SWEET REVENGE..

"Revenge is sweeter far than flowing honey." Author: Homer : The Iliad (XVIII, 109)

The last time Roy Keane visited Southampton FC`s St. Mary`s Stadium was on the last day of the 2004/5 season. That day, he captained Manchester United in a game which was meaningless as far as they were concerned but which was momentous in the history of the Saints. We needed to win in order to maintain our top flight status in the hierarchy of English football, which we had enjoyed for 27 continuous seasons. We lost 2-1, other results went against us, we finished bottom of the Premier League and were relegated.

At the end of that bleak day, the anguish amongst the home supporters was tangible, tinged with despair and a feeling of genuine sadness. We sat there, watching our players trudge from the pitch, applauding the support we had given them but knowing that they might not tread the hallowed turf of St. Mary`s ever again. Manchester United`s players acknowledged their own visiting fans and made their own way towards the tunnel. Except for Roy Keane, who, in an act of petulance and unwarranted malice, treated us to an exaggerated wave of goodbye and a repeated gesture of `thumbs down.` We knew we had been relegated. We didn`t need `Keano` to tell us.

Today, Roy Keane returned to St. Mary`s as the manager of Ipswich Town in an FA Cup fourth round tie which pitched Saints against a team playing in a higher division. Saints won 2-1, dumping Ipswich out of the competition and providing a little sweet revenge for that infamous day five years ago.

I used to admire Ipswich as a club - the late Sir Bobby Robson, the Cobbolds in the boardroom and the feeling that they, like Southampton, were a provincial club trying to maintain the true traditions of the game. But the Cobbolds are long gone - for them, a crisis was when the boardroom ran short of Chablis - to be replaced by the anonymous Australian millionaire business tycoon, Marcus Evans, whose name is emblazoned on the players` shirts. Evans, in turn, has appointed Keane to manage his club. I suspect they deserve each other and they most assuredly deserved today`s result. I suspect too that Alf Inge Haaland might have had a wry smile on his face at Ipswich`s defeat. And Mick McCarthy. And all the opponents assaulted and all the match officials abused by Keano over the years. I know I did.