 Friday, 15th Jul 2011 08:48 Many would say the greatest left back in the Clubs history. A bold statement to make perhaps, but as we shall see, whenyou add up all the factors including games played, finesse, honours etc etc, then its hard to look much further. David Peach joined Saints from Gillingham virtually on his 23rd birthday in January 1974 and he was a player that Ted Bates had been tracking for 2 1/2 years, although it would be recently appointed manager Lawrie McMenemy who would sign him in competition with three other first division sides, landing him for £50,000 just in time for the player to boost what was a club heading towards freefall although at this stage it was still 10th. His debut came as sub in a home draw with QPR, but his full debut a week later was probably best forgotten as Saints were slaughtered 7-0 at Ipswich setting the alarm bells ringing for what would be eventual relegation, Peach played 12(2) in those final top flight days. The following season he would vie with Steve Mills for that left back spot, although sometimes Mills would be pushed to the right and at other times Peach would be used in midfield and it would only be when Mills was badly hurt in a horrific car crash that Peach was well and truly installed at the left back and even then it was not uncommon to see him pushed forward into a midfield role from time to time. 1975/76 of course would be a season that no Saints fan would forget. His real moment of personal glory at the club though came after Mick Channon had missed a couple of penalties and Peach was given the task of taking the next one, that came in the semi final against Palace at Stamford Bridge and with the game delicately balanced at 1-0 he stepped up to take his first ever Saints penalty knowing that if he scored then it was game over for the Eagles, but if he missed then it might give them the momentum to get back into the game, the rest as they say was history and he looked the coolest man in the ground as he slotted it home. Of course he then took his place at Wembley and alongside Nick Holmes played in all three of Saints appearances at the old stadium and perhaps it was fitting that both should score in the third outing although it would be in vain with Forest lifting the league cup. For the next few seasons Peach was a virtual ever present as he not only built a reputation as one of the finest left backs in the country, winning England U23 caps as an overage player and being called up to the full England squad in the summer of 1977, sadly he did not win a cap on this tour of South America. But he was also getting a reputation as a penalty taker, cooly slotting home when called upon, not least in a crunch promotion game at Luton in April 1978 when his last minute spot kick gave Saints both points and put them on the cusp of promotion, he would miss only one for the club, his 19th, against Wolves and when he scored on the opening day of the 79/80 season to give Saints a 1-1 home draw with Man Utd, it made him the highest scoring full back in the football leagues history. In October 1979 he added an England B cap to his trophy cabinet, playing in the game against New Zealand at Brisbane Road, strangely enough though just as his career seemed to reaching its heights at the Dell it was over. What the true story was behind his departure perhaps we shall never know certainly 1979 had been a good year for Peach and as it turned into the new year of 1980 he had played virtually every game and he scored a trademark penalty in the final game of 79 as Saints entered a new decade in 3rd, but he would appear only once more, had Peach fallen out with McMenemy ? Certainly for all intents and purposes Peach seemed a player at the top, he had just turned 29 when he left and McMenemy had no obvious replacement at the Club he was forced to use Malcolm Waldron and Manny Andruszewski in that position, both being central defenders by trade. Indeed the following season he bought Mike McCartney for £50k as his replacement, strange in that McCartney always a lower league player was nowhere near the levelof Peach or even Andruszewski for that matter who had left that summer for £150,000 the same fee that pech himself had gone for Stranger still was that Peach went to Swindon in March 1980, he never settled there and after two seasons went to Orient before retring in 1983, he then returned to the New Forest area to live, initially playing for Andover in the Southern league and then being involved with several teams in the Forest area whislt working in the building trade. So was peach the best ever left back to play for Saints, certainly a lot of the requirements are there, he played 278(4) games for the club more than any other contender apart from Francis Benali, he played in three Wembley finals including that historic 76 win, meaning he is the only left back with a winners medal, he got England call ups though sadly not caps, he scored more goals than any of the other contenders and on the playing front he had all the attributes, he could defend and he could getforward and support the attack not just with crosses but with goals as well and not just from the penalty spot. Overall when all things are taken into consideration I think that Peach would have to be the greatest left back to playfor the Club, some of his rivals would have better attributes, Hollywood was harder, Mark Dennis was more skilful and harder, Bridge was better attacking, Bale was faster, and more skilful, Benali served the club longer, but all of these had some of the attributes missing that the others had, I would contend that Peach had them all.
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