West Dean FC Legend

I'm sure I posted this before but Ted MacDougall owned one of our local pubs, The Mill Arms in Dunbridge, he even played for the team on Sunday mornings and scored 8 goals in a 9-1 win, the lad that wrote the report for the paper went on about the other goal for the entire report! He was okay, a bit pro' footballery but okay, his mum and dad were really nice. Loads of Saints players used to come in every now and then. Alan Ball, Mick Channon, Peter Wells, Kevin Keegan, you name them they turned up. Most were alright to be fair, a few 'look at mes' but we did leave them alone too, rather than bother them from the minute they walked in. David Peach used to serve behind the bar, he was a nice bloke. Alan Ball tried to smarmily chat my mate's girlfriend up, she was 20 years younger than him at least, and when we told her who he was she literally had no idea who he was. My mate and her have been married for 40 years, so it didn't work anyway. Due to the Ted MacDougall connection I played in goal for The Mill Arms against Peter Osgood and Ian Hutchinson against their pub The Union Inn, we lost 7-1 if I remember correctly but I saved a penalty from someone who's brother played for Aston Villa, I can't remember his name, and Peter Osgood properly kicked the ball out of my hands on the ground after I had the ball under full control, it hurt too, but he did apologise after scoring. In years further back Mick Channon and few other players from the 70s Saints teams, as very young men, tried to chat my late mum up in Brashfield Club more than once, she was a bit glamorous to be fair.

I suppose he could say 'I've been to games but I'm not a supporter/fan' but I thought that at the time 'How is he reffing Saints games?'

Always thought the EPL was one step too far for him to be fair. Every game he seemed to be involved in some 'controversy' even my missus noticed on the TV when they said the ref had made a contentious decision, she'd say 'Is that Roger East again?'

I know for a fact Roger East supported Saints and his family did too. I've been to the Dell with him and played on a same football team as him. In his ref's bio he says he doesn't support a team, and he was 'useless as a player'. Both of which aren't true. He definitely went to the Dell with us lads and his uncles and he wasn't a bad footballer either, just a local league defender, but he wasn't bad, I was his goalkeeper. The very first game he refereed was at Whiteparish and my team, with many of the local villagers and team mates turned up to watch the game after our match was postponed. He walked on the pitch and just about everybody he knew from football was stood on the touchline to watch!

Thanks for doing this - my head was spinning, I'm not even a tech-idiot either, having started with computers and the like very early on. I'm just getting old I guess.

I have some concept designs but no matter what method I try I cannot insert the image, so you'll have to guess which ones you liked. Shirts

Despite my naff name that can't change on here I was born in the front bedroom of 8 Glebe Meadow, East Dean (61 years ago July 17), which is in Hampshire but West Dean just down the road is half in Wiltshire and half in Hampshire, both places about 12 miles from Salisbury and about 20 miles from Southampton. Buddens used to run the 'Two-Bob' coach through the villages to go the Dell every home game. It was called the 'Two-Bob' coach because from the days of my late-brother using it when he was about 8 until we moved to Lockerley 10 years later when asked how much it was, the old boy collecting the money always said 'Two-Bob'. Only problem was the coach used to park up near the away supporters coaches near the bowling green so we had to walk back that way - Chelsea in Division Two prevented that so my mate and I, the most non-hooligans you could ever met, somehow ended up running away from Chelsea fans in places in Southampton I'd never been too, we just managed to catch the coach as it was leaving. We were about 13 at the time. Another one was stopping next to the Plymouth Argyle coaches in traffic after a Friday night 1-0 win, they went utterly mental and tried to get off their coaches to get on ours and smash the windows. Again a bus almost exclusively full of young boys and old men from the villages. How tough were they?

Here's all of mine - I normally post under my real name 'David Strover' but when I went to log in the user name field kept asking for a @ symbol even though it has always been my name so it locked me out and I can't get back in - if any admins know why this is it might be helpful. This is an old account I didn't even remember having until I tried my e-mail address to log in 😂 I neither play football anymore and I was certainly not a legend for West Dean 🤨