OldNick

I would also like to thankyou Al de Man for not taking too many pictures of me.I was disappointed that you didnt get any of action shots of me. Standing there doing nothing is my day time job not my frantic shouting at the ref and team. seriously though you and Minty have done a sterling job and the match pictures are really good.

That was a tackle that was 10 seconds late. I winced. Amazing refs they booked you for calling him a #### but waved play on when you nearly waved goodbye to your leg

See i told you Phil had pulled a fast one, he smuggled Nathan and Bwp intro your team without us noticing

top player top Lol

That was a proper Lol reply, it made me laugh as much as your attempt at a header

I think I was right calling you the rodent/the hamster as you seemed to be bemused that the ball was not running around in a wheel!! I will also tell you that you were very unlucky not to be voted man of the match you were just pipped at the post by the 15 others in your side. Only kidding you gave it all, a great night a good bit of banter and total injustice. See you at a game one day, or even at the next forum match. Nick

Perhaps Im just hoping that something happens that may be good for us all. So much for all the talk last week how it was going to be being a saints fan.The hope keeps getting smashed.

I just wish I could understand all that technical stuff

Thankyou for that Stanley. MJ was very quiet and was not acting in a big iam manner. When introduced by othewrs who were mutual friends we did chat with others there.Dockgate 4. I found him polite and very enthusiastic about saints as well as St David etc and tehy care.Weston and Dubai Phil were alos in attendance as well as many of the forum players.Some had travelled a long way Norway and Leeds being 2 destinations.These people care for saints as well. We talked quietly and nobody as far as I know pushed the point as we respect the problems with NDA's. This bid has been going on for weeks and they have kept their silence only now is it apparent MJ may be involved but I doubt he is the main man.That strikes me as they have shoed away from publicity un;ike the Jersey bid. I have not said i believe in the bid 100% but I respect Fry so far and although i am cynical to think that it may be any administrators interest to drag it out he leaves it open for criticism if he carries on talking to a phoney. Perhaps its my desire for us still to have a club to support but I do think it is a little rich to criticise people wanting somebody to buy us especially when we were not the people baying to go into administration in the first place.

Thjats a great picture to go in your scrapbook you and Drogba

I tell yuo one thing that the lads who played the forum match showed total commitment and gave their all and paid for the privilage.The football was just as entertaining as they were enjoying themselves and still entertained. The pride of wearing the shirt was really evident. Play a team of Sotonian's/fans if we do go bust and perhaps there will be a club we could be proud of again.Stipulate they have to be from that and see what we can do, if it goes t### up

I like many others on here bought tickets to give away to fans to help the club.

This is getting bizarre.I was told that written bids had been lodged! There were meetings yesterday. Im starting to lose hope of anything good of going into administration and coming out the other side with any club

If we only knew their wages and add on then perhaps but as you are alluding to we have no way of working this out. Unless we were in the top 6 the fans would only turn up in the more glamorous home games anyway. How many times 2 seasons ago did we hear. Im not paying that to watch barnsley or whoever and we were doing al ot better and RL wasnt at the club. Its all a fallacy yes we may have got a few more people through the gate but not consistantly unless we had the success to go with it. Good goal by the way

that is how I feel. It wouldnt be the same.

from little acorns trees can grow... it is flippant to think oh well lets go into the Blue Square league rather than accept a bid that at least keeps us in league 1 It seems to me all those 38 bids were all tyre kickers and we may well end up with nothing. Administration is a laugh aint it?

Lol aint you got mirrors in your house? I thought it was a tramp asking me for the money for a cup of tea when you introduced yourself.There was i all dapper an all and you throw that underhand comment. Good to put a face to the name by the way. My throat is a bit sore with all the shouting I was doing. the ref got some stick ..as for the lino second half!!!!!

and we may be without a club!!!

this surprises me as I had really good response from them. I liked what Simon has done

Didnt the Echo report that KD and JE offered to defer their wages?

He was in attendance last night

Away team, thats all that matters are back row FlyingFinn, Griffo,Ooohterryhurlock, BPSaint, Baj (drogba), Saintsmadsi, Foxy, Umbongo, Front row, the9, MLTheadedgoals,Neilza, Influced.com, Leesaint, AndyPorter, Foreverredandwhite, Bugenhagen

I really cant say.I met quite a few of the group last night. The thing I took from it was that the impression I got that there is no big money backer and a consortium of small investors. The good news is we wil walk the Blue Square League. That probability is has become more evident the more I hear and read...not walking it but perhaps playing in it.

to be fair this consortium have kept it quiet to the very last minute.Quite professional if we hadnt had previos knowledge. We have to face upto the fact that we are close to Armageddon. If Jacksons bid is the preferred (?) then we have to hope it is right. it must have cost a large amount of money to get where we are and so it wont be case of lets phone up 'to have a laugh' If theo ther consortium is Salz cousins etc they have had a year to get it together and have been quite late in moving. Iam seriously worried that things are goig pearshaped at speed.

My report. The evening started with us meeting in dribs and drabs in reception. Scud was there and we saw the programme he had gone to a lot of trouble to get done. He still has some left and is still £25 out of pocket and so if anybody wants one they are a £1 and so should PM him. They are a great souvenir. Granty appeared and gave us our wristbands that allowed us through to the dressing rooms. (it was fuuny to see most of us still were wearing them when we got to Dock gate 4 after the game) The lads were chatty and after getting introduced the moment to out on the pitch arrived. Some spectators were already there and there was light applause and some cheering as we made our way out to have a kick around. Baj was soon damaging the seats in the northam with his pin point shooting.'Watch this Gaffer' he said as row z ducked. Bp (the keeper) was leaning against the goalposts picking his nails as Baj got his range. Getting tired off going up the steps to retrieve the ball baj then called on the team to warm up poroperly as on SMS it will 'kill your legs.' Baj had to be substituted with 20 minute to go as both his calves had given up...snigg##. We went back into the dressing rooms after deciding that we did have a decent selection of youth and experience. Dubai Phil and his sidekick FOS1 the highly experienced manager and coach/player were doing free kick practice and lots of other things that you see the pro's dong before games. FOS1 was a veteran campaigner.. the Somme was my understanding. (ps Fos im heading for 10k posts. Lol) With anticipation and excitement building the bell went , some of the younger players who are still at school thought it was the dinner bell but was told it was to inform us to go out on the pitch.Photos were taken as the teams were led out by Granty and Baj and there was cheer as the teams were seen by the crowd. The game kicked off, the Hamster (home side) decided to make presence felt and went into a challenge that late it took about 10 seconds.Thankfully my star midfielder was not injured and Hamster got away without being spoken to the Norwgian ref. As with all these types of games at first there is a lot of misplaced passes and it takes time for the game to settle. Then a moment of brilliance Griffo got the ball and slid the most delightful pass through for The9 to score. The home team tried to respond and Bigdavewatson was a real handful in the air for SaintsmadSi although he kept him in hos pocket when the ball was on the ground as he couldnt use his arms and big a### to knock him off the ball. The Flying Finn alongside mopped up any loose ball and also made some tough tackles. I felt very comfortable especially as Baj took a swing at the ball from 25 yards that was heading to row zz but hit a home teams hand and the ref pointed to the spot.Of course there was a lot of whining form the home side that it wasnt a pen and it was unjust but Baj held his nereve and left the banafactor standing in the middle of his goal not attempting a dive and slid it in to his right. 2-0 and well deseved. A hoof down the middle caught us napping and undeservedly they were back into a game we were controlling. Again Andy Porters endeavour and Neilza on the left were stopping any threat from the home side. Phil tried to change their formation into wingbacks but they were making little impression apart from a few hopeful long balls that were mopped up or confidentiall y dealt with by Si and FlyingFinn and if got past them Bp took the ball comfortably.Forever red and white was working well with LeeSaint and making Griffo free to take on the totally outclassed Justmike who was run ragged until he limped off complaining about his twisted knee. Considering it had been spun around so many times by my superb team Im not surprised. A cracking tackle by Influenced helped the ball break to the9 who superbly slotted the ball home. We now had the right scoreline for the play. FOS1 came on for the last 10 minutes of the half ,a phantom injury (what a surprise!) to one of their team and his old football brain calmed their team and their defence was more solid as he made a screen in front of them. Then disaster struck,from our corner a hoof set up the home team 2 on 2 Andy Porter did his utmost but the ball broke kindly for Granty and his attempt that was such a scuff that it took a divot out of the penalty area the ball bounced into the ground and then upwards over the onrushing keeper who had it covered unti lthe ball took an unusual flight.There was a flurry by the home team and BP had to palm over the bar a tremendous effort by Bigdavewatson (?) Leesaint, Influenced and Foreverredandwhite were controlling midfield and we kept the initiative until H/T I was very pleased how things were going, although not only we were to lose top striker the9 who had caused problems all game but our c/b pairing at the break and with trepidation i realised that we had OOOTerryhurlock and a thin and wiry Norgegian Bugenhagen to take their place.The centre of my defence that had been so comfortable even against a good centre forward and now we had a new pairing. My fears were allayed immedaitely as OOhTerry although not a lithe as he once may have been took control and totally overpowered the home sides forwards. Bugenhagen was alongside him and made a couple of very strong and timely tackles. FOS1's old head had realised that they were not going to beat us with silky football. He would call it a good raking passing game although to the educated it would be hoofing to take advantage of our less speedy centre half. Bp was forced to do a little tidying up but in general when I put Bugenhagen into sweeping behind the more solid OOhterry things setttled again with UmBongo and Nielza both coping with any threat coming down the flanks and the skillful MLTheadedgoals linking well with Influenced who was the leader in midfield with tenacious tackling and a will to win. Foxy was linking with Baj and it looked like we were going to regain our 2 goal lead as a chance opened up for Baj but unfortunatley it went begging. I went to the ground holding my head in despair.Baj lay prone but got up limping and Drogba came off for a few minutes milking the crowds applause before going back on again. Bravely he tried to carry on but his head ruled his heart and he dejectedly came off.Andy Porter came on and I switched Griffo up front alongside Foxy and the threat was back again. It was only bananafactors ability to sweep as a keeper stopped the enevitable 4 th goal. The referee had been obviously been nobbled by phil as he booked Infuence for disssent much to the crowds dismay, and didnt notice the underhand trickery by my opposite number in putting on a sub during play without the referees permission (Bigdavewatson) and although i howled my displeasure he ignored the fact. With 3 minutes left with the game open we broke away Griffo was surley going to get to the ball before their keeper but his boot managed to whack the ball over our defence for their forward to be clean through on goal, a scuffed effort seemed to everyone (fans and players alike told me afterwardsthat it looked as though it was going well wide) that it was missing and the keeper left it confident it would go for a goal kick but it hit the far post and rebounded out to their forward who had the easy chance to stab home 3-3. This was just a minute or so after Baj had sportingly said to me he hopes they equalised as we were there for the day, i answered in my best gutter English that i didn't hold to that, something like 'I dont agree old boy' The lino now joined in to the fray and as i passed him the brown envelope that had fallen out of his back pocket with Air Mail Dubai across it he failed to flag the onrushing hoike forward who slotted home the unfair winner although he did take it well. A crestfallen away team had the victory taken from them and a minute later the ref blew for time. The home side tried to celebrate but they knew they had a hollow victory and it petered out and there was a very sporting shake of the hands with no overhypeing thier victory. i must admit had we won the celebrations would still be going on now, as i think 1 or 2 of our side had practised routines. As i walked back into the dressing room it was amazing what pride i had in my team. On the night not 1 of them had shirked a tackle and had given their all.We had been strangers only 3 hours before but we now had a bond and friendship that had grown in those few hours. I went and did an interview for the dvd but couldnt get back to my team to talk to them and enjoy the comraderie that had grown.It is with a tinge of sadness that the team that I had seen grow was for 1 night only and hope that we will do the same again.The Greys I salute you, no quarter given and unlucky to lose on the night. All of them were tremendous not 1 could not be proiud of their display and if pushed I would put Influenced as my player of the match but there were so many it is harsh to choose. Thanks lads.The Gaffer