RESISTING TEMPTATION ?...
Yesterday was a good day for my eclectic football watching. Forest Green Rovers crawled themselves out of the relegation zone in League Two with a hard fought 2-1 win over Coventry City. Yeovil Town also took all three points from a 2-0 home win against Cambridge United. Truro City made their weekly heroic journey, this time all the way to Bognor Regis, where they came away with another 2-0 win in front of 251 paying customers.
But pride of place must surely go to my beloved Saints who notched up their first Premier League win since November. On an emotional day at the Hawthorns which marked the passing of West Brom legend Cyrille Regis, the Saints secured a 3-2 victory to lift themselves out of the bottom three and propel themselves all the way up to 14th in the table.
Now, my illustration above shows the entire population of Southampton surrounding the open top bus as it paraded through the city following the 1976 Cup Final victory over Manchester United. There have been many occasions since, when an open top bus tour of Southampton might have seemed appropriate for the Saints - losing cup finalists, successive promotions, even the Johnstones Paint trophy win - but the temptation to do so has always been resisted. One of our more colourful managers, Gordon Strachan, was quoted after the 1-0 defeat by Arsenal in the cup final of 2003 as suggesting that, "Open top bus tours are for winners, not losers."
But I do wonder, given the huge sense of relief amongst fans like me, whether yesterday`s pulsating victory at West Bromwich should not be celebrated in the traditional manner. After all, it might be a while before the excuse to do so comes around again.
But pride of place must surely go to my beloved Saints who notched up their first Premier League win since November. On an emotional day at the Hawthorns which marked the passing of West Brom legend Cyrille Regis, the Saints secured a 3-2 victory to lift themselves out of the bottom three and propel themselves all the way up to 14th in the table.
Now, my illustration above shows the entire population of Southampton surrounding the open top bus as it paraded through the city following the 1976 Cup Final victory over Manchester United. There have been many occasions since, when an open top bus tour of Southampton might have seemed appropriate for the Saints - losing cup finalists, successive promotions, even the Johnstones Paint trophy win - but the temptation to do so has always been resisted. One of our more colourful managers, Gordon Strachan, was quoted after the 1-0 defeat by Arsenal in the cup final of 2003 as suggesting that, "Open top bus tours are for winners, not losers."
But I do wonder, given the huge sense of relief amongst fans like me, whether yesterday`s pulsating victory at West Bromwich should not be celebrated in the traditional manner. After all, it might be a while before the excuse to do so comes around again.
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