For the second season running Saints faced Tottenham Hotspur at home on the opening day of the season, this time though it wan't a first division fixture, but the newly formed Prmier League

It was almost a year to the day when Spurs had last visited the Dell and a lot of water had gone under the bridge since then, both sides where now members of the Premier League and therefore now had the key to untold riches, both had struggled a bit to make it though and although come the final day, both ended up on 52 points and a good 10 points clear of Luton Town who filled the final relegation spot, neither club had had the 12 months they had hoped for since that meeting.

It had been all change for Saints, only six players were left from the previous seasons fixture, although Neil Ruddock was now on the pitch for Spurs, amogst other Saints who had played their last game for the club under the first year of Ian Branfoot were, Paul Rideout, Russell Osman, Jon Gittens, Alan Macloughlin, Neil Ruddock, Barry Horne & lastly but not least Alan Shearer, sadly all of these players had been replaced by far inferior ones.

Funnily enough though there were only two debutants on this day, Kerry Dixon and David Speedie, Ian Branfoot was pleased as punch with his new signings famously declaring that both would outscore Alan Shearer in the coming season and that having effectively signed two class acts like this pair, it was good business all round, history shows that neither even played as many games in their career total for Saints as Shearer notched golas for Blackburn in this season.

The 19,654 crowd though was over a thousand more than had been in attendance a year previously, maybe it was the excitement of Dixon & Speedie, maybe it was the chance to boo and hiss at Ruddock, maybe it was the thought that it might be a cracking game like the previous year, but it was still a bigger crowd.

The better, flowing more artistic and attacking football that Branfoot predicted for the season in his programme notes didnt materialise in this game though, nor much in the following nine months, although as nil nil draws go this was as good as most, the real show was pantomime viallains Speedie and Ruddock squaring up to each other and that was about it, in truth for Saints it was a reasonable result, a point better than the previous seasons start, but the alarm bells were ringing amongst the fans who were very much of the notion that their manager was P*ssing all over them and telling them it was raining.      

Photo: Action Images

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