Off the back of goals from both the old and new guard, Sholing overcame being pegged back to claim a second consecutive home win.
Sholing bossed possession in the first 10 minutes but couldn’t challenge Gerard Benfield, the closest being Jake McCarthy’s attempted overhead kick.
Brad Targett, who got his head in between the rising defenders, finally broke the deadlock after half an hour, in Sholing’s favour.
Dorchester went straight up the other end to equalise, and in some form. Jadyn Crosbie’s shot from the right went airborne and found the left-hand corner.
In the last moments of the first half, Tommy-Lee Higgs scored his second home goal in only his second home game for the club, capitalizing on slow reactions from the Dorchester defence, after Michael Folivi’s free kick was blocked, giving Sholing the half time lead.
The visitors went down to 10 men minutes into the second half, last man, and captain, Will Spetch, pulled Folivi down at neck height and was given his marching orders.
There wasn’t much in the way of clear-cut chances that followed, instead the referee became the target of both players and fans on both sides, having been faced with several big calls.
Unfortunately for Sholing, Jake Hesketh had to be substituted not long after coming on, having appeared to badly hurt his arm.
It didn’t matter in the end as Sholing survived the late push from Dorchester and gained three more points.
Though it’s a subject no footballer wants to deal with until they absolutely have to, the question of retirement creates a responsibility to pass your wisdom on to the next generation.
When that proposition arrived for Matt Le Tissier in the late 1990s and into the new century, he didn’t hesitate to do it. One of those coming through at the Dell during that time was James Beattie, who, in 1998, four years before Matt’s retirement, was arriving as a young 20-year-old all the way from Blackburn.
“I was kind of coming towards the end. I was the more senior player in the changing room”, Le Tissier said. “I tried my best to integrate the boys into the club, making them feel comfortable.”
By the time Beattie arrived, Le Tissier had lessons learned from nearly 200 goals and international experience, from midfield no less, to teach the new striker.
Beattie didn’t struggle to find his place as he earned the player of the season award at the end of his first season, thanks in no small part for his role in the famous great escape of the 1998/99 season.
From then until Le Tissier retired at the end of the first season at St Mary’s in 2002, it was Beattie who became the key goalscorer.
Speaking about his experience with Matt, Beattie said:
“I learned a lot from Matt, not just on the pitch but off it as well. He’s a fantastic person.”
“He was obviously the main character in that dressing room when I arrived. He welcomed me in, along with many others. I think he was an unbelievable player and I was lucky enough to be able to share the training ground and the pitch on matches with him at certain points.”
Despite scoring nearly 80 goals and being the club’s star player several years, Beattie feels he can’t lay a finger on the achievements of Southampton’s most famous number seven, but treasures the relationship that he does have with the fans and club:
“I will never be able to take over Matt’s mantle with the Southampton fans but hopefully with the performances I put in and the goals that I scored, a lot of fans remember that, which is nice. We’re part of the ex-Saints today, which do a lot of charity work in and around Southampton.
“I still have a great relationship with the fan base, even though many of them weren’t even born when I was playing. Again, I reckon that’s passed on down the generations, as Tiss’ legacy would be. It’s a great club. I love the club and my affinity with the fans is as strong as ever, I think.”
To many, Sholing Football Club is your standard, unassuming, and modest non-league club. For the most part, that is true. The Boatmen currently sit in the seventh tier of English football, the Southern League Premier South, and play their games at the Mortgage Decisions Stadium. The club had their highest ever league finish last season. They ended up in sixth-place in step three of the non-league system, missing out on the play-offs by three points.
For two brothers, it’s another step in guarding the legacy of their family name, which has become embedded in the club’s DNA, beginning with four siblings all the way down in the Wessex League.
The name that has found its way into Sholing folklore:
Mason.
That name is shared by Barry, Byron, Marlon, and Dan. For many years, the whole clan wore the red and white with pride.
That came to an end in 2017, when 556-game veteran and patriarch, Barry, moved on, who was then followed by youngest Marlon in 2018.
This left the duo to carry the name, which they have done to this day, racking up over 700 appearances, and over 300 goals, respectively.
Barry’s influence rubbed off on now 37-year-old and captain, Byron, who now bears the brunt of the responsibility of keeping the club one with his family:
“My older brother was here first. It was just natural for me to come here. it’s easier when you’re going to a changing room when you’ve got family there.”
“I came here as a youngster. Never really had intentions of leaving, there was no reason for me to leave.”
Just like his older brother was with him, Byron was there to help to guide Dan when it was time for next Mason to come off the production line:
“My little brother came through the 15s, 16s, the 18s, and into the first team. Having brothers play for the same team it’s always good, especially on the pitch together.
“It’s always just been a massive family to be honest.”
On a Saturday afternoon, Byron is channeling his inner Roy Keane onto his back line, with help from the touchline, which can have pros and cons, depending on who you ask. At the other end, Dan, affectionately known as D-Dan is leading the onslaught.
Dan has scored over 300 goals for his beloved Boatmen, enough to make him the all-time top scorer:
“Every time I hit a new milestone it felt special. So to now have the most goals in the club’s history with the level of players that this club’s had, It’s amazing.
“I used to come to watch Sholing when I was younger. My two brothers were playing. I never really thought that I would get to that level.”
Such has been the longevity of the name in Sholing circles, even Dan, who is the second youngest, saw the wilderness years, literally:
“When we first started playing it was a grass pitch with a pole around it, and to see where the club is now to still be a part of it is special.”
They won’t tell you themselves about their impact on the team. Bradley Targett, who has shared the pitch with both brothers, had no such hesitation about their importance.
“I’ll start with Byron, an all-round leader, he can talk you through a game.
“I’ve been here nine years, played with Byron up from young so having him there has been a big positive to my game.
“Dan, give him half the chance he’ll score. I’ve seen it from nothing he’s just scored worldies.”
“Warriors.”
The mortality of football careers isn’t lost, in line with their teachings, they want to make it as easy as possible for the young guns:
“There’s always going to be that time where my time is over.
“Me and Byron want to just push this as far as we can so then when the next generation comes in they can then take it to the next level.”
When the boots are hung up, Byron wants his passion to live long in the memory:
“I would hope they could look at me and say that I gave my all every time I stepped over the pitch. I’ve been captain for a long time so being around the players and understanding the players and just being someone to talk to is massive for me.”
Meanwhile, Dan takes his locker room leader role very seriously:
“Leaders.
“It’s not only on the pitch it’s around the changing room. it’s showing ability to stay at the highest level. For us to lead and lead by example and stay at this level as high as we can.”
They are actively involved in finding the next crop of talent in their coaching roles in the LSC Academy, led by the next in their lineage. Nephew, Levi Colwill.
When Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss of 1938, there were grave consequences for the population. However, it also ended Austria’s reign as one of the dominant forces in world football, and an even worse fate awaited one of their greatest-ever players and captain of the Wunderteam, Matthias Sindelar.
The “Wunderteam” refers to Austria’s national side during the 1930s. They were spearheaded by Sindelar and Josef Bican, two of the greatest goalscorers in Austrian and football history. Before beginning to represent Czechoslovakia in 1938, Bican scored 14 goals in 19 appearances for Austria between 1933 and 1936.
Despite being among the leading nations to boycott the 1930 World Cup, believing it would not succeed as a legitimate tournament, the Austrians didn’t need it to prove their quality.
During the decade, their standout results included 5-0 and 6-0 victories over Germany, a 6-0 demolition of Switzerland, and an 8-2 routing of Hungary.
Their only piece of silverware came in the 1932 Central European International Cup, a precursor to the European Championship. In the final, they defeated Italy 4-2, a side that would go on to win the 1934 World Cup in highly controversial fashion.
Austria entered the 1934 World Cup as favourites but failed to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy after losing 1-0 to hosts Italy in the semi-finals. They then found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-2 defeat to Germany in the third-place play-off. Austria would meet the Germans again four years later, but under very different circumstances.
The foundations of the team began to crumble between 1934 and 1938. After Bican switched allegiance to Czechoslovakia, the architect of the side, Hugo Meisl, passed away in 1937 after 18 years in charge. He was replaced by Heinrich Retschury, who would oversee the integration of Austrian football into that of the Third Reich.
The Anschluss effectively ended Austria’s 1938 World Cup campaign, as they withdrew three months before the tournament was due to begin. Following the annexation, nine Austrian players were forced to switch colours, and German manager Sepp Herberger was ordered to integrate them into his squad at short notice.
Though Austrian players featured at the 1938 World Cup, it was nowhere near the same. The identity that had made them so dominant had been stripped away as they were forced to integrate with German teammates they barely knew. Not every member of the Wunderteam had made the transition either.
The lack of unity quickly became apparent. Germany recorded their worst World Cup performance until 2018, being eliminated in the first round. At the time, the tournament was a straight knockout competition with no group stage. Switzerland knocked them out after a 4-2 replay victory, with the former Wunderteam players caught up in the humiliation.
One player the occupiers desperately wanted was Sindelar, but he gave them the cold shoulder, refusing to play for the combined side outright. However, as was so often the case under a regime like Nazi Germany, resistance could be a fatal choice.
Unfortunately, it proved to be for Sindelar.
On 23 January 1939, Sindelar and his partner were found dead. The official verdict was carbon monoxide poisoning, but numerous theories have emerged over the years, ranging from suicide to assassination by the regime.
Regardless of the true cause, the poster boy of Austrian football’s golden age was gone, and in many ways, the golden age died with him.
For most of the 1950s, the Hungarian National Football Team dominated the beautiful game. The team were massive favourites for the 1954 World Cup and, between 1950 and 1956, went four years and 31 games unbeaten. During those six years, they suffered only one loss: the 1954 World Cup final against West Germany.
Unfortunately, politics reared its ugly head during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, as players departed one after another, bringing the Mighty Magyars to an end long before they reached their true peak.
Yet the warning signs were already there, as the revolution wasn’t the only time the team faced political pressure. Five years earlier, the Soviet-backed regime had shown what would happen to those who tried to escape. The actions of Mátyás Rákosi’s government sent a clear warning to the players who remained in Hungary as they learned of the state-sanctioned execution of one of the greatest players the nation had ever seen.
Defender Sándor Szűcs may have stopped representing his nation in 1948, but that was a decision taken by the communist government, who banned him from doing so because of an extramarital affair. Had the government not stepped in, he would’ve been one of the first names on the Hungarian team sheet. By 1951, there had been an exodus of players who had defected to the West, spearheaded by fellow Hungarian László Kubala, who then set up a team of defectors that would play friendlies against major club sides. As a result, surveillance by Eastern European governments on their biggest names increased.
Under the guise of an offer from AC Milan, Szűcs attempted to become the latest to make it to a freer world. He and his partner travelled with a contact who had offered to take them into Austria before arranging safe passage to Italy.
Before crossing the border, Szűcs and his partner were apprehended by members of the Hungarian secret police. It happened after their supposed contact told him to surrender his gun, revealing himself to be a secret police agent.
It had been a trap all along.
At the time, the defender was playing for the police team and therefore held the rank of lieutenant in the force, causing the authorities all sorts of reputational damage. Crucially, by carrying a weapon during his attempted escape, he was in violation of a law that carried a punishment of either life imprisonment or the death penalty. The latter was handed to Szűcs and carried out by hanging on 4 June 1951.
The story was kept secret from the wider public until the fall of communism in 1989. However, the players quickly learned of the fate of their teammate, and the case became a stark warning to anyone contemplating defection.
Those who remained managed to put it behind them and continued their rise to the top of world football. They gained widespread attention following their 6-3 demolition of England, then also seen as one of the best teams in the world, at Wembley Stadium in the 1953 “Match of the Century”. Those ninety minutes at the home of English football marked the arrival of the Magyars and proved the catalyst for the performances that made them the favourites for the ultimate prize the following year.
The Hungarians didn’t actually have to qualify for their place in Switzerland. The two teams that would’ve been in their qualifying group didn’t take part. FIFA rejected Iceland’s participation because the Icelandic FA submitted its application after the deadline, while Poland withdrew from the qualification process, with Hungary’s dominance widely viewed as a major factor behind the decision.
If anyone thought the inactivity would hurt their chances of lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy before they even started, they were badly mistaken. Hungary topped Group 2 ahead of their eventual conquerors, West Germany, having won both of their games and finishing with four points.
They then met Brazil, who would go on to become the standard-bearers of world football after the end of the Magyars’ era, but it was Hungary who advanced thanks to a 4-2 victory. They repeated the scoreline against defending champions Uruguay to secure their place in the final, which would turn out to be a rematch against the Germans.
Though there were allegations of doping on the part of their opponents, when it was all said and done, it was West Germany who lifted the trophy, with Puskás and company forced to accept a 3-2 defeat. As it would turn out, that would be as good as it got.
The death warrant for the team was effectively signed on 4 November 1956, when the Soviet Union launched its brutal suppression of the uprising. Now under no illusions that the desire to control their own careers outweighed any fear of the repercussions of defection, the great team began to fall apart.
Puskás put his playing career on hold before securing a move to Real Madrid, where he joined Alfredo Di Stéfano to begin a golden age for Los Blancos.
Another star chose Spain too, as striker Sándor Kocsis opted for the other side of El Clásico and joined Barcelona. The Blaugrana also snapped up pacey winger Zoltán Czibor, with both men reuniting with Kubala.
The story of the Mighty Magyars proves they weren’t just a team blessed with extraordinary ability. They were a shining light for their people during the nation’s darkest days, unfairly ripped away from them by events that had nothing to do with what happened on the pitch.
Those in Barcelona have always been immensely proud of their Catalan identity and fiercely protective of it. For example, during the 2012 Kings Cup final, the Blaugrana faithful booed the Spanish national anthem so loudly that officials attempted to drown them out by increasing the volume. It didn’t work.
When such a strong regional identity was confronted by a hardline nationalist dictator who despised everything it represented, life became extraordinarily difficult for the club and its supporters. Yet rather than weakening their sense of belonging, the pressure only strengthened it.
Francisco Franco ruled Spain from his victory in the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975. The fact that his forces were backed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy during the conflict says much about the ideology that shaped his regime. Unfortunately, football was not spared from political interference, and Barcelona certainly wasn’t.
As expected, Franco took an exceptionally dim view of Catalan nationalism. Whenever possible, he sought to ensure that Barcelona’s fierce rivals, Real Madrid, led the way. His government even became involved in the transfer saga of one of the greatest players in football history, ultimately ensuring he wore white.
Before that, Franco made little effort to conceal his hostility towards the club during the early stages of the war, as evidenced by his lack of response when his troops assassinated Barcelona president Josep Sunyol in August 1936.
Sunyol was not only the club’s president but also a prominent left-wing politician and a member of the Republican Left of Catalonia.
On the day of his assassination, he was travelling outside Madrid when he encountered a line of Francoist troops. He was arrested and, without trial, executed by the soldiers.
His death sowed hatred towards Franco among Barcelona supporters before the dictator had even officially taken power. Once he did, relations only deteriorated further. Whenever there was an opportunity to undermine the club off the pitch, it seemed to happen. Franco was often reluctant to directly influence events on the field, but away from it, Barcelona frequently found themselves at a disadvantage.
Ironically, for a significant period after the Second World War, Barcelona remained the dominant force in Spanish football despite being anything but favourites of the regime. Between 1944 and 1953, they won all but two league titles. During the same period, they also claimed three consecutive Copa del Rey trophies between 1951 and 1953.
It was in 1953, however, that Franco’s alleged sympathies became most apparent during the transfer saga of Alfredo Di Stéfano.
The controversy stemmed from the fact that Barcelona had agreed a deal with River Plate, the last FIFA-affiliated club Di Stéfano had played for. Their move followed FIFA regulations and therefore required approval from the governing body.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, negotiated separately with Di Stéfano’s parent club, Colombian side Millonarios, allowing both clubs to claim they held rights to the player from different perspectives.
Eventually, the National Sports Delegation, which was controlled by the Spanish government, ruled that Di Stéfano would alternate seasons between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Feeling humiliated, and convinced their claim was the more legitimate one, Barcelona withdrew from negotiations entirely, leaving Madrid to sign the Argentine outright.
It is important to note that the head of the delegation at the time was General José Moscardó Ituarte. A veteran of the Nationalist side during the Civil War, he had been appointed directly by Franco. Given his background, many have argued that he shared Franco’s hostility towards Barcelona, fuelling suspicions that the regime indirectly influenced the outcome of the transfer.
Di Stéfano’s arrival transformed Real Madrid’s trajectory while condemning Barcelona to one of the most barren league periods in the club’s history.
Barcelona initially resisted Madrid’s rise, winning league titles in 1959 and 1960. However, those triumphs would be their last until 1974, just one year before Franco’s death. It was not entirely bleak, as the club continued to find success in the Copa del Rey, winning the competition three times before Di Stéfano left Madrid and twice more before the regime collapsed.
Meanwhile, the other eight league titles between 1953 and 1964 all went to the Santiago Bernabéu. In the eleven years between Di Stéfano’s departure and Franco’s death, Real Madrid added six more.
Madrid did not merely establish themselves as Spain’s dominant force; they became the first truly dominant team in European football. They won each of the first five European Cups, achievements that served Franco’s propaganda machine wonderfully and elevated Real Madrid’s global stature in the process.
Even after Franco’s death, the shadow of his rule lingered over Barcelona. When the club finally won La Liga in 1974, followed shortly afterwards by the dictator’s passing, many supporters believed the tide was turning. Instead, they endured another eleven-year wait before lifting the title again in 1985, a period that included five consecutive championships for their hated rivals.
Although Barcelona returned to the summit in 1985, it was not until the 1990s that they truly overturned the historical balance. At last, it was their turn to enjoy a sustained period of glory.
The decade brought eight league titles and, most importantly, the club’s first European Cup, won at Wembley in 1992.
The record books show that Barcelona are not the most successful club in Spanish or European football in terms of trophies. Yet many of their greatest victories carry a significance beyond silverware. They were achieved by a club that spent nearly forty years representing a community and a culture determined to preserve its identity against a system designed to suppress it.
Franny Benali may well have played most of his career, and scored his single career goal, at The Dell, but he did have a few seasons at St Mary’s Stadium from the 2001 move to his retirement three years later.
In fact, throughout the historic ground’s successor’s 25 years, it can be argued that it has been the host of Benali’s greatest memories away from the pitch:
Benali was 32 when the club he had been playing for since 1988 moved to their new home which put an end to the club’s 103-year stay at their old and historic stomping ground:
“The move here to St Mary’s was towards the end of my playing days. So, the bulk of my career was spent at the Dell.
“I was part of a group of players that had all just come up through our careers at the Dell, and that’s all we’d ever known.
Though it meant leaving a place he loved so much, even Franny was excited at the prospect of the shiny new St Mary’s Stadium
“The move here was an exciting one, really exciting to come to St Mary’s.
“It was pretty different to what it is today, the hospitality suites have changed massively and the footprint of the football club on the outside of the ground as well has changed a lot.
“There’s lots that’s happened in 25 years on reflection.”
The first few months at their new home were very tough for the club. They didn’t win at the ground until November when Marian Pahars scored to beat Charlton 1-0:
“On reflection, from a football perspective, looking back on it was quite a tricky one to get used to new surroundings.
“Having been so accustomed to literally knowing every inch of the Dell, it felt quite strange coming to a modern state-of-the-art stadium to then make it feel homely for us. So, it did take a while to settle in on the football front.”
Benali was also very appreciative that his career longevity allowed him to be one of the first to play at the stadium:
“Most definitely. I think it’s been talked about for years and years.
“There was talk about the stadium maybe going out towards Stoneham and Eastleigh at one point. I think it was always on the club’s radar that we’d have to move to a larger location or a bigger capacity at some stage.
“To be part of that whilst I was still playing was exciting at that point.
“I’m pleased that I got to play both at Dell and here at St Mary’s during my playing days.”
Despite spending nearly 13 years at the Dell, and just three at St Mary’s, or even less if you count his 2004 loan move to Nottingham Forest, the 32,000 seater stadium has found a place in Franny’s heart:
“The fact that we’ve been here now 25 years, there’s so many memories here, for sure.
“So nice, so grateful to have experienced many things here on and off the pitch, but I think maybe that’s just something that we all fall into a little bit as we age.
“There’s always that little bit of a special place that the Dell will hold, given that we experienced that for so long.
“The new memories are being made here now and there’s a generation of supporters that have only ever probably known St Mary’s and never got to experience the Dell.
“It’s all about living in the present and reflecting and remembering the past and enjoying that, looking back on it, but very much living here today and creating the memories in the future.”
Franny has become known for his legendary, in Southampton at least, fitness challenges and it has been St Mary’s role in those that is his greatest memory:
“I think from a purely personal perspective, it would be having the opportunity of finishing two of my three challenges that I did a number of years ago.
“Effectively, St Mary’s Stadium was the finish line for me on two of those challenges and getting an opportunity to do a lap of the pitch on a match day was very, very special for me, my family and the support team.”
Clearly, Franny is proud of the first 25 years, so what would he like to see in the next quarter of a century?
“I think the non-football side of things has got to be different and improve and change in many ways to compete on the pitch.
“With financial regulations and rules now, we’ve got to generate income. That’s not just from a football perspective, it’s on the other side. I’m excited about what that’s going to look like in the future for the next 25 years.
“I’m also really excited about the future of the football club on the pitch. Clearly, it’s a priority for so many supporters and fans.
“They want to see a successful, exciting team that they can support here at the stadium and I think that will go hand-in-hand with the off-pitch stuff.
“I’m really looking forward to hopefully being excited about another 25 years and maybe sat here in 50 years celebrating the 50th anniversary of St Mary’s.”
Say what you want about Matthew Le Tissier, and many have, but one thing about him that people have to respect, is his unwillingness to bend on his morals to get ahead. Five years ago, it cost him a job he had loved for the past 16 years, a pundit on Soccer Saturday. It’s no different from what he was like as a player, missing out on representing the biggest clubs in the country, monster salaries and more caps for his country, instead choosing to stay in a club and place he loved so much, and still to this day has no regrets about the decisions he made, staying true to himself in the process.
Case in point, he has no hesitation in sharing such views as “our real problem is that 1% are the psychopaths at the top that are controlling things.” Le Tissier may have had his former employers in mind when saying that, but it’s a stance he was not afraid to share even during his time with Sky, such is the strength of his character.
Just like everyone else, Matt is just expressing what he feels is right, unfairly, he has received a lot of flak for doing this. In fact, against what many of those that criticise him claim, he tries to see all viewpoints:
“I follow people from all walks of life on there, and try to get a balanced view of stuff that happens from social media.”
His set of beliefs are so strong that, recently, they led him to decide to become a Christian:
“So, about two years ago, during the whole Covid stuff, I felt like there was a real battle going on in this world of good against evil. And the things that that led me to research, led me to God.
“I felt like that was for me, the way that I wanted to go and live the rest of my life. And follow Jesus and try to be the best person that I can be and try to follow the following.”
He hasn’t left football behind, on select days, he can be found trading St Mary’s for the Mortgage Decisions Stadium, where he is an Associate Director at Sholing FC. He took on the role as a favour to current Boatmen joint-manager, Paul Doswell, who, as manager of Eastleigh, convinced Matt to have a spell at the club:
“I’d only played maybe 10 games. I think it was altogether. So, it wasn’t a huge amount, but I was doing it as a favour for Dave (Hughes) and for Doswell. I’ve always kept in touch with Doswell down the years and when he got involved with Sholing and he asked me if I’d come up there and get involved a little bit, I was more than happy to do that. “
This is just who he is.
It’s something he’s carried through from his playing days, at no time was this more apparent than his decision to spend his whole professional career pulling on the shirt of Southampton, though don’t be fooled into thinking he didn’t have chances to leave, he turned down even his favourite club as a child, Spurs, after having agreed personal terms with the Lilywhites in 1990. To Le Tissier, his own and his then soon to be wife’s happiness was more important than fulfilling a childhood dream:
“I agreed to join Spurs, and I was just about to get married. My fiancée at the time, decided at the last minute she didn’t want to go live in London. So, my choice was either to join Spurs, or I got married and I got married, and six years later I was divorced.”
In a cruel twist of fate, the two managers he turned down, Terry Venables at Spurs, and Glenn Hoddle, his childhood hero, when Chelsea lodged a £7 million bid in 1995, both went on to become England manager.
Both left him out of a major tournament, the Euros in 1996 by Venables and Hoddle decided not to take him to France for the 1998 World Cup, reluctantly, Le Tissier’s let it go:
“I mean it’s pretty coincidental, wasn’t it?”
“It’s one of those things in life; you just have to suck up and swallow it and get on with it.”
If it’s any consolation, it is almost a unanimous verdict that he should’ve had many more caps, something the man himself enjoys:
“It’s much nicer for people to say, ‘you only got eight England caps’ rather than people go, ‘what, you’ve got 50 caps? I didn’t realise you got that many.’ It’s a nicer end to be on, but I’m very proud of those eight caps nonetheless.”
It was no surprise bigger clubs tried their luck several times, with 209 goals, 47 out of 48 penalties scored and multiple seasons where he scored 30 goals, Le Tissier was going to be top of anyone’s list.
One of those 209 strikes was a product of his high level of self-belief, and it just so happens to be his favourite, a 40-yard belter against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in December 1994:
“I’d been practising that shot in training from that range. I used to take balls out of the training ground and find a spot 25, 30 yards out and experiment with how I could hit shots. So, when I got into that position, I thought I know what I can do from here.”
Although, scoring a goal like that would’ve been a reward for his resilience during a period where his character was most tested, when Ian Branfoot was in the hot seat at The Dell, and in the 1993/94 season, Matt found himself out of the team entirely for five games, a stretch of absence he ended with two crackers against Newcastle, live on Sky Sports, and remarkably, he didn’t take it personally:
“That was pretty cool to come back in that Newcastle game live on Sky and do that after he left me out of the team for five games.
“He didn’t even put me on the subs bench.
“You’re going to go through spells where some managers don’t particularly rate you as a player and you have to convince them otherwise. That’s what I had to do to him. It took a little bit of time, but we got there eventually.”
Luckily for Le Tissier, he got on much better with Branfoot’s replacement, Alan Ball, definitely helped by the World Cup winner’s treatment of him after his and his teammates’ actions on a pre-season trip to Bangor:
“We ended up as players going out on a night out that we shouldn’t have done and ended up coming back at some unearthly hour of the morning.
“He said, ‘I want a word with you upstairs.’
“I thought I was in big trouble here. (If) he had taken off me two weeks wages, fine.
“He said, ‘you’re the captain, but the way you’re playing, you can do whatever you want and get yourself to bed.’ That was a pretty cool bit of man management because I went and scored 30 goals that season.
“He allowed me to go on a pitch wherever I wanted and be as dangerous as I could be to take up dangerous positions without having to do any defending.”
By the end of the 1990s, Le Tissier faced a whole new challenge, what comes in every player’s career where they will help nurture the next generation, it was a task that he took pride in for the players in his case, James Beattie and Marian Pahars:
“I tried my best to integrate the boys into the club, making them feel comfortable. I think in Marius’s case, it was really difficult because obviously he didn’t speak any English when he first arrived.
“He picked the language up quickly actually and he still speaks it well to this day.
“You do start to feel like a senior pro and these young kids that come in, it’s kind of your duty to just try and guide them in the right direction.”
He may have not got the reward of a suitable number of England caps that his career deserved, but he did get the prize of being the last person to ever score at The Dell, his only league goal of the 2000/01 season:
“I certainly felt like it was my destiny to score the last ever league goal at The Dell. That was invading my thoughts every day from when I knew I was going to be on the bench, and Stuart Gray told me that I would be on the pitch when the final whistle went.
“It was everything to me, so that was a special moment. “
Unfortunately, the season after that magical moment, would be Matt’s last in professional football, off the back of an injury plagued 01/02 season. In his final act as Southampton’s number seven, he repaid the club with an ultimate act of sportsmanship:
“It would have been easy for me to just kind of sit there and expect the club to give me a contract because of what I’d done in the past, but that wasn’t what I was about and I didn’t want to put the club in that awkward position, and so I took the decision to retire at the end of that season.
“I felt like I was almost robbing a living at the end, taking wages for that final season because I was injured for most of it. I didn’t want that to be my legacy at the football club.”
Despite the large number of times he found the net, Le Tissier lies second in the list of Southampton’s top scorers. The one player to have scored more is Mick Channon, and testament to his character, he says he is perfectly happy to be second to player of Channon’s calibre, but couldn’t resist a little jibe:
“No hard feelings whatsoever. I love Mick, he’s a great bloke, I’m quite happy to be second to him. Although a lot of his goals were scored in the second division, so they shouldn’t really count.”
His childhood would explain why he went to become the player and man he did, he grew up on a council estate in Guernsey, from a family who loved the sport; Mum, Ruth, Dad, Marcus, and Brothers, Carl, Kevin and Mark, who all played the game, and by his own admission, helped Le Tissier in his development:
“Playing football with my older brothers helped me get better quicker because when you play with kids four, five, six years older, you’ve got to find a way, they’re bigger and stronger than you. So, you have to use your skills to get past them. So that’s why I got adept at doing that pretty quickly. “
It was thanks to his parents that Matt didn’t feel as homesick as he would’ve been when he had to make the journey over to Southampton, and stay there, at 16 years old:
“When I was about 11 or 12, my parents started sending me away to soccer schools over on the mainland, and I used to go with a friend of mine and his dad.
“So, my parents would get me used to getting away from home a little bit and spending the weekends away from home at a young age, and just kind of so they were quite clever because my older brothers didn’t have that. So, I had a little bit of an advantage.”
While he may have got lucky with his genes and upbringing, Matthew Le Tissier’s decision to stay true to himself, something that many would say was a risk for his reputation in years to come, was one he made himself, and it has kept him in the public eye much longer than several of his fellow professionals who always looked for the biggest payday.
James Beattie is already a Southampton legend. In his six-and-a-half years at the club, he scored 76 goals for the club and helped the club maintain its premier league status along with helping lead them to the 2003 FA Cup final before moving to Everton in January 2005, a change that he didn’t want to make, endearing himself to the faithful on the south coast even more.
In recent years, James has taken on a new role that shows his high affinity with the Southampton public. He has become a keen supporter of the biggest name to come out of the city in boxing ever, Ryan Garner. He’s been in attendance at a number of Garner’s fights and featured in the official promotion for his homecoming against Michael Magnesi at St Mary’s, in which he became WBC Interim featherweight champion in June 2026:
He was a massive Southampton fan and a few of his friends are my friends, said Beattie, “Ryan and I met up one day, it was before even the first Bournemouth fight, and we got on great and he told me his story, which is interesting.
“He was fixated and really focused on making this return to the ring and being better, being a better fighter, being a better person and really utilising his amazing talent that he’s got.
Beattie also saw a lot in common between their journeys to the top of their games:
“We exchanged stories of that sort of mentality and what it takes and where I’d faced adversity stories, Glenn Hoddle said to me I’d never be a Premier League footballer. In my mind, I knew exactly where I was going and what I was doing and I think that that was the same path that Ryan was on.
“I think if he stays on the path that he’s on, he’ll become a full world champion and defend his title many times, even though there’re tremendous fighters in that category in the world. But I just think having watched him train and having got to know him, he’s a fantastic lad, but he’s hard as nails. He’s a really good technician.
“It’s just really exciting, a relationship that’s just built and built. He enjoys my presence around the camp.
“It’s a bit Rocky-like, isn’t it?”
While Ryan “The Piranha” Garner waits for his shot at the full featherweight crown, his career has already taken off and now he has the surreal feeling of having the support of and having a genuine friendship with the man who was scoring the goals for his team during his childhood.
James Beattie would eventually become a Premier League veteran, who, through representing clubs like Southampton, Everton, Stoke and Sheffield United, scored over 100 career goals. He also pulled on an England shirt five times during his career.
However, his story is one that shows that sometimes the scariest things in life will turn out to be some of the best decisions someone can make.
in 1998, he was a 20-year-old who was faced with a move to the other side of England, when Blackburn Rovers, his hometown club, used him to sweeten the deal of signing Kevin Davies from Southampton so Beattie was on his way down south, and he recalls hearing the news that he had to leave:
“It was a big move because it’s the first time I’d lived away from home and I was actually really upset when Blackburn said they’d sold me because that was my boyhood club.
“I remember playing golf at the time when I had the phone call from a guy called Tom Finn who was the secretary of Blackburn at the time and he said we’d sold you to Southampton and I remember I started crying at 20 and I felt like my world had ended.”
Luckily for him, things worked out quite quickly and in the present day, Beattie looks back on the move very differently:
“Having travelled down here and spoken to Dave Jones and listened to what plan he had for me, it fitted in with what I was going to do in my head at Blackburn anyway.
“Looking back on it, it’s probably the best thing that ever happened to me, coming down here and playing for Southampton for six and a half years.
“I speak a lot about timing these days with coaches, managers and players and I just think that timing-wise for me, it was perfect with the right manager and then managers that came after that.”
Beattie hit the ground running and then some. During the 1998/99 season, dubbed “The Great Escape” by Southampton fans, his performances earned him the player of the season award, which exceeded the expectations he had on arrival at The Dell.
“In that first season it worked out really well with the great escape and I achieved in my mind what I wanted to achieve. Not a great situation for the club to be in, however in the end it was great and then we managed to kick on from there and progress.
“My initial plan was to go and try and make a few appearances in the first team, get a few goals which happened and then establish myself as one of the main strikers or if not the main striker for the club.”
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for him at the Saints. When Glenn Hoddle was appointed manager in 2000, Beattie was someone who he didn’t really fancy and tried to find him a new club:
“He said he was going to sell me to Crystal Palace and I said I wanted to work hard and get in the team and change his mind, so he favoured me as a player and that’s exactly what happened.”
During that period, Beattie had a trick up his sleeve, relying on the mentality he had built up during his days as a swimmer at high level in his youth. It was that mindset that got him into the side and kicked off a run of 10 goals in 10 games:
“I had a really good mentality from football and any sort of adverse things that would happen to me, I had a really good ability to be able to bounce back and I had good resilience. I think that was from when I used to be a swimmer as a youngster”
In 2001, a new gaffer arrived in Gordon Strachan, who is someone Beattie has made no secret of being his favourite manager:
“Glenn left for Tottenham and then Gordon Strachan came in who, I’ve said it many times before, was my favourite manager. He understood me and got me as a person and he managed to get the best out of me in those years at Southampton where I was scoring regularly.”
The 2002/03 season was the best in his career, scoring 23 goals in the Premier League which earned him his first call up for England. However, it could have been even better had he also been able to claim the Golden Boot, an award that was taken off him on the final day of the season:
“Yes, 100 per cent I wanted to win the golden boot. I wanted to score as many goals as I could, I wanted to help the team as much as I could. I think we were a really good team, no superstars as there were in other teams in the Premier League, but as a team on our day, we were excellent.
“I was leading the whole season, I was first to 10 and first to 20. I remember the last game we played was actually the last game at Maine Road before Man City moved to the Etihad. I was on 23 goals, I think Van Nistelrooy was on 22 and Henry was on 21 or they might have been on 22 each.
“We were playing Man City and I remember I was shooting from everywhere and trying to score and maybe not remembering how the goals had come previously with the whole team being involved because you need all your teammates to score, it’s not just one player.
“I remember Claus Lundekvam running the length of the pitch, telling me off and having the right go at me, telling me to stop shooting from everywhere where I was on the pitch and I didn’t manage to score.
“We won 1-0 but I didn’t manage to score, so I was on 23. I think Van Nistelrooy got two, which put him on 24 and I think Henry got a hat-trick which put him on 25, so they overtook me on the last day of the season.”
James didn’t just have the race for top scorer on his mind as he and his fellow Saints reached the FA Cup final that year against an Arsenal side that were a year away from lifting the Premier League trophy undefeated, and who only escaped with a 1-0 win:
“We played them down here and beat them 3-2, so the belief was there. Like I said, we were on our day, a fantastic team, not blessed with loads of individual players like Arsenal were.
“We knew what we were coming up against, but I don’t think there was any fear because fear is an illusion anyway. At the end of the day, it was in the Millennium Stadium, the first FA Cup final ever with the roof on, so it was enclosed.
“We felt we deserved to be there, having had a fantastic cup run and then a brilliant semi-final at Villa Park. We felt we deserved to be there and we fancied ourselves in the game.”
Despite missing out on the Golden Boot and the FA Cup in very unlucky fashion, there was some good news in him making his international debut, although it seems his time in the international setup was anything but united:
“I felt that on my form, I deserved to be there. However, it wasn’t the greatest of experiences and a lot of players previously have spoken about it, it was very fragmented in the different groups that were in the team.
“I just didn’t manage to score, which I had a couple of opportunities to do. I remember one instance at Old Trafford where we went through and Frank Lampard, he could have given it to me and I’d have tapped it into an empty net but he had a shot and missed. So little things like that, I remember but that’s the way it goes.”
During his time at Southampton, he was given the armband, which led to a moment he holds very close to this day:
“It’s a very proud moment to captain your team, but I don’t think it changed how I played or my approach to the game. It was just very humbling and a real honour to lead my team out.
“One of my favourite pictures actually is when we played Newcastle at home here at St Mary’s and Alan Shearer was the captain of the other side. When I first joined Blackburn, he was at the club and again, someone who you can watch train and you can try and emulate in future years. It was a really, really proud moment for me.”
Due to an eight place finish and FA Cup final appearance, the Saints found themselves in a place in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup. Unfortunately, they didn’t get past the first round having fallen to a 2-1 aggregate loss to Steaua Bucharest:
“I think overall we were disappointed with our performance in Europe. I remember playing in Romania and it was absolutely lashing it down and we sold out tickets.
“A lot of people remember that European adventure and obviously, we would have liked to progress and had a good run. However, that didn’t work out.
“We were disappointed for the fans as well because they pay a lot of money to come to the games and it’s great when you can go over into Europe.
“I’ve got a few friends now who are a bit older who are actually at the games who tell us stories of how much they enjoyed it and how much they enjoyed following the team through Europe.
“It was disappointing that we couldn’t reproduce the form that had got us to the European adventure in the first place.”
Beattie’s time at Southampton came to an end in January 2005, when manager Harry Redknapp, with the club entrenched in a relegation battle, opted to sell his star striker to raise funds for improvements around the squad.
The decision to move, as a result, was not one made by James and one he wasn’t massively keen to do. Without him, Southampton were relegated to the Championship and he felt a little bit hurt:
“It wasn’t my decision, I remember Harry coming in and he said, I need to sell you, I need to sell you to get three or four players in to help keep us up.
“I didn’t really understand his workings or his theory behind that because I’d been the club’s top scorer for the last five or six years.
“Once that decision was made, then I had to go down a path of transferring, even though I didn’t really want to, and then spoke to various other clubs and then made my decision to go and join Everton.”
“I felt bad for the club, yes.
“We spoke about good leadership and good stewardship right from the top, not just from the manager but from the chairman as well, I don’t think that, looking back on it, it was a great appointment.”
Though the decision to leave his adopted home was one that he couldn’t control, he’ll be glad to see that the Southampton faithful don’t hold that against him and his image as a club legend still remains.
Not bad for a 20-year-old who was once heartbroken to leave his childhood home.
