Sour Mash

Agree, why on earth do people look to drive to Richmond? OK, its an easy enough drive from Southampton, but its no-where near Wembley. Try somewhere like Ruislip or Uxbridge, plenty of differnt options, cheaper and 15/20mins to Wembley.

Guess Norwich must have had a bit of an off day, but how f******g good were we? Could have been 4 or 5 I thought, never in trouble throughout the game, a very one-sided win.

you skate b@stard!

they're going down anyway, I don't see how this can be THAT much of a punishment.

Sums up everything that is wrong in football. Short-termism rules. I still can't see this saving them, they won't be able to raise anywhere near the money they need for them to cover what they owe in my opinion.

Yes, I believe they do play extra time. I would advise you build in a fair bit of time anyway to get your coach back, can take a while to get out and away from wembley and you don't want to have to rush off if we win?

Even if the Premier League give them permission to sell players, who is going to pay a significant amount for any of their current players, especially if they can't play them until August! Even if they make a couple of million out of it, its still nowhere near enough.

Correct. Think they've given us a really wide choice though to be fair, can narrow down your choice to quite a specific area. It would be impossible for them to let 44,000 choose their individual blocks, back or front etc!

No, if you read the article correctly, there is a massive choice as to where you sit. Just they can't guarantee an exact block, but they've divided it into so many sections that you can pick out quite a specific area that you want to sit, looks a good, fair system to me.

Worth Saints fans booking digs there with the trains stuffed on the morning of the 28th, roll out of bed and have a pint at 7am, perfect

Far enough, just can't see how it'd work like that, more to do with the first pubs that people find and can get into, without knowing which end they were in. The vast majority of the pubs at Wembley are to the west, that'd only leave Carlisle with the Torch to "the north" of the ground. Not sure who will take over Baker Street on the day either.

Are there going to be clearly designated Saints only and Carlisle only pubs?

F**k me, does it really have a licence from 7am Although, this post puts me off using it, as was hoping it'd be one of the quieter pubs around Wembley!

Of course the club will never advertise a "standing area", would be mad to expect them to. Still going to be tens of thousands standing on the day, as happens at all major finals.

Exactly, it actually works quite well when you have two opposing teams as whoever loses leaves straight away and in the main have cleared off by the time the winning team have finished celebrating and have started to head off. Plus there are a fair few pubs around Wembley. Also, there is Wembley Park, Wembley Stadium and Wembley Central stations, so more than one option. Wembley is nowhere near as bad as its made out for public transport, just the early kick off and poor south west trains service that doesn't help on the 28th.

No they haven't. Anyway, back to the skates. They'll get decent crowds wherever they end up, the novelty value and the chance of winning plenty of games will ensure that. Their problems will come a few years further down the line if they just happen to get stuck down in the lower reaches for a year or two too long, the novelty will soon wear off, largely depends what happens to Fratton in terms of to what extent they can bounce back.

A very strange way of thinking to say the least

I have no doubt, that if the skates do go to the wall, the FA will give Brum a bye. However, you said Saints playing Brum would be cheating. It would in no possible way be cheating.. If someone could be @rsed, there would be a very good argument to be made, that having been beaten by a team cheating, their result against us should be declared void, thus putting us through to the next round. The difference between us, Sunderland and Cov, is it would be practical for us to continue in the comp, with minimal disruption to the cup, this would simply not be practical if Cov or Sunderland were involved. Like I say, it'll be Brum getting a bye, but just a bit weird suggesting Saints would be cheating in that situation!

No-one has said it is unique, just that it is one of the most heated derbies in the country, which is true.

It's £4 a pint at Wembley. Still an utter rip off, don't know why anyone would go in the ground early and pay that.

Thanks, that's kind of my point, its more the legal process they have to go through to make it official, rather than the need to actually eliminate any doubt. How can they prove they are not insolvent? Surely the non-payment of the HMRC bill can be nothing but insolvency? Just trying to understand what options they have of getting out of this.

Another question for the experts on here. Surely this Statement of Affairs is purely just a legal formality, as there can be no doubt that they are insolvent? They have had an unbelievable amount of time to pay the HMRC. They do not now dispute the amount. And cannot pay it - what else is that if not insolvent? Or have I missed something?

Er, how do you figure that out? You would have to be deluded to describe that as Saints cheating. There would be a genuinely fair and logical argument for us going through in their place. Will never happen though and most likely they'll just give the bye to Birmingham.

Reading this thread, it sounds like we've already got a lot more than the 44k, plenty going straight for the club Wembley seats.

No one said it was a "cauldron of violence". It is one of the biggest, hate filled derbies in the country and as has been stated on here, goes much further than a game of football. Also, I know plenty of people in their 50s and 60s who hate the skates, its certainly not something unique to younger fans.