NOT THIS TIME

In 1976, I was fortunate to be at the old Wembley Stadium to see Southampton beat Manchester United with a goal from the late Bobby Stokes to win the FA Cup, against all the odds.

Over the years, the Saints have beaten Manchester United on a number of other occasions.

On Sunday, Manchester United come to St. Mary`s again, this time in the third round of the FA Cup. The game is a sell-out with 32,000 being there to witness the afternoon`s events. Now, I guess about half of them might be regular Saints supporters, a few thousand will be United fans and the rest probably of a ghoulish tendancy to witness what everyone expects will be a severe stuffing by the newly crowned World Champions.

As the great Matthew Le Tissier has recently said, Southampton might just as well go out and play with whatever freedom they can muster, for no-one - least of all the Saints fans - expect anything other than a heavy defeat. Le Tissier also mentions, however, that in years gone by, the Saints would have looked upon this game as one they could win. Not these days, I fear.

The one bright spot is the fact that the game is being televised on the relatively obscure Setanta Sports channel. I will refrain from paying the fee to watch the game. In fact, I am now refraining from paying to watch any of Saints matches until Rupert Lowe resigns or Administration sets in. Furthermore, I will always refrain from paying good money to watch Manchester United. They may be World Champions, Champions of Europe and Champions of English football, but those successes do not make them, their players or their manager sufficiently attractive for me to bother to watch Sunday`s encounter. In any case, as the song says, "Que sera, sera, whatever will be will be. We`re most definitely not going to Wemberley. Que sera, sera."