pap

Some, and those queues are easily avoided if you know what you're doing, especially in London, which has a good bit of redundancy in it. After the Emirates I saw thousands of people trying to squeeze into Finsbury Park, and only around 10 or 15 that realised you get virtually anywhere if you went overland to Kings Cross. I accept that football, even when played regularly, is an exceptional event, but it helps if you haven't got really shít transport in the first place. The M27 is the perfect monument to the spirit of South Hampshire transport planning. 30 years ago, it was seen as the solution of a lot of problems. These days, it's the cause of a load of 'em. It enabled people to move to places they might not have considered, contributing to our Solent City sprawl. Spread out population, crap roads, far too many traffic lights, crap transport and continuing problems with all three motorways.

London Underground, Merseyrail, Manchester Metro Link. That sort of thing.

Top ten most congested places in the country. Anywhere that isn't Southampton either doesn't have a Premier League team, or has mass transit solutions keeping cars off the road. 1 London (airports, motorway ring road, mass transit) 2 Edinburgh (no prem team) 3 Oxford (no prem team) 4 Belfast (no prem team) 5 Bradford (no prem team) 6 Manchester (airports, motorway ring road, mass transit) 7 Birmingham (airports, motorway ring road, mass transit) 8 Aberdeen (no prem team) 9 Southampton (prem team, limited airport, no mass transit, M27 or bust) 10 Nottingham (no prem team)

I take that on board, and I've had issues in smaller places in traffic. Southampton is something of a special case though. Not enough redundancy in the roads, and not enough alternatives off them, unlike a lot of other cities which have invested in better transport networks and have better transport links.

We need a better song than this "do-do-do-do Graziano" lark, especially because we sing exactly the same melody for "f**king useless". He probably thinks we're having a go.

tbf, did hear that episode via podcast, but the general focus is on the big clubs, and tbf again, they're hardly unique in that.

Ta, although it only really works if you get upset. Called out and given a casus belli to wage war? I was thrilled Now don't start that!* *he probably has a horcrux, but I've learned my lesson

I finally hit gold today in my hunt for Sunday Supplement's theme tune lyrics. Explains everything. Thank f**k for Frozen and the singalong culture, eh?

Itchen North was rumbling along pretty consistently, but wasn't 100% co-ordinated. Another one of those happy occasions where an extended run of OWTS ended in a goal. Jason Shackell was convinced enough by the Itchen North's singing. He marched the ball into the net for us. Lovely stuff. Ta, didn't know. Relatively new to football as ritual. 95% of other Premier League grounds aren't in Southampton.

Fair cop (beating down on a minority of my post).

Founding members, yo First time is always the hardest. Until that point, meeting people who are actually truckers called Jeff or axe murderers is a real possibility. I observed neither rig nor hatchet that day, so was just able to chill out and enjoy yesterday. Everyone does their bit. Props to Lou for suggesting it, Bucks for making sure she didn't have to face a pub full of Vic Reeves trouser rubbers on her own. I provide a unique service; my public profile (as opposed to anonymous) and long hair makes the group easy to identify for first-timers. I'm like a hairy smoking lighthouse, miniaturised for the urban drinking environment. It's almost like Voltron or Devastator out of Transformers; tons of little components joining up to achieve something collectively that cannot be achieved alone, like becoming a giant f**king robot or organising some match day bevvies. Fair play to people for having the faith, gumption and courage to make it out. I would like to try the other option at some point; sending each other PMs to debate if we're all real or not. In the meantime, I'm fine with plan A.

Wouldn't say it happens in all parts of the ground. Itchen North and Northam are the two parts of the ground that can be counted on to make some noise. While we'll join up for the odd song, each stand does their own stuff independently. We've got two parts of the home support competing to make the most noise. Here's the dictionary definition of "rival", to bring you home. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rival

I'm not sure there is much to understand. People get irked at different stuff, and often their reasons for doing so are irrational. This falls into that category. Some of the people in Itchen clearly feeling the uber-fan instinct on seeing a contingent of the Northam faithful doing the offs at the end of a relatively decent result. Some people think it is okay to leave early. Others don't. I wouldn't be surprised if the simmering rivalry between the two stands hadn't played a part though.

Thanks Bear. I very much enjoyed your moving eulogy too. For those interested in the UI bust-up, it's here:- http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/48552/page:1 However, I would say that this was as "bad" as things ever got, and we never really argued with each other after this.

Actually spent the most time with Goatboy yesterday, and thinking about it, probably the longest out of any of the meetups so far. The inaugural Farmhouse meet was only really about 45 minutes, before the game only Goatboy, myself and Lou were there before and after the game yesterday. I'm sorry to say that most of our time was spent chatting. If I'd have known that you wanted vital statistics, I may have paid more attention at the time (probably not, though). I'm getting the very real sense of you missing a massive trick. I'm sure our equality campaigners will be thrilled that you've deemed any SaintsWeb hole a goal, and it is nice that you have been even-handed in this respect. Still, one has to wonder why your sex drive wasn't sated by all those pliable, hardworking and cheap Eastern Europeans you used to employ. The proprietor of the business. The big man around town. I'm not suggesting anything untoward, but some people are attracted to those with a bit of power and money. Did you avoid the potential infidelity with "booby" by employing only m!ngers, or did you actually try, only for things to turn out like this?

The agony of choice, eh? I'm not even sure its fine when anonymous, but I think people need to keep in mind any potential embarrassment, if indeed they ever did decide to venture out. Probably not a great deal of wholesome contact with women. I don't have that option. I was raised in a matriarchal tyranny, and every living thing in my house that has leave to be there is female, apart from me. Equality is more than an ideal; observing it is pretty much the only way I don't get killed. That you are. Everyone who has turned up so far has been.

Lou has already been described on this thread, but not in any great physical detail, largely because there's only so far you can take that without looking like a creep or whatever. I have to say, if I were in her shoes, and people were just interested in knowing what I looked like I'd be a bit miffed. It's all a bit reductive really, and though I'm not trying to say we all know each other well, its not really my job to repurpose Lou for the 50something beak and Viagra set. Yes, very poorly remembered on my part. I have that shirt as well. Very nice to finally meet you, sir.

There are a couple of park and ride options that might be worth looking at. Broadgreen has the advantage of being just by the end of the M62, but you'll need to change trains at Liverpool Central for the Northern Line. If you fancy getting straight onto the Northern Line, I'd probably aim for Hunts Cross. You can come off the M6 at the Liverpool airport junction (M56). Aintree has got park and ride facilities, and is another option (M57). The other option is to just park in town. There should be plenty of places to do so, all covered up. Will probably set you back a tenner max, even in Liverpool One. You can then train it up from Liverpool central or get the Soccerbus. The areas around the grounds can be a bit pokey due to a combination of narrow streets. Everton in particular is pretty near some major northbound routes. I wouldn't recommend parking around County Road, but would be more worried about parallel parking and getting blocked in than anything getting damaged on the motor.

I genuinely wonder how much the traffic / infrastructure setup informs this. I'm a slow returner, and far prefer to wait until town has died down before heading back to the barrio. I don't bother trying to get back straightaway if we haven't left early. Those few minutes can be the difference between a 10 minute drive home and being stuck in traffic for hours.

Oh aye. I've seen it myself, even done it myself on a bad day. The middle bro is a bastard for getting off five minutes early to beat traffic. This is why we rarely leave games together.

Probably also deserves an award for arriving on a steed.

The impression I got was that the chant came because people were streaming out of the ground, rather than any perceived lack of signing. As you correctly point out, it's difficult to pick up on Northam a lot of the time anyway, so we're not usually in the habit of criticising their decibel level.

Nothing to do with the acoustics or whether Northam heard it. Genuinely hadn't seen one section of the ground berate another set of fans before. The video was posted to illustrate that.

Bear in mind that I've only been going to SMS regularly, but haven't seen this before and thought I'd share. A few of the Northam lot get booed by Itchen North, and are asked "are you Chapel in disguise?". Northam; are you Chapel in disguise? Itchen North; is this a power grab to be the hardiest coriest part of SMS? Chapel; if that is you in the Northam, who the f**k is in Chapel?

I get where you're coming from Bear. It must be bloody frustrating to not have access to the SaintsWeb Farmhouse Bonus content, and then have to read this vague b*llocks. Bucks was at the bar with his nipper when I arrived. Very soon afterward, Goatboy's long-hair recognition system kicks in and I am asked if I am pap. Two of my real life mates also turned up, so the five of us disappeared outside to the front area and found a bench. Lou was next to arrive, and already happy with our lot, we were further surprised when Lets B Avenue turned up and introduced himself. There was a lot of Saints chat too, and of course the obligatory chat about our fellow posters. We kept it mostly positive though. At one point, I confessed to liking CB Fry's content. Out loud. It was that sort of crazy night. Ha, none of that on display. One of our number may have discreetly chucked a sash shirt on just before the game, but it went no further than that.