Last weekend was a whole variety of football for me starting off with the pleasure of seeing Southampton more or less safeguard their Premier League position with an excellent win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

That was followed on Sunday by presenting medals at two Cup finals at Romsey Town football ground for the Winchester and District Football League.

It reminded me of the good old days to say the least.

Players were doing it for the love of the game and not the fortunes of the players I was watching the day before and the passion and the love of the game was there to be seen.

Unfortunately, it got out of hand in the morning game with a good old set-to when the final whistle went, which included not only both teams but a few spectators and a player with a bite on his arm bigger than anything I have ever seen. It certainly wasn’t from a mosquito.

The referee had not allowed him to receive his medal because he had retaliated.

In the end I got both teams to shake hands.

The afternoon game was back to normal and I enjoyed the whole day watching four teams of passionate players and being part of 200-300 supporters who joined in the many comments which were already coming from the pitch, which you don’t see these days at the top level.

The middle of the week before that had already shown me another side of the game at the professional level.

Most people would have heard about the Saints Foundation but might not know exactly what they do.

Under the fantastic leadership of Greg Baker and his team, the Foundation is the charity arm of the club and I was delighted to be a guest at their annual dinner which, on the evening, raised more than £40,000 thanks to the generosity of Saints fans, with all proceeds going to help the local community.

There were more than 400 people in attendance at St Mary’s and I was pleased to be on a table next to Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl who I met for the first time. He was joined by his coaching staff, some players from the first team squad and members of the board.

He went on stage and answered questions from fans and one of the items in the auction was a lunch with the Saints boss and that alone raised £5,000.

On the night, apart from fans being able to meet and talk to the manager, some senior players and coaching staff, they were able to hear from guests who had been supported by the Foundation.

One of these was Riley Freeborn, a student from Woodlands Community College, who has improved vastly following the help of Community Champion Steve Ketteringham after being diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome two years ago.

At one stage I was asked to meet a lady who had impressed everyone when she walked up on to the stage. No one could believe she was actually 93-years-old.

When I met her one-on-one she spoke so eloquently. Everyone on the night had seen a film of the group she was in which are ladies and gentlemen of a certain age who get together – and this is so important – and meet up when most of them are living on their own.

They were sitting in chairs but still doing exercises to music and helped by a tracksuited coach from the Foundation.

It brightened the whole evening up to hear from these people and realise that whilst a lot of talk is about the money going to players etc and into clubs, there is a lot still going to the local area itself as well.

Football can make a big difference as we also witnessed this past week when the players made their annual visit to Southampton General Hospital.