Brighton have taken the unprecedented step of offering virtually their entire ground to Saints supporters for the upcoming fixture in March.

Brighton supporters groups were this morning questioning their club about it's motives in allocating 30,000 tickets to travelling Southampton supporters for the fixture at the Amex Stadium on 30th March.

This is virtually the entire capacity and the Seagulls will be retaining only a 1,000 or so for their own fans.

The increased allocation is believed to be connected to the loan deal that Saints had with Oldham Athletic for current Brighton midfielder Dale Stephens in 2011.

Stephens joined Saints on loan from the Lancashire club in March 2011 and made 6 appearances as Saints won promotion back to the Championship with ironically his current club Brighton winning League 1 despite losing in one of their final home games at the Withdean, a thriller which Saints won 2-1.

At the end of the season Stephens returned to Oldham but Saints had a clause inserted into the deal that should be at any time be sold to Brighton and play more than 155 league games for them they would be entitled to 30,000 tickets for the next fixture they played afterwards to the Seagulls,

Brighton were rather hoping that they could have discharged this obligation when they hosted us for the game in the League Cup earlier this seasonbut Stephens was still agonisingly two short of the total and Saints declined the kind offer and said they would wait till later in the season.

Stephens ironically played his 155th League game in Brighton's colours a couple of weeks later at St Mary's in the 2-2 draw.

a spokesman for Brighton said.

" When we signed Dale Stephens we were aware of this clause in his contract, we had hoped to get this done when we played them in the League cup when we didn't have a lot of our supporters turning up anyway but they stuck to their guns."

" It will be a bit of a logistical nightmare and our fans are not best pleased, but they will all get a free burger and programme at the following home game against Bournemouth."

" We must stress though that any Brighton fans found in the away section, in essence all of the stadium apart from a block in the Sammy The Seagull Stand will be ejected"

Both clubs now face the issues surrounding it, initially Saints will sell their allocation, believed to be the biggest in the entire history of football, to those that have been to four away games this season, but after that it will be tapered down ending with those that have passed by the Saints store in West Quay in the last year and taken a selfie.

There will be a series of Special trains running on the day roughly three an hour starting at Southampton Central Station at 7am till the 20th at noon. Returning from Brighton between 6pm and 11pm.

Those going by road are warned that there is nowhere to park at the stadium if you want to be out of the car park before 8pm.

This is believed to be only one of a number of strange inserts into transfer deals of players who departed Southampton FC under our old Chairman/CEO just under a decade ago.

He was always concerned that somewone was pulling the wool over our eyes and getting the best deal for the club, some of these have now expired and others have still to come to fruition, but from our sources at St Mary'e we are led to believe the folowing still exist.

When Dejan Lovren signed for Saints in 2013 his contract stated that if he were to be sold to Liverpool then we would be entitled to half the revenue of any Beatles reformation concert held at Anfield and we would also be able to install car parking meters and take 100% of the revenue for that gig.

Victor Wanyama's deal on signing for Saints included the publishing rights to the song "Oh when the Saints go marching in" this has proved to be the major part of his income since joining Tottenham Hotspur, he makes around £35k from every Spurs game from the repeated renditions of the song and is also rumoured to go into the stands and start the singing, something he seems to have a lot of time to do these days due to not playing much.

Tadanari Lee was granted a concession to set up a series of stalls selling Sushi in St Mary's.

Jack Stephens on signing from Plymouth in April 2011 has a clause entitling him to a testimonial in 2021, he was also given a get out of jail free card which he used against Cardiff a week ago, but then subsequently dropped in the celebrations only for it to be picked up by the Bluebirds Kenneth Zohore who handed it back to him and exercised it's rights.

Saints in true fashion have coined a phrase for the trip to Brighton it is

"Be the 30,012th man"

Photo: Action Images

Sanguin added 12:05 - Feb 15 Thanks I really enjoyed that.
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Saints4prem added 12:19 - Feb 15 Very amusing at least we would probably outsing them
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SanMarco added 12:43 - Feb 15 I know time passes quickly when you reach my age but I thought it was still February, not April 1st. It is surprising with all the money awash in football that clubs can't afford proofreaders.
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Colburn added 13:07 - Feb 15 Did you write this whole post to subtly have a dig at Jack Stephens? You call for unity from the fans on many occasions and yet still have a poke at a player even when creating a humorous article.. why don’t you chip at Ings for missing a one on one last game..? Answer: because they are all human. Do you think if Jack reads this it will help him and our defence to improve? It’s one thing to suggest a player is out of their depth, which Stephens isn’t and it’s another thing to keep on about the same player. He has played many games with great performances and it’s getting a bit tiresome now this assault on a good young player who, this season, is finally getting a long run in the side. I’m sure we all get frustrated and dig at players here and there but you won’t lay off Jack and you write the articles.. sort it out mate

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SaintNick added 13:40 - Feb 15 Colburn actually this wasnt a big dig at Jack Stephens, it was about fitting in a joke about a get out of jail free card, I didnt mention his "mistake" and I didn't mention it much in the game report, yes he gave the ball away. but it had to travel a long way before it scored. AS you mentioned it, is Stephens finally getting a long run in the side ?, he has only started 13 Premier League games this season exactly half those played, he has played lately because Yoshida has been away for the Asian Cup and basically we only had 3 central defenders if we wanted to play 3 at the back, he seems the first candidate to make way for Yoshida in the next game . I try to call it like I see it, for me he flatters to deceive, against Burnley he made some great runs carrying the ball forward, but he cannot pass the ball well, continually he passed it to one of Burnleys players throughout the game after getting in their half very well, proof of the pudding for me is when players are dropped whether there is any interest from other clubs ? At the game when he plays Jack and every other player has my full support, I cheer them on as much as the next guy, but on here I try to call it like it is, would Jack Stephens or Yoshida for that matter get into any other Premier League side ? I think we all know the answer there

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halftimeorange added 13:43 - Feb 15 I believe Brighton really did mean to offer Saints 30,000 seats on the basis that they don't believe their own fans will turn up to watch the desperate opposition we are likely to provide. After last week's despairingly reckless finale against Cardiff, Brighton will surely be disappointed and left with 29,999 on their hands (as Nick the eternal optimist will be the only one going)!

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Colburn added 15:52 - Feb 15 Fair enough Nick, it just seemed like a strange time to bring him in to an article which included joking about past players.. I don’t agree with your opinion but that’s what makes the game so interesting I suppose. I genuinely think that Jack is far better than Jose Fonte was at the same age. Fonte made plenty of mistakes and a fair few led to goals. I can honestly see Jack becoming our new Fonte, mistakes can be ironed out and it’s not always the fault of one person, we had ample opportunity to stop a goal from resulting from the misplaced pass. With the same high quality of coaching that Jose received, Jack will become a top player. It just seems weird to add him to this article mate, doesn’t make sense to me.. Be patient with him as you were with Fonte, please!

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SaintNick added 10:15 - Feb 18 Good points well made Colburn, I hope you are right about Jack Stephens, I want him to succeed, but the evidence is against him at the moment, he is 25 at that age most players have reached their full potential yes a few like Fonte are late developers, but most are the finished article. Jacks problem is that most people see him as a youngster, but he only made his Premier League debut just over two years ago, before that he had spent 5 seasons with the club and all he had played was one sub appearance in the FA Cup at Coventry in 2012, yes he had played a few games on loan in League One but when Boro took him in the Championship he played once. My opinion is that because he has an ability to carry the ball forward he flatters to deceive, his final pass is very erratic, the injury time misplaced pass was far from being his first that day that went to the opposition. But we dont pay him to create chances we pay him to defend and he doesn't seem to have the ability to read the game, he is caught ball watching too often, caught in no mans land I dont think that is totally his fault in that Yoshida has the same bad habits and that means that whereas Jose Fonte had some good partners to help iron out the faults and so far Jack hasn't he has been a member of a defence in disarray. Fonte was a leader and an organiser, I havent seen that in Jack yet and that is perhaps the difference between the two, perhaps like Ward Prowse he is lacking in the confidence that he should be there, JWP seems to have suddenly added that to his game, I hope Jack does.

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