suewhistle

A Saints fan could write a great script for that King's Theatre Alladin, eh?

Thanks for that. Using me aging mum's PC to view the goals again from a different angle! Must fix up a proxy server when I get back to Italy..

It wasn't a great game but I was just relieved after 3 and a half years abroad, and only early season and winter holiday games, to see a win! I know James got a deflection for his goal: he was in front of me and completely wrong footed the defender by going inside. The space opened up, he hit it with his left and it was a worthy goal. Shame about conceding. That didn't do my saints fan's nerves any good and I really didn't want to maintain my record of draws and losses but Papa put his one on one away well: I've seen enough of the bloomin' things missed. Connolly looked out of it but you do think he might grab something given half a chance. Antonio occasionally looked a bit headless, but he did work hard and was nowhere near as bad as I'd been lead to believe on here. Schneiderlin is a real asset, and one day he's just going to say "voila'" and hit a screamer; in the meantime I'll say thanks for the passing and tackling. Shame not to see Jaidi but Perry still has a good head even if not the legs. To be honest Exeter played well but they really didn't offer real penetration in attack. I don't think I can afford to go to Colchester even if I could get a ticket, but there's real optimism around now and I might start saving up just in case I need to get a flight around play-off time in May.:-)

I think most of us appreciated that RonManager was making a tongue-in-cheek post. Why are people so antagonistic on here? I'm sure most of us at heart love to see the new generation coming along, including those who act like grumpy old men..

I'm just looking forward to my visit from Italy and a ground pretty well full on all sides. A kid coming to a full ground is much more likely to want to come again than seeing swathes of empty terraces. There's going to be a buzz around the ground, and even the regulars in our usual 19k crowds this season are going to feel like kids again!

It _is_ good news. The bad news is I have a ticket and haven't seen them win in 3 plus years, particularly when they've had big holiday crowd. All runs have to finish eventually.....

Also in The Guardian Monday: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/dec/14/portsmouth-premierleague

Just so you can't edit your post I'll save it here for posterity... I'm sure it's theoretically possible but would take a lot of things to come together.

What about Nile RAnger, how many has he got?

Just a point about Antonio who I haven't seen play. People seem to be writing him off a bit soon at only 19. He hasn't come up the normal way of a centre of excellence and regular training since the age of 11 (or whatever), but if it came to a choice between him and somebody with a real footballing background like err.. A Pulis who would you rather have? He's got the basic attribute of pace which you can't just get by training. Technique and decision making you can.

Some years ago in Portsmouth we had Bernie. Lovely old gent, but talk about doddery!

I'm sure that's true. I was a pessimistic Saint before today's game as I have far too much experience of us losing games we should win. Happy too to be wrong. There are only a few posters on this board who _seem_ to be happy when we lose as it justifies their opinions.

I will forbear to comment!:-)

34? whippersnapper! I'm 20 years older. Mind you, I really only train twice a week here in Italy to avoid the family osteoporosis and keep myself fit as the minutes I get off the bench aren't really worth the effort! Beats the gym though (and it's free!), and pinging a ball about in a training game or leathering it at the end of session shooting practice is still better than the exercise bike..

Thanks for that! Replayed a number of times. Harding's was a pretty crisp shot too!

No, because if you used that principle you could never try and play advantage. The concept of advantage is not just for an attacking team. If the defender had controlled it and his team retained the ball there would be no need to call the free-kick. He didn't, so the lino/ref was right to call the original offence based on when the ball was first played. If we went your way it would mean any team that tried to call offside could only do so if they then didn't try and cover the situation by "trying to play the ball" to use your words. As anybody who has played football will know, you try to do both: appeal and then make sure it doesn't matter whether the appeal succeeds or not.

A quick aside on this whole subject. Anybody who has played at _any_ level (men or women's football) will know it is always better to have a qualified, neutral referee than no-one, or some reluctant sub. Some old friends of mine have a son who is not a footballer, but did a course of refereeing when he was at school. Now he's a student at uni the money he gets at weekends for refereeing and being lino up to semi-pro standard beats the money he'd get for a shop or bar job. Worth passing that on to prospective students... exercise, burn the booze off and decent money!

Isn't that what you're meant to do when you come on when you are winning and only 7 minutes to go? [Referring more to the post you were replying to Chez, and not you..]

S******.(or as I recall this board has stupid American software [half suppressed laugh OED])... whatever your preferences it's easy to wind you lot up! Personally I wouldn't want to be dogmatic about who I fancied as my basic requirement is intelligence and I've learnt in life never to say never... It helps if they're not Pompey fans though!!

Keep going!

Escaping late from shopping, probably, or realised too late how desperate it is to be shopping on a Saturday before Christmas!

or 0-1 :-(

Possibly, but don't expect a present if you've spent all the money on footie tickets. If I were in the UK I'd be going, but you have to remember peoples' budgets are stretched at Christmas time, particularly if they have kids. For season ticket holders, of course, there is no excuse.:-)

Interesting to see they bought forward the timing of the development: perhaps to take advantage of underemployed building firms at the moment and cheaper quotes. I've only been to a game at Staplewood once, but parking was a nightmare: a free or subsidised bus from Southampton for reserve games would be a good idea.

This morning's Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/dec/08/peter-storrie-portsmouth-future