Nordic Saint

In preparation for a Bayern Munich v RB Leipzig Champions League final.

Who was the shortest Saints' goalkeeper of the post-war era?

And the amazing thing is he'd never even kicked a football before he came to Southampton: https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2017-04-21/southampton-refugee-footballers-feature

Correct. Yes.

No, not Bale or Hughes.

You're right! I remember she was a glamorous blonde, and had read reports since that she was Miss World but she wasn't. Poor George Best really took some stick from the crowd that day. It really derailed his comeback.

Who was the first former Saints' player to score 70 goals for Real Madrid?

The goalkeeper who dived through a plate glass window Back in the 70s. after away games we often used to end up standing on the same station platform as the manager and players. After one 2-0 defeat at Burnley in 1976, where we'd been forced to play Colin Boulton, a loanee from Derby, it was obvious that we needed a better goalkeeper. At the time, a Reading goalkeeper, called Steve Death was playing brilliantly and keeping a string of clean sheets. In fact, he held the all-time record of 1,074 minutes without conceding a goal in English league football, so I asked McMenemy, " Why don't you take a look at Steve Death?" Quick as a flash, he replied "Why? Is he off the booze yet." Shortly after that, Death made the headlines for getting blind drunk and diving through a pub window. Eventually, six years later, McMenemy got the goalkeeper he'd always wanted, Peter Shilton. We also used to see the players on the trains back from away games. After a 1-0 defeat at Blackpool at the end of the 76/77 season, when our promotion campaign had disappointingly fizzled out, Alan Ball walked the length of the train and said to every group of Saints' fans he saw, "I promise you we'll get promoted next season." And he was right.

Miss World on the pitch When George Best was sent off, playing for Fulham at the Dell, his then girlfriend, Mary Stavin, the 1977 Miss World, was there as his photographer, and she walked along the touchline and followed him down the tunnel, much to the delight of the crowd in the Lower West Stand. We didn't often get that sort of glamour at the Dell whereas at Chelsea in those days, it would have been quite commonplace. Best often told the story of a bellboy who entered his hotel room with breakfast in the late 1970s. Seeing Best in bed with Mary Stavin, the current Miss World, a bottle of champagne and several thousand pounds of cash won from a night's gambling, the youth exclaimed, "George, where did it all go wrong?"

The fan who scored a goal. Many of you will have been there for this one and some of you would have been among the 10,000 fans who were locked outside. Towards the end of the Mick Channon Testimonial, the ground was so overcrowded that fans were standing in front of the walls around the pitch. Anyway, as Saints were about to take the lead, one of our fans ran onto the pitch and kicked the ball into the QPR goal so the referee abandoned the game as a draw. I remember being a bit disappointed as I always wanted us to tin, even if it was just a testimonial.

The lone bloodied fan. At Hull away in 1976 Saints fans were at the side and the Hull end was to our left. Anyway, just before kick-off, one of our fans disappeared. He didn't tell us where he was going. Then we saw a big scuffle behind the goal to our left. A few minutes after that the lone fan returned, covered in blood and looking quite pleased with himself. I heard a lone Saints fan did something similar in the Fratton End and one of their league games last season. But, it sounds like he fared better than the lone fan at Hull, as Pompey fans just chanted 'scummer' at him before the police dragged him away.

Meeting the Clockwork Orange Gang after Leicester away in 1973. When I was a student in the 70s, I used to hitch-hike to and from games. One of the most memorable and surreal lifts I got was from the Winchester Clockwork Orange Gang. They were a group of Saints' fans who all dressed in white, wore braces and bowler hats etc to look like the gang from the 1972 film, Clockwork Orange. Anyway, as we pulled away from Filbert Street, every time we saw Leicester fans, one of them grabbed the driver, told him to stop the coach and they all piled off. This happened several times before we reached the motorway by which time I was glad to get off the coach and look for another lift. I never saw them at the Dell and I think they only dressed like that for away trips in 1973.

Running across the pitch at games, which as long as it was before kick-off, the police used to turn a blind eye to back in the 60s and early 70s. I remember going with my uncle to a game at West Ham in 1966, and as he was older, he decided we'd stand at the side by the halfway line. I looked enviously at the thousands of Saints fans packed behind the goal to our right and about a minute before the players emerged, I could take it no longer so I jumped over the wall and ran across the pitch to join them. Then something similar was done to me. Ex-Saints goalkeeper, John Hollowbread, asked me to take his niece, who was down from London to watch Chelsea, to the Dell and look after her. We were both teenagers. Anyway. I took her to my usual spot behind the goal at the Milton Road End but just before kick-off, she jumped over the wall and ran the length of the pitch to join the Chelsea fans at the other end. I remember once arriving at Elland Road after they'd locked the gates and somehow persuading a couple of groundsmen to let me in. I wasn't wearing a scarf and I told them I was a Leeds fan who'd come up from London. They asked me for some proof of that, so I showed them a students' union card, which showed that I was indeed a student living in London. So, they took me past the dressing rooms and I emerged from the players' tunnel. It was quite something to run out, with the game under way, with thousands of fans looking at me before I ran down the touchline and hopped over the wall.

The 2 promotion games at Orient. At the first one, in 1966, there were 15,000 Saints fans there out of a crowd of 19,000 and it is one of the few occasions when I've seen away fans fill three sides of a ground. At the second one, in 1978, there were only about 12,000 of us there and we were mostly packed into the big stand along one side. When the final whistle blew, there was a great surge forward to get at a group of about 200 Spurs fans, behind the goal to our left, who'd come to support Orient against their promotion rivals. The wall collapsed just in front of me as Saints fans raced across the pitch towards the Spurs end, which emptied rapidly as their fans fled.

Yes, that will always be one of the most memorable away games. I'm glad we took the wise decision to get under cover on the North Bank. Most of the Saints fans were stood out in the blizzard at the Clock End.

Another memory from that Forest game in '77 was a handful of Forest fans after the game, standing by the River Trent with huge wooden oars they'd taken from boats to use as weapons. They seemed to have difficulty just holding them up, let alone hitting anyone with them.

Yes, I was at that one. Wasn't that crush because Saints fans were trying to get as near as possible to the Brighton fans? The Shed end for the '76 semi-final and the Trent End for the '77 4th round game were even more packed as I recall. You could hardly breathe the whole game.

The "ice bowl" at Highbury on Boxing day, 1970. The pitch was covered with snow and the terraces were covered with ice. It was so cold that a group of us Saints fans went on the North Bank, which was covered and more crowded, as the open terracing at the Clock End was just too exposed to the elements. The game itself against that season's double-winning Arsenal team was also remarkable for being the most one-sided 0-0 draw I've ever seen.

The smallest number of trophies (1) of any club that's played in 15 or more major semi-finals.

"Social distancing measures would need to be in place for up to a year to prevent pressure on the NHS." BBC News Surely, this means we can forget talk of football being resumed in May/June? Even the start of next season in August must be in doubt.

Something positive: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/news/celtic-fans-react-to-video-of-fraser-forster/ar-BB11n7jA?ocid=spartandhp

I thought the same. If it had been accidental, it wouldn't have had that effect. He put considerable force into that blow. You could see his arm moved sharply away from his body, not with it, as it would have done if it had been by chance. Players know that if you do something like that at the beginning of the game, you'll almost certainly get away with it.

I thought the same. If it had been accidental, it wouldn't have had that effect. He put considerable force into that blow. You could see his arm moved sharply away from his body, not with it, as it would have done if it had been by chance. Players know that if you do something like that at the beginning of the game, you'll almost certainly get away with it.

I've always found Lawrenson particularly depressing. He's miserable and charmless and seems to have a chip on his shoulder about Saints, from his playing days in the 70s and 80s, when we were a bogey team for Brighton and Liverpool.

It has to be more than that. He has developed into a great all-round player. He looked a class above Grealish yesterday and how much is Grealish worth?