertaining. It's a great season. It will be even better if we win the JPT and better still if we get promoted. But it's not the end of the world if we don't. This year.

I'm still not sure if I've got a ticket or not. I normally buy my tickets in person so don't have a customer number but always use the same credit card. I went to the ticket office on Monday (couldn't get through on the phone) and showed them my MK Dons area final ticket. They checked this and checked my credit card history then got me to fill in a form asking, among other things, what price ticket I wanted for Wembley. But as they didn't actually allocate me a ticket there and then but just put my form in a filing tray I'm not sure if it is to be processed this week or when the tickets go on general sale. Anybody else know or do I just have to wait and see what the postman brings on the 16th?

Yes 45 minutes and Merrington says "Saints don't want to let a goal in now".

Erm, are you sure? I know it's Swedish and all that...

We could add "We've got Alain Pardew" as well. Mind you, I'm not sure how we're going to make it apparent that there are three different spellings.

No. It proves we want to do well in all competitions. Well, most of us anyway. We win at a place only one other visiting team has won this season (and that on the first day) and people are using it as some sort of stick to beat Pardew with. What is it with some people? Can't we just enjoy the win (and the Pompey failure)?

I've never quite worked out whether you mean what you say or whether you're just on a perpetual wind-up about what a shame it is you don't get the real rucks like the old days when you could go to the football, get p*ssed, kick someone's head in and still have change from a ten-bob note. Either way, I've learned to take whatever you say with a large chunk of salt.

Is Perry going bald? I thought he was a ginger. Sad though, whoever it was. And all those posts who said the fat Pompey fan got what he deserved for singing a Pompey song? He didn't. He deserved a witty riposte or a Saints song back. It's a game. That's all.

I'm not going to read the Express article. But does it manage to bring Princess Diana or asylum seekers into the story?

Here's the view from the Guardian's Fiver - a daily email: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/28/the-fiver-portsmouth

I'd say disappointing rather than poor. And I agree that the team selection did look a bit bizzare. BUT. I think most people would agree that Pardew has been a good manager for us. We must therefore presume that he picks the team he thinks will get the best result and this depends on: 1) Who's fit 2) Who's in form 3) Who's done well in training 4) Who will do best against the particular opposition We can all see (or hear second hand via Dave Merrington) when things aren't working and I think it's only fair to assume that Pardew can see it too. But he has the advantage of knowing any problems there might be with his players that he doesn't necessarily want to share with the wider world. Yes. Sometimes even a good manager will make the wrong call but I son't think we should automatically assume that he does it out of ignorance, malice or incompetence. And I know you weren't saying that. And we still have a reasonable chance of making the playoffs and we'd all have settled for that when we were on minus 10.

Agree. We need to take the game to them - assuming the Solent commentary is giving a true picture.

Saved!

Tell him he's not the underdog in this game.

You clearly don't read this forum very often. It's a tradition that every signing will be greeted with remarks such as "No better than what we have", "Not good enough", "Don't rate him" and "Meh". To make such a remark it is not important whether or not you have seen the player in action or whether you have considered that Pardew gets paid a lot more than you because he might, just might, know a little bit more about football. It's all part of the traditional welcome we give to new players at our friendly family club.

Quite agree with you. But didn't you just know when you talked about crossing t's that that would happen? ;-)

Report on the Guardian web page: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/02/fa-cup-southampton-luton Liked the bit about "a short skate along the south coast".

Just back. I think we were fortunate not to get taken to a replay. We just didn't seem to compete in the second half. I thought Wayne Thomas had a great game (well, mpst of it, he was very poor for the first ten minutes). Kelvyn kept us in it with a couple of great saves but was reluctant to release the ball early when we had players forward. Both Lambert's free kicks were superb and he deserved the goal. Schneiderlin was excellent. Many oher players just didn't seem to be at the top of their game. Still we won and that's all that matters, I suppose. It was interesting to see a game from the other side of the pitch as I eneded up in the Kingsland today. Bloody cold though as the sun doesn't get to that side.

Alpine speaks sense. He's been doing that a lot lately. Either I've changed or he has.

Go Bart Go!

4-4 sudden death

Go Bart!

I've never met Mr Cortese so cannot comment on whether I would describe him as "pompous". I have however met, and dealt with, Ian Murray and "pompous" would seem to be a very suitable adjective. "Self-serving" and "arrogant" would be two more. I don't know why the club has banned the Echo (if it has). It is normal when issuing a press release with an embargo to expect that embargo to be respected. This is only partly to do with managing a story in your own interests. It is also to be fair to the whole of the media. The Echo could, perhaps, be accused of upsetting other news organisation (eg local BBC and ITV) by jumping the gun. If, of course, the Echo sourced th story on its own without help from the club then the ban does look heavy handed. The Echo is probably loving being banned. It makes them look far more important than they are. Their sales have been falling for years like most local papers. Even before the rise of the internet, commuting by car instead of by train or bus means that people have stopped buying evening papers to read on the journey home. On top of that, the Echo is simply not a very good paper with few good stories and most of those can be found elsewhere. Being banned is the biggest thing to happen to the paper for years. The Echo needs the football club much more than the club needs the paper. I am sure, once Mr Murray has had his five minutes in the spotlight, the Echo and the club will get together and agree some form of words to get the ban lifted.

It's a loan apparently. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/dec/04/portsmouth-avram-grant-wages What happened to all those strictures about responsible lending? This is surely more risky than the US sup- prime market. Having said that, I don't want to see Pompey go out of business. But I do want to see them playing at a level they can afford.