By Nick Mabey. Russell Martin’s unsurprising sacking as our manager this week gave me no pleasure at all. Optimism has always been a superpower/Achilles heel for me and I really wanted Martin to turn things round at Saints. I’ve been fighting myself about this for most of the season,...
Columns
View from the Kingsland – How to feel about VAR?
By Nick Mabey. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR from here on) provokes some of the strongest feelings and opinions the average football fan can muster these days, so I thought it time I gave it some prolonged attention here. For those wondering why I’m distracting myself from Saints’ league...
Suburban Safari: Ladies Walk, Thornhill
By Katie Isham. Let’s go back in time a little, to the late 19th century. Thornhill Park was still an estate, but a sprawling parkland one of over 400 acres. It was initially formed by Michael Hoy, later passed to his widow, Elizabeth and then after her death, to...
View from the Kingsland: Harsh Reality
By Nick Mabey. It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. Mostly because I’ve moved house and celebrated a significant birthday with a long holiday, but also because I thought I’d rest for as long as possible in the euphoria of that amazing Wembley day in May. The feel-good...
Suburban Safari: Minstead Meanderings
Words and pictures by Katie Isham. Someday, we’ll go on a walk that doesn’t involve consecrated ground, but that day is not today my friends. This walk meanders through a graveyard, past some of the greatest oaks known to exist and possibly the greatest country gate vista ever viewed. ...
Suburban Safari: Hollybrook Cemetery
By Katie Isham. Cemeteries are for everyone. The dead shouldn’t get the monopoly. They are beautiful places and perfect for a wander or a sit. Two of my very favourite things. In the heart of Southampton, at the centre of a triangle made of the hospitals, the woods and...
View from the Kingsland: Ruled by hope or fear?
Saints fan column by Nick Mabey. I’ve been wanting to write this for a while, but the games have come so thick and fast that it is been hard to squeeze it in. And Saints’ fortunes have remained tantalisingly unknown throughout. Every match now means something and yet...
View from the Kingsland – Spring Sabbatical
By Nick Mabey. Well, this is strange. As the Championship promotion race builds to a climax, Saints find themselves with a three-week gap between games. Even stranger, this ‘Spring sabbatical’ (as I’m calling it even though no one else is) follows a mad eleven games in 41 days and...
Suburban Safari: Wildern Moor
By Katie Isham. A walk through the moors seems like a good idea, until you have to load up backpacks and drive the busy country lanes to the wilderness. Well, here’s the simple solution: take a winter trip to our local moor in the suburbs. Only as far as...
View from the Kingsland: A hundred year old record
By Nick Mabey We love a record at Saints. If I am being honest we don’t have the most impressive trophy cabinet for a club that’s spent so long in the top division and so records offer some solace and a welcome substitute. And at the moment all the...