NICE STADIUM....SHAME ABOUT THE FOOTBALL

Southampton FC`s St. Mary`s Stadium is one of the more pleasant sporting venues; nice design, uninterrupted view of the pitch from all 32,000 seats, convenient city-centre location. I enjoy my visits there and I paid another one yesterday, when Saints `entertained` the Hornets of Watford FC in a Championship encounter.

In recent years, the most memorable meeting between these two teams was the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park in 2003, which Saints won to secure a place in the Final at Cardiff, which we lost narrowly to Arsenal. My, how times have changed in those few short years.

Relegation from the Premiership, with all its financial consequences, the loss of a whole squad of class players, the narrow defeat on penalties to Derby County in last season`s play-off semi-final, endless boardroom shenanagins, all make for sad litany of decline for all true Saints fans. But, until yesterday, at least there was some dignity about our decline. OK, Watford won the game yesterday by 3-0 (Saints were lucky to get 0) and I can have no complaints about the result.

It was one of those days when I knew - just knew - that the day was too good to last; the journey down had been easy on the quiet New Year`s Day roads and I got to the stadium in good time. But things started to go badly wrong as the teams were lining up on the half-way line before the start of the game, expecting - as we all were - to have a minute`s respect paid to Phil O`Donnell, the Motherwell captain who died during a game at the weekend. Pity Saints` management weren`t aware of it - Darude`s `Sandstorm` continued to blast forth on the stadium louspeakers, the players and crowd looked around in bewilderment, the referee appeared to let the moment pass, waved play on and the game got under weigh, leaving us all a bit embarrassed.

The embarrassment of the home fans was completed not only by the trouncing dished out by a strong, determined Watford side but also by the antics of Saints` manager, George Burley (pictured above,) whose team selections, tactics, substitutions and general deportment have conspired to leave the team demoralised, confused and unsure of anything very much any more....and their state of mind is mirrored precisely by that of the paying customers.

A haul of two points from a possible twelve over the Christmas period is, frankly, not good enough and yet there are still numbskulls on the message boards believing that a play-off position is still achievable, if not automatic promotion back to the never-never land of the Premiership. They really should know better than to inhabit the land of nod and vicariously live their lives through the medium of a failing football club. It`s just not healthy.

I`m a bit sanguine about it all, really - I enjoy my days out back in old haunts amongst good friends, so I`ll probably still make the effort. I enjoy the stadium too...it`s just the football that spoils it all for me. Bon Jovi are doing a concert at St. Mary`s in June - if I knew who they were, I might just go, since they are likely to be more entertaining than the overpaid wasters currently wearing the red and white.

Saints are at home to Leicester City in an FA Cup match on Saturday; I`m not going, preferring to save my physical, financial and emotional resources for the following Saturday when Scunthorpe come visiting. And hoping beyond hope that there isn`t another minute`s silence or applause to be bungled.