John Grove - Southampton

For the first 19 years of my life I lived in the sea port of Southampton, 85 miles from London on the south coast of England.

Southampton is from where the Titanic sailed on its fateful voyage in 1912, and was home of the Spitfire plane during the second world war.

Southampton - because it was a major seaport - was bombed very heavily in the war. As a result, much of the city was reconstructed in the sixties. It's only in the past 10 years that anything significant has been done to improve the look of Southampton.

Currently the place is going through a remarkable change, with radical improvements to shopping areas and entertainment.

New Stadium for Southampton FC.

The last official league match at The Dell was played on Saturday May 19th 2001. The game was against Arsenal, with Matthew Le Tissier scoring the very last (winning) goal.

The very last match of all, the final whistle, the concluding goal kick, the last stud on turf, the very end was on Saturday May 26th when they played Brighton and Hove Albion.

Believe it or not there is sentiment in Soccer, and to prove it they invited Brighton to be the last, as opposition to Southampton, as they were the very first to play there, on October 5th 1889. On that occasion an opera singer burst into "Rule Britannia" to officially launch the match.

check out the following sites for more info:

The Official Saints Web site.

The new stadium seats 35,000 and is known as "St. Mary's Stadium". Should Provident ever withdraw their sponsorship, the new sponsors would simply switch the name.

If Saints ever go public, the ground will become known simply as St. Mary's. This is what the club was called back in 1885 (hence the name "Saints"), when they played less than 1000 yards away from where they play today.

with kind thanks to Alan Lambourn for the item about Saints FC.