spyinthesky

Have heard from a contact at Wembley that their stats show 51,594 Saints fans in a total crowd of 73,476. On top of the 44,000 tickets sold for the main body of the Stadium almost all the corporate boxes were occupied by Saints fans including some in the Carlisle section. They estimate 180 coaches from the Soton area but no info yet on mini bus numbers Wonderful turnout and unlikely ever to be beaten by Saints (or possibly other clubs) Fair play to Carlisle too. 22,000 tickets sold to a relatively small city some 6 hrs driving time from Wembley.

Have seen quite an upsurge of colours on display around the area which always creates a buzz. Would be good, on the day, if those travelling up to Wembley by road could show their colours en route. However the forecast is for rain so likely to end up with a soggy scarf or flag. There are 96 coaches departing from St Marys and approx another 50+ private charters so there should be a decent cavalcade along the M3 I know the JPT doesn't have the same kudos as the FA Cup but the occasional banner on the Motorway Bridges would be nice, perhaps including a good luck message for our friends along the coast when they make the same trek the following weekend.

Wonder if any of the following 'names' will be in the crowd on Sunday. Crouch Corbett Wiseman Askham Macmenemy Lowe Cowan Salz Richards Frost David Walcott Bale Baird Surman Some of these are more deserving to be there than others but would be interested if individual past loyalties still remain despite the passage of time

Cant see any mention of Eugene Bopp in the Pompey valuation list. Understand that Paul Hart's son, who acts as agent for the well known ex Crewe star, thinks he is a big star in the making

As Dubai Phil says there will be a lot of players available in the summer. If finances allow we should try to sign Championship players if possible Here's my suggestions Keep: Get Rid Davis Perry Harding Gillett Puncheon Wotton Jaidi Holmes Lambert Forecast Fonte Lancashire Hammond Thomson Barnard Murty Schneiderlin Pulis Lallana Antonio Bart Molyneux Seaborne White Ostemabor Oxlade-Chamberlain (seems to be rated) Uncertain: Thomas (depends on his wages requirements) Papa (probably worth a punt but only if any transfer/wages costs are manageable) Mills (say 60/40 keep him on the basis he might improve) James (can fill in at FB or midfield but his lack of pace a real consideration) Gobern (not seen enough of him lately to judge progress) McGlaggon (ditto) Connolly (class player. Big question mark against fitness. Keep on a pay per play basis?) Based on the above probably need another fullback/central defender, two or possibly three midfielders (one of whom who is a 'schemer') and at least one striker, possibly a target man who could deputise for Lambert

Anyone applied for expensive tickets and received lower value ones? If so have you received the refund on the ticket price yet?

Defences were less organised in the time of Derek Reeves and I would rate Lambert ahead of him However Ron Davies's achievement of regularly topping the Div 1 (ie Prem equivalent at the time) scoring charts makes him hard to beat Davies was brilliant in the air but not as good a footballer as Lambert. btw Derek Reeves joined Saints from Bournemouth Gasworks who were a decent non league side in the mid 1950's. I also saw Reeves score all 5 in a 5-4 win over Leeds in a League Cup game in the 60's (which finished at 10.15 as the floodlights failed)

Avram Grant has got the Blue Few in a frenzy of platitudes by announcing, via the Pompey News, that he will contribute towards the wages of staff. He doesn't say which staff he will support or how much the contribution will be but the bloggers on the Pompey News site have fallen hook line and sinker for this very fishy PR stunt

also heard that the club had somewhere in the region of 30+ Mercs on lease from a local dealer. They have had to go into storage until the Administrator sorts out the lease obligations. Presuming these are club officials cars, rather than players, who qualified for such a motor? Think Storrie runs a top of the range Merc (still?) and I suppose the kit man must have qualified to run alongside his handsome salary & bonus totalling a reported £70K!!

Presume after the linked ticket games v Leeds & Huddersfield plus a small away contingent added to a 'burst bubble syndrome, there could possibly be the lowest crowd of the season next Tuesday for the Monkey hangers

Cinemas from memory One at top of East Street Odeon ABC/Forum Classic Gaumont x 2 in Shirley (one still remains as Bingo Hall, the other just up from the Shirley Pub x 2 in Portswood (one remains as a Bingo Hall) x 1 in Swaythling x 1 by Cobden Bridge x 1 in Bitterne (either on site of Bowling Alley or Sainsburys) x 1 at Northam (turned into Southern TV) x 1 at Woolston x 1 at Netley Possibly one at Totton Pubs/Cinemas/Department Stores/Bus Stations/Record Shops all gone/disappearing

Fred's daughter standing as a Tory Candidate for Gosport. First of all doesn't use her married name. Must assume she thinks associating with the ex Director of PFC, friend of the Krays and 'International TV Celeb' will give her a degree of gravitas and pull in bucketful of votes from the Daily mail readers in Gosport To enhance her image, poster sites have be showing her beaming face with one or two enhancements (ie crows feet removed/teeth straightened and whitened) Anyone on here able to do a proper job on her publicity material ie give her Uncle Fred's comb over??

Site for new ground There are some toilet bowl plans going cheap!!

I actually played Sunday Football with Lew Chatterley Smashing bloke but one of the worst players for Saints in his time. Lawrie Macs relation?

Agree that the Ref was consistently poor However will give him crdit for not being taken in by the Beckford dive at 0-0 Some Refs would have been

Has the BBC 2 schedule changed tonight?

In a roundabout way (notice the auto reference!!!) there is a degree of similarity with the situation in Liverpool post war. Detroit was a major maufacturing base with a strong music heritage which lost about 50% of its inner city population over a relatively short space of time. Liverpool suffered similarly. Both cities have some grand old buildings but some areas of particularly bad deprivation. Thanks ESB for the heads up. I would have missed the programme tonight.

I tend to agree. NC is a cute business man Better to spend out on players and reach the Prem before spending big on a stadium. Think Liverpool's planned 70,000 seater will cost £360m (and can't be financed at the moment). So a 50,000 seater will cost, pro rata, £250m and where will it go? It would be extremely difficult to keep such a plan secret in this area and, as far I as know (and I have a reasonable amount of contacts in the Soton business world and at City Council level) nothing has been mooted. Thats not to say discussions could be going on with Eastleigh BC for example. 32,500 is a reasonable capacity for the moment and I really can't see a business case for expansion.. btw £30 odd million to build St Mary's seems a hell of a deal in retrospect so fair play to Andrew Cowans, Rupert and the ex Director (whose name escapes me who supervised the building contract) When

Listening to BBC Local News at lunchtime there was a piece about NC being 'disappointed' that the allocated expenditure on the team had not resulted in a play off position, as agreed as a target with Alan Pardew. However there was 'no rift' between NC & AP. The piece then finished with a comment about the possibility of Saints moving from their 'State of the Art' stadium to a bigger ground. The BBC don't normally make such a comment without some degree of justification but this really came out of thin air. Wonder if there is anything in it and, in the unlikely event of there being something in it, where would the new ground be? Stoneham anyone or part of the old Eastleigh railway works owned by St Mogwen ?

Unfortunately too old now but did a fair old shift around the CSSFL and occasionally had to appear in front of the disciplinary committee to pay club fines when unable to field as side

Thanks for the Isley Bros track. Haven't heard that in many a year, Isleys proabably one the real underated Motown groups. Presume backing by the Funk Bros and strings by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra some of whom used to moonlight on Motown tracks. Spoke to someone today who has recently returned from Detroit. He said it was a very sad place with whole neighbourhoods of derelict houses, the consequence of flight from the city due to mass closures at the steelworks and car factories. Apparently you can pick up a half decent house for $25 provided you can live with the feral gangs that roam around. Shame when you think how buzzing the place must have been in the 60's and 70's

On the JPT Sunday are the Sunday and Tyro Leagues still running a full programme or will teams be fined if they can't field a side?

Matt, as often happens you have to take a view on information provided. The feedback I have had is that he is a very sharp and intelligent man, which is something the club needs. However he doesn't appear to be keen to forge good relations with staff or business contacts, which is a shame, if true. NC certainly appears to have fallen out with Frannie Benali (on a house rental arrangement), the Echo (rightly or wrongly) a business occupying offices in St Marys and has told a well respected local business man (& Saints fan) that he has no interest in improving relationships with local businesses. With regard to the latter some people may say ..'so what'.. but with 47 Boxes and approx 1,000 Hospitality places to fill to maximise revenue, you would think any senior exec would not want to adopt such a cavalier attitude. Of course most of us don't really mind how the club is run if the playing side is successful. However should the tide turn then the knives get sharpened.

Any rumours? Some suggestion there won't be any shirt sponsors but think this may be a misinterpretation based on the possibility of a special anniversary shirt without any advertising. Heard a rumour that NC seriously pi**ed off Flybe which seems indicative of the way he does business. If true this is a shame as there is a warm feeling towards NC and Markus which needs to be built upon not eroded

Would be interesting to try to keep a tab on the number of coaches going up to Wembley. Understand the Travel Club has 106, Greyhound 6-8?, Stu and the Romsey crew, Warminster, Bournemouth etc Also heard of some intrepid fans going by National Express and leaving Pompey!!! at 0800hrs (suitably togged up I hope)