Category: Football

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.

Credit: Daily Echo

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.

Sho-offs are back in the winning habit

SHOLING KLASS ABOVE ROBINS

For the first time since the start of November, Sholing emerged victorious at home, and in some fashion against Evesham. Two of the three goals were scored by players who have only recently signed on the dotted line.

Sholing’s Vinnie Tume continued his revolutionary start to life on the south coast by linking up with Brad Targett to threaten within seconds of the first whistle.

It was another new arrival, Michael Klass, who put Sholing ahead in just two minutes, sending his effort from outside the box, through a sea of players, and past Alex Harris, only after an initial offside call due to the deflection was overturned.

Sholing’s transfers were proven astute once more, as Tommy-Lee Higgs also got his name on the scoresheet, cutting in from the left and finding a home to give the Boatmen a 2-0 lead to take into the break.

The lead went to three ten minutes into the second half, thanks to the head of Joe Rabbets, who ran in quick to convert a cross from the other side of the pitch.

It took until the 63^rd minute for Dec McCarthy to be tested, the strike from Aaron Heap, was at a comfortable height for him to make the save.

Heap’s effort was the closest Evesham got to reclaiming some pride, and there was very little that could be taken away from a superb Sholing performance.

Speedy Alfa strikes to sink the Boatmen

ALFA-ROBINS SINK BOATMEN

Sholing suffered their first home defeat of the season against a much better Bracknell side, for whom, Ody Alfa’s goal was enough.

For the exception of a few early chances that their defences were equal to, the two keepers could’ve got a deck chair out and read a newspaper.

It remained that way until the 11^th minute, and it was Dec McCarthy in the Sholing goal that was sent sprawling, thanks to Ody Alfa finishing off a lovely drive from Giovanni McGregor, into the bottom corner.

A series of duels between Michael Folivi and the Bracknell defence then ensued, an acrobatic save from Zaki Oualah and the post kept the Robins one up, and Ethan Burden’s dignity intact, after Folivi had his way with him.

Bracknell were ready for Sholing to be quick out of the blocks for the second half, making sure chances for the Boatmen continued to be few and far between.

The away side simultaneously kept their own box clear, while making sure the other end was being constantly challenged. Only the knees of Dec McCarthy kept Seb Bowerman from doubling the lead.

The two captains, Bowerman and Jake Hesketh, got each other in the book after a tangle, as Bowerman claimed he was kicked, but it looked as though Hesketh went to swing for the ball as the Bracknell skipper sent it away.

The Robins could have easily got a late second, but their work was done.

FIVE-STAR BOATMEN OVERCOME CRUSADERS

FIVE-STAR BOATMEN OVERCOME CRUSADERS

For the second season in a row, Sholing scored at will at home against Hungerford, though they did have to take the lead back twice.

thanks to Vinny Tume being able to turn in from a tight angle, after it seemed he had done too much, Sholing took the lead 12 minutes in.

Once again, the Boatmen came up against a former friend, this time, Fabio Lopes, who got the last touch past Dec McCarthy to draw his new side level.

Folivi got his goal to take the advantage back, and into the break, but only after Jake McCarthy’s rabona put him through.

The visitors drew first blood in the second period, levelling again when Harry Williams got a foot to a cross, and the momentum of both combined was enough to beat McCarthy.

Minimal time had passed when a mistimed challenge within eighteen yards allowed Folivi to reinstate the lead once more.

Their fourth came not long after, Jake McCarthy got a goal of his own, dispossessing the back line and lobbing Hungerford keeper, Jenson Kilroy.

Diamond Edwards kept things interesting, capitalizing on indecision in the defence, and finding the roof of the net, taking the score to 4-3.

Jake McCarthy fired hard and low, getting his second to give Sholing back the lead, taking their tally to five, finally burying the visitors.

FOLIVI SAVES UNDEFEATED RUN IN HARD FOUGHT GAME

Having lost this fixture last season, Sholing took a point off Hanwell at home, with credit again going to Michael Folivi, whose 57^th minute strike kept their loss column empty.

Much to the annoyance of the Boatmen faithful, it was their goalmouth that was the busiest in the infancy. To add fuel to the fire, Gianni Critchlow, who started the season in red and white, was key.

If not for the fingertips of Craig King, Kameron English would’ve given the Geordies the lead. Moments later, Michael Folivi was denied at the other end.

Crichlow got under his old employer’s skin once more, earning former teammate, Bradley Targett, not in their first meeting of the day, a word with the referee.

Hanwell keeper, Sam Beasant, repaid his defence with several top class saves as the half ended.

The visitors went ahead mere minutes into the second period, Daniel Carr found a bit of room and sent a thunderbolt straight into the top left corner.

 Beasant tried to get Folivi cautioned, but the official made very clear to those in attendance that he felt there was no contact.

Folivi got revenge by finally breaching the Hanwell back line, sliding in the equaliser. He had two more chances in quick succession to turn the game around.

The Geordies came very close to snatching all three points at the death, after a crossbar-bound free kick, but it ended all square.

Ten-man Boatmen overcome all odds

 Despite losing a man early, Dan Mason and Reece Wylie fired Sholing to dramatic 3-2 victory over Weymouth

After huge pressure in the Weymouth box, Dan Mason capitalised on an opening in the defence which left Ben Clarke stranded and Sholing leading, 16 minutes in.

Courtesy of Harry Taylor’s sending off for a handball in the box, Jake McCarthy sent King the wrong way from twelve yards to level matters.

The pain worsened for the Boatmen as Michael Folivi, scorer of over twenty goals last season, had to leave the field for Gianni Crichlow, Sholing’s second first half change.

The momentum going into the break fell the way of the Terras, who took the lead with after Rueben Reid’s free header from inside the box found it’s way into the Sholing net.

Crichlow created all the excitement for the home fans in the early part of the second half, but the net wasn’t found.

After Weymouth had scuppered several chances to make it three, Reece Wylie took it upon himself to smash a left footed half volley into the top corner, earning his side a deserved leveller.

Sholing sensed there was another goal in the tie for them and in the absence of Folivi, Mason took the mantle and scored his second of the game, turning the game on its head with less than ten minutes to go and the points were theirs.

Available In Non League Paper

Boatmen sail on thanks to Michael

FOLIVI CAUSES ROBINS COLLAPSE

Sholing can once again thank Michael Folivi for turning the scoreline upside down to secure victory after conceding first against Bracknell.

Bracknell’s Ethan Burden had a baptism of fire for a start, first picking up a caution for a late challenge on Romeo Akinola and then failing to stop him and Billie Busari.

Spencer Spurway had a great start to the game and continued it by cutting out a certain goal after Sebastian Bowerman had rounded Patrick Nash but the Robins’ made good as Gabriel George headed home on 13 minutes from the proceeding corner.

Spurway didn’t let the fact that the visitors had taken the lead deter him, getting his elbows out, literally it seemed as Jordan Esprit took a breather beside the goal.

Darryl Harrison tangled with Reece Wylie and at the expense of a booking, Blaise Riley Snow made sure he didn’t get away with it.

The Boatmen started the second half by drawing level, once again thanks to the magic  Michael Folivi as he delivered a sublime overhead kick, peeled his shirt off and hurdled towards his bench who were out with open arms.

Sholing took over following the goal, a header from Dan Mason forced Michael Eacott to quickly dive to his right and to his credit managed to get a good hand to it.

As injury time approached, Folivi won and converted a late penalty that won the game for Sholing.

Non League Paper

KEEPER NASH IS SENT OFF AS BOATMEN STAY AFLOAT

Sholing were barely challenged in their solid 2-0 victory over Taunton, the only problem being from their own doing as keeper, Patrick Nash, didn’t see out the 90 minutes.

The Taunton goal was the first to be challenged, Jake Hesketh and Daniel Mason combining to allow Mason, while being dragged, to head just past Josh Gould’s post.

 A huge defensive blunder left Gould slightly embarrassed, it provided an open goal for Mason to score the first of the game.

Handbags were briefly thrown between Jake Hesketh and Ryan Cainey, both got their names in the book.

Michael Folivi converted a penalty late in the first period, giving Sholing a two-goal lead going into the break.

Taunton’s defensive stability didn’t improve in the infancy of the second period, Sholing had much of the attacking presence.

The linesman was having his own fun at the expense of Gould, after dismissing a claim that Folivi was within ten yards as he lined up for a goal kick, a notable smile appeared on his face.

A hitch on the home sides performance was that Sholing keeper, Patrick Nash collided with Christopher Zebroski, but because he was the last man, he was given his marching orders and Joe Rabbets was forced to fill in.

In all honesty, the red card was the most exciting part of a rather poor second half as Sholing survived the late scare and won.