Weston Saint

Last 10 league games Won 7 - Drew 2 - Lost 1 - For 25 - Against 13 - Points 23 out of 30 Champions form. It's good to be a Saints fan

Just shows our confidence when we want teams around us to beat those at the top rather than looking over our shoulders. Walsall have a good home record and a goal scoring ratio there of 2 to 1. Usually I would take the draw but if our team can keep their confidence, shape and form we could just nick this one.

Reported by a Pompey fan to have come from Jacob by email last night. Fact or fiction you have to smile! "Says there is a slight delay because the were let down by a funder... they are working round the clock to address the situation Also stresses that the club's situation is now more stable than september i.e. progress has been made albeit slower than preferred" http://thepompeychimes.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52592

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6941596.ece It shouldn’t have taken a car crash, a swirl of internet rumours and a grudging apology to make us notice that something was seriously wrong with Tiger Woods. Witnessing him snap and snarl his way around a golf course was proof enough. Even Woods’ two post-crash statements, worded as though written by a committee of lawyers, were appropriately tortured. “I’m human and I’m not perfect,” he wrote when the story broke on Sunday. Yesterday, in a kind of non-confession confession, he retreated to saying he is “a long way short of perfect”. Now he tells us. Woods has been fighting the imperfections of humanity all his life. Being human demands weakness, vulnerability and unpredictability; Woods has always eschewed all three. His template has been half-god, half-machine — a god to his fans, a machine to himself. Who can be surprised that he is starting to crack under the strain? Forget who did what to whom near a fire hydrant in Florida. The important question is why being so gloriously good at golf cannot even raise a smile out of Tiger Woods. The answer extends far beyond the world of sport. It’s not all his fault. The sport industry delights in celebrating the elimination of weakness. Denying being human has become professionalism’s raison d’être. Coaches prefer willing cogs in a wheel, sponsors want shiny faces on billboards, governing bodies seek stars without opinions. And if the agents and coaches can’t quite eliminate what’s left of your personality, there are always the sports psychologists to finish the job. We have come full circle. Once sport was a means of building character; now it seeks to eliminate character. As a grudging genius, Woods has been the apotheosis of modern professionalism. There is no joy in Woods’ golf, let alone (it would seem) his private life. He interacts with the sporting public as little a possible, as though fans are an unnecessary encumbrance rather than the lifeblood of sport. Those who once criticised Don Bradman for being a machine knew nothing of Tiger Woods. He plays sport as though his own humanity is something to be rebutted rather than embraced. Some sportsmen affect coldness as a competitive mask. With Woods, you sense it goes all the way to his core, as if personality is a form of weakness, a flaw to be ironed out of his game like a faulty backswing. Did it have to be this way? Woods has always seemed predestined, but we once hoped for a better kind of destiny. A dozen years ago he won his first major by the huge margin of 12 shots, at the conservative Augusta National club, deep in the American South. Here, we hoped, was a handsome young black sportsman who would catapult America’s least multicultural sport into a more liberal future. But far from being a brave new dawn, Woods’ career has merely exacerbated what was wrong with the way sportsmen are held up as role models. The Woods legend has entrenched the cult of professional obsession, the Malcolm Gladwell view that anyone can be a genius so long as they practise for 10,000 hours. Woods has been the ultimate pin-up boy for that way of life. It’s long overdue for a serious rethink. The Woods PR machine has also indulged the myth of sporting exceptionalism. Mistaking mere winners for supermen shortchanges everyone. Brilliant sportsman, whatever they may tell you, are a lot like everyone else. Yes, sportsmen have to make sacrifices to get to the top; yes, there is a lot of pressure when they get there; yes, it’s a tough life. So is being a great surgeon, so is being a great teacher, so is being a great actor. The pursuit of excellence, whatever the discipline, demands bravery and dedication. Sporting exceptionalism — that sport is a special realm populated by a superbreed — is a myth sold to gullible fans to boost TV viewing figures. There are also limits to human specialisation. Both capitalism and professionalism converge in encouraging the pursuit of doing one thing very well. But no job, least of all playing a game, should dominate your life to the point where it becomes a joyless exercise in self-denial. Doing only one thing for ever, without ever wondering if it can be entirely fulfilling, suits very few human beings. It is a practical point as well as a moral one. Excessive narrowness isn’t just bad for you as a person, it’s bad for you as a performer. When I was captain of Middlesex, I used to dread seeing overkeen young cricketers reading Tiger Woods books. The Tiger approach, by legitimising introspective obsessiveness, nearly always made them play worse on the field. The monomania of Tiger Woods or Geoff Boycott doesn’t work for many people. Now we are learning that it isn’t even working for Tiger Woods. And anyway, surely one day it is only natural that golfers must fall out of love with golf. Tiger does not owe it to his fans to keep winning; his fans owe it to Tiger that they don’t demand that he ruins his life in the pursuit of hitting a golf ball. Tiring of sport should be considered an essential part of growing up, a human badge of honour, not a cause for reproach. Professional sport is stuck in a dangerous state of arrested development where it demands that grown adults indefinitely retain the egotistical narrow-mindedness of teenagers. Let's hope Woods’ unravelling prompts a shift in mood. So far he has been the standard-bearer for our age of professionalism: workaholic relentlessness, nothing left to chance, the elimination of emotion, it’s only the winning that counts, say nothing, follow the endorsements. Throughout that grim and joyless narrative, Woods has found the orthodoxy of professionalism to be all too willing an accomplice. Now it is time for Act II, not only for Tiger, but for the way we think about success. It’s time we all grew up — and allowed sportsmen to do the same. Ed Smith is a former England cricketer. He is now a Times leader writer. http://www.edsmith.org.uk Excellent article by a very intelligent ex Cricketer

Lallana is happy. He wants to develop with Saints. Question is, if we do not get promoted and he continues to develop there comes a time when he needs a higher challenge. If and when that time comes I am sure Saints will not stand in the way of his development. Should not be an issue for the rest of this season though.

Moths round a light comes to mind again. The question is posters, are you a moth or are you the light? And beatlesaint, I have never mentioned 19C health on here. Nor would I.

Hart has left according to SSN

Camilla bought a new pair of shoes for her wedding which got increasingly tighter & tighter as the day went on. That night after the festivities were finally over, she & Charles had retired to their room at the palace. Camilla flopped on the bed and said 'Please remove my shoes darling, ones feet are killing one.' Ever obedient, the Prince of Wales attacked her right shoe with vigour But it would not budge. 'Harder' yelled Camilla. 'Harder?' Charles yelled back, 'I'm trying darling! But it's just so bloody tight!' 'Come on give it all you've got ' she cried. Finally when it released, Charles let out a big groan, and Camilla exclaimed 'Oh God, that feels so good.' In their bedroom next door The Queen turned to Prince Phillip and said, 'See, I told you she would still be a virgin with a face like that!' Meanwhile back in the other bedroom Charles was attempting to remove the other shoe when he cried out 'Oh god, darling this ones even tighter' At which point Prince Phillip turned and said to the Queen: 'That's my boy, Once a Navy man, always a Navy man!'

Unfortunately although we were previously a public company and Lowe was indeed accountable to the shareholders, with the cartel of over 35% support and a perceived reluctance on the true opponents to force the issue we were in no real different a position that we find ourselves now on decision making. The only difference is Mr Liebherr has much more to lose if it all goes wrong. At present we appear to be in safe hands and most of us support the long term view and not the short term "throw the money at it" approach. Long may it continue. The test will come when we have the skills in the team but need that extra cash to push to the next level, and the next, and the next until we are an established entertaining Premier club.

Agree, very enjoyable.

No he lives in Surrey but was with me at the Norwich game on Saturday.

And now we know why he ran to Pardew. He was called in mid week to discuss dropping him to the bench to accomodate 4 5 1 formation as Pardew does not think we are strong enough to play 4 4 2 against a team that passes it about. Connolly appears to have given him the hair dryer treatment

Babysham, Pernod and a dash of blackcurrent. Called it a purple passion back in the early 70's.

Agree. Spoke to Drew Surmans father on the telephone today. Drew made his full Premier league debut for Wolves against Chelsea. Started on the left of midfield but then moved into the centre. Bad result but Drew seemed to hold his own and will be very disappointed if he is does not start next game.

He only made 11 appearances for us last season through injury and only 2 sub appearances this year. Clearly he is not as good as some seem to think on here. He needs to move on and get games somewhere else.

Old joke but worth repeating A new Primary Teacher at a school near Fratton Park explains to her class that she is an ardent Pompey fan. She asks her kids to raise their hands if they too are Pompey fans. Everyone in the class raises their hand except one little girl. The teacher looks at the girl with surprise and says, 'Mary, why didn't you raise your hand?' 'Because I'm not a Pompey fan' she replied. The teacher, still shocked, asked 'Well, if you are not a Pompey fan, then who are you a fan of?' 'I am a Saints fan and proud of it' Mary replied. The teacher could not believe her ears. 'Mary, why are you a Saints fan?' 'Because my mum is a Saints fan and my dad is a Saints fan, so I'm a Saints fan too!' 'Well' said the teacher in an obviously annoyed tone 'that is no reason for you to be a Saints fan. You don't have to be just like your parents all of the time. What if your mum was a prostitute and your dad was an out-of-work drug addict, what would you be then?' Mary smiled, 'Then I'd be a Pompey fan!'

Anyone wanting to read more on BA flight 009 here http://www.ericmoody.com

Very enjoyable game in atrocious conditions. Full credit to both teams. Good to see Lallana staying out left, particularly in the first half. He can score playing in that position as well. Hope he has learned something more from that display. Very industrious, great skill and my man of the match. Our goals were top drawer against a decent side in top form. Their penalty came during a sustained period of pressure and I thought the takle from James was poor, ill times and reflected the game he is having at right back lately. Disappointed with their second goal as Davis parried it when he should have done better. OK, I know the conditions were poor but how many times have we seen him do that. Lambert was quiet but most times he had two players marking him and they effectively shut him out. However that gave Lallana and Connolly more room as he took an extra defender away. I like Jaidi. He is good in the air and a stronge presence in the centre of defence. I have been disappointed with Trottman in recent games, his positioning is suspect and he is missing timings of his defensive headers. Norwich are a good side and a draw should not be sniffed at. We are progressing but we do need to improve our defensive personnel if we are going to be spoken about in the same breath as Charlton, Norwich and Leeds. Playoff chances slipping away fast but I am not concerned. We need to build and consolidate. Use that next season to gain promotion and hit the Championship with our feet running in 2011/12 As for winning the JPT, we have Norwich to overcome. We have home advantage but if Norwich put out their full first team it is going to be very difficult. I also thing Leeds are miles ahead of us at present but we do have time to reach their level by using the transfer window to our advantage. What a pleasure to see Micky Channon at half time and looking fit and well. Only thing missing was his run with his windmill arm action. A real star who brightened up the awful weather conditions.

http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/story/435977.html Hampshire are in discussions to sign Shane Warne, their former captain, for next season's Twenty20 Cup. Warne led Hampshire from 2004 to 2007 and Rod Bransgrove, the chairman, confirmed that the club had made an approach. "Warne is the biggest name we've ever had at the club and, yes, we have spoken to him," he told the Daily Mail. "You can never rule out getting Warne back to Hampshire, although he's very busy and I wonder whether he'd get out of bed for the money we can offer." Since retiring from international cricket in 2007, Warne has captained Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, winning the inaugural event with a young and relatively unknown side. He is also involved in a host of other activities, starring in the TV commentary box in this year's Ashes, as well as playing international poker tournaments. In an effort to raise the profile of England's Twenty20 Cup competition, counties will be able to include four overseas players in their squads next season but only two will be allowed in each game. Middlesex signed Adam Gilchrist earlier in the week and are hoping to sign Sachin Tendulkar. Hampshire, have already secured Ajantha Mendis, the Sri Lanka spinner, creating the prospect of an exciting pairing with Warne, but Bransgrove said Hampshire have other options. "Hampshire have also had talks with other big-name players that are reasonably well advanced. I've been talking about the potential of Twenty20 for some time and getting these superstars in is what it's all about."

"The Spurs link, as usual is a non starter. Adam is committed to Saints and is enjoying his football immensely" That is the quote I have just received having emailed his family to verify

OK resent

That is outside of UK, he said England. Did you get my email about our next meet?

Agree but it is right to correct an error is it not?

I think what 19C was saying is that he was not exonerated. The CPS decided that it was not in the public interest being costly and time consuming. I do not want to get into this argument but it is only fair the correct outcome is recorded, or at least the Echo's version http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/district/southampton/4642320.Le_Tissier_will_not_face_charges_over_Saints_betting_scam/ And the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8269028.stm

Hopefully this explanation will put the whole issue to bed. A word of advice to Nineteen Canteen. Let it go please. You are an intelligent poster and must see you have done this to death. I hope you take the advice in the way it is meant.