SAINTS have set themselves a triple target to ensure they move into their new ground at St Marys on schedule in August, 2001.

The club aim to begin work on the site before the end of this summer to divert the many services underground. These include two high pressure gas mains, a major electricity sub-station, telecommunications and a large drain.

By early next season they expect to announce the necessary funding is in place. And then they anticipate beginning to lay the foundations at the end of March as soon as they have completed the service diversions.

The timetable was outlined at last night's quarterly supporters' meeting which delivered an upbeat message that the dream is closer than ever to becoming a reality.

Dell director Andrew Cowen said: "I would love to be able to present the fans with a cast-iron guarantee of funding in time for the opening game of the season.

"Being realistic it is likely to take slightly longer than that, probably around September. We have indications from six banks they are keen to get involved and unless something cataclysmic happens it is very likely to go ahead.

"If a major club went bankrupt banks would get nervous but they feel this club is well run and solvent through good man-agement over many years.

"The design is now frozen and ready to go out to tender to our preferred contractors and if they come up with value for money they will push ahead - otherwise we will look elsewhere.

"We need the co-operation of the electric, gas, water and phone companies to divert the services to our time-scale but if we can get it finished by March we hope to start laying the foundations next spring.

"Ideally we would like it finished by June, 2001, to give us the chance to play a couple of games there as a trial run before the start of the new season. I would prefer not to go in cold or ask to play the first few matches away from home."

Saints chairman Rupert Lowe has already earmarked the first fixture there saying: "I would love the first game to be Matthew Le Tissier's testimonial.

"We believe we will be playing football there in August, 2001, but I'm not going to give a concrete guarantee until we have the irrevocable commitment of funding. Hopefully we will be able to announce that soon.

"But we would not be incurring so many costs on driving this project forward and working our butts off to deliver it if we were not convinced it is going to happen."

The meeting was attended by representatives from fans groups in London, Basingstoke, Andover, Sussex, the Midlands, the Isle of Wight and from the Internet.

The Southampton Independent Supporters Association declined an invitation to attend stating they could not ask the questions they wanted with other fans present. They want a private meeting but are likely to be disappointed.

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