Football Days

St Mary's Stadium - Southampton FC

Southampton 4-1 Aston Villa

22/09/12 - Premier League

Att: 30,713

When sitting behind the counter at work in April watching Southampton beat Coventry and secure a second consecutive promotion I was absolutely delighted, as it meant a local trip to see Villa in the new season. Coming into this game on the back of a convincing victory over Swansea City I was very confident of another good result, especially seeing as Southampton had failed to pick up a point upon their return to the top flight. Full of confidence I boarded the train in Farnborough and 50 minutes later the train rolled into Southampton Central with no changes involved.

St Mary's is very well sign posted from the station so it was very easy to find on foot and with the weather being superb it was a pleasant walk through the city centre towards the ground which took about 20 minutes to complete. After taking a couple of pictures of the outside of the stadium I went into the King Alfred pub, which was just a stone's throw from the ground and met with the AVillaFan crew for a pre-match beer or six and a sing song. There were both home and away fans in this pub and there was plenty of banter, but no real trouble - Just as it should be.

Built in 2001 St Mary's can house more than twice as many supporters as the club's former home at The Dell. A greater capacity has meant much larger crowds watching The Saints and even the lowest average attendance at the new stadium - 17,849 - Would have been too big for The Dell, with a limited capacity of just 15,000. What it gives to Southampton in terms of attendances and facilities, it's lost in character as the stadium is another new build which could be easily mistaken for Leicester, Cardiff, Reading etc if you changed the colour of the seats.

To be honest, I always find it hard to write about these sorts of stadiums as, in truth, there is very little to write about in terms of design and supporter experience. With a bowl design, with every stand being one tiered and the same height it's a neat looking stadium, but with very few redeeming features. Outside the stands all look the same, with the usual mish-mash of concrete, sheet metal and breeze blocks. One nice touch was the statue of Ted Bates outside the main entrance to the stadium.

After being relegated to the third tier in 2009, Southampton have bounced back with two promotions on the bounce, finishing second to Brighton in 2011 and then going up in second place again a season later with Reading claiming the league title. It's a remarkable achievement, especially considering the club had been in administration just 3 years ago and starting life in League One with a ten point deduction. There's also the cruel irony of seeing their south coast neighbours Portsmouth head in the opposite direction as The Saints have gone from strength to strength in recent years.

Southampton hadn't been dealt a kind hand by the fixture computer, with The Saints having to face Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal in their opening four matches. Fans would have taken hope from spirited displays against both Manchester clubs, in which they were beaten by late goals in 3-2 defeats. They were battered 6-1 at The Emirates, but the most worrying scoreline from this sequence would have been the 2-0 defeat at home by Wigan Athletic. Last season was a rare one where in which all three promoted clubs stayed up, but already the media have written off The Saints as relegation fodder. I guess this was a game that they would have seen as winnable, with Villa making an indifferent start to the campaign.

As we entered the stadium there was a good atmosphere building in the concourse with a large, well lubricated following making plenty of noise. While I remain critical of the dullness of the ground, it's worth noting that it's a good size and with the stands being quite steep it does look quite imposing from the inside. Another plus point would be the atmosphere created by the home fans, which was the best I've seen in one of these newly built stadiums. With fans being so close to each other there was a lot of banter and the Saints fans on both sides of the away section made a lot of noise throughout the game. There was also a good atmosphere created by the 3,100 Villa fans in attendance.

Bright sunshine meant that Aston Villa's new away kit glowed more brightly than usual and Southampton turned out in their Liverpool-style home kit, which has strangely moved away from the more traditional red and white stripes that we're used to seeing them play in. After the usual pre-match pleasantries the game got underway, with Southampton starting the brighter of the two. After one or two early scares Villa settled down and grew into the game, but for me the home side still looked the most dangerous in the first half. Despite the Saints creating more chances it was Villa who took the lead on 36 minutes when Darren Bent latched on to the end of Stephen Ireland's ball to poke the ball home. The Villa end went mad and considering Southampton's form it looked as if they might go to pieces and Villa could have been on for a first away win since January. The half time whistle blew and everything looked rosy. No one realised what was around the corner.

Stephen Ireland was substituted at half time with a broken wrist, being replaced by Ashley Westwood. This change seemed to upset Villa's rhythm and whatever Adkins said to his players at half time seemed to take effect, as the home side drew level less than fifteen minutes after the restart when Ricky Lambert capitalised on some sloppy defending. Just five minutes later the home side were in front when another calamity left Clyne all on his own to roll the ball past Brad Guzan. Villa offered absolutely nothing second half and it was only a matter of time before the home side got the killer third goal. It came with fifteen minutes remaining when Jason Puncheon's shot was deflected into the net to make the game safe. As that ball hit the net the red mist descended and I headed back to the station to catch an early train home, absolutely fuming after a shambolic second half. As I boarded the train I learned of Southampton's fourth, coming from a Ricky Lambert penalty.

Due to leaving early I beat the crowds and was back in Farnborough Wetherspoons drowning my sorrows by 6pm. I was cheered up a bit by West Ham's last minute goal winning me £47 and then the good news continued when I received a text telling me the Blues v Barnsley score - The world didn't seem like such a bad place after all.

While it was a very disappointing match it had been an enjoyable day out, with good company and in good weather. The stadium is much like any other built in the new millenium, with good views, good facilities and a nice layout, just without any sort of character or anything different to really make it stand out. It's a nice enough place to watch football though and with it being so local I'm sure I'll be back again, hopefully my team will turn up for the whole match next time.