CLOTH EARS

2-1 to Saints Fonte & Barnard. It'll be tougher than some of you think.

Brighton will survive in the Championship David. Their crowds at the old Goldstone Ground were not much different to the Saints crowds at the Dell back in the late 70's early 80's. I would say their crowds ranged between 16-25k during that period, which was probably their most successful period in their history, as it was for us also. You need to remember they are about to move into a rather nice looking 22.000 capacity stadium, so all of their dorment support will come back i am sure. If Saints get promoted this year i reckon our crowds will average 25k to begin with next season. If it becomes evident that we will be challenging in that League aswell the 'sold out' signs will be up on the ticket office windows quite regularly THEN the old chestnut about extending St Mary's will become a major topic of conversation once again.

A month or so ago i travelled to Taunton in Somerset to watch AFC Totton play. The ref called the game off at 1.20pm after we had arrived! The pitch was playable, both sets of managers/players were happy to play but ONE MAN didn't agree. Both clubs were FUMING. I think that referees are without a doubt calling games off for the slightest thing because they are worried about getting sued if somebody gets injured. I remember the day when football was played on snow covered pitchs with orange balls and i remember teams playing on frosty hard pitches and no one ever got injured that i can remember.

Some of you lot are miserable sods! Blackpool at home is the ideal tie. in fact its quite an attractive tie really, a mid to lower premier League side at home, its winnable without a doubt. Blackpool play good football and i am sure Nigel will get the team attack them so it could turn out to be a corker. I hope its priced reasonably. If we overprice it we will only get about 15.000. If we price it correctly we will get 22 or 23.000. I would make the most expensive tickets £20. Dont forget we beat Blackpool at home in 1976 on the way to wembley.

The chances of getting a glamour tie is slimish, the chances of an easier tie at home will be slimish so i reckon we will get a mediocre tie away, so Barnsley v Saints it is then.

I like us in R & W stripes but i wouldn't mind us going back to the Rank Xerox kit for a couple of seasons. It reminds me of some of the best years the club ever had 1980-1985.

I am involved at a non league club and we are not allowed to give out Free tickets for FA Trophy and FA Cup ties. The only people allowed in for nothing are pass holders such as visiting directors.

I have met Nick Holmes only once and what a lovely guy he is. Salisbury came down to T******d Park to play AFC Totton in a pre season game last season and although Tommy Widdrington had taken over as manager Nick was still involved. Anyway, as i am involved at AFC Totton i took the opportunity to offer to make Nick a cup of tea and have a chat with him. I told him that i was a kid in the 70's and grew up watching him at the Dell and he was very talkative but he was quietly spoken. He genuinely loved talking about the 'good old days' as he referred to them, we talked about the Lawries, the Osgoods, the Channons and so on and he was loving it! I told him that i was sorry if i was yabbering on too much but its not often you get to talk to one of your childhood heroes, he replied "its not a problem, i love talking about those days". What a truelly lovely fella he is. If only the current day footballers could be like NIck!

The lowest attendances that i remember for Saints 1st team home games that i attended was 4000 v Scarborough in the Rumbelows Cup 1991 ish and again 4000 ish v QPR in the Zenith Data Systems Cup around 1990 or 1991. I remember standing on the old East terrace for both games but at the Scarborough game i stood just under the upper tier of the East stand and there was NOBODY stood in front of me!!! I remember that there was about 4 ( YES FOUR ) Scarbrough fans at the Dell that night, that is without doubt the fewest away fans i have seen at a Saints game.

I live in Totton and when in my local last night i was told by a couple of people who were there that about ten 18 yo Cherryboys stormed into Asda in Totton and started throwing punches at innocent shoppers, FFS i mean that is really hard!!! Asda is full of Oap's on a saturday morning, i know because quite often i am in Asda on a saturday morning!!! ( I am not an Oap yet btw )

Other the Saints, i also follow AFC Totton. We have been on the crest of a wave for the last 5 years or so, We got to Wembley in the FA vase, We finished runners up and then won the Wessex League,thus gaining promotion, we have reached the Zamaretto Div 1 play offs for the last two seasons, only to miss out on promotion and we won the Hampshire Senior Cup last season beating Aldershot 4-0 in the final. We are also about to move to a really decent new stadium in Calmore. These are exciting times for The Stags!

I am sure Adkins will make a decent manager somewhere where he will be given time. Cortese cannot expect him to come in here and expect us to suddenly win every game. IF Adkins came in and results dont improve much after half a dozen games will Cortese stand for that will he start to doubt his choice of manager? IMO we needed an impact manager who would turn the players heads as soon as he walked in the changing room, someone who would represent a statement of intent from the club to those working in it and to us supporters.

I only hope that these PM's that were flying around on here last night haven't built everybody's hopes up, only for the appointment to end up as a 'BIG' letdown to them. I didn't request a PM from the person 'ITK' for this very reason, there is nothing worse than getting excited about something only for it to end up as a damp squib! FWIW, Cortese will want instant results from the manager the minute he takes over SO the appointment will need to be someone who will command respect from the players the minute he walks into the dressing room, so he has to have been there and done it at a high level IMO. Adkins or Howe would be good appointments for a club who will give them time, but Cortese wants promotion yesterday!!! Mowbray would be a decent appointment, but i just have a gut feeling we will end up with Zola. We will see.

Its totally laughable to sack Pardew, i and many other Saints fans know that Pardew was doing a damn good job. We started this season with a squad weaker than the one that finished last season. The fact that we hadn't replaced Waigo and Antonio yet did make me wonder if Cortese was trying to manufacture a situation that would make it look more acceptable to sack Pardew, it was no secret that they didn't see eye to eye. The fact that we won 4-0 at Bristol Rovers has made Corteses decision look what it is....REDICULOUS! I dread to think who will be appointed my gut feeling is that it will be Zola.

Markus Thankyou so much for saving our club. Rest in peace and God bless you.

I agree Patred, its almost as if Mr Cortese is like a crazed dictator, he is going to damage our club. Yes, i have been hearing all of the stories too and as much as i want them to be bull**** I am starting to believe them. What does Markus think about all of this?

The announcement will be that saints are to merge with AFC Totton and take their place in the Zamaretto league. Saints will then move into AFC Tottons new stadium at Little T******d farm which is currently under construction. The new club will be called AFC Southamptotton.

Southends fans were a genuinely decent bunch when they came here a couple of years back. There is nothing wrong with a friendship between fans. Yes, i like rivalry, especially with that lot in East Hampshire but i also like a good ol chat with opposing fans and the Southend fans i spoke to were brilliant. They were certainly the best for fancy dress, they had me in stitches!

This is also about Lallana to Celtic but you have to laugh, apparently we are still in deep financial trouble and we suffered a 15 point deduction! http://www.clubcall.com/southampton/celts-target-saints-star-1048140.html Idiots!!!

I took a while to daze off last night but still got about 5 hours kip, i can just about survive on that!

Block 527 Row 28

I have seen a few poor refereeing performances down the years, but for those who weren't at the game yeaterday, you truelly have to believe that this ref was either totally incompetant OR a ****ing cheat!!! To me the later seems more likely. Some of his decisions were incredible. The fact that every foul, every handball ( and there were bizzaarly quite a few ) against Saints was waved away and the fact a perfectly good goal was disallowed made me deeply suspicious of what Mr Walton was up to, you had to be there to see it with your own eyes it was unbelievable!!!

I remember the 76-77 season when Saints were expected by many to get promoted after winning the FA Cup, but the season started poorly and we were botton of what is now the championship after 7 games as we hadn't won a game, then we beat Fulham 4-1 ( they had George best, Rodney Marsh and Bobby Moore in their side and they were flying ) we followed that up by winning 6-2 at Wolves who were in 2nd place at the time. I think this is the last time we scored 10 goals in two games.

Pards is doing a very good job. There may be the odd complaints about substitutions and formations but EVERY CLUBS FANS has differing opinions on what formations their manager should play and who he should pick, go and check other clubs forums and you will see that. His record is very good. The top 6 have been very consistent this season, that is unusual, any other season and we'd still be in with a shout of the top 6.

I detest the place.....****hole!