This Charming Man

Yeah they're open now. They are Bundesliga 2 now, near the top. The ground holds around 55,000 but they average 30k. It's a top of the table clash so should be a big crowd. Can't wait to bounce around with their Ultras. Ha.

If we had €12 safe standing tickets, allowed a beer in your seat/terrace and served Currywurst outside the ground, we would sell out. I'm off to see Fortuna Dusseldorf on Monday night - paid €10 for a ticket in their main ultras end and then going to Hamburg v Rangers on the Tuesday night - paid €12 for a ticket in their main ultras end. Though also have a €19 ticket in the Rangers end, so will see which end tickles my fancy on the night. I'm getting to the point now where I'd rather go and watch a few games on the continent on a weekend, football over here is becoming depressing the way the clubs and police act. I'm just thankful things are good for Saints at the moment so it's a lot easier to take.

Also, you can't really compare English football to German football. Football over here is dead when it comes to fan culture and the like. Our only saving grace is going to be when clubs can't carry their obscene debt levels any more and the whole thing implodes (sooner the better) and the fans can finally take back the game.

Spot on there mate. The whole aim of this is to reduce travelling numbers. Cardiff hardly take any for their bubble trips (bar Swansea) and that is the dream scenario for the police. I wouldn't dream of letting draconian actions from the OB stop me attending the highlight of the season. As for the safety of the coach, it's no different to being herded around on the train by the OB and if anything will probably lead to even more trouble than normal as the Skates are going to have 50 odd coaches to take aim at as we slowly crawl though that khazi.

It's win, win for the club. They won't stand to loose any money on it, the person who takes it up won't have the hassle of buying tickets every week and guaranteed a Skate ticket (home). If we're still at the top come the business end of the season, tickets will be hard to come by as well. Plus as I said in a previous post, it may get a few more bums on seats for the less glamorous ties that people wouldn't have otherwise attended hadn't it been for not already having a ticket.

^^ This.

Whilst I don't agree with the bubble, surely you just want to be there? Imagine being sat at home, watching 3k Saints go berserk behind the goal when we smash in a last minute winner and you're sat at home with the mrs nagging you to turn over to X-Factor. At least you would've proved a point about refusing to get on a bus for the 17mile trip down the road... The train journey is no different anyway. The OB herd you on, tag along for the ride, then herd you in the ground at the other end. I can't understand the mentality or logic of any Saints fan who would willingly miss this game.

Are you thick? Just put all 3 people on the same form. Good to see you've finally left uni. You must've been there about 7 years. Despite that you still can't fill an application form out...

They had an article on the Skate website a while ago confirming we have the entire end behind the goal (around 3,000 odd). Due to the way they've shut off that entire end of the stadium outside to Skates, there was no other option than to give us the whole end.

Everyone who has applied has one and they've even extended the ballot. I can't even start to describe how embarrassing it would be if we didn't sell this out.

I doubt many clubs have an opinion of us. We're just little ol' Southampton after all...

It really is quite scary that the police can act as judge and jury without having to answer to anyone or have any reason/evidence to get a conviction.

The worrying thing is that whilst you're joking, the OB are probably drawing up some kind of ridiculous statement along those lines.

I had a quick butchers on the Brighton website and none of them on there could give a damn about the so-called 'homophobic chanting'. They even admit they sung "You're too ugly to be gay" first which then resulted in our lot responding with the usual.

There was one chant which went "We are Southampton, we f*cking hate queers" It didn't quite take off though and only a few were singing it. Would be interesting to know what these lads were singing though.

Yes they are and yes they are.

I imagine Donny will have a right tidy little firm out for us. After all, everyone want's to run the big boys...

Slim. Though the timing of the game, right after Christmas and NYE may put a few people off on the financial front, so you may get lucky.

There is always one team who comes out of nowhere, though this year I reckon that will be Leicester. Whilst it won't be much of a surprise they're up there as it was widely predicted they would be at the start of the season, they have had a poor start which has left them with a lot to do.

I don't think the police or club would care about that. It's not like the tickets are personalised or the club have done criminal checks on season ticket holders. So would be no different from some random attending.

Form goes out of the window in a derby game. It will be played like a cup tie, in a hostile enviroment and anything could happen that day. As for Bristol City and Donny away, anything less than 6 points would be disappointing.

I would assume there will be a ballot. Imagine they'll do it as soon as all the Skate tickets are sorted.

You can have the whole away end if needed. 3,008 is pretty good by our standards and we didn't fill the section we were given anyway. WHU took 6k as they're a far bigger club than us. Leicester took 6k as it's 20mins down the road.

According to a mate who has just been down the TO, the person he spoke to claimed around 8,000 people have applied. As it's season ticket holders only at this point, I find that hard to believe. Unless people have just been applying without being a season ticket holder on the off chance?

Whilst Lambert playing for England is never going to happen, I did have this conversation with my old man the other day about Lambert being better than Zamora. I felt embarrassed for Zamora when he played against Sweden the other night. He just isn't an international footballer. He's been average his entire career, never lived up to his full potential, had a good season last year and that's about it. Lambert's hold-up play is superb and his ability to win a header without even jumping half the time is incredible. I would love for him to get a crack at the Premiership next year (with us!) too see how he get's on.