stockportsaint

spotted him coming in whilst I was in the queue to get a drink/some chips (v. good chips BTW). Perhaps he was looking for a defensive midfielder to make 'Boro more resilient in the middle, and had heard of this young prospect coming through the ranks by the name of Paul Wootton? Bet he was delighted to see Paul come off the bench to get 20 minutes. Perhaps a sneaky bid in January?

Well he is what David "Bumble" Lloyd would describe as a "big unit", nearly as big as Jaidi, so I can't see him easily getting poleaxed by a left back, more likely the other way round.

you could watch the mould growing up the walls though.

even better, try this: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=football+league+play+off+dates My favourite website at the moment.

And a woolly hat, gloves and scarf. And wear 2 pairs of socks. Old Olham boss Joe Royle called it Ice Station Zebra as he reckoned it had its own special climate.

Indeed - I watched him closely at Blackpool last season (the golf tournament style stand meant we were very close to the pitch), and to me, his legs had gone, his first touch was pretty poor, and when he did get the ball, he hadn't a clue what to do with it other than pass sideways or back to Kelvin - he certainly couldn't do anything remotely creative and because his legs have gone, couldn't do the closing down a David Batty style player has to offer due to his absence of creativity. Contrast to Gillett, who to me was one of the best things about the whole Dutch experiment, he can do the closing down at least as well as Wotton, plus he can actually pick out a decent pass or two. Of course, some people will go on about his (lack of) height, but it never hampered Dennis Wise, and Gillett is actually an inch taller if you believe Wikipedia - 5' 7" vs 5' 6". Guess his face doesn't fit with Pardew, who otherwise I rate very highly so far.

They did cheat a bit for the noise though, as they had the bloke on the tannoy leading many of the chants, nevertheless they made a pretty astonishing amount of noise, and kept bouncing up and down for most of the game. As I remember it pretty much all the local women were exceptionally tidy, certainly the young ones. You might even imagine that Ceaucescu (sp?) had all the ugly women shot or deported to the Russian Gulags.

Anyone got any idea when the draw is due to be made? I've had a look all over the FA website, but it's pretty appalling for actually finding anything useful. I know the games are played the first weekend of November, just trying to plan ahead a bit.

+1 from me. Tried to get this started at Carlisle, but those around me just took the ****.

here t'is http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/staticFiles/c2/37/0,,10280~145346,00.pdf

My old boss is a West Ham fan and told me (quite proudly I thought) that the first ever (hooligan-related) death at a British football match was a Millwall fan at West Ham. I have never researched this myself but it's probably true. No surprise there was trouble really, this should surely have been made a special case and played on a Sunday morning or similar. Would be nice if Millwall got a points deduction, but I can't see it happening myself.

not any more, unfortunately: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8178940.stm

That'll be because Thunderbird is part of the Mozilla/Firefox project, which is heavily funded (80% so I've heard) by Google. So they'll make their email client highly compatible with their main sponsor's webmail.

Hmm - famous last words indeed Bungle: Giro d'Italia runner up Di Luca just tested positive for CERA (the latest version of EPO - the blood booster): http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8163587.stm

unfortunately any time you see such a "transformation" in a pro cyclist, your suspicions are aroused. I'd like to thing "Wiggo" is doing it clean, but then you read Bernard Kohl saying that doping is the norm in the peloton: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jun/09/berhard-kohl-cycling-drugs-tour-de-france

Doubt you've been in exile this long though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_Lud

Controversial perhaps, but how about HSB, although it's now brewed by Fullers.

just to add my £0.02 - would be happy to pay for a membership to get priority for tickets (after ST holders typically), as I can see demand for some of the smaller Southern grounds being quite high (e.g. Gillingham, Yeovil etc). However I think £20 is a bit steep, £10 would be much more reasonable

My thoughts exactly. Morally we always deserved the 10 pt penalty, but to deny the right of appeal is against all the natural laws of justice. Even Peter Sutcliffe and Myra Hindley had the right of appeal, whether they chose to use it is another matter.

Indeed - first home game for me, along with Stockport away (I can walk there!)

Yup - spotted that on Teletext and initially thought we'd accepted a bid for Dyer to get some cash in. Mind you, it is possible to have 2 wingers.

Probably not - last few RWCs have been in October/November - the one we one in Aus was November 03 as I recall. Likely to be so they can play when they're earlyish in their season - couple of months in. Playing in June would conflict with the Lions tours and the Tri-Nations (Aus/NZ/SA) (I think), plus the injuries are more serious by the end of a rugby season, you would imagine. Just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_World_Cup#Tournaments Apart from the 1987 (NZ) and 1995 (SA) - all have been around late September - mid Novemberish - the 2011 (NZ) will be Sept/October. Hmm - that'll mean interspersing the games with Saints games (god willing we still exist then!). Presumably SMS would be hosting group stage games, unlikely 1/4 or semi finals would be there, that's what "Twickers" would be for.

exactly - in the same way as we don't care about AFCB fans trying to stir it with us. Spurs rivalries would be (IMHO): Arsenal for football/locality Chelsea/West Ham for the hoolies (if you believe Football Factory). Mark Bosnich for the Basil Fawlty "comedy" routine.

£1m for a sh1t-hot bunch of lawyers/PR to mount a campaign all the way up to the European court of Sport Arbitration (or whatever it's called). Teaching a course this week with a Rotherham fan who thought we've been disgracefully treated, and there was I thinking all the other penalised clubs (Luton, AFCB, et al) thought we were taking the **** with our loophole attempt.

Hmm - if the latter, what's to stop them knocking down the stadium if they feel like building trendy waterfront (well almost, you could see it if the sand works weren't there) flats come the next inevitable property speculation boom in 5-10 years time. Or at least, raising the Ground rent (accidental pun) whenever they felt like it. Sounds a bit like what happened at Chester City (?) not so long ago. You'd want a cast-iron, unbreakable to the sacrifice of the landlord's gonads type contract on the rent, or they end up with some kind of flat rate plus a percentage of the gate each game. Actually this is what Stockport County currently have - Sale Sharks (Sale is about 10 miles away down the M60) own Edgeley Park, which County lease back for a fixed fee plus a percentage of the gate. It's not done County much good by the look of it, as they're really struggling to move, sounds possibly as grim as us. Sacked the manager Jim Gannon (who took them up through the playoffs last season, and achieved mid-table respectability (barring the 10 points lost through Admin) - in fact they only slipped back from playoff contention in the last month or two as things got financially grim and they had to release loaned players back to their home clubs. Alongside my current fairly serious worry that Saints may go totally bust, is a much lesser but still very personal worry that Saints will survive, but Stockport don't, and I lose my first chance of a "home" game I could realistically walk to (about 25 minutes without rushing).