NEW Saints signing Mikael Nilsson's farewell appearance for Halmstad last night was watched by the Swedish club's biggest crowd for 25 years.

An attendance of 15,547 - almost twice the season's average - crammed into the leafy rjansvall ground to see Halmstad win the top of the table clash with Hammarby 2-1 and reclaim top spot in the Allsvenskan.

"Of course it feels a bit melancholic to leave. But it's a step that I have to take to develop further, and it was nice to finish off with a victory and to leave as a league leader," Nilsson said afterwards.

The Euro 2004 star, right, was honoured with standing ovations both before and after the game.

Afterwards he got flowers and a hug from the Halmstad chairman Bengt Sjholm.

Sjholm watched the game alongside his Saints counterpart Rupert Lowe and the player's agent, Kent Carlzon, in the directors' box.

Nilsson, who trained with Saints for the first time last Friday after the clubs negotiated his early release from a contract that was originally due to end in November, was still signing autographs 40 minutes after the game and chatting with fans.

His farewell performance on the pitch was, however, not quite up to the high standard which he has set for himself during the last couple of years.

He did his job all right and played a vital part in the build-up to Halmstad's opening goal in the first half.

But only occasionally did he show glimpses of the top qualities which has made him a regular in Sweden's national team - he played every minute of his country's four Euro 2004 matches.

After the first couple of minutes he was switched from right to left midfield to suppress the offensive threath of Hammarby's right-back Alexander stlund, a Swedish Euro 2004 colleague.

That showed another degree of versatility to Nilsson's game - during Euro 2004 he was deployed on the right side of midfield, right-back and left-back!

"I didn't play as well as I had hoped to in my final game," said Nilsson, who admitted his preparations had been a bit disrupted.

He was joining up with his new team-mates for the flight back to England today.

After arriving in Southampton, he will go through a medical and formally sign a four-year contract.

Halmstad now lead the Allsvenskan with 27 points at the half-way stage of the 26-game season, one point ahead of Malm and Hammarby.

By playing last night, Nilsson has qualified for a medal should Halmstad win the title.