The9

I think for the away team all grey from the Saints shop (or borrowing from mates) where possible is the only way to go, there are too many variables otherwise.

They've never sold the red shorts (or socks) in the club shop. the Umbro home kit and Umbro all-charcoal grey away kit (which we've hardly ever worn all together) were the only ones available this season. The fact we still have all of the all-grey kit for sale in the shop suggests to me that's what we should go for - there's always the chance to borrow stuff - I'd even have suggested the keeper's grey shorts/socks but they're still full price, they don't have enough stock and they've a much lighter grey too. I am confused as to why you don't think the other away shirts have the flybe logo on them, they all have as far as I know, and I've got 3 grey shirts (stupid BOGOF half price deal) so I should know !!!

Ooh, better shotgun/bagsie number 9 again seeing as I've just switched squads... not that I haven't already mentioned it to Steve ! Just for the hell of it, here are some Birmingham City away socks in men's sizes in red/white for £2.70 (probably better for the home team) http://www.bluesonlinestore.co.uk/away-kit/default.aspx Forest's red socks (same as Sunderland's, all red with one white hoop) are £5. I've already got all the home and away kit in the colours that it can be bought in the shop, so I'm not too bothered. Trouble is we've only got this thread to collate responses and lots of people haven't put their oar in. Might be worth putting together a list of who's got what and who needs what ?

Oh what fun, Steve's just reassessed the squads and I've just been switched to the away team. We don't have a social group, the home team does... Right then gennelmen, 1) why the hell are we wearing red shorts anyway, it's not like the proper grey ones clash, red ones are a sod to find, there are no official ones for sale and they clash a bit anyway and 2) going with an alternative option, have they got any grey shorts left, seeing as they're the only away shorts you can actually buy at the moment ? 3) I already have the grey socks (and shorts).

Here we go : http://www.thefootballnation.co.uk/acatalog/Umbro-Premier-Football-Team-Kit-Shorts.html That's got the shorts I was referring to in red and black, in adult sizes.

Sorry, no, that's me not being clear, there's ONE set of official black shorts, but online there are far cheaper, very similar (like the ones in the message above) black Umbro shorts too. I think we should go for the hoopy socks all the way, no-one who paid £115 or £230 to play is going to begrudge £3-£4 to look the part... I hope.

That link's for kids' shorts btw...

Ooh they're good, I'm liking those - though as I have the proper kit I'll be wearing that anyway - unless we all agree to something different. Happy to pay for those on the day anyway. Still not sure there are enough black shorts left in the club shop, and they are full price. There are black shorts in the style of the red shorts the away team are getting if people want to pay a few quid more ?

Nope, there are very few pairs of shorts left in "normal" sizes and absolutely no hooped socks other than LB size. And the club isn't in an any position to be replenishing stock, of course. Steve said this on the initial post (possibly on the other thread actually).

I've just asked Granty to email everyone re: home team plain black Umbro shorts and plain white Umbro socks option. As I've said on the Home Team social group, as long as we've got a majority agreed, I'll put up the cash up front, buy the stuff and everyone can pay me the £4 each on the day. If anyone's already got some of the plain kit (I saw Hamster has bought the plain white socks) then reply to the email saying so, then I'll have an idea of how many to buy. We're not going to be able to get the actual hooped socks home kit, though we should probably try to borrow it if we can and bring that on the day anyway, but this is the next best option. Oh yeah, and if anyone on the away team wants to borrow my grey Saints current away socks, PM. First come first served.

Interesting during all the anti-scouser mudslinging that no-one's mentioned that Saints already have a minutes' silence at the nearest home game to Nov 1st, no matter what else happens. For the record, Heysel had no bearing on fences whatsoever, as football grounds already had them long before that disaster, and by Heysel in 1985 Ken Bates at Chelsea was even trying to get them electrified as a result of the ongoing hooligan problem which was pretty much everywhere... Heysel was widely blamed on Combat 18 and NF infiltration, there were flyers everywhere (and no doubt the stupid and gullible up for a fight who lent weight to their charge which caused the wall to collapse at the unsafe stadium didn't help). Hillsborough, the Report on which formed quite a large chunk of my university dissertation back in 1994 (it was about "Policing Football Hooliganism"), was mostly down to the police choosing to open the main gate in response to the crowd outside, despite not having any idea of numbers inside any of the sections and thus not channeling the crowd away from the already overcrowded centre pen into the less crammed side sections. And of course most of this was pretty normal for the 80s, exacerbated on the day by traffic problems and the fans having to get to the opposite ends of the ground from the cities most of them had travelled from. As I always remind people, not only did Justice Taylor not blame drunks or ticketless fans (hardly an uncommon sight at big games), he didn't even outright recommend all-seater stadia, he merely said it was clearly the easiest method of measuring numbers inside sections of the ground and preventing overcrowding - clubs had already taken this on board by providing reduced, monitored, ticketing to terraces in 1990 before the government insisted on the all seater option. The whole point of the Disaster changing football was the recognition that this could have happened to any group of fans at pretty much any ground at the time, and things had to change. Much is made of Merseyside's persecution complex, but to me that's a feature of the 1990s which grew from other incidents since. If 96 of us didn't come back from the weekend's match at Hillsborough and there was never an adequate official explanation for our deaths following a campaign of misinformation, I suspect the rest of us might be inclined to be a little upset about it for quite a long time too. Seeing as I was at Anfield watching them play Sheffield Wednesday the week before (morning kick off due to the Grand National, won by Little Polveir, Liverpool won 5-1, Carlton Palmer played for Wednesday who wore green with white hoops), I'm just glad no-one decided to take me to a game to see the League Champions play the week after as well. It's not about complaining scousers, it's about football fans. You'd think with a trip to Hillsborough this weekend people might recognise that.

I've been through all this once before, being a Newport County fan from birth until February 1989 when they when bankrupt whilst in the Conference. I had a year or so of wondering who to support whilst doing my A-Levels, then settled on Southampton as the place I wanted to do my degree, and have followed Saints since late 1991, being a season ticket holder for the last 3 seasons at St Marys when I moved back here. Even though Branfoot was manager when I started watching, I could never have envisaged this situation at this club. To answer the question "could a new team be called Southampton FC", I will point to the Conference South, in which Eastleigh share a division with Newport County AFC, formed in June 1989 as Newport AFC, their name changed to that of their predecessor a few years ago. The only issue regarding the name is whether you want all the history of the old club hanging about. At least a new Southampton team wouldn't get barred from their ground by the council and get banned from playing in their country by the FA... As for the "what would you do?" question, I'd probably go back to ground-hopping - when I could be bothered to go to a match at all. And I'd definitely pitch up in the away end at Fratton a few times, used to do that in the early 90s too.

Prior to there being a points deduction penalty.

The FA don't impose points deductions. Even in the FA's Premier League it's the Premier League which would impose the points deduction (only 9 points there, just for the record), and any deduction we might have would be from the Football League, not the FA. Other than that I don't think anyone buying Saints is exactly going in with their eyes closed, are they ? They'd have to assume worst-case scenario and anything better than that is a bonus.

Or indeed had he not returned, given the lack of investment.

C-o-c-k-grabber ?

You might want to look at this, there was no points deduction because the points deduction rules didn't come into force until the season after - even though they'd already been agreed when Derby did that : http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=246236&postcount=329

Cheers, luckily M People were already on The List (alongside ...Amarillo) so at least I don't have to do anything...

I dunno if you've noticed but they've already got a ground they can't fill.

I should think it's quite clear that ONLY the PLC board has resigned, so Wilde would still be the Chairman of the Football Club, at least for the next 25 minutes...

Um, not sure this is good news, but regarding the Derby County precedent situation... The article below, dated 26 Sep 03 and from Accountancy Age magazine, indicates that the FL points deduction rules were agreed on 25 Sep 03, but did not come into effect "until the following season", i.e. 2003/4. http://www.managementconsultancy.co.uk/accountancyage/news/2033806/football-league-adopts-administration-rules As you'll have seen from the information above, Derby's administration/takeover happened during 2002/3, after the decision to punish clubs with a points deduction was made, but before it came into effect. Here's an article about Derby's takeover with dates (and what a shonky deal) : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1160691/Former-Derby-County-directors-accused-fraud-buying-club-3.html So there's no precedent, as the Derby scenario played out before the League had the rules to punish them for it.

Stu, stop being a bellend.

There's nothing much stopping the FL from deducting 10 points for wearing hooped socks if they like, the important thing here is that if a discretionary decision needs to be made above and beyond the standard rules of the League then it almost certainly won't be made in time to be enforced this season. So we could stay up*, not have a points deduction initially (as indicated by the FL), and then the League rule that we've breached their rules some other way (more like Leeds than Luton or Bournemouth did), but the chances are that would result in a deduction to be taken in the Championship in 2009/10 - and to be honest at the moment I'd take that, no more than the kind of firefighting we've seen for the last 18 months anyway. Though of course we might have no players and Lowe owning the club outright by then - but his statement on BBC website suggests they're looking for a buyer, rather than already knowing he'll be the buyer (but then he's hardly going to say that anyway). *this is the big "if" of course.

Incidentally, I've just been looking at Umbro kit... assuming both sets of shirts are taken care of here are some options for shorts and socks : Home shorts (black) from Saints store, all sizes, £20. Black Umbro shorts £7.95 : http://www.acasports.co.uk/product_info.php?cpath=30_630&products_id=9487 Home socks (white/red hoops) Boys/LB size only. Umbro red socks (Sunderland, though currently being worn by Saints reserves) from ACA sports : £5.95 http://www.acasports.co.uk/product_info.php?cpath=23_29_610&osCsid=0ea1a00c9bd62d7d009e8eee76c08740&products_id=2679 White socks, linked sbove, £2 -ish. Away shorts (dk grey) from Saints store, Small, XL or XXL £10. Saints light grey GK shorts, all sizes, £20 Umbro shorts (red) as linked above - all sizes £6.50 - but I think they're women's !!! See also Umbro link above for black shorts (also in red) all sizes £7.95 Away socks (dk grey, Men's size) are still for sale at £5 a pair. Also loads of Umbro socks here http://www.acasports.co.uk/product_info.php?cpath=30_630&products_id=9496 @ £3, white, black, red pairs... I think given how much people are paying to play and that there's a DVD being made that we should make every effort to get matching kit for the match for both teams, it'll look LOADS better and will make it feel like more of an occasion too - less of a kickabout feel to it.

No, that's not what I meant, I was on about how the number scheme developed.