The Cat

Wasn't it just. What was it they were spelling out? Sounded like "farty" to me! Would have been fairly apt considering someone down the front of the away end was polluting the air with the vile remnants of their curry and 10 pints the night before.

He lived in Netley until a few years ago. Used to see him walking his dogs in Victoria Country Park. Nice bloke, would happily stop for a chat. I think we'll win today, especially if Lallana is back.

Didn't we beat Burnley away 3-2 on tv in the Championship?

Oh dear. You can imagine the following conversation going on around the ground amongst various Ipswich fans: Bloke 1 - (Looks up at the pitiful away support) Mate, what's with their fans? There's hardly anyone up there. I thought they were supposed to have good support? Bloke 2 - Sorry? What was that? I couldn't hear for that **** with the bell and the 12 Pompey fans singing. To be fair though it is a bit of a trek up here midweek. Bloke 1 - Same distance as Southampton, they bought 3 times that when they hammered us 5-2 on that horrific Tuesday night. Bloke 2 - True.

Atmosphere in the Kingsland corner was better than normal. Couldn't really hear West Ham much from there either. From my experience of 60+ away grounds I'd say the volume of our singing is average. Sometimes we can be very loud, at other times (even when we're winning and playing well) it's pretty silent. What we don't seem to do at home anymore is get a chant going for longer than a minute. It wasn't that long ago that we'd get right behind the team and bang out "red army" or something for 5 minutes or so.

He came on at Derby and played left mid which took me by surprise at the time. Consequently I was expecting it last night. With the Cork substitution he was ready to come on at the same time as West Ham made their last sub, but then sat back down on the bench. Wondered if Adkins wanted to have a look at what Allardyce was doing with his formation before changiing it. The weirdest sunstitution was De Ridder coming on when they had a free kick, legging it over to the wall and swapping places with Cork (I think). This seemed to confuse everyone and they had an effort that just went over. I thought it quite bizarre to be messing about like that at such an important moment. No harm done though!

Could have been a number of players, everyone was excellent. I went for Fonte because despite his hilarious balls up when he missed the ball he was immense. Seemed to be clearing everything at the end.

Yep.

I was unfortunate enough to spend my birthday at Fratton Park for the 1-0 loss in 2004.

They give out forms at the ticket office, at least they did last season when we had a ballot. The travel arrangements do seem over the top. Guess I'll be losing the deposit on the Red Funnel ferry I'd hired out.

They are everywhere! I seem to encounter different ones most games in 36. One bloke this season didn't even know who Chaplow was. Even if he didn't play for Saints you should know who he is. My memories of blocks 1-3 must just be of the good times. If the people who buy last minute tickets and end up there are all sat down and dull they might be in for a shock when the West Ham fans start giving them abuse.

Can't say I agree that De Ridder is nowhere near the standard of our team and think that is a pretty harsh statement. To be fair he hasn't had enough match time for anyone to make a proper decent judgement but I have seen him in every game he's played and he looks lively and causes the opposition plenty of problems with his dribbling and directness, assets that we distinctly lacked yesterday without Lallana.

He seems to really love the support. Said on twitter after the game "great support we had out there, no chance to hear derby fans." Nice touch for him to get the other players over considering his only on loan. Seeing as I'm a sucker for players clapping the fans I'd definitely sign him up.

Thought it was because he booted the ball away in frustration when the ref blew for a free kick against him. I didn't think the ref was that bad, we've had a lot worse.

Should have won that, they were pretty poor and despite not being in full flow we created a fair few chances. Lambert was excellent, Connolly seemed to be out wide a lot and never in the box at the same time as the ball. Chaplow, well I would have preferred De Ridder as we lacked any creative outlet on the left. Defended well apart from the goal. We do arse up at the back fairly frequently and will have to be bang on it against West Ham to avoid anything similar happening. Atmosphere was a bit lame for a full ground. Derby very quiet, we take over 2500 and all stand up but hardly make any noise.

Hopefully we'll need to get blocks 1-3 open. Will make the atmosphere so much better.

Yep. I thought Cardiff was average despite the fact we had 2000 odd there which is a good effort on a Tuesday night. Wonder how many we'll take to Coventry? Bristol Ciy after that which I'd imagine we'll sell out no problem.

Yeah, 2-1. Morley scored for them in that game too!

Tight residential streets and very easy to Police because you just close the roads off around the ground. There's no way any Saints fans who have been to the match could make it out into the streets unless the battle through a line of coppers to do it. All that will probably happen is that some stuff will get thrown and some rude words shouted. After the 1-0 loss there in 04 a little kid threw a milkshake at us. Crazy scenes. The only way I can see any trouble outside the ground is if Saints fans without tickets to turn up around Fratton and start causing aggro.

Maybe we'll see a pre-noon kick off on the Saturday for this one. Didn't we kick off at 11.45 once against Spurs at the Dell? The 4-3 game. mid 90's.

Agreed. By far one of the dullest. I'd need to develop a skag habit to cope with the sheer depression if I lived there.

Looked at that but my problem is I need to get back to Hamble. No way of doing it that time of night unless I pay for a taxi, and it's not worth the expense for a Carling Cup match! Reason for parking in Kew is it's free and I don't know anywhere in Richmond to do that. Wimbledon's a good shout though as I can go straight up the A3 and shout some abuse out the window as I pass Pompey.

Just worked out a decent way of getting there if you are driving but don't want to risk the M25 and South London traffic. Drive to Kew and park near the station (it's free on the road in the evenings) then get the overland train to Thornton Heath (45-55 mins, one change, under a fiver)

Agree wholeheartedly with JRM. As far as I'm concerned the furthest east we need to have any marketing activity is Fareham.

I get that quite a lot in the shop I work in. Probably because it's in Hamble and I don't have a boat (or even know how to sail). Thing is people don't know the reasons why you work in a certain place. Me, well it's near my home, hours to suit around looking after the kids, and best of all I've wangled it so I don't work Saturdays so am free to watch Saints every week.