John Battle must bee regretting the day he ever doubted Bashley's ability to reach Thursday's Hampshire Senior Cup final at St Mary's.

His punishment for forecasting that the New Forest club would not get past Havant & Waterlooville in the two-legged semi-final is to become the first bumble-bee ever to grace the pitch at Southampton's gradiose stadium.

Battle, pictured left, a friend and fellow drinker of Bash boss Barry Blankley at the Master Builder pub in West End, sank a few pints too many one night and said that if the Foresters went through he would go to St Mary's as their mascot.

Blankley suggested a bumble-bee in keeping with the "Join the buzz at Bash" campaign which has featured in their matchday programme - and the team duly obliged by dumping Havant out of the competition 2-0 at home and 2-1 away to book a meeting with Ryman champions Aldershot Town in tomorrow's final (7.30pm).

Just to get into the big-match mood, Battle has been modelling his costume - from Parties by Design of Portswood Road, Portswood - outside the stadium this week.

The 38-year-old plumbing and heating engineer laughed: "I'm sure the Bashley players put in extra effort just to land me in it. I'd had few pints when I offered to dress up as a mascot - and now I'm stuck!

"I'm a Saints fan and have been on a tour of the ground, but I've never been on the pitch before. I'm 6ft 1in and quite a well-built lad so I'm going to make a pretty big bumble-bee! I'm trying to think up some ideas on how to celebrate if we score."

Bash had originally wanted to take 11 junior mascots along to the game as well as the bee but, after negotiations with Saints and the Hampshire Football Association, Blankley was informed that, for safety reasons, they would be restricted to one human and one animal!

He smiled: "I've known John for over 15 years and I think it's fair to say our mascot will upstage Aldershot's.

"John said in front of quite a few people at the pub that we wouldn't beat Havant & Waterlooville - and now it's payback time!