dellboypete

Open to discussion whether Bournemouth is a derby or not. Brought up in Holbury I went to brockenhurst grammar from the 60's to early 70's and a lot of my friends at school came from remote () places like Milford, Christchurch, ringwood etc. (and bournemouth was still in Hampshire) Even in those days some of them supported "the cherries" and there was (almost) intense rivalry between us at school. This obviously came to a head when we got promoted to the the old first division in 1966. Having said that if saints were playing away on a Saturday I would often go to dean court in the afternoon after playing football at school in the morning..

Haven't seen this amusing little pis* take yet - quite possibly written by a saint? http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/19/its-just-the-way-it-works

Passengers looking at me very strangely!!!

On flight from Melbourne to Dubai following this match thread thanks to emirates in flight Wi-Fi

Currently in transit at Melbourne en route to Dubai and London.. I guess it's unlikely to work on emirates in flight Wi-Fi!! (only half joking! But Eric might be able to answer that! )

Hi Eric! Just waiting at the gate to get on. Enjoy the post work beer and highlights! Hopefully see you at the beginning of next season. Cheers, sue and Pete

Sadly having to miss this one, and the rest of the season as we are on the way to Auckland NZ to see our two week old grandson. Luckily our STs have been grabbed by my daughter. Currently sitting in Dubai airport waiting for our connection so I hope Eric of Arabia fame is working this morning to make sure we take off on time. If not, Eric, have a couple of beers for us at the Barasti bar which used to be our favourite when we lived here!! Shocking timing having to miss the end of the season especially the Spurs game today. It's going to be tough but I think we might just scrape it.

Just back from the game - it took a while. Probably the worst first half of football I have seen this season, but Any win is a good win and considering that we have been mugged a few times this season (thinks swans, manure etc) its about time we ground something out. I thought MoM was definitely Clyne - he looked really sharp and raring to go when he was warming up on the line! In fact I thought his omission was one of the key factors why Hull put us under so much pressure at times. I thought Toby looked really uncomfortable at RB and Yosh (imo) had a really poor game as well, which put added pressure in Bertrand on the left. Coupled with that Davies looked out of sorts in the middle. I'm a great fan of his but he had a very poor game by his standards today. In fact I would have subbed him for JWP if Wanyama hadn't got there first. Mane, who I also have a lot of time for, is so enigmatic - a couple of times he was through only to screw things up with his final touch. I was frightened when I saw that he wanted to take the pen. An excellent conversion by JWP. Also thrilled for Pelle - a really nice finish. Hope it gives him loads of confidence for the last few games. It sets it up nicely for the run in. See you all at Stoke next week

Same article rehashed in the Bleacher.... http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2423659-martin-odegaards-reported-cristiano-ronaldo-obsession-stunts-real-madrid-growth

I'd advocate hitting Burnley hard from the start and start with Mane, Long and Pelle. Mane and Pelle up front with Long playing as an attacking midfield with Davies (or tadic etc), in front of Morgan and Vic. I know Burnley play a physical game, but put them under pressure from the start, and playing essentially three up front could be the way to do it. They are in the bottom three for a reason and we should be able to win this one if we play with the confidence that we showed in the first half at Chelsea.

you have a PM

I wish people wouldn't be so polite on here!!

Haha that made me smile. When I was a kid (pre M3 days) on the A34 just north of Winchester there was a massive road sign that just said. "A34 The North" and my dad would say we were just about to leave the glorious south of England so I always thought that's where the north of England started. So this map is pretty accurate! (also always remember the huge sign next to the railway line near basingstoke on the way back to Soton that proudly boasted "You are now entering Strongs Country". (note for the younger generation - Strongs was a half decent beer (IE better than Brickwoods!) before it was bought by shytebreads

M3 roadworks are carnage - so I nip up the back road through Chandler Ford and pick up the M3 at the top end of the road works and no traffic. worked well again last night until the M3 was closed at J3 which caused minor chaos, I supported my local team for twenty years; I still do, but have lived elsewhere for the last 30 years!

Discussing this in the pub before the game on Saturday and the general feeling was one of denial. None of us thought at the start of the season that we would get relegated, but also none of us thought we would be even close to challenging for a top 6 let alone top 4. Now we are in that position I don't really want to admit that there is a good possibility that we might make it and the consensus was that we would be happy with a top 8. I'm sure that this is a sub conscious thing to offset the disappointment if we don't make it into the champions league. Anybody else feel this way?

You've clearly not been following the S W Trains thread http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?52605-South-West-Trains :lol:

I'm a bit lazy today so can somebody remind me how many loanees we already have and how many we are allowed to have/play?

Surely this is the players lounge at loftus road (or krap nottarf)

Great game. Really enjoyed watching that. Just very pleased we don't gave to play arsenal again. They looked far better than a few weeks ago. Really well organised and sh*t hot in midfield. On the other hand city look far more vunerable than of late.

Also agree with this. He seems to improve in confidence a little bit every time he plays. For me I think he'll become a really useful addition as time goes on. With Toby in on loan and it's far from guaranteed that we'll be able to get him permanently next season, we may end up relying on on gardos as first choice?

Also "I'm going home" at Woodstock and the Isle of Wight the following year (I was there)

anyone going by train - this is a recommended (by my daughter) pub http://www.sheffieldtap.com/ It's at the station so handy for me before and after. Eric - I've replied to your pm - let us know what pub you are in - we should be there around 5 to 5.30

reminded me of shaw when he started out - looked out of his depth for the first dozen games or so and then really took off. Looks a bit light weight for a midfielder, but I'm happy to give him the benefit of my doubt!

Thanks for the kind thoughts from everyone! Mucho appreciated It's one of the risks of working for a small company backed by private equity investment funds, in a highly risky business (oil exploration in west africa). Basically, no success, no more money - which is fair enough as investors are looking for a relatively quick return, with relatively high multiples on investment. Anyone who has even a passing interest in the oil exploration industry will have noticed two things over the past six months (1) the oil price has cratered which means exploration becomes very unattractive, especially as it requires huge investments (the last well we drilled cost nearly us$200 million - we were only 10%) (2) there have been very few oil discoveries over the past year, anywhere in the world. Combining (1) & (2) and the US unconventional oil production (which has essentially caused the oil price drop) which is now getting close to becoming uneconomic (lot of debate what is the base oil price threshold), will probably mean that in 12 to 18 months the oil price will start shooting up again, and exploration will become attractive again - so quids in for me if I can survive that long! In the mean time, my SWT train arrived on time this morning and was lovely and warm!

I commute in to wloo on the leafy rural dorking line. Trains are often late by a few mins, but rarely by more than 10 (by which time the next one, or preceding one, whichever way you look at it is coming along. For me the main problems are 1. seriously overcrowded trains from 7am onwards (having said that I always get a seat cos I get on near the beginning of the line) - SWT have lengthened all the platforms on the so called commuter lines to take 12 car trains - the only problem being that the platforms at wloo (1-4) still only take 8 car trains - good planning (but apparently this is going to be fixed when they free up space on the old eurostar platforms in the new year)) 2. the wloo commuter lines are saturated at peak times - our trains join the wloo main line just before wimbledon and there is often a queue to feed onto the main line (presumably waiting for the weybridge via surbiton trains to get out of the way!), then a queue to get into wloo waiting for a platform to free up. 3. It suddenly became academic yesterday - our company, funded by private equity investment, ran out of cash so we will be closing at the end of the year, so temporarily no more commuting until something else turns up.