ericb

To call the Sun's readership Neanderthal and stupid is way beyond the pale to me, but to claim that it's the bastion of fair journalism because of the amount of people that read it is a bit like saying the ITV news is more in depth than Newsnight because more people watch it. I think it's fairly obvious to most that the Sun plays to a couple of agenda's, firstly the political and economic bias of it's owner (hence the amount of anti-bbc articles it's printed along the years), and secondly a populist agenda to sell papers. Of course you can argue that it doesn't make up copy, since as you point out that would lead to numerous lawsuits that it could not afford, but it does have a liberal view of the truth and will bend or misappropriate "facts" to fit their own agenda. Some people would argue this is clever reporting/journalism, as much as being able to confine subjects to the reading age of seven year child (this could be conjecture, but i've been led to believe that's the aim from friends in the industry). Whether any of this makes for fair and unbiased journalism is a totally different matter though. As for saints ban on photographers i really struggle to see why anyone cares, aside from showing minor delusions of grandeur from NC - how many people outside of southampton and the team they're playing will even notice? - is it really such a big deal that it's worth numerous threads on an internet football forum, and a petty petulant campaign from a redtop newspaper? Oh and one other thing about The Sun/Murdoch group, it's great that they're trying to re-associate football with the community, but don't you think that's just blatant marketing to those that can't see through it? Since otherwise they wouldn't be so pivotal in selling the global brand around the world, nor would they take their sports news channel, make it pay only and then advertise the fact as if they're some kind of philanthropist saint. Sky/Murdoch and all those weasely little entities that run from his empire are part of the reason football is in the mess it's in, from the celebrity culture that justifies ridiculous wages, to the hype and hyperbole of The Greatest League In The World tm.

Pompey away for me, the only game that would be worth anything. Other than that someone that'll knock us out so we can concentrate on the league

last post for free - boooo - so can't come back after this, but my point you might have chosen to ignore (?) was that regardless of the players they have far more incentive to win for all those reasons, MK Dons is the test of where we're at this season and come the league games against bournemouth i expect us to be a very different side. Oh and as for the money thing is that why we always lost to sides that paid their players more in the prem?

just out of interest why should we beating them? They're in the same division as us on merit, on a roll with a good manager in a game that means far, far more to them than us. Not to mention that they have a superb away following behind them too, and a point to prove against the bigger south coast side. Whereas if we are taken to pieces by MK Dons we'll know we've gone backwards from last season as they're a team we walked around on four different occasions.

They're not my second team but i still like to see them do well, partly because they are southern and partly because they were screwed by the league

Got to say i was think of going but finding out it's £18 on the gate tonight has totally put me off, not worth it for a nothing game in a cup i'd rather not be in. I'll save the cash for some away days instead i think

See i work in bournemouth with a bunch of cherries - good blokes and good fans i think - and i couldn't give a ****, and the fact that i couldn't give a **** annoys the hell out of them. They keep saying "we'll see about that" when i say there's no rivalry, though i think at last it's starting to sink in. For what it's worth i think it'd be sad for them not to have a decent crowd, they could do with the money and it's some sort of cup final for them, but let's not put out a decent team since players have to be kept for the league. it's really not that bad compared to say shirley or thornhill; urban reef is nice and there's a cool little second hand record shop off the precinct. In all fairness as cities go - and apart from the stag/hen parties - bournemouth is a much nicer city than southampton.

I couldn't care less about this game, play all the youth team for what it's worth and get the team fit for the league. The league is the only thing worth worry about this season

football fans in over reacting to a result and/or reaction shocker. Well i for one am surprised at that.

I thought there were some really good signs today, Dickson looks like a really good signing and some of the passing and moving was far better than most teams i saw in this league last season. Saying that Jaidi still to me doesn't look good enough, i thought last season he was a clogger with no speed and i still think so now. Mind you with a feet lallana and lambert back in the side i still think there's no reason we can't win the league, plymouth were a well organised side that will cause a lot of teams problems and with our normal inability to start well it's no real surprise that we lost.

Ever sung dambusters or the great escape?

It's already going round me in the northam steve, albeit with about 5 people

I'm not wearing a condom to a game that'll just look weird

i cringe every time i hear GSTQ, we need to get rid of it along with the monarchy in my opinion

yeah ****ing scum the trade unions, imagine getting an eight hour working day, a five day week, health and safety in the work place, equal voting rights (not based on land ownership), stopping the employment of children, the minimum wage, equal working rights for women.... seriously these people are the scum of the earth

I can't wait for the witch to go, and there's a fair few of her crew that i'll enjoy the demise of too (Tebbit for one). and a video to help the reasoned debate that's bound to follow.

I really do wander about some of the comments on the "singers" on here, it's just totally clueless at times. Moving "singers" (and for a start how the hell do you define who they are?) into the chapel will just **** off people in the chapel. Also part of the reason for the noise is that it's banter with the away fans, i'm fairly sure most of those arguing in favour of a move don't sit/stand in the Northam/Itchen and don't really get the mentality behind it. Oh and before the accusations start flying it's not chavvy, has nothing to do with Yoof, and is really just about enjoying the wind up and laugh that goes with it. Most can do that during a game and not stove someone's head in outside. I'm really hoping when season tickets come out they'll not have moved away fans and we can get away from this stupid idea and just get on with supporting saints again (in whatever way/end we choose to do it).

little more relevant

Very quick effort cause i'm bored

To be fair i've been to uni twice and don't think they're all ****s, but there does seem to be a higher collection of the posh up themselves types in Soton than a lot of places (mainly from the main Uni). Because they could be infinitely better than most bars if it wasn't for the posers.

Aren't Leicester not having a sponsor next season due to it being their anniversary too? Actually with research i'm wrong, they're putting the sponsor on the back http://www.lcfc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10274~1747201,00.html

The student thing is the worst thing about this city. Why the hell should there be clubs/bars/pubs we're not allowed into in our city? I can understand barring trouble makers but it's just offensive to stop someone coming in because they're not a student (student union being an exception).

I live in soton but work in bournemouth and i've got to say it's a far nicer city than southampton and with a much better nightlife. The funny thing is that despite the wine bars there's much less pretension there than in say Bedford Place. Personally i'd put that down to a combination of things, firstly southampton lacks decent places so badly that the ones that do exist seem to be populated by people who think they're the dogs ******** (when normally they're posing ****s). Add to that the student element who really believe they're something special and you can get quite a stuck up crowd. On the flip side we've got some really rough places in town where you're more than likely to see trouble on a friday/saturday night (probably down to southampton not being the richest city in the world). Bournemouth on the other hand has some really nice pubs/clubs (60million postcards for one) that would be pretentious as **** here but remain chilled there. I don't know if that's down to the amount of weekenders in bournemouth but it does seem to be the case. Sad really since there's no reason southampton shouldn't have a decent nightlife, but we just seem to cater to students getting hammered and barn like clubs with no character.

am i the only one that sees the words World Wide Brand attached to Saints and cringes? I don't want us to be a world wide brand, i want us to be southampton football club. A club representing the city i'm from, and giving me pride in my city. I don't want to see kids round the world in Saints tops at the expense of their local teams, and i hope Marcus doesn't too. He talks about doing it properly and giving pride back to the city. I for one hope that means not whoring ourselves to the world brand market and doing it in the old fashioned (unfashionable) way. Anyway that aside COYR i've been loving it down here and enjoying my football for the first time since the play off season in the championship

They can buy players now, whether they have the money or not i don't know. As for the rivarly i really don't see it as being anything to worry about, there's a lot of mouth from some of them but it's really not anything. You'll get far more problems at cardiff, bristol city and a few others. Now lets just wish them well and get on with it before they start thinking we care!