Rut

Verizon Red Zone - what country is that in? What is it? I often watch the Red Zone channel in the USA. It's the one where they just go live to whatever game currently has the best action (ie in the red zone). There are no commercials and it is quite watchable. If the Broncos are playing I will just watch that game though - praps flicking to Red Zone during the commercials. Yeah looking forward to Thursday as well. Would love to see Saints do a number on GB. Should be a good game.

As much as I like the sport some of the players ain't exactly the most clued-up: (this bloke was a safety at New England and is now in Chicago - so he'll be coming back again to see the sights of London)

Welcome to the USA. I'm about 500 miles away up in IN so can't really suggest 'a quick pint' anytime soon. I'm sure I've heard of some Saints fans in Atlanta though. Cool that you've found a bar that at least shows the Prem games. With the timezone thing it can be hard to find any bars open for live English football. Are the people watching the games there mainly ex-pats or American? (in case you haven't already sussed it) you need Fox Soccer Plus (a $15 a month subscription channel) to watch Championship games. They show the games that are live on UK TV and the odd other one as well. Plus there is a Football League highlights show. You into any American sports? If not then give the (American) football and baseball a chance - both are great sports once you understand them.

Champions. The league is there for the taking.

Yes it is poofs rugby & it keeps stopping/starting & there are millions of players & blah blah blah. Anyway - any NFL fans still lurking around? Not long til the new season. My division picks are: AFC East - Dolphins North - Steelers South - Houston West - Broncos NFC East - Dallas North - Bears South - Saints West - Rams There are a few outsider-ish teams there. Mainly because the 8 favs never all win. This year they are: Patriots 8/13 Steelers Evens Colts 11/8 Chargers 8/15 Eagles 10/11 Packers 8/15 Saints 11/8 Rams 15/8 Back all 8 at these odds in an accumulator and if they all win it pays just over 234/1. Take out Saints & Rams and those 6 pay just over 33/1. Sounds like easy money ey? Got my usual bet on the Broncos and have done Saints at the start of the season (like I always used to do until the season they actually won it of course). Of course the other thing you always hear is 'at least the cheerleaders are fit' - can't argue with that one. I bet not many boys bunk off this teacher's class: Nikki - Denver Broncos Cheerleader 2011 Occupation: School Teacher

Really should learn how to spell 'Cheifs'.

Is that right? Interesting. Here in the USA we had Forest v Leicester live last week. This week though the 3pm UK games are Swansea v Sunderland & Chelsea v Norwich. No Leicester game (that was weird last week cos it's normally always 2 Prem games - sometimes 3 if ESPN haven't had an early game). There's no delayed coverage of it either (we are getting Palace v Blackpool at 5pm UK time). If this stream works then nice one. Guess we'll see closer to KO... I think Saints need to sell their rights to the USA. I'll chip in a fiver to get the pot started.

Well obviously yes. I'll slightly 'hypocrite myself' here and say that as it stands this season I'd take promotion - not the League Cup. Promotion is slightly different from staying up. With our 100% start we do appear to have a realistic chance of going up. This may not come along too often (just like a League Cup win if you are near the bottom of the league). Of course I'm saying this as an ex-pat where promotion to the Prem would mean I get to see around 75% of Saints games live on TV! If I was still living in Southampton and going to the games then a League Cup win at Wembley and some European away trips may well be preferable... Anyway - let's see what happens ey? I'll take both at the moment. Praps throw in the FA Cup as well for a treble.

The ones who have followed Birmingham through thick and thin would take the Wembley win, some trips away in Europe and the chance of winning a few more games this season. Those who think football begins and ends in the Prem probably don't support Birmingham anyway.

Never mind all that what the hell is Richard Branson doing stewarding at St Marys? (at about 3.40 in the video)

Score 5 away for show - win scrappy one-nils for dough. I don't know about the 'expectation thing' but this was a great win. You ain't gonna walk over teams every week. Good teams find ways to win 1-0 when not playing as well as they can. Saints are good. Leicester totally blew it today as well. We can do them for another 3 points.

What he hell does it matter? We won 5-2. Just say it did go behind. Ref sees this and we get a goal kick. 3-0 up. Totally different game and who's to say they wouldn't have come back and drawn 3-3? Sure we could have won 8-0 but who cares? 5-2 does the job nicely. Anyone got a vid of the Mark Hughes non-goal at the Archers?

This one's for Malc (and Gord if he ever reads this forum). Sat 13 Nov 2004. Prem Lg. Saints 2 P**pey 1. Pre-game at Redbridge Roundabout:

The acid test for these VPN things is whether you can log in and make a bet on Betfair whilst in the USA. Something like the free http://expatshield.com/ does the job for watching BBC/ITV players but Betfair ain't having it.

I like this quote from an Ipswich fan: "how many premiership has beens did they have playing?? none i believe. " I think he is right as well. Our players are on the up - not just seeing their careers out for a few extra bob.

Come on you Saints. Ain't scored for ages. Would be great to really hammer 'em tonight. 6-0 will do for starters.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/the_pink/ The sample edition looks good. Easy to read/zoom with a couple of mouse clicks. Is this a new thing? I'd not seem it before. It appears to be 55p a week (the same as the paper edition) but it's not crystal if this is the case or not. The subscription prices don't seem to be displayed. Not the same as getting it from Martins in Water Lane, Totton at about 6pm on a Sat. Quite how that was done I never did know but there were always people waiting there for it to arrive - and it always did! Do they still do that? Or is that too old-school? Probably...

We can do either of them ***** - bring it on.

Singles have been allowed on all games for ages! I do remember the minimum trebles or minimum 5-folds (if you included a home game) though. Was always a pain. I think it mainly stopped when cameras went to every game. It's a lot harder for a game to be fixed (not impossible - but harder....).

I can imagine an independent cutting the odds on the home team but to have slow and clueless service? That's just ummm, clueless. A lot of the potential action is from blokes who've been down the pub and get in the ground shortly before kick off. Flash up 'x to score 1st and Saints to win 5-1' at odds of 33/1 and still some of em would put a fiver on. Not if they can't actually get served though. At least now perhaps people will use sites like oddschecker.com & bestbetting.com to find the best odds and get their bets on before going to the game. Fancy Saints to win 3-0? Get the best price online. It'll probably be 10 points bigger than at the ground. Putting a tenner on? That's 100 quid more in your sky rocket if you win. Gives you 10 'free' tenner bets over the season. Gotta be done ey? Betting online ain't the same as getting the Nelson Eddies put into your grubby little mits but when the price difference is so big it's gotta be done...

If you did 3-0 I hope you didn't top yourself when the ref gave that pen. I think I'd have been close to doing so!

The main difference with going to 'The Betting Room' instead of Ladbrokes will be that they only have 2 high street shops - both in P*mouth. If the booth is closed/out of cash at the end of the game it makes it a lot harder to pick up any winning bet later on in the week. http://www.thebettingroom.co.uk/stadiumbetting.html says you can pick up your winnings at the next home game or mail in your slip recorded delivery. Guess it's the mail-in option for away fans then. Wonder if they get their postage cost refunded? Anyway - good luck to everyone betting in the ground this season. Clean 'em out!

'Murder on the Darts Board' by Justin Irwin http://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Darts-Board-Justin-Irwin/dp/1906032041 A really enjoyable read about one bloke's quest to become a pro dart player. If you've ever played darts down the pub then you will relate to a lot of his stories. As an added bonus it even mentions Southampton a few times.

I'd pay good money for that. If it's not allowed in the UK (cos of the 'no live games on TV at 3pm Sat' rule) then how about a service just for non UK based people? espn3.com is basically ESPN online. It streams tons of stuff and the quality is top notch. If the Saints games were shown in the same quality then it would be excellent. If the provider wasn't *too* fussy about locking it down to just non UK people (no geo IP checking) then I'm sure they'd be pleasantly surprised at the take up. Like you say though - not likely - shame....

If you can't get to the games and don't live in the Radio Solent region then go for it. The commentary is Solent's which I ain't a massive fan of but it's a damn sight better than nothing. The main prob with them is they often turn the crowd noise DOWN which sucks - but as I said - better than nothing. Saints game on the radio and choice of Prem game to have on the TV with the sound turned down - it's what 10am on Sat mornings were made for. Roll on the new season.