Worldwide Saints fans come to St Marys (From Daily Echo)

Worldwide Saints fans come to St Marys

5:48pm Monday 3rd March 2008 in Sport By Gordon Simpson, Senior Sports Reporter

IT has become an annual pilgrimage from across the globe - and all so they can get a glimpse of their beloved Saints.

A group of fans scattered around the world, who know each other through an online Saints message board, met in Southampton for Saturday's 1-1 draw with Ipswich - and the Dell Spirit was certainly flowing as a result.

Supporters from Latvia, Italy, Finland and USA joined some of the forum's more local followers for the match and a reunion.

The close-knit group of friends, who have come to know each other well through their cyber discussions, always find one home match a year to meet.

Their reasons for supporting Saints are as varied as the countries they hail from.

Passionate

But each is equally as passionate about the football club as any Southampton-born fan.

Latvian Anatol Valkovs, 24, from Riga, was hooked even before a certain Marian Pahars came close to donning a Saints shirt - all because he thought the city had a beautiful name.

"I would look through all the results in the local newspaper and the name looked pretty impressive,"

he said.

"Southampton looked and sounded beautiful, not like the others.

"When Marian Pahars joined in 1998 that was when I became addicted.

"This is my first time here and I have really enjoyed it, although the result could have been better."

Timo Kivistö made his annual pilgrimage from Helsinki, Finland.

"It all started 25 years ago when I was watching my grandma's black and white television," he explained.

"There was this game on between West Ham and Southampton, who I didn't even know of at the time.

"West Ham were this very successful side, playing fantastic football.

"But there was this other team that played even better for me and I paid great attention to a young centre half called Mark Wright, a youngster called Steve Moran and Nick Holmes.

"I thought to myself This is the stuff I want to watch' and I felt I needed to know more about this group of players."

Bob Beale, 54, from Los Angeles, California, is originally from Southampton, but has lived in USA since 1980.

"I've been meeting with these guys for the last three years and they are brilliant," he said. "We've got people here who have flown five or six thousand miles to come here.

"It cost me £1,000-plus for the flight, on top of everything else, but you don't just come for the game, you come to meet all these great people."

Francesco Giorgetti, 26, made the journey from Milan, Italy.

He said: "It is very difficult and expensive to come over, but this is the third time this season I have managed to come to Southampton - and it is the first point I have seen us win!"

Austin Britt, 32, from San Antonio, Texas, brought his wife Jana, 29, over from the States for her first St Mary's experience.

"It was awesome," she said. "I can't even say I was on the edge of my seat, because I wasn't ever in it!"

Austin said: "It's brilliant to see them here in the flesh. Back home, I get up at 9am every Saturday morning to listen to them on the radio.

"I met some of the guys on the (message) board and they told me to come down and corralled me into becoming a follower."