SaintDonkey

Herbie on Saint's list has one minor issue with this piece. He's 83 not 81. To quote the man himself: "When I was a youngster of just. 81 I did a Zip Wire trip high above St Mary's from the Northam Stand to the Chapel Stand for charity. I had no intention of retiring at such a young age!"

England - but only because it's a key game for them now whereas the United game could only be seen as a key game come the end of the season. Now if the question was 'England to win and qualify for the World Cup' or 'Southampton to win and qualify for the Champions League' my answer might be different.

Any idea why Mick Channon is listed as Mike Channon? I can just about forgive a special relationship to Newbury Park - even if it's a completely different Newbury to the race course.

We have indeed played the most long balls, but we're also 4th in terms of possession, 5th in terms of number of crosses, 5th in terms of through balls and 10th in terms of short passes (so average). Our pass completion is a bit disappointing at 78.7% (down in 13th). West Ham in contrast are 14th in possession, 11th in crosses, dead last both in through balls, short passes and pass completion. We do a lot of long balls, but we do a lot of everything because we have the ball a lot and mix up our play.

Cheers Pamplemousse! Sadly no Le God for Saints so my dream of tiki taki being inspired by Matt comes to an end - unless of course he was an unused sub whispering sweet nothings in the young Xavi's ear on the bench BARCELONA-SOUTHAMPTON 4-0 Barcelona: Baia, Reiziger, Nadal, Couto, Roger, Amor, De la Peña (Xavi), Mario, Oscar (Ferron), Sergi (Jofre), Pizzi (Luis). Southampton: Jones, Warner, Benali, Richardson, Dryden, Lundekvam, Basham, Saberski (Bridge), Hirst (Sarli), Palmer (Gibben), Beresford. Arbitro: Lozano Segado Goles: De la Peña (2), Mario, Luis.

Cheers Steve, any idea of line ups? I guess if Matt was playing he was giving a master class in not giving a toss.

Afternoon all, I picked up from the Blizzard the little nugget that Xavi played his first match for Barcelona against Southampton in 1998, but I can't find out any more details about the match. Can anyone shed any light? Was it home or away? Who won? Who played for Southampton that day? I like to imagine that Xavi's first lesson in football was a Matt Le Tissier master class.

Has to be the cup.

Holmes is a talented player who would be a mainstay of a half decent championship side by now if he wasn't made of glass. Nice bloke as well. A great pity

My sentiments exactly.

Nonsense - he played at least once for Thurrock, against Dover. It will come as a surprise to no one on here that he let four past him. http://doverathletic.com/index.php?p=matchreport&date=2011-08-16

Winning the Hungarian league and super cup with the ridiculously named Videoton it would seem (including being named in the 'best team in Hungary the last two years). I'd forgotten him but after a little research I'm willing to start the BRING BACK ZOLTAN campaign

It may only be the League Cup, but a couple of years ago for Saints it was 'only' the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. Okay realistically we're not going to win it but why not take it seriously if we get Premiership opposition (after the second string has swept aside Bristol City or Swindon of course). And who knows a bit of luck when it comes to the draw - and a few of the big guns playing weakened sides - we might get another day out in North West London.

You could get a pretty good team out of that lot ------Bevan Baird-Cranie-Mills-Bridge AOC-Oakley-Surman-Bale -------Walcott -----Blackstock Bench: Poke, Monk, McDonald, Howard, Best I'm ignoring Lallana just because he still plays for Saints - the rest of the choices based on personal bias

I expect Aldershot will shortly be announcing that they've signed the pick of Stoke's youth team on loan.

So he did (apparently) http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/9095223.Eastleigh_rocked_by_departure_of_ex_Saint/ I wonder did things not work out at Aldershot or did Saints just make a better offer.

CMS's record is really no better than Ricky's (Last 4 seasons CMS 19, 26, 11, 34 RL 19, 29, 37, 21). TBF CMS would have probably scored more in League 1 the season he got just 11, but going the other way CMS's 19 goal season was in League 2 so it balances out. I just don't think CMS qualifies in the 'better than what we have' category.

They all appear to be rather short - Doddsy is only about five ten and he's towering above most of them.

A proven Championship striker, in decent scoring form; despite being in a generally under performing team last season, available on a free transfer. FFS sign him up. So what if he played for the Skates, it's not as though he's a lifelong Pompey fan is it.

Last time away at Fratton Park I got my ticket through being a member rather than a season ticket holder, and that was in the Premiership of course when we had more season ticket holders, so a membership scheme does work in that respect. Of course with hindsight I wish I hadn't been there...

Well done for woefully missing the point Yes we know at the moment that they walked the league and it only appears close because they gave up last 4 games (although to be honest both Saints and Huddersfield would probably still have beaten them). But 10, 20, 50 years from now that memory is gone and all that remains is the simple facts of the table. And that simple fact is they finished ahead of Southampton by the result of a single game. No one without specific knowledge is going to look at that table and think that Brighton 'walked the league'.

Comfortably? You can argue that maybe they took their foot off the gas at the end of the season, but the record shows that if we'd beaten them at SMS we would have been Champions. I would hardly call that comfortable.

From the point of view of preparation for the season West Brom is ideal. They're pretty much the level we need to be at to gain promotion from the Championship to the Prem, and at a level that frankly I would expect to kick our butts (assuming they play a full strength team). Of course a thrashing by WBA isn't as attractive to fans as a thrashing by Juventus but a hell of a lot more valuable.

An ITK to crucify - that'll pass a few hours

Good stuff as ever - please please keep it going next season!