THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD..
To Southampton for yet another pilgrimage to St. Mary`s Stadium to see the Saints play Bayer Leverkusen in the final pre-season friendly before the `best league in the world (tm)` kicks off next weekend. Normally, given a fair wind, the journey takes about two hours. Yesterday, three and a half - and that`s going the pretty way, having given up with the M25 at Wisley and turned on to the A3/A31 to rejoin the M3 at Winchester.
It ruined my plans, which had included a visit to my boyhood village of Hythe, getting the ferry from there to Southampton and walking to the stadium,but time was against me, so I had to go straight to the city centre to park so as not to miss a rendezvous with `old` friends before the game.
The journey home was `OK` and I decided to come back the way I went. I`m beginning to go off motorways anyhow - they`re dull, boring, monotonous and clogged up with traffic. And at the end of my journey I witnessed a football match which saw the revamped Saints lose 1-0 to the German side, thanks to an unfortunate own goal scored by Saints` new striker, Graziano Pelle, who in the last couple of seasons has scored something like 58 goals in 76 games in the Dutch league, mostly in the right end I imagine.
In many ways, the new Saints team has rekindled the anxieties of the past and reminded me a bit of the M25 - clogged up in midfield, occasional glimpses of open country and with the final destination of burying the ball in the back of the opponents` goal proving ever more elusive. I suspect the coming season, starting next week away at Liverpool, will be another long and winding road.
It ruined my plans, which had included a visit to my boyhood village of Hythe, getting the ferry from there to Southampton and walking to the stadium,but time was against me, so I had to go straight to the city centre to park so as not to miss a rendezvous with `old` friends before the game.
The journey home was `OK` and I decided to come back the way I went. I`m beginning to go off motorways anyhow - they`re dull, boring, monotonous and clogged up with traffic. And at the end of my journey I witnessed a football match which saw the revamped Saints lose 1-0 to the German side, thanks to an unfortunate own goal scored by Saints` new striker, Graziano Pelle, who in the last couple of seasons has scored something like 58 goals in 76 games in the Dutch league, mostly in the right end I imagine.
In many ways, the new Saints team has rekindled the anxieties of the past and reminded me a bit of the M25 - clogged up in midfield, occasional glimpses of open country and with the final destination of burying the ball in the back of the opponents` goal proving ever more elusive. I suspect the coming season, starting next week away at Liverpool, will be another long and winding road.
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