The9

Having been on holiday and only having seen the goals online, I'd hazard a guess at the 4-3-3 they have long been known for playing throughout their entire set up, and the system that we were supposed to be copying last season - though as they've not been as successful recently it's possible all that has changed.

I don't think sticking our team out there in a 4-4-2 to get taken apart by a fitter, more technical, higher standard side would have achieved anything. As it was, we went for some time keeping level with them, until lack of fitness (it's preseason) and mistakes caused by poor defending AND lack of fitness cost us. Going out to attack a team that's significantly better than you in all departments is foolhardy and completely tactically naive. Henderson's defensive formation was at least logical, even if it couldn't keep the score down.

Unless you mean the Prem, money was barely a factor in football until the 1980s. Minimum wage survived into the 1960s and even in the 80s the vast majority of top players were only making double the average wage for a short career. It was the "big club" grabbing of the post-1990 middle-class money in the game and all the plastic fans (who suddenly started spending money on football products if not actually going to games) which made money the issue. Premier League cutting it's money off from the Football League and the subsequent tv deals instigated and hen perpetuated the chasm, and CL money assists the split further, raising global awareness and money streams for only the select few. Boring football, sometimes I'm glad we're out of it instead of chasing the glory of 7th in the Premier League and the right to play in the detestable "Europa League" of international also-rans.

Erm, how is guaranteeing that only 3 of the teams in a 20-team contest have even the remotest chance of winning it "making it more interesting"? It's a boring load of predetermined and tedious guff and I'm watching less and less football by the year, as the contests become fewer and fewer and the processions more and more. Anyone who thinks the Prem is exciting is deluded. It's a strong brand because English Football is regarded as a kind of spiritual home and the money brings the best players - often just to sit in Chelsea's reserves and sell Man U shirts in China. But the football as a contest is frequently dull when the BorInG 4 play each other and one-sided when they beat the others. And of course no-one gives a cack about Wigan v Bolton, etc. Bolton who've won the League before but hav no chance of ever winning it again, Wigan who leapt on the moneyman bandwagon early and are reaping the rewards. Yawn.

Aside from their team, the kind of blokes that gave you a kicking are also the only kind of people who'd be impressed by your story. Your aggressive replies to the people who aren't impressed by your story give you away.

Just thinking it was pretty decent, myself. Unlike the defending, which was terrible for at least 3 goals - Molyneux's defending of the shot that didn't go in (and bounced multiple times before the striker hit it) was appalling.

Oh yeah, tragic. Apart from the fact that everyone's doing it, and they just have more resources.

I'd never seen him have a bad game in a load of reserve games until he made his first team debut, but he's MUCH better than what he's shown so far. Why his good crossing ability has deserted him at St Mary's is a mystery, reluctance to take on and beat players is easier to undersand and is purely confidence.

Funnily enough I think all of them (possibly except Paterson) are comfortably good enough for League One - the problem is trying to play them all at the same time, and not having enough people around them with experience to sort out the mistakes. Pretty cack for Thomson to have to play on the left though, he must be getting cheesed off with some of the stupid roles he's been asked to fill. Stick him on the right of midfield, tell him he'll get a run of games and watch his confidence grow if he's got a pro like Murty behind him and strikers who know when and where to make runs.

If we look stronger this year compared to last it's only because a few players got some vital experience (which helped relegate us), and because 19 of the teams are probably crapper than last season's opponents. I don't get the sinking feeling when looking for the mugs in the fixtures list this season. As a noted optimist, I'm going for us to finish 13th provided -10 is final. I said "about half way" last season too, but really had no clue where we'd end up, even after the Cardiff game. I can see Ajax sticking 5 on us though. Oh and Holmes was a very good player at CCC level when fit last season, never mind League One. I'd add Gobern to the list of good Saints players too, also a left footed midfielder with a ton of potential. Ben Reeves looked decent at left back when I saw him, Doble excelled in midfield in a couple of spells - there's promise there, but promise got us nothing last season. My main hope is that Mills' development at Scvnthorpe wasn't just cos he had proper grown up footballers around him...

Given the number of whingers on here generally, hardly a shock, is it? I think the current home kit is great, very little to complain about but to hear some...

Well, I like it and I'll be buying the whole thing. A bit strange that the pattern behind the badge isn't the same design as the actual badge (it is on the Sunderland home kit) and it does look like a Wimbledon shirt, and the Farmer has crapped out better designs in about 30 seconds, and yeah it'll also clash with Brighton, Colchester and Huddersfield, assuming we don't wear the kinda clashy home kit, but all in all, decent, one of the nicer and less plain Umbro efforts this season, and they've got my £70-ish... And, no, that wasn't supposed to have any full stops!

Now now, you can still get their whole kit for about £10 at Sportsdirect.com... (I was looking for some cheap stuff for a 5-a-side team). I'm guessing next season they'll be dropping the gold bits, probably too expensive?

Well, just for the record I got my first ST when living in Wales due to there no longer being a 5-year ST wait to get in at the new stadium. And IIRC, we had LOADS of people coming from all over the country and Ireland too when we were in the Prem as soon as they could actually get in, so I'd be more inclined to say "I haven't seen this for about 5 years" as we were just coming out of the Prem then, or given the Cup Final and subsequent league performance, 6 years. 14 years is just anti-Lowe cobblers with no basis in fact whatsoever.

Unfortunately it sometimes takes them 6 months to do it... Like the lack of West Ham away shirts from the end of the 2007/8 season, they were back in stock just in time for the last game, a home match, and were then replaced in the summer!

Don't forget the shirts are quite a slim fit - if you normally get an M you'll want a L. If Umbro do what they've done with the England and Man City kits this season you can forget S-M-L-XL etc too, they're all chest sizes for a tailored fit, in line with their new retro tailoring gimmick, and I should think our away kit will come with the sizes in inches (not cm, strangely).

If he'd KEPT being prudent and cut costs as they needed to be when he should have, or stuck with the remaining Prem relegation squad until the end of 2005/6 and just binned Redknapp when he started ummming and ahhhhing, none of this would have been necessary. Cutting and running on the manager 3 months into the first CCC season, then replacing the whole squad with lesser players on "still too big" contracts screwed up our bouncebackability and laid the foundations for Wilde and Crouch to really mess up the finances trying to get us back up. Not to mention that it was the failure to realise that financial prudence and squad bloating was only going to see us slide as more and more money men came into the game. I hate that we need a billionaire just to stand still, but if you can't beat em join em. And nothing Lowe did other than get the club into League One, debt and administration made it any easier to sell, all the prudence was out the window when we persisted with Prem-level squad size, facilities, staffing levels and consultancy when we patently couldn't afford it.

As the only club I know of which ONLY sells its team kit online or in three other local stores, I wouldn't want to get into the nuances of who pays for which kit and when. Given that the club didn't even have hooped socks for the reserves to wear after Feb last year it's not like Umbro didn't know we were skint and you wouldn't expect them to send a bunch of kit they weren't likely to get paid for. So I guess it must have been part of a prior contract.

Um, yeah, the magic almost certainly went when the team found out he was leaving. Judging by performances I'd say it was between going 4th and stuffing the Skates the week before Xmas, and the appalling performance by the entire side at Loftus Road against Fulham on Boxing Day. Hell of a coincidence otherwise...

Seeing as they had the training kit for the pre- pre-season training fitness tests even when we couldn't pay staff they've obviously had plenty of it delivered, anyway. I liked the black/red rainjackets, same style as the red/white above. Despite the Nike Windrunner revival and it's connotations, they're pleasantly un-chav, I'd say. Lol@bloke ripping off Spades' info too, I posted it on Facebook last week too after I read about his conversation with Thomas on here!

Scvnthorpe's ground was built in 1987 and that makes it at least 50 years newer than 28 of the grounds in the top 2 divisions, so it's hardly a bastion of old-school atmosphere or architecture... I shouldn't think there were many live wires hanging from the stand or wooden bench seats either. It was quite weird when Scunny became footballing pioneers by building a completely new ground on a new site back then, before there was big money in the game, at a time when stadia were EXPECTED to be piddle-stained, dilapidated death-traps, prior to the Hillsborough Disaster and before Arsenal, Bolton, Hull, Man City, Stoke, Sunderland, Wigan, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Doncaster, Leicester, Middlesbrough, Reading, Swansea, Colchester, MK Dons, Millwall, Walsall, Wycombe, Yeovil, AFC Bournemouth (arguably), Darlington, Northampton and Shrewsbury all had a go - and Portsmouth had 15 attempts and failed to manage it...

No, we're just long overdue being run like most other football clubs.

I just don't see where loyalty comes into it. We have no idea if Saints matched his West Ham offer or not, and playing and not having to change location is going to beat bench-sitting hands down if the money is the same. If it turns out he's getting paid far less than West Ham offered, fair play.

I'd better get a free pen with my ST and a shiny brochure, or there will be stropping. I've paid a few STs up front previously, but having the prospect of forking out for Car Insurance, Holiday, Flat Deposit, MOT, Rent, Mortgage and Road Tax in a single month (with furniture to follow), I'm not gonna stump up the £288 for the ST before I have to.

I think we'll get 22,000 for the opener and settle somewhere around the 18,000 mark into October, with subsequent attendances depending on our form and league position, ranging from 12k (inc ST holders) for rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrubbish and adrift, to 26k if we're winning every game. And I'd like to thank the club for offering discounted prices to last season's ST holders as well...