Sydenhampton

Wherever you are in the country it's often the same problem, people will willingly fork out the best part of £70 to go see a band they like one song of (ie the Killers), but have other things on when it comes to going to a pub to support grassroots talent. Same as in football really. When we had our plummet down the leagues and our attendances pretty much halved, where did those fans go? Eastleigh? Sholing? Totton? Not likely. Of course, they all came rushing back when we returned to the premier league though. I used to love the Southampton scene back in the early 90's. Aged 16 I went to my first gig at the Joiners, aged 17 I played my first ever gig at what was the Prince Albert by the bridge and 26 years later I'm still doing it. There's still stuff going on too in multiple genres, you just need to scratch beneath the surface to find it. Point being, if everyone that forks out for a Killers ticket makes a conscious effort to seek out and attend one grassroots gig in the meantime too, then that would be awesome! I doubt it will happen though. And if you're looking? [shameless plug alert] My hardcore/punk band are playing a free entry gig at the Shooting Star in Bevois Valley on Saturday 30th. So if you want to let off some steam after we disappoint against Watford, then we can help!

Go down there early, hang around fratton station, wear your colours and hold up a big sign saying "ticket for Saints end wanted, I have lots of money". You'll be fine!

No chance, that charity thieving lot down the road will always be our rivals, even if they do never (cheat again to) reach our level again. I'm over Liverpoo. Going there back in January and winning 1-0 was an excellent middle finger to them if ever there was one, especially with Lallana and Lovren on the pitch! Definitely one of those "I was there" moments. After the game we had a great night out on the town followed by a win in the casino, the locals were quite welcoming and gracious in defeat. Don't get me wrong, I'm not fond of that club by any way shape or form, but are they up there with ploppy? No, not even close.

It's an interesting observation you make there, particularly as there's alot of money around the club all of a sudden. However, here in South East London we have 4 main clubs: Palace, Millwall, Charlton & Man Utd. The latter has the biggest level of support. Living firmly in Palace territory I can't see how they'd fill a 50k stadium or more to the point where they'd build it. To ensure decent crowd sizes they'd have to keep it in or close by to the Cronx (Croydon to you non locals) and I can't think of anywhere suitable other than green belt land which won't happen.

Kodi - SuperRepo - SportsDevil - Live SPorts - Zunox.hk All the live sports. Or so a friend tells me......

Kodi - SuperRepo - SportsDevil - Live SPorts - Zunox.hk All the live sports. Or so a friend tells me......

We've actually got the easiest start of the premier league according to Sky Sports, based on average position of first 6 opponents. 1. Everton - 5.7 2. Stoke City - 7.8 3. Arsenal - 8.2 4. Burnley - 8.5 5. Chelsea - 9.2 5. Leicester - 9.2 7. Watford - 9.7 8. Bournemouth - 10.2 9. West Ham - 10.7 10. Swansea - 10.8 11. Crystal Palace - 11 11. Man Utd - 11 13. Liverpool - 11.2 14. Tottenham - 11.3 15. Brighton - 11.5 16. Man City - 11.7 17. West Brom - 12.2 18. Huddersfield - 13.2 19. Newcastle - 13.3 20. Southampton - 13.8 Don't **** it up Saints!!!!

Very good!

Has anyone got an educated opinion as to what could potentially happen regarding points deductions? I'm guessing that, depending upon the severity of the allegations, if proven, the implications could be severe. I bet Swansea and Hull fans are hoping there's a points deduction & that it applies this season!

I don't know of any designated Saints watering holes for Sunday but I can give you a few general pointers that might help? Firstly though, pretty much anywhere you pick in central London will contain Spurs fans. I think the only way to avoid them is to head out to Zone 3 West/East or up in to the Highbury area. With the latter in mind, there's a pub called "the Cock" right by Highbury & Islington tube that is 100% Arsenal territory so there'll be plenty of people cheering against Spurs! No big screens but plenty of reasonable sized screens around the pub. If Spurs fans being present is fine with you then the Sports Pubs at either Waterloo or Victoria station concourses are a good a place as any. We tend to go to the Roxy between London Bridge & Borough which has a cinema sized screen. It's a bit tired looking from the outside, could use a lick of paint, but the beer's good and there will be an atmosphere, so if you're low maintenance then it's a good option. Almost opposite is a smaller plastic Scouser pub which I forget the name of just now, but with Liverpool kicking off after we finish you'll spot it easily enough; they'll have our game on. To enter you must have a southern accent and some form of Liverpool attire though. I'll be watching it down in deepest darkest bandit country with a couple of good pals that are Spurs fans, for my sins! Have a good birthday, I hope this helps.

Yeah because you can predict when a goal's going to get scored........

I thought it was marvellous! Despite being more than half cut I made the connection fairly quick and joined in. Can't fault the plastics at the other end though for not getting it, why would they? As I missed both our goals due to beer this was my highlight of the game if I'm honest! Let those mugs down the road take the mick. They lack class, we do not! I for one would love to see this becoming a regular event at upcoming games.

Oh yes this would be remarkable! Great idea! Sadly not everyone went to Hammy & Teefs nights back in the day.....

Green Man was a great craic for the JPT, we're going there again.

Overground from Penge to Canada Water. Jubilee to Finchley. Metropolitan to Wembley. 45 min trip! Living in London has its perks.

Jog on you muppet, I'll post what the hell I like. Who died and made you king?

So it will be a membership free for all then. They'll announce it as thus then a few thousand people will buy memberships ahead of tomorrows scramble. Very clever Les, the touts won't be all over this, honest.....

It's going to be a membership free-for-all tomorrow, I'm prepared to bet on it. If they were going to stagger it further then there would have been another release today (Sunday). At least I hope so anyway! Glad I made that financial commitment to Saints in the summer, before this happened, on the premise that I would get priority for games as per their Ts&Cs. Any of us in that boat that miss out need to take a collective legal action against the club for damages due to contravention of their own promises. I, for one, would willingly front it. So, to tomorrow's announcement.......

I believe I've already stated why. Back to you, why should they?

I feel a bit sorry for the lad, he's been played by Mendes big time! I reckon it panned out a bit like this: - Wins the Euro's. - Mendes taps him up & says "let me be your agent and I'll get you a big money move to Man Utd. - Fonte starts making noises about wanting to leave. - Club say they won't sell due to the sheer volume of games coming up. Mendes gets Fonte to act up about it in the background. Puel turns round and thinks "what a [swearword]". - Window closes, Puel decides he doesn't want him, club say don't play him in Europe so he's not cup-tied come January. - January arrives, Fonte takes to social media to try and leave, bridge burnt once and for all. - Saints make it through to the league cup semi final. Fonte is not included. - Man Utd aren't interested any more, only West Brom and West Ham are. - Saints win first leg of semi final and are one game from Wembley. - Fonte signs for West Ham saying he "wants to win trophies", despite them being out of both cups. Had he accepted that he would not be sold until next summer he could have knuckled down, captained his side at the San Siro, captained his side in a semi final and possibly captained his side at Wembley. Having achieved all that he could have left in the summer for more money. As a wise man once said - "FAIL"!

Let's face it, we've been a bit spoilt in recent years. Arnhem away followed by the San Siro a year later has contributed to a feeling of apathy amongst us, so I'm not surprised we haven't sold our allocation. I bet that if we had missed out on Europe the last 2 seasons we would be commenting on threads about wanting spare tickets for a sold out away end instead! Personally I haven't been to a semi-final since the ZDS cup run of '92 so I am not missing this one! 1-0 up from the first leg? Return trains / digs / match ticket all under £100? I've borrowed money so I can go. If we make it and get past Liverpool, just watch. Those of us that make the trip will not be prioritised for Wembley tickets, instead it will be the apathetic ones that aren't making the trip because [insert cr@p excuse here].

AFC Boremouth our rivals? No. Never. I do get why they don't like us though after decades of watching many people openly walk around their town with Saints tops on. Back in the early 00's my then missus was at uni down there so I was there often and still know a number of people. Not one of them gave a stuff about football back then. All bar two of them are now diehard fans of course! Speaking of Johnny Come Lately's, I'm assuming it's those that started coming back to St Marys when we made it back to the premier league that are happy to accept them as our rivals. Surely no-one that was around in the L1 / Champ days would even fathom anyone but that nauseating charity-thieving division four shower of sh!t as our rivals. It's all short-lived of course. Once Howe jogs on to the Emirates and their best players go elsewhere they'll not recover like we keep doing.

The "PO" postcode covers more larger urban areas, it includes Fareham, Grostspot, Chavant, Bognor, Chi and the entire IOW for a start. "SO" includes Eastleigh & Winch, plus smaller towns such as Romsey & Lymmo for example. Postcode is no indicator of size of population in this instance.

Friday afternoon off work sorted. A few of us London Saints are going to cheer him on at Fulham & Brentford, stopping for a few light refreshments in between. Feel free to join us if you're about.