Survival on a wing and a prayer

Anyone as old fashioned as me who still looks up ceefax and teletext will notice that each day for the last week lists of players released by their clubs are put out.

It is not uncommon now for as many as eight or nine from lower division clubs to be let go.

This is the sad side of the game.

While the odd one like Darren Huckerby at Norwich City will probably have no trouble getting another club many of the others from the bottom two divisions might struggle, particularly those between 30-35- years-old. This is the non-glamorous side of the business.

While individuals are looking for survival in the game, last Sunday marked an amazing lastmatch in the Championship where surprisingly I think only Scunthorpe v Colchester had little interest seeing that both teams were already relegated yet apparently it produced a wonderful 3-3 draw for those 6,000 fans bothering to turn up.

I hoped the previous week that the good Lord would turn up at St Mary's last Sunday wearing our colours and my prayers were certainly answered along with many thousands of others obviously.

Very rarely has such a dramatic last game been seen, even in those years when the Saints were hanging on to their Premiership position.

The game had everything starting with the good weather which enabled our supporters to come out in their full colour with a magnificent crowd of nearly 32,000 and the beautiful surface which earned our groundstaff a deserved award.

It would be quite easy to say it was the crowd that did it and I wouldn't argue with that but to those who say why haven't they been coming before' the reality is that during a season it is down to the team. The way they play and the results they get that decides how many people come through the gates once you are out of the Premiership and the opposition is not as glamorous as Man United, Chelsea etc.

So the turnout last week whether the players like it or not was not for them, it was for the club and it is a sharp reminder to everyone that the club is more important than any individual.

I think the right result was produced although it meant more than a few fingernails were bitten off in the process.

Themanager, Nigel Pearson, ended his initial 14-game tenure having won over the masses and rightly so.

It is easy to say he should have been appointed earlier - the simple fact is he wasn't available any earlier.

It is also easy to say that the club should have been looking for appointments before George went to Scotland but the fact is I don't think even he thought he would come top of the shortlist until the final interview.

At least two of the other candidates apparently said they would love the job but did not want to start until their league games were over.

That is all water under the bridge now.

The club has retained its position with 11 points more than was needed last year to escape relegation and only four points less than the team had in its first season down in the Championship.

We all know this has been a difficult five months and I personally would like to praise the chairmanship of Leon Crouch in that period and he joined with me, Lee Hoos and the other members of the board in giving themanagement total support which I was pleased to see Nigel acknowledged this week.

The first part of the equation was answered with our final league position.

As I speak the second half has yet to be finalised.

The traditions of the club cannot be changed, the way forward has yet to be finalised but not being a member of the PLC board I am in the same position as Nigel Pearson and Mary Corbett.

We all love the club, have all done our bits to help out in our own different ways, none of us know exactly where we stand going forward but this will surely be resolved in the next few days.

Whatever happens I would like to thank the loyal supporters, particularly those who come through thick and thin and travel to the away fixtures as well in all different types of weather.

So let's see what the summer will bring - at least the sun is shining.