Weston Saint

End of July. Will be available for the 50 over comps and last 5 Championship games. He wants to sign for next season as well!

We need 126 to win. Just chatted to a friend who went all day yesterday. He said the whole team were up for it and it showed on the pitch. Looks like the same today. I back us to get our first win of the season

Ings has gone to Liverpool subject to a medical

87/4 is a good fightback. Bird with his first wicket and Berg has 3

Interesting team against Sussex JHK Adams*, SP Terry, MA Carberry, JM Vince, WR Smith, AJA Wheater†, SM Ervine, GK Berg, JM Bird, DR Briggs, FH Edwards Dawson dropped with Terry coming in. Tomlinson and Wheal dropped for Bird and Edwards. I knew there would be changes as the coaches were very angry with our recent performances and held some crisis meetings during the Worcestershire game. Sussex win the toss and bat so our bowlers will come under close scrutiny.

First let me address the Michael Bates situation. The club recognized he was one of the best glove men in the country but he needed to be able to score runs. Wheater was doing that last season and we had McManus in the wings. It was thought better to let him go. What is surprising is that no other county took him on and he is now playing minor counties cricket. In this day and age in the Championship the wicket keeper must also be bat. The fact that no other county took him on speaks volumes. A great loss to cricket but that is how it goes and it would be unfair to blame Hampshire. Jackson Bird was indeed dross last night but give him a chance. This was his first competitive game. Do not jump to early conclusions. Shah is not fit enough to play the 4 day game any more so he is earning his money in T20 round the world. We would be unable to tie him down to a contract. Wood's knee problem is degenerative and he is not fit and regrettably may never be fit for all types of the game. At present they are restricting his work load to 1 day cricket but as that programe comes to an end he may get a couple of 4 day games at the back end of the season

Steve, when Briggs did not play in the last home game it was for the coaches to see what a 4 seamer attack could do and to decide which one they would leave out to get Briggs back in. I will say no more as it was a private conversation. In that game Edwards showed he was not the answer. They have high hope for Wheal and need to get him some experience. He is very confident but to me far from being ready. We signed an aging Adams, and injured Bird, and then panicked and bought Edwards over early without any 4 day cricket for an age! You have to question the management decisions. One shining light, Berg looks a decent signing similar to Smith was last year.

Poorest day of the season for Hampshire. Batting brittle and they bowling woeful! If it was not for the Lunch and Tea I had booked and the good company I was with, I would have been out of there pretty quick! We are relegation certainties on present form and I cannot see it getting better. Management and Coaches much take equal blame as well. Only highlight was Edwards, who subbed for Smith all afternoon, coming out after tea, going up to the umpire standing at the bowling end, taking of his sweater and handing it to him as if he was about to open the bowling! Cold miserable day in every respect!!

Watched the Arsenal v Aston Villa game with mixed feelings. Do I want Saints in the Europa Cup next season? Do we have enough depth in the squad with the stresses of 2 games most weeks damaging our chances of improving our Premier results of previous seasons? Do I want football on a Thursday and Sunday? Saints have progressed beyond most our dreams since that awful day of Administration. To progress to the next level we must experience European football. Perhaps we need to trust the club are prepared for this next step. If not I fear it will damage progress for a few years. Overall, Europe it is. Thanks Arsenal, great game of football. Shame we had to rely on this result to send us through!

Early season update Coach sees Dawson as 1,000 a season run potential and to fit him into the team he will open through the season. Do not see him as a genuine No 5 or the spin bowler. As Carberry does not expect to play for England again he is happy to drop down to 3 to help Dawson. Briggs has a big future with Hampshire and they appreciate he needs plenty of game time. Wanted to look at 4 seamers for this game to see best 3 going forward. Brad Wheal seen as a fantastic prospect but has never played a 4 day game before hence being eased in. Good to see him take an early wicket. Berg now fully fit and is massively grateful to Hampshire for giving him a chance. So far he is not letting that faith down. Good 50 today and a sprinkle of wickets through the early season. Edwards not fully fit as yet. Game time will help in that respect. Nice early wicket for him though Bird is about 2 weeks from recovery and has remained in the country. As someone said yesterday he had a lunch time bowl. Berg thinks he is a class player and looking forward to him playing.

There will be a minimum court fee of £25 which is recoverable. Other incidental costs may also be recoverable. I did say they would not be high but another cost none the less

I was interested to note one of the appeal judges was Lord Moore-Bick. He is an experienced commercial court judge and I have been on the right end of one of his decisions James Budget Sugars v Norwich Union some years ago. I predict the Supreme Court are unlikely to overturn the decision found on the parking offence unless there is some flaw in both the first court and appeal decision both of which were in favour of the Parking Company. Based on the court case I would pay up to avoid legal costs although they will not be high as it will be a small claims court.

You know I have expressed concerns over some of Davis weaknesses but when he came on yesterday I was confident he could do a good job and he did not let the side down. If we have him in goal for the last 8 games he will give is best. Despite some of the comments on this thread the supporters at the ground gave him a rousing reception and it was lovely to hear the "super Kev" song ringing out from the Northam. He deserves his chance and what a lovely was to go out as a Premier player for a top club.

No problem. Free drinks tended to dull my brain

Had a lovely conversation with Dennis Hollywood at the match today. Sat with him for a while with Brian O'Neil hovering as I was sat in his seat. Although Dennis was a kicker he gave George Best respect but always played him out of the game with skill. Told me his hero was Dennis Law who he met several times after they both retired. Jim Steel was presenting a signed ball to the winner of the the correct score but tried to walk away with the ball. Told him it was the first time he had made a tackle and come away with the ball Great day. This was my 6th game in Corporate and I have not seen the away side score at all. May be Saints will give me a free entry for life Good to let my brother use my season ticket for those occasions May be it is him who is the lucky charm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31873471

Matt Coles leaves Hampshire by mutual consent. When we took him on loan with a view to signing him the message that came down from Kent was that he would need to change his attitude and listen to advice. He wss a little overweight and I never saw him trim down. Very disappointing last season. He hit one great 50 in T20 game in Essex but after that he was repeatedly caught cheaply on the boundary. He could not get his head around the fact Essex was a small ground and it was a one off Seemed to me to he lacked the intelligence to be a good player and the fact it was mutual suggests Hampshire felt the same. No indication yet where he will go but in my opinion he has wasted his talent and I cannot see him changing now.

I am told ALDERWEIRELD has had a slight set back and not available for Sunday.

With just 13 games to go and 4th in the league at present thoughts are very much on a European qualification of some sort. But are we ready! If we look at Champions League qualification some suggest our sought after players like Schneiderlin, Clyne and Alderweireld will stay, but will they? We are limited on what we can pay these players and certainly will not be able to match the £80,000 - £100,000 a week they can attract at the 2 Manchester clubs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool. OK, qualification will up our income substantially but we need to offer long term wages and therefore it is necessary to qualify every year. We are simply not big enough financially to compete. We are earning world respect but until our overseas income matches that respect we are not one of the “big 6” It will be fun, particularly if we qualify for the group stages by finishing in the top 3, but with a small squad and not enough money to commit to a larger one will our league position suffer. We have got away with it so far despite injuries to key players but upping the ante with even more games will stretch us even more. If we go into the Europa League we face the same problems albeit against opposition we should be able to compete with but Thursday away games in some of Europe’s outback it is bound to have an effect What if our sojourn in Europe so affects our Premiership aspirations that we find ourselves in a relegation battle. Don’t say it will not happen. Just look at some of the other teams that stretched themselves. Ask Birmingham, Leeds, Wigan etc. Where are they now? Not sharing the massive money that being a member of the Premier League offers and even more so in 2016/17 season So do we look to be a top 8 club and settle for ruffling the feathers of the big clubs on a regular basis until we can get our income to a level that turns us into a big club or go into Europe and hope that will be the catalyst for such increase in income on a regular basis? For me the Jury is out! I am very much undecided.

Total embarrassment.

We certainly do John.

I met GM at that same event he posted earlier, and Pancake in London! Still having nightmares about both!!!

The scan cannot diagnose concussion but it can identify an injury such as swelling and bleeding.

"With your sponsorship of Southampton FC, what impact is there on overseas sales in your markets when players from that country regularly play in the first team"