With Saints meeting Bournemouth at the weekend it is perhaps apt to look at the autobiography of The Cherries greatest ever player, a man who also had a significant couple of years at the Dell.
Ted MacDougal spent barely two years as a Saints playerhe made his debut in September 1976 as Lawrie McMenemy looked to break up the FA Cup winning squad and left 2 year and a month later having played a pivotal role in gaining Saints promotion, a season where he again linked up with the player who he formed such a lethal partnership with at four clubs.
In total he played 86 League games for Saints and scored 42 goals amid 105 games in total with 48 strikes, a phenomenal record.
The strangest thing about Ted though was that he led such a nomadic career he seemed to spend little more than a year or two at any of the eight League clubs he played for with the 3 years at Dean Court being his longest spell anywhere.
It was Bournemouth where he truly made his name once scoring 9 goals in an FA Cup game against Margate and Norwich where he proved he could play in the top flight, but he seemed to have that character that made him want to move on not only if it didn't work out, but when it did.
Can you imagine a Premier league club today allowing the division's top scorer still aged only 29 move to a mid table Championship club for a fee of around a third of what they had paid a couple of seasons earlier, that was the case when Ted joined Saints in September 1976.
When he left Saints two years later to return to the Cherries yes he was 31 but he had still played 40 out of the 42 league games and was second only to Phil Boyer in the goalscoring charts with 14 to Boyer's 17.
Indeed he had started his and Saints return to the top flight with a flourish with 5 goals in 10 league matches (plus a couple in the league cup)n when he suddenly decided he wanted to leave and return to Bournemouth then in the fourth division and this total would only be beaten in the season by three players, for those that think we have sold strikers and not replaced them Lawrie Mcmenemy took a big gamble in letting Ted go.
This book is an interesting read, it is one that goes back to the 1960's and tells the tale of lower league clubs and their players, it is not a sad one MacDougal unlike many of his era prospered after retiring from the game.
The section on Saints is only a part of a wider picture, but it is of interest to Saints fans as we learn more about Ted MacDougal than we ever knew at the time.
It is worth the price alone to read about Phil Boyer and his budgie !
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