alehouseboys

Let's hope Willy doesn't turn out to be a cock-womble

Cardiff drawn at home to Preston so I guess one of the games could get moved if South Wales Police insist - they use to do that with us and the skates but seem to have relaxed that in recent times.

MIllwall, Fulham or QPR away, ta - I do like a London away day.

We should have been well out of sight by halftime in some of these games, where sitting back more in the second half may have been doable but we're too fragile at 1-0 up.

If that happened you'd know it would just end up being another Martín Cáceres type situation, pay him £100k a week to sit on the bench and be an understudy to Harry Lewis.

Unfortunately, us and second halves are not a match made in heaven. Since the second half collapse and defeat at Norwich, a hammering at Liverpool, and now just two points from two winnable home games the upcoming fixtures are looking precarious. It's too easy for the opposition to work us out - to not be out of site by half time and they then have a real opportunity to rescue the game.

This is what you get for your money throughout December: Wednesday December 1 Watford v Chelsea (7:30pm GMT) Southampton v Leicester (7:30pm GMT) West Ham v Brighton (7:30pm GMT) Wolves v Burnley (7:30pm GMT) Aston Villa v Man City (8:15pm GMT) Everton v Liverpool (8:15pm GMT) Thursday December 2 Tottenham v Brentford (7:30pm GMT) Man Utd v Arsenal (8:15pm GMT) Tuesday December 28 Arsenal v Wolves (12:30pm GMT) Crystal Palace v Norwich (3pm GMT) Southampton v Tottenham (3pm GMT) Watford v West Ham (3pm GMT) Leeds v Aston Villa (5:30pm GMT) Leicester v Liverpool (8pm GMT) Wednesday December 29 Chelsea v Brighton (7:30pm GMT) Brentford v Man City (8:15pm GMT) Thursday December 30 Everton v Newcastle (7:30pm GMT) Man Utd v Burnley (8:15pm GMT)

I think something is getting lost in translation here - it’s not about the hardship for players living around Winchester getting to training at Marchwood. It was just suggested that a training ground around Winch/M3 may have been better for attracting (some) players that would prefer to live nearer London. They could live in leafy Surrey/North Hants (like many London club players) making it easy to shoot 40 miles or so down the motorway to train but still be back and then a quick jaunt into the capital for the afternoon/evening to spend their ‘hard-earned’.

Clearly not entirely but the attraction of the bright lights of London rather than the sedate surroundings of the New Forest probably appeals more to young guys with stupid amounts of money to burn, if there's a choice.

I agree, too late now, but if they could have found a location around Winchester, there would be more chance of attracting players that want to be nearer to London. They could live top end of M3 and be in the capital or down for training in less than half hour. Cost of land may have scuppered that but would have got a few bob for the Staplewood site if permitted for housing.

Needs to get his bearings pretty quickly through the corridors of Carrow Road, if he goes through the wrong door with 'D. Smith' on it he may finds himself cooking the pre-match meals next Saturday...

We only went for a week, that was a few years back and was enough at the time. We got about, usually just jumped on the back of the local pick-ups/taxi and they'll take you off to 'the sights', got on well with them, very friendly (though you would expect that with tourists with a few bob in their pockets). Not the most picturesque of places, plenty of half-built houses, (apparently they do this to avoid the tax on completed buildings) but got out and had a bit of fun on quad bikes - Santa Monica beach with it's crashing surf was one stop and an interesting sea to swim in. As said, a few years ago for us, but I've heard more has gone up since we've been but it's really all-inclusive (needed to be really) but usually right on the coast and there was a couple of bars/places to eat on the beach fairly close by. May try Sal in the future. The open-air airport is something a little different too!

Cape Verde Islands are an option, only another 45 mins or so flight time than to Egypt. Off the west coast of Africa but could be (feels) Caribbean. A week was long enough for us on Boa Vista, might struggle to find much more to do any longer there. Winter temps around mid-twenties.

Speaking with HampshireLive, she said: "I often describe Portsmouth as the 'biggest village' because you always meet people who know people. They all know each other because they're all fookin' related. Never have so many cousins been seen in the same place at the same time, yet another portsea island "wow factor".

A repeat of our last visit will do, 0-3, Ingsy on fire - we were a top watch back then, how did it all go so wrong? Hopefully lessons learnt.

Yep, there's a marked difference this season to last. Likewise, if Villa had rightly gone down to 10 before halftime last night then I think we'd have gone on and hammered them, last season it would have just stagnated in the middle of the park.

Only a handful of tickets left for this, they've sold their allocation, big crowd under the lights, live to the nation...what could go wrong? Optimistic, but leave it at that.

You're probably right, more a case of geography. For his missus.

Benitez back to the Geordies, Everton fan Eddie Howe in at Goodison, everyone's happy - particular the scousers who get shot of the red, cop big compensation and get a cheap option in return. I'll give him about 6 months on Merseyside.

It's not clear exactly what's sold and what's not on the OS ticket page and right now you can't even get on to purchase Chelsea tickets but saying only limited tickets left. When I looked this morning there was only one block showing as available with about 100 seats left in it (top tier/central), a few days ago it was showing 3 blocks from the corner (upper tier) as sold out, greyed out seats next to that and then another block available. All others and lower tier greyed out and unavailable, have we put the lower tier on sale at all?

Decent game, maybe more for the neutral, but frustrating. After that spell of pressure leading up to the equaliser and to halftime I thought the stars were aligned to push on second half attacking the Northam and finish them off (vocal support from the Northam better first half). Good start to go ahead but letting them back so soon after and how the game panned out was frustrating. Theo has probably played his way out of the starting eleven now, the PL has passed him by, bench at best. How many weren't paying attention as Tino equalised while watching another near-miss on the big screen?

Decent attendance expected Saturday, this game is selling well for home fans. Block 43 (normally away fans) has sold out to Saints supporters and they've now put part of block 44 on sale - don't think they could go any further due to concourse segregation. Burnley have blocks 47, 48 and part of 46 in the corner. Just need this fixture to exceed expectations now.

Not usually the most anticipated fixture but looking forward to this game, and not for the first time, hoping we've turned a bit of a corner and can build on last weekend. But not quite up there with 5 years ago today as 7,000 of us were making our way to the San Siro.

Understandably, they see things slightly different, nearly all expecting an away win up to 1-4 0-0 it is then. https://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=57683

Yeah, my first thought on seeing that photo. A mate of mine was up on the pylon, he stood out a bit as had (bizarrely) a couple of green stripes in his hair. All those trips down to Brighton back then were...entertaining. Was at the Reading cup games at Elm Park too, late 70s. We were packed onto an open terrace behind the goal, their rowdier fans to our left on the covered terrace down the side, made quite a bit of noise tbf. Then again some years later when (think it was Souness era) when someone their end tricked SFC into believing the game had been called off and announced it to everyone. Eventually realised it was a hoax but too late for fans to all get there by kick-off and the players only arrived moments before.