IT WAS worth waiting for! Ted Bates, Mr Southampton Football Club, has received an MBE in The New Year's Honours List.

No man has served their football club longer than Edric Thornton Bates, who joined Saints as a player in 1937 and now, 63 years on, he's still there as club president.

"It's a nice loyalty bonus," beamed Ted, now 82. It caps a special year in which he and his wife Mary celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.

Ted Bates at last reaps a long overdue award for service to football, and particularly service to one club, Southampton.

Thetford born, he joined Saints from Norwich City on his 19th birthday and went on to play 398 first team games, 181 during the Second World War years. As a rampaging inside-forward, he poached 132 goals but it was as a manager that he took Saints to heights they had never reached before.

After stints as assistant trainer, coach and second team trainer, he succeeded George Roughton as manager in 1955, led Saints to the Division 3 championship in 1960 and steered them into the first division (then the top flight) for the first time in 1966. Three years on and they were making their bow in European competition.

He handed over the first team managerial reins to Lawrie McMenemy in December 1973 with Saints in ninth position.

Bates immediately became Chief Executive, then joined the Board of Directors in 1976 and remained an influential footballing figure on the board until the club made him a vice president in 1993. Five years on after the death of John Corbett, he became club president.

Now, as Saints stand on the brink of a move away from his beloved Dell, Bates regards the MBE as the perfect farewell gift.

Bates was advocating a new stadium for Saints way back in 1960. It's been a long wait, but for Ted Bates, a genial, kindly man and one of the shrewdest footballing managers of his time, everything comes round for those who are patient.

l Pompey goalkeeping coach Alan Knight also receives an MBE for services to football. The veteran joined the club when he was just 15 and made over 800 appearances.