LOCAL HERO ONCE AGAIN?...

It`s true to say that, for years, Matthew Le Tissier was almost solely responsible for keeping Southampton Football Club in the top flight. He played 443 games for the Saints, scoring 162 goals and became the first midfielder to score 100 Premier League goals. He was made a Freeman of the city of Southampton, where he is revered not only for his football but also as a supporter of local charites and an all round good egg.

And now it seems possible that MLT - or `Le God` as he is known locally - may well be coming to the club`s rescue once again. For years, the Saints have suffered the slings and arrows of not only outrageous fortune but also outrageous management, most notably under the regimes of duck shooting buffoon Rupert Lowe. Only last week, with the club six weeks into administration, there were insufficient funds to pay the staff and players` wages for May and the Administrator has confessed that the club were within a whisker of going under.

But MLT has given his support to a bid to buy the club by the Pinnacle consortium....and you don`t get MLT`s seal of approval unless he has sufficient confidence that bona fides and all the things that they include are genuine. So after years of anguish and the bottom of the barrel having been reached, there is now a good chance that the club will survive to take its place in the third tier of English football for the first time in 49 years, albeit with a 10 point penalty thanks to going into administration.

But for once, the football has taken second place to the club`s survival and if the final details of the purchase can be settled soon, then a future of whatever sorts will be secured. Oh, and Pinnacle have stumped up the up-front cash to pay the wages, so a little more gloom has been lifted and hope is rising for the club once more being in the hands of honest, decent, genuine people. Just like the incomparable Matthew Le Tissier.