Bourne Valley Saint

A bit of a weird day out all in all. Sort of arrived in the ground in a vaccuum - no contact with anyone bar the people on the bus, queued for a bit until the gate was opened and then we were in. Weird feeling really, especially compared with the trips by train on the past two occasions. Hence the atmosphere was a bit subdued for such a game. Obviously the ticket arrangements and the "Bubble" dampened the passionate support you would normally experience for such a fixture but I didn't think it was as bad as some are making out. Fair play to all those that went - even though a lot were young, elderly or female. At least they travelled unlike the "coming for you" mouths that watched it on tv. As for the game, I thought Saints played well and did enough to win it. They weren't intimidated by the tirade of abuse and insults from the stands (unlike the last visit) and stood up to be counted, especially Hammond and Cork who worked tirelessly in midfield. Guly was a disappointment and should have been taken off before they equalised. As for their fans, quality moments were when we were 1-0 up and such is their blinkered hatred for all things Southampton, they couldn't even manage to give the ball back to our players for a throw in, thereby wasting even more time. As for singing about their Cup "sucess" recently, I'm sure most clubs could have achieved that by spending £120 million pounds without any intention of ever paying it back! All in all a bit of a strange day out!!

Let Bart play at Coventry in the cup. He'll be away from most of his critics and will have had some time to get over his poor performance. Until then, just hope that Kelvin is fit and stays fit. However, if Bart does play on Sunday, FFS get behind the bloke even if he does make a cock up. That shower of sh1te down the road will like nothing better than seeing some of our fans turn on our own player!

Bang on Minty - SDR's pathetic attempt at a pass when he was clean through in the last minute cost us the three points as much as Bart's howler! What a time that would have been to score the winner. I was at the game so haven't seen Holloway interviewed but I woulld have loved to have beaten his side. Every time we had a player clean through he was fouled and when they went ahead they wasted time. The ref was next to useless so all in all, a point was about as good as we were going to get. Keep the fiath!

Watching that clip of the Skates punch up with Cardiff, you have got to wonder at the double standards of our Hampshire judiciary. On the video there is evidence of someone blatantly kicking a bloke in the head whilst on the floor (probably deserved it but that's not the point!) and possibly receiving a suspended sentence (although I haven't got a clue if he was one of the one's convicted), whilst video evidence was used after last year's game against the Skates to send a Saints fans to prison (who had no previous record of any kind) for throwing a coin.

I was at the game and it did seem that both sides were more than content with a 0-0 draw. That said, I do remember Tony Funnell hitting the outside of the post. We finished a point behind Bolton and had a better goal difference of 1 and it was only two points for a win in those days, so looking back on it, I'm pretty p**sed off that we didn't go for it and try and win the league!!! We finished on 57 points with + 31gd, Bolton on 58 + 30, Spurs 56 +34 and Brighton 56 + 25. Had we lost we'd have been on 56 with a better goal difference than Brighton anway, unless we lost 7-0 so they can't really blame us for taking our foot off the gas can they!!!!!

When Oldham fans are accused of being the home of Islamic terrorists by some fans, do they go running to the politically correct police because they are associated as being the home of terrorism in the UK ? No, they make a joke of it by singing "1-0 to the Taliban" (that's if they are winning 1-0 mind!). FFS what is going on in this country? I'm not saying that being gay is a life style choice, I'm no expert but there must be an element of choice, I would think. Being black, ginger or bald (if not shaven) is not a choice. However, we abuse the ginger goalkeeper, fat defender, bald referee but we can't take the p**s out of the Brighton fans because their town is associated with gays FFS.

A good range of (mainly) intelligent comments - thanks. It's good to know I am not alone in finding these companies and the way they advertise deplorable. I know that there are irresponsible adults out there who can't and won't manage their finances but there are many decent people just trying to scrape by and these poxy adverts tempt them to borrow when in all reality, they'll be in a similar predicament next month, only worse, because they'll be a further £48.00 a day worse off (that is one day's interest at 1734%) for every day that they borrowed. So they borrow again and the spiral continues out of control! There should be a limit on APR. After all, we are at record low interest rates with the Bank of England at the moment.

More like a Quick way to run up a huge debt!! I saw the advert again on the telly this morning where this bloke is looking at his calendar and has to pay his gas and leccy bill before pay day. No problem - QUICK QUID to the rescue -offerring a loan of up to £1,000.00 in 5 minutes. I waited to read the figure for the APR beacause I thought I might have misread it the last time but no.... it was 1,734.00% per annum!!!!! Say that bloke borrows a grand to tide him over but then loses his job or his means of earning money, then if that debt was not paid off for another year that grand equates to £17,340.00. If paid off after one month then by my reckoning he still has to repay £1,445.00 (17340.00 divided by 12). I think that I've got the maths right but am by no means 100% (definitely not 1000%) certain. If correct, then this is nothing short of scandalous. Is there nothing the FSA (Financial Services Authority) or some regulator can do about these companies? Talk about tempting people into debt. You'd be better off getting a loan from your employee or bank!

"The crux of the matter is that most people are far too stupid to gamble,it's something that requires great intelligence and personal discipline.I know a couple of people who live from gambling, they never go for hail mary bets or anything like that,spend more time working at it than your average punter spends at his daily graft". If only that were the case with the majority but it's not. A lot of gullible people are tempted into gambling, which could then result in borrowing and the downward spiral of loan sharks and short term lenders (did anyone see the one on tv recently offering short term loans - the APR was 1734% - shown in very small print?) No good comes from gambling. It is addictive and the only ones who get wealthy are the betting institutions themselves! Where there is gambling there is inevitably corruption - look at the Pakistani cricketers today being given jail terms. Tennis, snooker, horse racing, all recently under suspicion because some greedy bas**rds wants to make money by corrupt means. Why can't we just be left to enjoy sport for what it is rather than being tempted to gamble on it.

Following on from the original Northam chants on Tuesday night where they chanted the player's first name, how about adapting the Ting Tings "That's not my name" song - They call me Hell (They call him Kel) They call me Stacey (They call him DC) They call me her (They call him Ridder) They call me Jane (They call him Dan) That's not my name (We are the Northam - we know their names) x 2 They call me quiet (We are never original) But I'm a riot (We just shout) Mary-Jo-Lisa (Guly-Jack-Fraser) Always the same (Always the same) That's not my name (We chant their names) x 4

It seems that every time I turn on the telly to watch sport there is some poxy advert encouraging me to part with my hard earned cash by betting on some aspect of the sport that I am watching. I don't want gambling adverts (like the deranged Italian shouting from the stands offering a free bet) being shown to my kids, friend's kids, parents, addicts, or whoever! It is encouraging people to gamble on something over which they have no control in the vain hope that they might win some cash. Gambling is a shi**y path to get onto and invariably ends up casusing misery to the punter and his/her family if taken too far, which is often the case because the punter is always looking to recoup his/her losses by gambling more! Years ago we had tobacco sponsorship of sporting events but this was banned due to health reasons. Then alcohol sponsorship - again banned. What is so different about gambling? It certainly isn't good for you. Leave the gambling to the punters at horse racing and bookies and stop all these ****ing adverts. Sky probably don't need the advertising revenue from these firms but if they do, then just reduce the amount they pay to the overpaid clubs/mercenaries in the Premier League. Rant Over.l

I have heard that Ashley is paying of his gambling debts and it was that which prompted his move to Newcastle! Could be a load of boll**ks of course but didn't the same thing happy when Alan Ball left us for Man City?

Very amusing - made me laugh, which is probably what the point of the post was. For those of you that read, analyse, dissect, correct and accuse, then you probably also enjoyed it in your own politically correct world kind of way!

I would have thought that we should get a few more on Sunday. It's not now on the telly and the people who normally work Saturdays will now be able to go (I know that the ones that work Sundays now won't but I'm guessing that more work Saturdays than Sundays) and the blokes that play football on Saturdays, or who watch other clubs, like Eastleigh & Salisbury, will also be free. Also we are on a winning home streak and things are really looking up.

Good post Rallyboy - Phil is a bit like that. I know him from old and he is a top bloke. He used to live in Coombe Bissett near Salisbury and I went to my first Saints game with him back in 1977 - away at Forest in the Cup. He moved to Dubai a few years ago now but I see him now and again. He was at Bucharest for our UEFA Cup match. His brother is still a Saints season ticket holder and sings in a band called the Zucchinis - worth a watch if you ever get a chance to see them around Salisbury. Phil tells it how it is - no bragging , just facts. Some on here would do well to follow his example.

Someone once said that "people who can't make a mark on life make a mark on their bodies instead!" Probably not the case with Beckham but pretty close to the mark I suspect.

Reading the report it looks as if he deserves all he gets. He is indeed a Scumbag and posts like his can cause great offence to bereaved families. If he posted a racist remark and incited racial hatred he'd probably be jailed so that's fine with me. Perhaps it'll stop other delinquents from following suit.

Watching QPR v Newcastle last night, it seemed to me that about 50% of the players had some sort of tattoo on their body, which seems a very high percenatge compared to the average man or woman (but not in P**tsmouth) on the street. I'm not against tattoos but some of them look ridiculous and thuggish, especially if they are on your neck! Why are so many footballers doing it? It's not like you can get rid of them that easily once you get fed up with them!

Completely useless. No passion, ability, creativity, imagination or talent. On the way home we were asked to nominate our Man of the Match - we couldn't. That's how awful it was.

Now I might be missing something here but I've watched over half our games this season and I seriously can't see what all the fuss and speculation is about. He's obviously got talent and plenty of pace but he is nowhere near the class of player that Bale and Walcott are .............. yet! He's played just 12 games for us - how can anyone be valued on that? Is this 10 million pounds being "speculatively offered" in the hope that he will go on improving? Don't get me wrong, I do not want Saints to sell him for any money. He's just the type of player we need. I'm sure if he stays with us he could be playing in the Premiership within 3 years (hopefully). But at present a much bigger loss would be to sell any of Lallana, Lambert, Fonte or Kelvin. I remember all the talk about Nathan Dyer being a better prospect than Walcott. Only time will tell whether Oxo is going to be a star.

I'll be away that weekend in Newark, watching the match no doubt surrounded by Man U fans... Newark is an anagram of ******!

Macey - I was there last time and other times before that. I was at the Cup Final in 1976. Each to their own but I have never chosen to watch a home game on the tv instead of being at the ground. You can't complain about part-time (plastics) being there if you don't go yourself. Why not link it to the Carlisle game? It's all good revenue for the club and will help us to keep our exciting squad of players rather than having to sell as we have previously done so. As for buying a ticket for a game you know you are not going to attend just so that you can sell it on for a profit, shame on you.

I can't believe some of our regular support is choosing to miss this one. Theymoan about plastic fans turning up but wont turn out themselves! I have just realised that i am away for this game and am absolutley gutted - I wouldn't dream of missing it through choice. OK - if money is an issuse but surely for an extra £10.00, playing Man U, great atmosphere, full house and who knows, maybe a win, i just don't understand the mentality!

It was a great day out yesterday at Dagenham. Their ground may be small but they certainly look after the visiting support. The bar area to the left of our end was excellent with tv screens and a wooden floor which would do my front room proud. The outside snack bar was excellent with bacon rolls in a french stick priced at about 50% of what we have to pay at St Marys for crap pies and their supporters club after the match was friendly and hospitable. Their fans were gracious in defeat and acknowledged that we were the better side but they could easily have walked away with at least a point. As for our support, it was excellent and although I personally don't like the shed song (I remember it being sung to us at the Dell) and the pompey scum (unless we're playing them), the noise level was good and we got behind the team. As for the cheering OLE when we kept possession, what on earth is wrong with that? Crikey, I've been following Saints for 40 years and we've never been able to defend a lead so let's just enjoy it when we're in front!

A mate and I made a bet on 30 October of £20.00 each way (the slip says Each way to win Championship League One) which I assume means winning the play off Final and hopefully not finishing 3rd!) and got odds of 66/1 with Ladbrokes.