".....and now, the end is near and so we face the final curtain......"

Ten points deducted for wanton boardroom incompetence has finally relegated Southampton FC to the third tier of English football where they last played 49 years ago. There was talk of appealing against the Football League`s decision but I feel that to do so would be wrong.

How would we feel if we were by some miracle to escape relegation by winning the appeal, only to consign some other club to the fate that awaits us, resulting in yet more damage to our already tarnished reputation. I know it may be an old fashioned view of the world, but I can see little satisfaction to be gained in dishonour, so I would prefer we accepted the punishment, took it on the chin and moved on at the end of the day. To be fair.

And so I`m off tomorrow to what might conceivably be the last ever game played by the Saints at St. Mary`s. Thus, a circle will be complete, for I well recall going to the very first game ever played there - a friendly against Spanish side Espanyol. Given the parlous state of the club - I`m told, for example, that £250,000 is needed in the next couple of weeks just to pay the staff and fulfil our final fixture away at Nottingham Forest and if we fail to do that then liquidation (such an evocative word) will surely follow - this could well be the final curtain. The fat lady has sung her mournful tune, the creditors are at the gate and who knows what the next few days will bring?

The only hope seems to be that from an original list of 35 `interested parties,` there are only two who can be considered serious contenders and they are currently in ` due diligence,` going through the books and deciding whether to pursue their interest. In these dreadful economic times, how anyone in their right mind can even think of buying a failed football club with mountainous debts who, if they live to play another day, will begin next season minus ten points in the third tier of English football, is quite beyond me. But I guess there might, just might, be someone out there with more money than sense. It sure ain`t me.