by Nick Mabey. Before the season kicked off, Ralph Hasenhuttl was the bookies’ favourite to be the first manager in the Premier League to lose his job. After losing our first fixture heavily at Spurs, Southampton were priced as second favourites to be relegated. And, when the team trudged...
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Suburban Safari: The Dragonfly Cycle
by Katie Isham. Once again, our old friend summer has one foot out the door. No doubt expedited by the lack of rain, the trees are shedding their leaves like confetti. Time to get out and enjoy the last warm days of summer. On the outskirts of Eastleigh, is...
View from the Kingsland: Happy Birthday Premier League
by Nick Mabey. Image: Southampton’s Kyle Walker-Peters celebrates his equaliser in front of the Kingsland stand, during Saints’ first home game of the season against Leeds United Picture: Chris Moorhouse/Southampton FC We’re back. The Premier League celebrated 30 years in existence this month and Saints duly commemorated the occasion...
Suburban Safari: Hythe of activity
by Katie Isham. Right gang, buckle up: we’ve got three modes of transport to conquer in a very short distance. Ferries, trains and those trusted wandering shoes. Town Quay starts the adventure. Located at the bottom of Southampton High Street, it’s the home of Southampton’s ferries. Bypass those Isle...
Suburban Safari: Playing out for the summer…and beyond
by Katie Isham. Summer is well and truly here: it’s time to get outside and play out. Try to recall the long summer holidays of youth. How much time did you spend indoors? The days of hanging around with your friends at the park or making up games in...
View from the Kingsland: Dream big, dream now
by Nick Mabey. This is the time of year for dreamers. The dawn of a new season before a competitive ball has been kicked. This is the time for fans to dream of what might be over the next ten months. Southampton FC sit proudly joint top of the...
Suburban Safari: Our Common Ground
by Katie Isham. The Common. Such a place that needs the grand definite article to herald its arrival. I’ve thought long and hard about a Suburban Safari to take in The Common but it’s impossible to capture in a singular visit. You could have a daily walk on The...
View from the Kingsland: the post-season pre-season blur
by Nick Mabey. Back ‘when I were a lad’ the gap between football seasons seemed to go on forever. Tired, bruised players disappeared for months or so it seemed. The same players, with one or two exceptions, would roll back in tanned and heavy for the dreaded pre-season training...
Suburban Safari:From the Suburbs to the Shore…
by Katie Isham. Somewhere in a nearby magical land, in a kingdom behind a Co-Op, where the grand towers of industry watch over the landscape, there is a pathway from the suburbs to the shore. It may not have grand beginnings but it opens out onto one of the...
View from the Kingsland: The Transfer Window
by Nick Mabey. When I was a small boy transfers were worn like tattoos on our arms and windows were something we looked through while watching Play School. Nowadays the two words have joined forces in a twice-a-year cultural ritual for every football fan to suffer/enjoy (delete as appropriate)....