When the Saints come marching in....

Southampton versus Tranmere Rovers: 9^th October

Another saintly experience, this time in the shape of a football match, at the St Mary’s Stadium, the reconstituted Dell, and which Colin remembers from his days as a Saints’ supporter, when Ted Bates managed the team and his cousin, John Sydenham, played outside left. It was not exactly top-division football but we did enjoy the give and the take of the game and the esprit d’corps, and the standing ovations that greeted dextrous passes and moves, and the reprises of the “When the Saints come marching in…” that complemented the give and take, the high points and the low points of the match, as goals were sought and saved, achieved and dashed. This was working class, masculine culture, at its most fervent and organised. Wonderful stuff. And the result: 2 nil in Southampton’s favour. Our player of the match: Guly Do Prado.

Photographs by Aydan Richards, great nephew.