Paul Chuckle

I was at the Villa game in 1994, last home game of season and we won 4-1. Was 10 at the time and stood in Upper Milton road with my dad. I remember Villa fans invading the pitch from the Northam End (away fans sat there then) and snapping the cross bar. Don't remember any of our fans getting involved or any real trouble though

Daily Echo reporter Simon Walter's three-page interview with Ted Bates statue sculptor Ian Brennan appeared in the weekend Pink. Here, we reproduce the feature in the wake of Saints fans' reaction to the £112,000 bronze portrait. From his trademark wave and smile to the Saints programme in his jacket pocket, the Ted Bates statue lacks nothing in detail. Since beginning full-time work on immortalising Mr Southampton in bronze 18 months ago, sculptor Ian Brennan has hardly stepped foot outside the workshop at his home in Warsash to ensure the statue would be ready for tonight's unveiling. As a Saints fan, dedicating so much time to the memory of the man who served the club for 66 years as player, manager, director and president has been a labour of love for Mr Brennan, who was commissioned the job by the Ted Bates Trust following the great man's death in November 2003, aged 85. "I've literally worked on it for seven days a week for the last 18 months," he said ahead of tonight's ceremony at St Mary's, where Ted's widow Mary was due to unveil the gargantuan sculpture in front of other family members, Saints fans and club officials. "Even when I wasn't working on it I was thinking about it - was Ted, Ted, Ted all the way through," continued the father- of-three. "Sometimes I'd wake up at 3am in the morning and go and do some more work. It's been mentally shattering but I want ed to do it so much." The project began at the end of 2005, when Mr Brennan was reliant on photographs of Ted Bates to get the best likeness. "Normally you need a mini mum of 15 measurements of the face but because that wasn't possible I was photo hungry when I first started." To put it in context, Sir Bobby Robson was still alive when his statue was unveiled outside Ipswich Town's Portman Road five years ago, and the sculptor responsible for the bronze statue of Margaret Thatcher, which was recently unveiled in the House of Commons, had the same luxury. "He had seven sittings with her which I envied, but I just had to get on with it and look for as many images as I could," continued Mr Brennan. "Sculpting from photographs is not the cleverest way of doing it - Madame Tussauds would never work from photos alone because its difficult to get the 3- D effect - and I had nothing to go by at all. "I saw him from a distance at the Dell but unfortunately I never met the man, which did n't help. His widow Mary told me about his mannerisms, like the way he held his thumb when he waved, but finding the right pictures was a real problem. There were lots of photos taken of Ted but mostly from an angle and not showing him from ear to ear. "Fortunately, the Echo library saved the day. I needed a straight face-on profile with him at the right age and with the right expression and they went right through the archives and came up with a straight profile of Ted with Mary and that was brilliant - but I still needed more. "I eventually found a little black-and-white one taken at more or less the same time. That helped but it was terrifying as I only had one hit. "I used a calculator to get the measurements and the lines exactly right because if, for example, the mouth was two millimetres lower than it should be it would have thrown everything else out." Eventually, Mr Brennan decided to also focus his work on two photographs taken on the day Ted received his MBE for services to football in 1998, and on a pose that will be instantly recognisable to every Saints fan over school age. "I've never seen a smile on a statue before but after a lot of research we decided to go with a pose of him waving and with a smile on his face. "Generally that's a no-no because most people remember your face as it is most of the time. A smile only lasts a few seconds but Ted was always smiling and if his statue had a straight face and he was still waving, there was a risk of him looking like Stalin or the Saddam Hussein statue that was pulled down. "Ted was always such a friendly bloke and when he waved to the fans he meant it, it wasn't a politician's wave. "He also had a natural, I'm pleased to see you' smile so we decided to more or less break new ground and try and get that smiley face. Hopefully I've captured that." Unlike most statues, the sheer size of the immortalised Ted Bates - he is 11ft high and weighs more than a tonne - meant he had to be sculpted piecemeal. "Usually you do it all in one piece but this was twice as big as anything I'd done so the hands, the feet, the head and the arms were all done in sections and welded on separate ly," said Mr Brennan, who worked with wax, plaster and clay before the various body parts were sent to London to be cast at the Bronze Age Foundry in London. "To complete it on time, the separate pieces were taken to the foundry for the moulding and casting process as soon as I'd carved them. "We were breaking new ground because the foundry had never done it quite like that before and I certainly had n't. At the back of mind was always the worry that the different parts wouldn't fit. "The jacket and trousers went to the foundry in October, but the head didn't go on his shoulders until late February. If any thing had gone wrong we would have been put six weeks behind, but fortunately it all fitted." At 16 feet tall on its plinth, Ted Bates is bigger than statues at other football grounds. "Usually they're made life size or around eight feet tall, which is what we were originally going to go for, but with it being on a slope against the backdrop of St Mary's stadium we decided to increase it," explained Mr Brennan. "He's huge. At 5ft 9in he was never the tallest footballer in the world but he's certainly one of the tallest footballing statues. "I couldn't believe how big he looked when I first saw him standing in the foundry last week - my head came up to the middle of his jacket, which in clay weighed over half a tonne and needed four men to get off the ground. "He stood tower ing three foot above the Margaret Thatcher statue, which was being cast at the same time." While Ted Bates was a giant of a man for Southampton FC, Mr Brennan was always conscious of the need to retain his subject's character in every aspect of the £112,000 statue. "We made him tall but at the same time we didn't want him looking down because it would be like he was looking down on people, and Ted didn't do that, so I decided to make his eyeline focus on Britannia Road, so he is waving to the people as they drive past." A former cabinet maker, Mr Brennan has sculpted statues professionally from his home in Warsash for over 23 years and has been commissioned more than 90 projects by the Royal Household, but has never worked on any sculpture the scale of the Ted Bates statue. He is used to sculpting wood but the use of clay meant his latest project was a constant work in progress. There is even a tale behind the slightly deflated football that is held in Ted's left hand. "As the 'hot-wax football' came out of the mould, it dipped slightly as it cooled so that the ball looked like it needed a little air,but that looked more realistic somehow, so we left it as it was." Incredibly, the whole project took just 18 months (the rela tively diminutive Margaret Thatcher statue took four years), but Mr Brennan would have had longer if he had his way. He admitted: "The foundry workers had to physically drag the head out of my hands just before the deadline. "It was like doing an important exam paper, it was just made of hollow wax at that stage and I was sat outside the foundry in my car at 7am, trying to tweak it and doing bits and bobs to his smile on my lap. "It probably wasn't necessary but it was almost an obsession by that stage. I'm no Michelangelo but I could have gone down that route. I could have given him the most beautiful shoes in the world but taken many years to do it! "The shoes are what people are closest to so I made sure I put lots of creases in them. People won't see the waving hand in as much detail because it's so high up but they've got lenses so I made sure I put the right lines on it. "It wasn't necessary, but any artist will tweak and tweak their work as much as they can - often until it's broken. Sometimes you can make it worse. I might have tweaked it to destruction if I had more time. My wife Sue sometimes has to tell me I've done enough, otherwise I wouldn't get any thing else done!" Now have your say on the Ted Bates statue ....

Have it saved on my Sky HD box. Annoys me that the DVD won't be in HD & will probably be crap Club Commentators. So until I get a new Sky box this be taking up 14% of the space on there I think it is also I must have watched us lift the trophy about 30 times lol

Steve Bull was first called up to England squad whilst a 3rd Div player and can't say the pool of players in 88-90 was poor considering we were a penalty shoot out away from the World Cup Final. as per Wiki: While still playing in the Third Division, he was selected for the England team and scored on his debut against Scotland at Hampden Park.

I love it how he holds the trophy up with his back to everyone. Doesn't even shake hands with the person who puts the medal round his neck as he's only interested in the Big cup. Then if you look to the right hand corner when he passes the cup on he gives some woman a massive hug shaking her left an right. He then comes back to lift the cup again, waves at those left and pretends to walk of with it. The man is a legend. Will never forget his celebrations from Sunday, like someone said imagine if we get promoted in play-offs let alone win FA Cup.

Waigo's celebration's at the end are truly brilliant. When he's lining up for thr trophy you just see him keep leaning outwards about 5 times almost seeing how many players are infront of him. It just makes me lol as from know where he just then seems to be next to Hammond holding the cup aloft. Obviously meant so much to him and fair play to the lad, he's come from Serie A in Italy to a 3rd tier English side but he's now got to play at Wembley and win a trophy in England. Also will make me laugh as for years to come we will have the image of the JPT being lifted with Papa Waigo wearing that t-shirt with that Spiritual guy on the front

Just watched us lifting the trophy again on TV and used Shazam on my phone and this is the song thats playing when we first lift the trophy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPajZ0074Ks 30 Seconds to Mars - This Is war

anYone know what the song was being played just as the players lifted the cup? It was before 'The Saints are coming was played'

Can see what Craig David had to stay here http://www.socceram.com/media/video/0,21631,,00.html#VideoList he is a Southampton fan no doubt about it, was on Soccer AM last year when we just went in to Admin and he seemed genuine. He also confirmed he's going to the match tomorrow as well

im worried as well mate but the Train has to stop at Eastleigh, Winchester etc as well but i think its going to be a mad rush to get on, i think we will be segregated a bit though, i don't think they will just let it be a massive bun fight to get on

It will be policed / stewarded in sure. This train has to stop at Eastleigh and Winchester as well which will be equally busy. Imagine if u catch that train from Soton - Eastleigh for work every week. Think they might find it hard to get off this week lol

Where From and what time train are most people getting on the Sunday I'm going to go for 06:55 from Soton Central. Do people think it's worth getting there well before that time as I've heard it's 1000 per train and wants that's full nobody else will be getting on???!!!!!

Where From and what time train are most people getting on the Sunday? I'm going to go for 06:55 from Soton Central. Do people think it's worth getting there well before that time as I've heard it's 1000 per train and wants that's full nobody else will be getting on???!!!!!

who is cup tied for them? is Jason Price????

I was in block 40 and I thought it said 'He's' short and ****ing hard' yours makes more sense lol

Really good highlights here of last time we played at Wembley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2Oat4gBDrs&feature=youtube_gdata I was only 8 at the time and was gutted my dad went with his mates and didn't take me but I can understand now why as I wouldn't want an 8yr old tagging along with me all day lol went to Cardiff in 2003 but it's just not the same as Wembley

The video the played @ half time last night really got me in the mood not that I wasn't excited enough already. Anyone have a link to it or managed to record it? Shame I'm in bed ill now with a throat infection but I will be at Wembley regardless come Sunday

Wayne Bridge

so who was the lucky bidder????

4 of us Block 132 Row 14 as well

video package of Connolly's, Lallanas, Lambert, Antonio and Waigo's goals

Lallana's against Hartlepool I think was a bit special

I was down the ticket office this morning to get a couple of cheap Hartlepool tickets for my mates and the abuse the people working at the ticket office from fans not receiving their Wembley tickets yet was a joke. People were proper shouting at them it was embarassing to be honest I got my tickets Monday and have ST so I don't think it's just season ticket holders who haven't received their tickets!

Wonder what song Carlise have choosen as their song? seen on their website that they are handing out 20000 blue baloons to let off prior to kick off.

todays the day then when we find out what song will be used........