NUMBERS crop up more than any time when it comes to football.

It's usually about how many goals a team or an individual scored, didn’t score or should have scored.

So it was interesting when Saints sent out an end of season pile of numbers. For instance, in the season just finished we had 21 games at home and 23 away. The number of miles travelled were 5,510 and minutes watching, unless you flit your eyes of course or turned away, were 3,956.

What amazes people of my era more than anything is they can even tell you how many successful passes were seen. In Saints’ case, it was 15,672. They didn’t tell you how many were unsuccessful.

Something that pleased me particularly were seven youngsters came through the academy to get a first-team appearance this season. Sixty-two goals were scored overall with 499 shots and the number of tackles was 706.

In terms of particular dates, one back in September made lots of smiles in our area because our neighbours Pompey were sunk in their own back yard in the Carabao Cup. Another good period which made for a happy Christmas was on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day when we beat Chelsea and Tottenham, who both at that time were challenging near the top of the league.

Then the one game everybody wanted to win was away to Leicester, without mentioning what had happened in the home game. And of course the 141 miles travelled were worth it because Danny Ings got a last-gasp winner and justice was dealt.

Talking about Danny Ings, he played 38 games and scored 22 goals, just missing out on the golden boot, but a fantastic achievement and well done him.

Another date was when the season would normally have ended, but in June the captaincy was handed over to James Ward-Prowse, who had been with the club since he was about eight years old and he has had as good a season as anybody.

Another figure, and I don’t know how they can get these, was that 5.7million people watched our TV game when Che Adams got his first Saints goal, which put down Manchester City. That apparently was the biggest audience for any Premier League game ever. So all up and ready for the new season, because as I’ve said before, listening and reading about all those successes we’ve had since the new year, the target will not just be to stay up, but to get up higher.

The club finalised, with another figure which I think compares well with other clubs, you can now get your season tickets from £399 and junior prices start from only £19. So let’s look forward to full houses more than ever, when watching games without crowds certainly does not feel right.

Saints Foundation deserves recognition

WITHOUT boring you too much, there are more and more figures coming from the club. And I am pleased to pass on what the Foundation have been doing because for a long time now, I realise that they have been getting on quietly, helping people in the community and without getting too much publicity.

But now I think Greg Baker and his staff there deserve to be recognised. With the virus upsetting most things, the Foundation, so far, have cooked and distributed 13,000 meals and they have delivered over 2,000 prescriptions to supporters who are not able to leave their homes. They have also had 125 young people working towards Prince’s Trust qualifications. You can also view online their support pages, which of course they need, to keep things going. So far that has raised over £3,000. Even though it’s difficult to get people together, they still had over 60 children attending free soccer schools over the Easter period.

The message is obviously getting through because more than 1,700 volunteering hours have been given up for the Foundation, including seven ex-Saints players. You probably remember seeing pictures of Franny Benali and his daughter Kenzie and Matt Le Tissier, all fellow ambassadors, helping out with the meals. And finally, something which I very much approve of and like to get involved with, over 4,000 phone calls have been made with season ticket holders who are over the age of 65.

There’s more to football than just the 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon, but I’m not sure so many of the 92 clubs in the top four flights are doing as much good work away from the game itself as Saints. So well done the club and the Foundation.

I understand Lennon’s anger

MANAGERS have many different characters to deal with in the dressing room. Squads are bigger now than ever. But I can understand how Celtic manager Neil Lennon was absolutely livid with one of his players, Boli Bolingoli, who decided for some reason to pop over to Spain. He stayed just one day, coming back without being quarantined and played in a match later that week which meant of course Celtic had to cancel games and particularly against Aberdeen, who also had a problem with players who decided to have a bit of a night out last Saturday.

Neil Lennon was one of my favourite players when I managed the Northern Ireland team and I can understand how he feels and I can see that possibly that particular player may not be in the team much in the future.