We go back to 1972 when the police threatened to clear the Milton Road terraces, as the fighting between Saints and Spurs fans was so bad.

The game against Tottenham Hotspur was the last home game of the 1972 season and safe from relegation I thought this would be a nice friendly game on a sunny day, but from the moment I got to the ground it was clear it wasn't going to be, a big contingent of Spurs skinheads/ boot boys were already around the Dell looking to hit anyone they saw with a red & white scarf on, I was only 10 but I was big for my age, but I just about got away with it.

The best thing to do was get in the queue behind the Milton Road goal and blend in, I can't find any pictures of the game, but I can find one of myself 40 or so years later stood roughly where those turnstiles would have been in 1972 and indeed up to that old Milton Road terrace was finally actually cleared when it was demolished in 1981.

I used to like a lot of kids my own age back then get into the Milton Road and stand under the Toomers sign thinking we were emulating the legendary "Milton Mob", then as kick off neared move forward to just behind the goal so we would be able to see the game.

But this was one of those days when there was none of that, the Spurs mob where in the ground and taking our end.

We went to the front wall behind the goal and kept our mouths shut.

AS usual just before kick off the Milton Mob arrived and there was a mass brawl, not that we could see much of it given there were now most of the 24,914 crowd in the ground but you could see the tops of the heads behind us and the crowd movement.

Saints seemed to shift the Spurs lot who then regrouped and charged back and this too ing and throw ing seemed to go on the entire match.

So much so that at one point the referee stopped the game and spoke to the police and a tannoy announcement was made that the Police would clear the Milton Road terraces if the trouble continued, the only time I have ever heard this in what is now 48 years of watching Saints.

The terraces were not cleared so I can only assume that the fighting stopped at least for a while, I can't believe though that two lots of Dr Martin clad masses simply stopped just because someone had asked them to though.

The game itself was a 0-0 draw and I can't remember too many highlights, I do remember though Ted Bates coming on to the pitch at the end and putting his arm around a blood soaked Denis Hollywood for the performance he had put in, I found it very strange that the left back was given a free transfer at the end of the season, still only 27 he had played 267 times for the club and although Roger Fry had been preferred in the middle of the season, Fry had now unbeknown t him played his last game and Hollywood was about to play his a week after this game, Ted Bates clearly saw neither of them as the future and would sign Francis Burns from Manchester United in the summer.

Also there was one other notable event Paul Bennett would make his debut against Spurs and he was an ex pupil of Richard Taunton grammar school, the man he was marking was ex Saints forward Martin Chivers who himself was an Old Tautonian.

Ted Bates was looking to the future now and not the past.

Photo: Action Images

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