SAINTS fan Paul Dathan was so convinced that his favourite soccer team was going to stay in the Premiership that he was prepared to put his shirt on it.

The relegation doors were threatening to open as the Saints stumbled against Middlesbrough.

While other members of his family were predicting that the end of the Premiership days could be nigh 31-year-old Paul still had faith in the Dell boys avoiding the drop.

So much so that the devout Saints supporter, who lives at Bashley, near New Milton, vowed to wear his Saints shirt on his wedding day if the South Coast side stayed in top-flight soccer.

When colleagues at Hampshire Waste Services, Otterbourne, heard of Paul's soc-cer pledge they got together to work out a stylish plan for his match of the day.

And the end result is that tomorrow Paul, an information services supervisor, and his best man Mark Crombie will be wearing waistcoats made from Saints shirts.

Paul's colleague Julie Brown set the ball rolling when she heard that he was prepared to wear his Saints shirt on his wedding day if the team stayed in the Premiership.

She enlisted the help of 22 year-old Elena Slosiarikova, from Slovakia, who is staying at Julie's home while she studies English at Eastleigh College.

Elena used her needlework skills and burned the midnight oil to make the waistcoats out of three Saints shirt.

They were ready in time for when Paul steps out with his bride Louise Hodgson, a 30-year-old veterinary nurse, for the wedding day at the Burley Manor.

Delighted with the special soccer strip waistcoat, Paul said: "I always thought Saints would stay up.''

And the waistcoats brought cheers from Louise who is a Saints season ticket holder.

Let the people know about your big day with Celebrations, on Saturdays in the Daily Echo

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.