vince

79 Leeds at home - it was my first Saints game. My Dad's mate was running the line that evening and he'd promised my Dad complimentary tickets. We hung around waiting outside the ticket office at the Dell and it was pretty close to kick off before my Dad's mate came running out, fully dressed in lino kit into the car park and handed over the 2 tickets!! Both long gone now, unfortunately, so I'll be having a quiet moment before kick off tonight thinking about that evening I expect, before getting behind the team!

I would hope so. I noticed that happen at the time and watched Jay Rod. He held his nose for a few seconds, then ran straight up to Dyer and had a right go at him while play was going on and clearly wasn't happy.

Sutton is a 3G astro pitch these days, so an away draw there would be interesting.

This is sadly true and some parents need to have a word with themselves - they wouldn't think shouting at their kid and confusing them when they're doing their homework would help them learn, so why they think that works on the touch lines is beyond me.

I don't know about the professional clubs, but at grassroots levels all decently run clubs will obtain FA Charter Standard (CS) status (there are 3 levels of accreditation, normal Charter Standard, Charter Standard Development club and Charter Standard Community Club). To be a CS club at any level, you need to have at least one Child Welfare Officer. Part of their role is to ensure that all coaches that deal with any players under 18YO are checked for a criminal record (CRB/DBS checked). These checks need to be redone every 3 years as a minimum. The FA do not recognise any other CRB checks from any other organisation, so you have to be checked through them - my club have a few teachers who coach who have been CRB'd via their schools, but still have to go through the FA CRB process (one of these teachers is the schools overall Child Welfare officer, checked to level 3 and still isn't exempt to coach with us). In addition, the FA require all lead coaches from each age group to have attended a Safeguarding Children workshop. I don't think it is mandatory for all assistant coaches to have attended, but my club actively encourages them to go on them (and all other well run clubs would probably do the same). My club don't allow any coach that hasn't done that course to run a coaching session without a coach who has been on it present. Again, this course needs to be redone every 3 years as a minimum and there are some scary examples told on those courses which really make you think about the safety of the kids. I do agree with you that these people will just try to find different ways, but at least clubs with any level of Charter Standard should have many coaches who have been through checks and courses to look out for any signs of strange behaviour and have a Child Welfare officer available for any concerns to be reported to.

That looks a bit different if you do minutes played in all competitions since the end of last season.

I think we also scored from a header from another of his corners that got ruled out, as the ball went out of play first and swung back to between the 6 yard box and the penalty spot.

There are a number of things in that goal that make it happen. Targett got wrong footed with a body feint but still had time to recover to get closer than he did to prevent the cross (he had cover immediately behind him), Cedric got out jumped by Deaney at the far post, at that point, JWP is the closest to Capoue, but both he and Romeu watch the ball and Capoue reacts quickest. Even then, he hits it off the side of his boot, with FF going the way a clean strike would go. It's not as easy as saying Romeu lost his man,IMO (see highlights from 17 seconds in, )

That bit in bold is highly subjective and just not linear in a players development as they go through grow spurts and so on. There are plenty of examples of players being rejected at Pro clubs at a relatively young age, only to make the grade later on (SRL for one). I'm not saying you're wrong in that we may collect the data at an early age, but I'd be surprised if we rule in or out any given player based on that data at that age range. It may allow us to have a broader range of "possibles" that others may have already rejected I guess, in that we may have the Talent Id analysts who can say "they were on track to do X as a youth player, it's not happened and they've gone out of favour, but signs are Y has happened and in all likelihood, they are coming good again....". The more variables we have to put into the decision, the more chance we'll have of getting more right than wrong, but it's not an exact science. That said, I'm eternally glad that Sports Science wasn't around in the mid 80's as otherwise someone would have said "You see that nipper over there, he doesn't cover enough ground per game according to this 'ere black box, what's his name again, Le Tissy something or other........" :^)

Yes, although a large chunk of that £200M was earmarked to be spent on the largest brush you've ever seen (1st one in the league don't you know...), to sweep up all that broken glass from a ceiling.

Their black box is only black because they can't afford the 50p for the meter to plug it in and light it up......

Given he looked out of breath on that video talking about Rons new contract, I can't see it happening...........

You know what to do............ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/36288728

I think we'll win 3-1, but I think we'll need other results to go our way mid-week for Europe (and a Man U Cup win)....

30,803

I know there are many ways to see/listen to the game this afternoon, but if it helps anyone, it's the main 3pm commentary on 5 live.

Shake their hands like this, Ron, especially the Judges..........

Not sure if this fully explains it in enough clarity, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016–17_UEFA_Europa_League says: "If the Champions League title holders or the Europa League title holders have qualified for the Europa League through domestic performance, their berth in the Europa League is vacated (not replaced by another team from the same association), and cup winners of the highest-ranked associations are moved to a later round accordingly" I think that means a domestic cup winner from the highest ranked association that isn't us would benefit.

The relatively early booking (19mins) for Davis didn't help in that respect I thought, and once Clasie got one (65min) I thought we'd struggle in the middle. Still, the next two are winnable and may go a long way to determine if the season peters out with a wimper or not.

I went to see New Order at Brixton in November and was waiting with a pint for my mate outside a pub just off Brixton high street. On the next table was the original Portsmyth Random Skate, obviously popped outside for a fag talking to a couple of Irish guys, telling them how they were the biggest fan owned club in the country, debt free, taking 10K fans away each week, couldn't afford "shares" of his own, but knew others that had......my mate was running late so he kept me amused while I waited, bless him.

I'll do it then.....looking much more likely for another win at OT that it was a few weeks ago - let's have it!

Just reading the Arsenal one...."usual modus operandii with Saints players which is to hide in the trees at Staplewood watching the youth team with a camera in one hand" - I was told by a coach who worked with Arsenal Youth for 10 years that he did actually sneak into Staplewood to watch Theo for them at the time!!

get the City2Go offline app and download the city map - it was excellent when I used it for Venice.

Thanks for that, a great read (and I read it with Ronalds voice in my head). Agree with Saint Charlie about it being interesting that he says Targett is the best young player. You've got to question the person who, when you can ask anything football related of such a man as RK, that asks "Is it the Netherlands or Holland" though.......

It's a big birthday for the wife this November, so we are going for 3 days (midweek - Tue-Thurs). Anyone been and have any tips, apart from don't buy anything from St Marks Square!! Good places to drink, eat etc? It's a bigger birthday than 21, so not necessarily after noisy night clubs, but you never know your luck........