woksaintly

!966

Now for something completely different. A poem I wrote on being signed on by Saints when I was sixteen Enjoy Becoming a Professional Footballer Like most schoolboys I was sport mad and imagined one day to play for my team a fantasy, an unrealistic hope, a false dream but I was good and not just keen So I wtote to my club and asked for a trial and surprisingly I was asked to come next Tuesday eve There were 40 of us desperate to impress the watching scouts, the manager, in me to believe We returned to the Dell The home of the "Saints" and four names were called of the 40 that played that night. I was one of them to my disbelieve and utter delight I got a letter signed by the Manager, Ted Bates that I had become an Amateur with no pay but told to make myself available to play. Training Tuesdays and Thursdays, the Southampton way In those days there were no academy suits no sponsored kits. no manicured pitches instead the concrete and tarmnac carpark and gym where we sweated and stretched every muscle and limb Grace and elegance was not the art of the pro well for most it was tenacity and will to withstand the mental and physical speed of thought against your opponent's skill Confronted one evening in training in the car park when tackled by a hardened pro called Huxford who flattened me to the ground, face first dazed and bloodied he stood over me unmoved He was looking for a response, a reaction would I run away or confront him Had I got what it took to become a pro there would be no apology, no retraction It was not just me but everone that night floored, bloodied, bruised and sore discovered what it was to become a pro If that was sport then for me a no Only one amateur signed pro forms that year a lad, ironically from Portsmouth, our fiercest foe Diminuitive but quick, fearless, but no tricks went on the score the winner in the cup Final of '76

Fulham have not won at Southampton for over 70 years. Do you think they may break that hodoo ?

I got angry for once watching this game as in all the other dross there was a quiet resignation that defeat was inevitable (as we cannnot score) or even create chances. Perhaps, mistakenly I thought that we would go for it as this really was a must win game. I am sure I am not alone in that false expectation of fight, aggression, passion, busting a gut, charging forward, harrasiing the opposition into errors, shots at goal urged on by excited fans. No just the same old lacklustre lottery selection and total lack of team effort from a shiot team selection for this game. RIP Southampton FC 2023

A At least Douglas Barder flew past the enemy.

Just sack Selles now please. With had a midget at centre forward and we put on a centre half in a must win game. We have offered nothing until we put some attackers on . Too f... late i

Stream anybody

is there a stream for the game?

As an ex goalie yes you will be beaten at the near post but not often. If you have a right footed player coming from the right side of the box then narrowing the angles should present very little to your left and 90% of the time he will shoot to your right where there is a far greater margin of error and you have ahigher perecentage of saving the shot. McCarthy does not do this.His positioning and narrowing of angles is poor

stream for the game?

No that gane is Leeds v Villa on Prime

Just Test....ing you then

Any streams for tonight?

Streams for this game?

Oh Wotte a lovely war !!!!!!

If we go into Administration we will be relegated. If Lowe stays we will be relegated. If Wotte stays we will be relegated. So relagation is inevitable and perhaps the only way we can get rid off all the baggage that has caused our decline. In some ways I welcome it. If we stayed up Lowe will feel vindicated at least until season ticket sales for next year are published....

If it was a play it would be "Look back in Anger "

When I was at the Dell as an Amateur I remember a traininng session in the car park. I was a goalkeeper but loved the opportunity to play centre forward. I remember vividly waiting for a ball arriving at chest height and looking to control and pass when next I remember my face on the hard concrete. I thought I had been hit by a steam train. No it was Cliff Huxford. No one ran over to me.No whistle blew. You picked yourself up and you quickly learnt to avoid or give back... Not many tried giving back to Cliff on concrete !!!

No just an ex amatuer player of many years ago and a life long fan who used to regularly contribute on Saintsforever who like many have become disenfranchised, disenchanted, disgruntled with recent board room farce. However, you cannot change the team you support. There is no divorce !! I wish I could switch off at 3 on a Saturday but am still compelled to know how we got on.

Unless I am mistaken didn't Lowe say at the AGM and elsewhere that it was not the Clubs policy to reveal confidential information about individual player wages? Therefore, the club should have issued a statement condenming the Echo's publication.... Shouldn't they !!!! Of course we all know that it was deliberately leaked and if I was a fellow Director of the PLC I would want to know who was responsible and be demanding their resignation.