What's going on?

So here's the story so far.....Saints appoint Jan Poortvliet (JP) as manager at the start of the season and we play good football and on occasions (Birmingham in the Carling Cup) play really good football.

Then it all starts to go wrong and as Steve Claridge (ex-Pompey football pundit) put it "they play great football in the middle of the pitch but can't defend or score goals!" Slowly we have sunk down the Championship and now reside one spot off the bottom. Last game we lost 2-1 at home to Doncaster (!) and the fans started fighting amongst themselves. Most fans want Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde off of the board and JP had lost the fans support as well, mainly due to one home victory all season.

Last Friday, a couple of days after a board meeting, from which he appeared to emerge unscathed, JP resigned.  I'm sad to see him go but he had in reality only made things worse, despite, for a short time, playing the best football we had seen for a few years. 

The board took no time at all to replace him with Mark Wotte (in the photo he's on the right, JP on the left). He was the Academy Director and Reserve team manager and appears the cheap option as we have no money.

Two things may be relevant. One, we did look at Wotte as manager, before George Burley, so maybe he was who we wanted all along? Secondly Wotte's first action was to appoint Michael Svensson as part of his back room staff. 

It's likely that things will get no better, but hope springs eternal. 

Meanwhile Spurs and Pompey both went out the FA Cup this weekend and Nathan Dyer, on loan to Swansea, scored the first goal against Pompey. In these small things we find joy.

Our House

This house was built by my great grand-father (that's my Dad's grandfather!). It's also the house where my Dad was born in 1932! 

It's on the Isle of Wight about 2 miles east of the village of Brighstone and on most journey's to see my Aunt, who lives in Brighstone, my sister and I would be encouraged to look out for it as we drove past. 

It's currently on the market for £425k! It's strange to find a house that I "know" so well suddenly being worth quite so much, even in the current market. It's not been in the family for a while now but it's still "strange".

American Idiot

Tomorrow sees the end of eight years of Republican rule in the White House, as "W" leaves office, to a deafening silence of approval for his achievements . 

Obama inherits a country engaged in two wars and with economic problems the like of rarely, if ever, seen before. 

So what did President Bush achieve while in office that he can look back on with pride?

Well he kept a lot of satirists and comedians employed and generated an entire industry of web-sites and video clips of his various gaffs and mis-pronunciations. Actually on occasions he nearly created an entire new language. 

Other than that ....hmmm....no nothing else,,, goodbye George and good night.

The winner takes it all

This is a bit of an experiment as I have inadvertently discovered while watching Spurs vs. Portsmouth that I can "blog" using Microsoft Word 2007.

This is an interesting game of football as I want both to go down, so that Harry walking out will have relegated two teams. I think that the best way for that to happen will be a draw, but if Spurs win I'll not be sad!

0-0 at present, but a long way to go yet!!

Re-make/re-model

I had my hair cut this week (thanks, yes it does look good) and it got me thinking about how the experience has changed over the years.

When I was 9/10 my Dad took me to "Price's" men's hairdressers in Shirley Road, where he too had his hair cut. This involved me sitting in the chair on a board, which rested on the chair's arms, thus raising me to the prerequisite height. My only real memory of that visit was when he sharpened his cut throat razor  and then used it on the back of my neck! I didn't go back there again!

Thereafter I normally went to Eddie Hornes Barbershop at the other end of Shirley, where I later discovered my good friend Paul also went, but well before we knew each other!! Between the ages of 9-16, despite the fashion for "long hair" I had essentially a "short back and sides" and therefore the hairdresser basically cut my hair as short as either my Mum or Dad instructed.

Once I was in the sixth form, I was allowed slightly longer hair until having started work, I first went to a "Hair Salon"! This was highly recommended by my friend Ian, who had discovered "Peter Carol's" in Bedford Place Southampton, where gorgeous, blond female stylists would pander to your every need. Suitably inspired by Ian's tales my best mate Grahame (that's how he spells it) & I rolled up one Saturday morning to have our hair "styled". This was the first time that part of a hair cut featured washing it first and an hour later I emerged from the salon with basically the hair style I had ever since!!!! The stylist had been every thing Ian had promised and i waited outside for Grahame who seemed to be delayed. And I waited and I waited and eventually I presumed that he had actually finished before me and got the bus home. The reason for the hair styling was our friend Rosemary's eighteenth birthday and so, as we did, I called for Grahame en route to the party at her house. When Gray opened the door I realised why we had missed each other at the Hair Salon...he had had a "Kevin Keegan" perm!  Laugh, I nearly died through hysterics!!!

Now, this week's experience. I still have my hair washed, but now I lie in a massage chair while that happens and I get offered (and accept) a complementary "tea tree"face treatment and an Indian head massage. Before my hair is cut and while sat in the chair, I also have a back massage and am given an Apple Danish and a pot of Tea. Then an assistant puts a black smock over me and puts a black rubber collar round my neck and hey pesto I'm Darth Vader It's all come a long way from the cut throat razor!!!

Return of the mack

This weekend sees the long awaited rerun of the finest F A Cup final ever. (1976 Saints 1 Man Utd 0)

While in the intervening period the two clubs fortunes have gone in opposite directions, the magic of the Cup means that we, at least, start the game thinking "you never know"!!! As an added treat my mate Dave (aka "the great Gonz") will be joining me to watch the game and those who know him will testify, that means it won't be a quiet afternoon. 

The real bonus is, however, that this weekend is full of TV reruns of Bobby Stokes winner and interviews with Lawrie McMenemy (Bobby sadly no longer being with us). Lawrie still talks very fondly and amusingly on that day, although his comments about the running of the club at present were a lot less fond!!

I'm sure by 6pm on Sunday the Saints 2009 FA Cup run will be well and truly over....but it just could be that the romance of the Cup lives on.