As I finally hopped out of bed after ten minutes of contemplating whether or not I had preserved enough body warmth to survive the much dreaded cold walk to the shower , I gazed out of my window at Lucia Foster Welch students halls of residence for my eyes to be presented with the usual everyday sighting of St Marys Stadium the home of Southampton Football Club. The only difference was today was the day I finally got to fulfill my ambition of visiting one of Britains best modern footballing stadia and ticking off another prestigious stadium I have been privalleged enough to visit, not only this but today was a new experience for me one which meant attending a football match but not as a fan, quite far from it in fact today i was about to embark on visiting St Marys as a sports journalist.
So there I stood, freezing cold and shivering engaging in my routine morning stretches as a cold November morning was accompanied by a radiator that doesn't exactly fulfill its job of heating my room up. But there was no time to loose I needed to have a shower, have my breakfast and meet up with my University lecturer John May to sit in the press box and watch Southampton versus Peterborough in what looked a tasty league one encounter between two sides who both had promotion ambitions. Both teams were going into the back of league defeats however Saints had won their last five league games at St Marys so i was anticipating an open interesting watch.
The walk to the stadium was delightful due to the fact it took me all of five minutes,as I set off my destination just seemed to fill the skyline not bad for a side in Englands third tier of league football. However this wasn't, and no disrespect to lower league sides just any club this was Southampton Football Club, a club rich in vein when it comes to past glorys and successes. A club which was home to some real footballing greats such as Saints legend Matt Le Tissier, the great Alan Shearer started his glorious career donning the famous red and white stripes. And more recently the likes of Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott were playing for this well supported city club. As I stood directly outside the ground it was clear to see this wasnt your average league one stadium it was a ground that looked to have been built with the intentions of assembling an infrastructure for that of a premiership club, so for me it was a shame when reflecting back on how an established premier league side such as Southampton have slowly moved down the England footballing pecking order over the past five years.
As I met John we waited around for about five minutes before going inside an recieving our press box tickets which was an experience I was very much looking forward to. The first place we visited once inside was the press conference room which was full of enthusiastic sports journalists sitting down watching the remainder of the Arsenal versus Tottenham game being played on the big screen, the turnaround which saw Spurs overcome a 2 goal half time defecit to run out 3-2 winners courtesy of a late Younnes Kaboul goal, claiming their first win away at their arch rivals for seventeen years was definately what everybody was encaptured by. Not me however as much as I was enthralled by such a result I was too busy ears dropping on journalists to find out traits and tricks of the trade in an industry I one day hope to prevail in. However this didnt deter me from helping myself to a glass of water and an amazing tuna baguette!
As kick off approached we made our way to our seats in the press box it was a new experience being surrounded by many journalists working for prestigious companies such as skysports and the BBC, some as commentators, others with laptops writing up match reports. Me, well I had my pen and pad and was setting up so I could get ready to write my own version of the 90 minutes which were about to unfold. There was time to spare so I had a quick look in the matchday programme and went over the team sheets to make sure I could take notes and keep my eyes peeled to the game at the same time. By now I knew i was in the stadium of a club with a great fan base who seemed to really want to get behind their team ,I was now taken away by the welcome the players recieved when making their way onto the pitch.
Kick off soon approached and the game started off at a frantic pace with Southampton in the ascendancy, creating the much better of the chances and they were soon reward with a fantastic effort by Lee Barnard that just seemed to fly into the top right hand corner. For the majority of the half all I could hear was Southampton fans fantastic support for their City club who were rewarded when the score remained 1-0 at half time. By now I was really feeling the cold so thought a coffee, a pasty and checking the days other days half times scores including my beloved Newcastle who were already facing a second half struggle due to the fact they were trailing by two goals at the break, away to Bolton Wanderers. Anyways I was here to do a professional job so had to keep my mind focused in the job in hand as I game back out 5 minutes before the second half resumed.
And barely one minute into the half and it was 2-0 after some great Saints play resulting in Jose Fonte heading low in the bottom corner , and those who left their seat at half time must have been even more gutted when 2 minutes later it was 3-0 courtesy of a Richard Chaplow volley which finished off a great team goal, by now Southampton were certainly in cruise control. The pace of the game remainded constant and the Saints were in no mood to just rest on their laurels and Peterborough their counter parts to be fair kept trying to come out and play football the right way despite trailing by three goals. Posh effort were rewarded after 75 minutes when Aaron Mcclean finished nicely with a little chip over Kelvin Davis to pull a goal back. However today was Southampton's day and the points were sealed when substitute Prado scored after 79 minutes. The scoreline 4-1 was how it remained for the remainder of the game and left Southampton fans going home happy and the team looking like they really mean business this season.
However my day was over yet, now as the stadium emptied it was time to go pitchside and into the tunnel to witness first hand how the professionals conducted interviews with both managers and players from both sets of teams. I was literally yards away as I saw BBC journalists interviewing Richard Chaplow of Southampton as well as both managers Gary Johnson and Nigel Adkins, it was fair to say the contrast of emotions was telling to say the least!
Now there was nothing left for me to do but to go home and go over in my head the events of today which definately left me with much to think about and look forward to if I'm going to embark on a prosperous future career as a sports journalist, today was definately the start of a long learning curve I am happy and willing to undergo to achieve my goals.
