Fitzhugh Fella

of spending good money to go to Selhurst Park, Swindon A, Torquay and PNE at home, etc if the club, at the end of the day, just treat it as a training exercise or a chance to blood youngsters who ordinarily would get nowhere near the 1st team. I fear fans are getting ripped off. Genuine question. A lot of travelling Saints supporters have spent good dosh to go to the Palace tonight but is it really worth it as the club (rightly or wrongly) don't seem too bothered about progressing. The Carling Cup now resembles the 1960s Combination Cup and no one went away to watch those games.

Never a footballer in a million years

How about the 2000 that bothered to travel?

I recently came across some old 8mm colour film of the 1976 FA Cup Final, shot by "Movietonews" and have had it put onto DVD. I have just watched it (about 15mins) and I have nver seen this footage before - there is no sound but there are some great close ups and different angles of the game I certainly have been unaware of before, plus lots of close ups of the Royal Box (the Queen in a blue bobble hat, Prince Phillip looking bored etc). They nearly miss Booby Stokes's goal but there are some great angles previously unseen on tv before, or at least by me. My reason for posting is to ask if anyone is familiar with the movietonews footage - it starts with the two club rossettes and an a baloon and then bizarrely ref Clive Thomas running out onto the pitch, alongside the players bouncing the ball like a schoolboy? Also is there an interest in people seeing this sort of thing? I thought I might - with the publication of our next book - do a sort of history power point presentation and this sort of footage might be of interest. I dunno I might be barking up the wrong tree but if there is enough interest I would love to make this stuff available for all to see. I have also just recently bought about 2 minutes of colour footage (privately shot) of a Leeds v Saints game in 1948 which I know has never been seen before - just trying to gauge is there any interest out there? Colour from 1948 is unheard of. Seeing Alf Ramsey run out in a red and white shirt and Elland Road without any stands is quite something. Please let me know if there is any interest.

Cracking game of football which we deserved to win. My one niggling doubt is we don't have enough cover upfront - with Barnard out long term we simply need another option on the bench. Connolly will not last the season. Chaplow MoM for me tonight he was everywhere but Hooiveld a close second. Fonte made one bad error but had a good all round game. West Ham flattered to deceive - lots of huff and puff but really did not look dangerous.

Yes

Just back from SMS and was told at the ticket office that over 27,500 have been sold for the West Ham game as of 11am this morning.

I think starting this thread has been the most worthwhile achievement of my adult life on the internet! So much pleasure watching and recounting what will be the biggest ever decline of a football club. I sense they are edging nearer and nearer the precipice and Steve Coterill's departure could be the trigger that really sets things in motion. He is not a bad manager and has done well to keep their noses above water thus far. Sit back and observe.....there is a whiff of panic in the air down Fratton Way I reckon.

But we have been lucky with injuries. Against Preston our lack of forward options were exposed.

There is an element of irony in this post that is not lost on me

"Off the pitch he has done nothing wrong"? You may be right you may be wrong but your words are incredibly presumptive. Jeoffrey Archer was once held up as a man of virtue.

Absolutely You only has to go to the Swnidon and Preston League Cup games to see our lack of depth in this crucial area.

Who was Andrew Bernstein? I for one don't think this is about freebies.

I have been lucky enough to get to know MLT a little through all the help and time he has given us with the books and I have even crossed swords with him over the Pinnacle affair but I do want to say this. He is as big a Saints fan as anyone reading this and would not expect to get free tickets and certainly would not knowingly do anything to de-stabilise the club. I have also recently had conversations with LM - again history related - and his love for Southampton FC burns as brightly as it ever did, regardless what people may say, rightly or wrongly about his ego. I think this needs to be said. I also acknowledge that NC seems to be doing an excellent job with running our football club, in NA he has found a manager who seems to be able to build an excellent team spirit which is going a long way to us being, right now, a really good attractive football team. I just wish NC could build bridges with Matt and Lawrie - there is much to be said for all pulling in the same direction as he acknowledges in the article. Finally it goes without saying, it was a massive blow that ML died when he did, because I have this fear that his family will not want to put the same level of finance into the club. I think were he still alive then NC's ambitions of Champions League and a bigger stadium could well have been realised in time but now, working on his own, the task will be that much tougher. To survive in the Premiership these days you need outside investment, to do well in it you need billions.

But we "floundered" around after the wage cap of 1907 was introduced to the Southern League and all of a sudden our best players sought fresh "plaices" back in the Football League.

You got to remember though we only got to be top dogs by throwing money at buying players and sooner or later when the money runs out - as it did after building the Dell we would have been found out. And the reason Freemantle were usurped was because they too ran up debts that were unsustainable despite having their own ground.

Just back - one thing very evident we need back up forwards who can score goals. Forte - I just don't see the poimt - he is not a footballer full stop. Fast maybe but on tonight's showing forget it!

Yes big rivals and they had their own ground too - which is still there. We proposed a merger around this time but their debts were too large by that stage and so George Thomas a local fishmonger dug deep (with an idea of a profit) and got the Dell built in 1898. You know the rest. We were in debt ourselves from thereon in.

There are some good questions in there - a lot was to do with the politics around - the North were furious that the South deemed to be their equals and equally furious that with no wage cap in the South a lot of the best players chose the Southern League. I think Spurs were eventually let in but Saints had upset too many big Northern clubs by nicking all their players. Around 1907 the Southern League began to lose ground when a wage cap was introduced and by the time Saints and the others were invited to join in 1920 they were no longer a force in the land. Saints won the SL 6 times in 10 years around the turn of the century and like you say throw in 2 FA Cup Final appearances and you have one of the best teams in the country at that time.

As the Dell was not yet built you must have got pretty wet stood in that stream

Glad to see you are all awake!! This was also the first season we wore stripes (although in those days the shorts were navy.)

was in 1896-97. We started with nine striaght victories, then a draw followed by 2 more wins. In the remaining 8 games we drew 4 and won 4 to end the season winning the Southern League (then the Football league's equal) undefeated. P20 W15 D5 L0 F63 A18 In the FA Cup we took Man United (Newton Heath) to a replay. All home games were played at the old Hampshire County Cricket Ground and our star players inc Clawley the goalkeeper, Joe Turner on the wing and Jack Farrell our main goalgetter (20 goals in 27 games inc Cup). Over to you then Nigel - a city expects and all that.

He should be and replaced with a poodle.

was described thus in the Guardian (apologies toTrousers and all you other D Mail readers) "symptomatic of a team in synchronicity" pretty much sums it up for me - certainly going forward.

I think the question is quite comprehensively answered by the fact that NC and NA made such strenuous efforts to get a stiker in before the deadline.