SAINTS fans have been told to ensure they improve the "almost non-existent" atmosphere at St Mary's tomorrow.

And Nick Illingsworth, who writes a weekly fans column for the Daily Echo, believes they WILL draw on experiences such as 'The Great Escape' match at Wimbledon - where Saints won 2-0 on the penultimate Saturday of the 1998/99 campaign through James Beattie and a Robbie Earle own goal in front of 12,000 travelling fans - to help them.

"In the face of adversity Saints fans pull together like none other," said Illingsworth. "Maybe it is inbred into Sotonians since the pounding the city took during the War, but the blitz mentality comes to the fore. How many times has that spirit transferred from the terraces and seats helped earn us extra points?

"Anyone who attended the 'Great Escape' match at Selhurst Park will tell you it was the crowd that earned those three points. And we stayed up at 'Fortress Dell' season after season against all the odds - surely the crowd played more than a supporting role in those days?

"Once again, our team needs to see and hear that we are with them. Demos will not help the boys on the pitch, neither will anti-Lowe chants or even anti-Pompey ones for that matter.

"What the players need now, starting tomorrow, is to be in no doubt that they have 30,000 people on their side. We've done it before, we can do it again."

Saints' Carling Cup opponents Colchester have suffered a blow ahead of next Wednesday's third round tie at St Mary's.

Striker Ben May, who grabbed the winning goal as they dumped out West Brom in the last round at Layer Road, has been handed a three-match suspension starting today after being found guilty of violent conduct at Blackpool last Saturday.

May jumped off the substitutes bench to get involved in an on-field scuffle. Strike partner Craig Fagan, one of United's best players this season, was handed a one-match ban for dissent towards the referee at Bloomfield Road. He serves that against Tranmere today.