CLOTH EARS

When we won the cup in 76, practically every football pundit had Saints as favourites to go up in 76-77, it didn't happen due to a very poor start to that season, we ended up finishing 9th. Mick Channon departed for Man City at the end of that season and if i remember correctly the likes of Turner, Rodrigues, Blythe, Steel, Gilchrist, McCalliog and Stokes departed also. So the 76 cup final team was being broken up and they had been replaced by Alan Ball & Ted McDougall ( during 76-77 ) Peter Wells, Chris Nichol, Mick Pickering & Phil Boyer. The emergence of Steve Williams along with these signings gave hope for 77-78. There were other young starlets coming through the youth system, all would play a part in 77-78 to varying degrees. These were the likes of Malcolm Waldron, Graham Baker, Tony Sealey, Tony Funnell, Steve Neville and Tim Coak. Saints started 77-78 better than the previous season but they were not pulling up any trees. If my memory serves me correctly it wasn't untill October-ish that Saints got me believing that we were going to be good enough to go up. I remember a 4-2 win over Sunderland at the Dell on a very wet day aswell as good wins over Charlton, Cardiff & Stoke all around Christmas and New Year. I can remember Saints beating Terry Veneballs Crystal palace 2-0 at the Dell in the latter part of the season and they kicked us off the park!, the Saints fans chanted ANIMALS at them, i think Tony Sealey had his leg broke that day too. the highlight of that season for me was a 5-0 win over Blackburn, who at the time were still in with a shout of going up Saints played some superb football and it was made all the sweeter because Blackburn had that fuzzy haired bloke Bailey playing for them who the Saints fans had never forgiven for getting both Peter Osgood and Steve Williams sent off at Ewood Park earlier that season. As the season neared its end i remember travelling up to Luton with my old man in an old Ford Anglia and it seemed like every car we passed had Saints scarves hanging out of the windows, half of Southampton had squeezed into Kenilworth Road that day, Saints won 2-1 with a David Peach penalty and a Ted McDougall header, this left Saints needing a point for promotion and in our penultimate game we had Orient away on a wednesday night and i wasn't fortunate enough to go to this one but Saints took about 15.000 to Brisbane Road and drew 1-1. We were nigh on promoted due to the fact that we had a much better goal difference than Brighton, the final game saw Spurs come to the Dell and Spurs needed just a point to go up and they got it in a 0-0 draw. I remember the Brighton fans accusing Saints and Spurs of fixing the result to stop them going up. I remember a huge pitch invasion and the saints fans were jumping up and down with delight and i remember the Spurs fans celebrated themselves in Archers Road. As a 12 year old nipper i remembered being so excited by it all and the thought of playing the top teams in the land the following season meant that the 78-79 season couldn't come quick enough! Lets hope that all you younger Saints fans can get the feeling that i had back then over the next week! COME ON YOU SAINTS!!!

RIP Jack

AFC Totton are at home to 3rd placed Mangotsfield Utd on saturday April 23rd 3pm ( Saints are at Brighton ). This is Tottons last home fixture of the season and this could be the day that The Stags finally tie up the Championship and gain automatic Promotion to the Southern Premier League. The Stags have scored an amazing 33 goals in their first 6 home games in The T******d Stadium, that is pretty impressive by any standards. If you are not one of the 800 at the Withdean on the day then why not come along and enjoy some very exciting attacking football from The stags.

Believe it or not he had a quiet 1st half at Hungerford this evening and limped off injured at half time. Luckily for Totton they went on to win 3-0. I hope for Gossies sake that the injury doesn't wreck his chance of a move to a league club. I saw Gary Waddock the Wycombe manager at Hungerford this evening, he was obviously keeping tabs on Mike, he would have walked away a little disappointed.

I totally disagree mate, he has had the odd quietish game but they are becoming few and far between. He has scored 29 goals this season in all comps, 9 of which have been penalties. REMEMBER he is a wide player and not a striker, so 29 is a decnt tally. I am off to Hungerford this evening to watch Totton, hopefully he will add to his total.

I've watched him 150 times at least and i would say out of those 150 games he has not had many quiet-ish games maybe 15 max.

Lallana is Premier League quality without doubt. I reckon Gosney could play as high as championship level. That is also the opinion of our assistant manager, who i spoke to about Mike recently.Time will tell. Totton are at home to Cinderford Town on the 26th when Saints are at Plymouth so come along and see him for yourselves and you will see how good he is.

Mike had awkward employers at the time i think who wouldn't give him time off at the times Eastliegh wanted to look at him. Being a regular at Totton i speak to Mike quite alot, he is a really great lad, who plays down his own ability, he is modest in the extreme. But trust me when i say he is quality. I thought about posting about him on here a couple of years ago and many times since but i didn't want Totton to lose him. This time it looks like some league clubs are ready to take him so i am resigned to him going, but if he is going to go then i'd rather he went to Saints than anyone else. I just want whoever buys him to let Totton keep him untill the end of the season to allow us to get promotion. BTW I was a Saints ST holder up untill 2007 but in recent years i have been watching Totton more and saints less. I Love both clubs.

I am not Mike Gosney mate. If you'd seen him play you'd also know that he is a million miles from being crap!!!

He is 22 mate. Totton manager Stu Ritchie signed him as a kid from Winchester City. He has always had bags of ability but he gets better and better every season.

If they have then the scout never took his glasses with him!!!

As someone who watches AFC Totton regularly i am not surprised in the slightest to see League clubs ( Millwall, Brighton, Wycombe & Bournemouth ) starting to queue up for wing wizard Mike Gosney. Mike is a supremely gifted player, he has great pace skill and trickery and he can cross pin point whilst moving at speed. He scores lots of goals for a left winger too! He must score 50% of all free kicks that he gets in or around the box and he takes wicked corners. I am AMAZED that Saints haven't taken a look at him. He is from Hedge End and i think he is a Saints supporter. Forget the fact Millwall are a championship side, i reckon if Saints made a move for him he'd bite their hand off. Why let him go to Millwall or Brighton.....get your finger out Saints.....he is quality!!

The mighty Stags scored another 4 today against Yate Town in front of 718 spectators. Saints play away to Plymouth on the 26th so come along and watch us play Cinderford Town and hopefully we will serve up some top entertainment for you.

If you look at our players man for man, on paper we should be where Brighton are BUT we are not. There is no doubt that if you had 9,10 or 11 of our players playing to the peak of their ability in a game then we would be unbeatable at this level. The problem appears to me to be that our 'key' players too often have 5/10 or 6/10 games when we require 8/10 from them. For the 1st example i'll use Dean Hammond. Out of every 10 games that he plays, how many 'good' games does he have ? The same question goes for Rickie Lambert, Morgan Scniederlin, AOC, Guly, Fonte, Harding, in fact we could go through all of the players and ask the same question.. I think we'd all agree that if they play to the best of their ability they are more than adequate for this level, but they do not reach the required level often enough. In short our 'key' players especially are not consistent enough, Why?...........................over to you!

If any of you can't go to watch Saints at Bournemouth on March 12th and Plymouth on March 26th, AFC Totton are at home in their new 'T******d Stadium' on both of these dates. Totton are highly entertaining to watch, we have scored 82 goals in 28 league games, we currently top the Zamaretto Southern League Div One S&W and play some fantastic football. You will honestly be pleasantly surprised just how good the standard is. In all comps this season we have scored three on nine occasions, 4 on four occasions, 5 on seven occasions and 7 once. We are a very friendly club so pop along!

See you at T.e.s.t.w.o.o.d Park this saturday then mush!

Yes but one day someone is going to go pop and i wouldn't be suprised if it ends up being a Premier League club.

Adkins obviously knows that we need a wide player quite urgently, he has probably found it hard to get proven quality wingers in January, so he has gone for the best he can get in the circumstances. This signing is only till the end of the season so Adkins will re-evaluate the situation in the summer. Hopefully, Adkins will get enough from him to compensate for the likely loss of Puncheon.

I av been using the word since i was able to speak, in fact i think my first words were 'alright mush' I remember back in the 80's if somebody asked me how i was i'd often answer 'cushty mushty'.......does anyone still say this?

FWIW Dave Merrington commented on how bad Richardsons distribution was. Lallanas creativity seemed to be sorely missed according to Solents commentary. Adkins has a few things to think about before the Tranmere game. This performance may just convince Adkins that we need to add another creative player to the squad, we cannot allow ourselves to be reliant on one player. If we struggle to create against a poor Tranmere side next week then this will prove to me that the squad will need an addition or two.

I was there that night, it was ****in brilliant!!! Although i did think we had ****ed it up after Jeff Kenna headed the ball straight across our penalty box for them to equalise in the 92nd minute, one of the most bizzare goals i've seen! Fortunately we held on in erxtra time.......just! Ryan Giggs was only 18 at the time and he missed the penalty that put the nail in their coffin!

I think managers like Ian Holloway are allowing themselves to be brainwashed by money grabbing chairmen who are '**** scared' of losing the millions of pounds in TV money that their clubs would lose by being relegated from the PL.. A player who Holloway rested today 'could' end up getting injured next saturday in the Premier League!!! That would mean that resting him this week was a nonsense! In years past i remember managers using 15 or 16 players in ALL competitions through the whole season. How many players did saints use in 1976? I bet it was only 14 or 15 max. That would include the League Cup, the FA Cup and the League combined. There are people within the game nowadays with ulterior motives who want to see the FA Cup devalued. There are people within the media who want us brainwashed into thinking that the Premier League is the be all and end all of our football.... IT IS NOT.....the FA Cup still has a HUGE part to play in English football!!! The FA Cup is the greatest cup competition in the world. We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into thinking that its not what it used to be! The FA Cup IS part of our fabric, it is a competition that gives factory workers, Postmen and bricklayers the opportunity to play against their heroes, it gives the underdog a chance to overcome massive odds on their day. THERE HAVE BEEN AROUND FIVE UPSETS TODAY........THAT IS WHAT IT IS ABOUT!!! This wonderful competition will NEVER be devalued in my eyes!

and you have every right to be optimistic mate. We were ****e in 2009, we are a much different proposition now thats for sure! I honestly believe that Saints can give them a hell of a game this time!

You are right, that team was basically crap lets be honest! They beat us 3-0 and didn't need to break sweat! We only had 3 or 4 half decent players in that squad and thats why we got relegated. We will give them a much better game this time with our current team. We have much more quality available to us now.

I reckon we'll get Villa away.