The9

Lower League stadia are like musical chairs for condemned stands... every time you go there's a different bit that's a death trap.

I once drove from Southampton to Newport in 1hr 35 minutes in a Vauxhall Nova 1.1. It was pre-(most) speed cameras but post Twyford Down and Newbury by-pass, about 3am and I was on my third engine in the car, unsurprisingly. About 1995/6-ish I suspect. Obviously at no point did I exceed the speed limit.

I don't really have a problem with people doing fantasy kit designs, but it's a bit pointless when all the Umbro designs for next season are already out there, and we'll be getting one of them for the new away kit. Personally I favour the Birmingham-style broad stripes in the classic Patrick Rank Xerox kit navy/sky colours and style as an away kit, but that's a 2 year old Umbro template now. Having said that Wrexham have just adopted the current red England away kit style for their new change colours, so there's no reason we couldn't have it... New Sunderland away is horrible though, white with black sleeves and yellow trim. Looks vile, and I say this as someone who once ran a team and bought an Umbro change kit in those exact colours...

I should think most of the teams in the football league do this now, especially in the lower leagues where you're more likely to have a number of local sponsors rather than one national one. We've been quite precious about our shirt sponsors, makes me wonder if the current sponsorship deal requires exclusivity.

Loads of decent bars and fit women in Brighton to my recollection. Some good music venues too. I'd say I'm more affable than nice though. I also don't have attitudes from the 1950s... Swindon, however, is a concrete shot-hile with a rubbish Outlet Mall and some filthy streets.

Nicked it from a Brentford forum after Googling something like "league one mileages", took me all of 30 seconds and then another couple of minutes to do Swindon, Brighton, Brentford and Bristol Rovers distances.

You are asking the wrong person.

Hardly a shock, 2 seasons after they came second in the mid-90s they couldn't fill the ground and they were getting low 5 figures, if not 4 figure, attendances in the late 70s/1980s. Lowest attendance — 7,134 (v. Wrexham, Second Division, 1978-79) Lowest average attendance — 16,001, Second Division, 1980-81

I went there in May '99, it was foooooking freeeeeeezing.

Is that cos we haven't played them for two years ?

If that's the BBC article you're referring to (always useful to link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/8089055.stm), he's said two things amounting to "I haven't really thought about it" and "I'll be back for training on June 22nd". Can't win, can he ? Terrible reporting by the BBC with the headline though, he's done nothing of the sort and the article even contradicts the headline. What he's actually said is "I know exactly what's happening at this moment".

That does look like a decent poll.

Totally depends on how the team do. Good start and winning matches and I can see us getting some around the 23-25k mark but I doubt many more will want to see even a successful Saints side in League One. A poor or mediocre start and we could be down in the 12k zone, there are only a couple of opponents at most that will spike attendances this season, Leeds, maybe Norwich and Charlton. Away fans should turn up in disproportionately high numbers though - but not noticably compared to last season's away fans at St Mary's due to the division drop.

That would be about 50% of Saints fans then judging by various crowd photos over the course of the last few seasons. I'm pretty sure the Mental Health clinics aren't overflowing here... Newcastle fans also didn't invent the wearing of football shirts en masse. Tchoh, and I usually agree with you as well...

Having played on the same football team as him for much of last season I am inclined to agree. I can't help but think it's mostly the media who portray Nick as "the voice of the fans", though obviously he's easily contactable and happy to have his views represented as such (and probably should be given his Trust position). Having seen Steve Grant furiously working his way into the position of Media Whore a while back it's a thankless task anyway, all phone calls and chatting about football to people who are ITK.

Season ticket sales will certainly be interesting. I for one expect all of the Lowe Boycotters to buy 2 each.

It is indeed "the easiest League to get out of". 7/24 teams changing division every season...

You would usually be able to go to any of them with little problem as long as you don't go looking for trouble. Millwall and Leyton Orient are not particularly pleasant though. As for 2h 22 to get to Bristol Rovers, I've done the A34/M4 AND M27/A36 routes hundreds of times going to South Wales, and either way will get you to Bristol in under 2 hours. M4 is quicker, especially as the Memorial Ground is near the M32 into Bristol from the M4.

They are former Premier League opponents. John Gorman made his name there, which should be enough for anyone. They have a stupid roundabout outside the ground. They let Claus score against them pre-season, ruining the edge of his first competitive goal. More personally: I broke down there once. Their McDonalds is absolutely filthy (well it was in 1999, and they were showing no signs of considering cleaning it by now). The Claus goal (above) occurred before I got into the match. I actually quite liked Brighton last time I went there.

63 miles, about 1 hr 40 away. Swindon is about 60 and 1hr 20. Brentford is 70 miles but you can get there more quickly than Brighton. AND they wear red and white stripes which must be worth something...

PS If anyone wants to work it out in Googlemaps... Brentford TW8 0NT Brighton BN1 1YR Bristol Rovers BS7 0BF Carlisle CA1 1LL Charlton SE7 8BL Colchester CO2 7JJ Exeter EX4 6PX Gillingham ME7 4DD Hartlepool TS24 8BZ Huddersfield HD1 6PX Leeds LS11 0ES Leyton Orient E10 5NF Millwall SE16 3LN MK Dons MK1 1SA Norwich NR1 1JE Oldham OL1 2PA Southampton SO14 5FP Southend SS2 6NQ Stockport SK3 9DD Swindon SN1 2ED Tranmere CH42 9PY Walsall WS1 4SA Wycombe HP12 4HJ Yeovil BA22 8YF

Against... um... here are the candidates... Brentford Brighton Bristol Rovers Charlton Exeter Leyton Orient Millwall MK Dons Swindon Wycombe Yeovil ...not much of a choice is it ? I'll settle for Swindon, as it's an hour by car, though Brighton is probably the most emotive, being a "South Coast Derby" and all... Anyone suggesting Yeovil or Exeter needs to look at a road map. A-Road hell and you can get to Milton Keynes in about the same time. Anyone else fancy suggesting a "derby" as we clearly don't have one...?

Leyton Orient at home. Damn that's taken, okay, Leyton Orient away then.

That would be funnier if a CORRECT table didn't have us 10 points behind everyone else and bottom.

I'm still laughing at Mike Ashley's SportsDirect.com online site moving all their Newcastle merchandise to the Championship section within 2 days of the end of the Premier League season. Surely we're used to this, it's only 4 years since the last one ? Then again, if there are still people using Ceefax...