If Saints fans thought back in April that they finally had some stability at the club then come August they found that they were totally wrong.

When Saints took the applause of the Dell fans at the final home game of 1994/95 there were reasons to believe that better times were ahead, Matt Le Tissier was in the finest form of his life, the team had finished tenth and indeed if it hadnt been for a last minute equaliser from already relegated Leicester it would have been ninth, Alan Ball was seen as the best Saints boss since Lawrie McMenemy, who indeed was there as supposedly his mentor as part of the dream team.

The summer had started on a high note with Ball paying £500k for Alan Neilsen from Newcastle, but then Saints fans discovered two things, firstly that when things appear to be all hunky dory on the outside, thats not always the case within and secondly that Alan Ball had more clubs he was willing to walk over broken glass to manage than Saints, thus we had a saga that was sorted remarkably quick, Saints did as they had always done with managers, they treated them like adults and did not block anyone from speaking to them.

 McMenemy himself had spoken to probably half a dozen clubs or more including Manchester United and Leeds during his 11 years at the Dell and stayed, why would Alan Ball feel any different, but of course Ball as always was a man who wanted to better himself in his career and there is nothing wrong with that, however what stuck in Saints fans throats was the way in which he concluded the deal very quickly despite being on holiday in Marbella and how he tried to twist it to being the clubs fault for not blocking the overtures from Manchester City.

So therefore in a short space of time Alan Ball had gone from being the most popular man in the City to being the most hated, in the following weeks it started to emerge that the dream team had been anything but and this was part of the reason, however no Saints fans would have begrudged Bally a chance to manage at a big club, but the way he was so committed to Saints and then ran off at the drop of a hat rankled.

To keep the continuity, Saints appointed Dave Merrington and for the time being that was the end of the changes with no one else coming in through the transfer market.

There was another new kit though and many would say that this was our finest strip in the last 35 years or so, very traditional red & white stripes with a button collar harking back to the shirts of old alongside black shorts with a red stripe and red socks with a white band, has there been a better strip since, I certainly dont thinks so.    

Forest for their part were a decent side, they had finished third the previous term and were looking to keep that momentum going.

A full house of 15, 164 greeted the players and it wasnt long before the game burst into life, Cooper giving the visitors the lead, two minutes later Saints had a penalty and Le Tiss wasnt going to miss a second one against Forest, but just before the break Saints went to sleep and in three crazy minutes Woan & Roy scored to send Saints in to the dressing room for Dave Merrington's first half time talk 3-1 down.

With 20 minutes left in the second half, Le Tiss scored a second penalty, the second one awarded for a fould on himself, he again picked himself up and fired home and it was game on, or was it ! ten minutes later Roy scored again to restore the two goal cushion, but before you could draw another breath Le od completed his hat trick curling home a free kick from just outside the box.

Could Saints equalize, the sad answer is no ! the game finished 4-3 to Forest and another first day defeat for Saints. It had been a great game but Saints still had too many defensive frailties for comfort, although it was hoped that perhaps the injured new signing Neilsen might go a long way to helping out that problem.

There were still enough plus points from the game to suggest to Saints fans that perhaps the season wouldnt be a disaster, sadly though although disaster would be avoided on the final day with the most nerve biting finish to a last day escape Saints would ever have, ironically at the expense of Alan Ball's Man City with Ball cementing his notoriety amongst not only his own clubs fans but players, when ordering his players to keep the ball in the corner and waste time, wrongly believeing that Wimbledon had scored a last minute winner at the Dell.

Perhaps a big difference for Saints was in the way they played, they no longer were the swashbuckling side of the previous year, Le Tissier would only score one more goal after the opening day until April when a he would score vital winner s against Blackburn and Bolton as well as one in the great grey shirt win over United.     

Photo: Action Images

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