 Monday, 1st Aug 2011 10:12 Can Saints do something they havent done for 23 years. What were you doing on the 27th August 1988 ? this was the date we last won a game at home on the opening day of the season, amazingly if you are a Saints fan under 30 chances are that you neither attended nor remember this game and that highlights just how poor Saints have been on the opening day of the season, not just recently but over a period of time that spans almost a fifth of the clubs existence. Saints fans were not exactly optimistic in the summer of 1989, it had not been as traumatic as the previous year which after seeing the departure of a plethora of top players including Shilton , Wright & Armstrong had decimated the team, but Andy Townsend had left under a cloud, making comments that meant that he would never be remembered fondly by Saints fans and Kevin Bond had also gone. Replacing them were Russell Osman who was seen as a decent signing although his form had dipped below the standards he had set earlier in his career and Paul Rideout who had played more in Italy than in his home country. Thus the side seemed to be made up of mainly players either approaching 30 or already well past, aided by some promising youngsters, the big question would be whether this would prove a good balance was a big question and one that the national press in their predictions certainly felt spelled relegation. West Ham for their part had also struggled the previous season and had finished below Saints. A sunny day saw 18,407 in attendance with around 3,500 supporting the visitors and mainly massed on the Archers Road end, around two thousand more than had been in attendance only 4 months earlier when ironically the Hammers had been the visitors for the penultimate home game of the 87/88 season. Back then Chris Nicholl had played an adventurous 4-3-3 system that balked the trend for 4-4-2 then popula and had been rewarded with a 2-1 win , this time Nicholl was even more swashbuckling and went for 4-2-4 lining up Burridge Forrest, Osman, Moore, Statham Case, Cockerill D Wallace, Clarke, Rideout, R Wallace It fell on the Wallace brothers to get up and down the wing to not only defend when we didnt have the ball but get it into the box when we did, on 36 minutes this ploy appeared to be working when Derek Statham pushed forward on the left and put a cross in that found Rideout unmarked for a goal on his debut, but before the crowd had found time to settle it was 2-0 when Glenn Cockerill sublimely chipped the Hammers glovesman McAlister and it was this way at the break. In the second half Saints took total control and on the hour Rideout had his second from a route one move when Colin Clarke flicked on a long ball for the new striker to finish and put the game out of West Ham's reach. Saints were now in free flow and Nicholl felt able to give Danny Wallace a rest and replace him with 19 year old Matt Le Tissier who was ready to blossom, Saints had, had enough chances to double their lead as the Hammers fans were already starting to leave when the final nail was put in their coffin as Le Tissier scored the type of goal he would become famous for, a mazy little run followed by a finish that he made look simple. Saints had looked superb and their fans streamed out of the Dell feeling that this season might actually turn out OK after all, indeed we still had the likes of Shearer chomping at the bit as well, little did everyone know however, that this would be the last opening day home win for 23 years and counting. Given that there would have been around 15,000 Saints supporters in attendance that day, it would be interesting to know just how many of them will be in attendance for the visit of Leeds on Saturday, given the ravages of time on any clubs supporter base over 23 years I would hazrd a guess that less than a quarter of the crowd on Saturday would be able to lay claim to the fac tthat they have actually seen a Saints opening day win, given that there were only 1,500 or so at Coventry to witness the only winning opener since, I would expect that to change the percentages much and that probably puts our sorry record either home or away into perspective as to how poor we start a season and how its about time we changed it.
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