Gis

Brilliant. Didn't realise James Corden was a Harrow Borough fan......'whats he done, whats he done, whats he done, hah, ha, ha, ha'

Bevois also sometimes known as Bevis of Hampton. http://www.umm.maine.edu/faculty/necastro/story/hampton.asp

and the story about the lions that 'it was said that if a virgin walked past the lions they would roar and fall off their plinths'................no recorded movement since the early sixties I believe.

Apparently over 2 milliion American soldiers passed through the port during WW2 http://www.plimsoll.org/Southampton/Southamptonatwar/operationoverlordanddday/operationoverlord.asp#1 - seems hard to believe nowadays. The more you look into Southampton's past, the more the mystery about why so little is known now, and why so little effort is put into telling the story.

Markus bought us as a Premiership club sitting in League One so it is sensible that he will invest (but not throw money away) to get us back to that level. I like the Cortese comments about ensuring that we were competitive in whatever league we were in. The route I don't want Saints to follow is where normal sense is lost in a bid to win at any cost. I'll never understand how there is so much cash slushing around the game at the moment and yet the only people doing well are the agents and players. I guess I just can't reconcile that many of the most successful clubs including Manure, Chelsea, and Liverpool are so at risk financially, and the memories of our own administration days still pain me. I never want that again.

No. I honestly wouldn't want to swap with Chelsea. There are lots of Chelsea lads who have given up with the club that they were fanatical about in the 70s, 80s and 90s because it has grown away from them. I don't want this to happen to me with Saints. Maybe it is a bit deluded but I still feel, (or rather feel again after the lowe years), that this is my club. re. patterson v lambert. I watched Patterson enough in the U18s to know that he can be a really good player, I know he's been pretty rubbish for the first team so far, but give him time and he should come good. £1m for Lambert was a great investment. Young proven player, value more likely to go up further, triple BRovers wages still sounds a reasonable amount as we are debt free and have much higher gates an income than them. Two other reasons to pay over the odds, we needed a good striker to get rid of our minus 10 and pull us up the league otherwise the spiral of defeat and disallusion could well have have continued to League 2, and we needed to sign a high profile player to attract others to stay and yet more to come in. So I'm not against spending money, I just don't believe any club should simply buy success that is unsustainable without a sugar daddy.

Just read the piece about reshaping the Civic Centre to include a 'Sea City Museum' including lots about the Titanic story, and Southampton's history as Britain's 'Gateway to the World'. At last! A reason to visit the town other than to just go shopping. Not living near Southampton any more and just coming back for the football every time I visit it always astonishes me how there is so little to recommend about the City other than to be able to say that it has lots of nice parks. Particularly when our fishy friends have actually done so much good stuff to attract tourism. £15m though, is hardly pushing the boat out, was this a misprint?

+ 1 It's great to have enough money to tell the premiership to f*** off when they come sniffing around Lallana and Morgan at the end of the season, and pay them a decent wage to stay with us, if they want to. And it's great to be able to invest sensibly in players, like we have this year. But to just buy, buy, buy like Chelsea, City, Real Madrid, etc. would make any later success meaningless to me. I like things just the way they are now, sensible investment, growth based on good foundations, and a real sense of achievement as we get success.

Interesting to see Antonio being sent on again and being given license to play through the middle as well as out on the wing. I thought it took the pressure off us towards the end as Walsall felt they had to keep at least a couple defenders with him at all times to contain the threat. Saints now have Waigo, Antonio, and Connolly who are brilliant options off the bench if they are not in the starting line up - can't remember us having many players historically that could come on and change a match, Tony Funnell, maybe Theo when he first started, can't think of too many others.

Have a listen to Dean Wilkins comments on Saints iPlayer as well - one of the best things that Pardew has done is to surround himself with a core of excellent staff.

Granted, two or three of Murty's passes ended in the car park today. But him at the back and James ahead of him in midfield, is so much better for the team than any other combination we have got for the Right Side. Also noticed Lallana covering Dan Harding on the left really well today, that plus Connolly and Lambert up front, SpiderMan and Hammond in midfield, and Perry and Jaidhi - all of a sudden we've got players working together, so different to the last few seasons where if someone was in trouble they were 'hung out to dry' by the rest of the team.

I like the crowd pictures around the ground and under the stands already. A few of these caricatures, scanned in and enlarged and put on the walls would add to what is already there. Perhaps each stand could have a whip round and choose their own subject. This could raise more for Ron and be better for fans that would like to donate but don't have the spare cash to make a personal drawing an option.

Well a few weeks ago I wanted Bart gone. But I have a feeling the time may be right for him to come into the team and take over the Number One spot permanently now. He has all the attributes you could ask for in a goalkeeper but seemed to lose confidence completely a few years back If he is ever going to make it this has got to be his time.

How to we solve a problem like Waigo? Fast as F$%k, can head the ball, and doesn't seem scared of mixing it when it's raining and the tackles are flying, and despite not burying it yesterday (even though he was offside) a pretty good finisher. The trouble is he doesn't seem to have a brain. There is a lot of current talk about bringing technology. I think that as the club that bought floodlights into football, we can go for another first and get an electric collar for Papa connected to Offside buttons distributed in the Itchen Corner and the Kingsland South. When pressed they would give Papa an indication that 20+ 000 people, the Ref and Linesman all feel that he should perhaps step back behind the last defender (240 volts should do). We could even give FF his own special Red button in the case of 'criminal' offside

It was awful conditions for a big player like Lambert yesterday - windy, raining, slippery pitch, the ball holding up sometimes and running away on others. All in all I suppose he was pretty anonymous but still led the line well enough and he wasn't far away from scoring with one of his free kicks. His biggest challenge is going to be how he works best with the Connoly / Lallana partnership which is coming on a treat.

Great match. Disappointing result though, I really hope this doesn't start to nibble away at the teams confidence. We need to get out of the relegation zone soon to have a good Christmas. I thought our defence was rubbish in the second half but changed my opinion as I walked back across the Itchen bridge to the car - it must have been a nightmare trying to play in those conditions. All credit to both sets of players.

Zulu - film theme Knocking on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan

So great to be in a position to question the team for letting in two goals at the end - "3-1, we only win 3-1, we only win 3-1" - what's going on Pardew? We've come so far over the last few games. Football is enjoyable again after so many years of being kicked while we were down.

My mum used to tell me that at one time the water in Bishopstoke Baths was taken directly from the Itchen. I don't remember that but do seem to remember that the water in the outside Southampton Lido tasted salty. Straight from the sea? or :smt087

A: Trotman and Antonio permanent, Mellis (extended until the end of the season).......... and a fit Murty would be probably be good enough. Nathan Thompson, Swindon Right Back would be a great buy, whether or not Murty makes it back. If there was a chance to get a realistic backup to Super Kelvin, I think it would be a good investment as it could all fall apart if the defence loses confidence behind a dodgy keeper. I'd also like to see another big but mobile Centre Half (I guess I might be the only person not convinced by Jaidi though). B: Bart, Forecast, Gillet, Holmes, Pullis, Molyneaux, Saga to go.

He seems so much happier on the ball now - he was just a head or hoof player when he started with us. And wasn't it Trotman with the 'Delap' type throw in from the Kingsland side on Saturday, this might actually be a good ploy now we have loads of players who are good in the air?

I think Gobern is a great option if we get hit by injuries ....just a pity that according to the OS he is only 5'11' and 10 stone 11lb, oh I can't prove that as they've just removed him from the team profiles..... perhaps Saints have got someone in on job experience to do an update

actually if you look very carefully at the team photo you can see the stool that Gilly is stood on

Got to be about 5'9" maybe 5'10" max. Definitely bigger than Gillett.

Not tall agreed, but well built and can look after himself. (More like Diego...not the 2009 model... than Nathan) He also seems to genuinely enjoy winding up the opposition and often seems to need to do this to play at his best - I can't see him being kicked out of many games. Hope he is really over his achilles as loss of acceleration would ruin his chances of making it.