Saints-mad Brian Percey had to work harder than most to earn his day of glory at Villa Park on Sunday.

While other Southampton fans simply had to wait for their tickets in the post, Brian had to endure a day of hard graft - as he spent a day cleaning the boots and toilets at Saints' hated rivals Portsmouth FC!

And as if that wasn't enough, the 39-year-old, father-of-three from March-ant Road in Andover had to do it all in a Pompey shirt.

It was all part of a competition run by The Saint and Sky Sports Extra, in which Saints fans had to pledge to make a sacrifice in order to win the coveted semi-final tickets.

And there are few worse thoughts for a St Mary's regular than donning the dreaded blue strip and cleaning the boots at Fratton Park.

But it was worth the humiliation.

Brian and his youngest daughter Grace saw the Saints beat Watford 2-1 at Villa Park on Sunday to go through to the FA Cup final for the first time since 1976.

Brian told the Advertiser: "What a day!

"It was definitely worth putting on a Pompey shirt to get to Villa Park in the end.

"I'd been to 11 games, and to qualify for semi-final tickets you had to have been to 12, so I thought I'd just missed out.

"But when I saw the competition I thought up the worst sacrifice for any Saints fan - cleaning Svetoslav Toderov's boots with my own toothbrush.

"I must have done a good job as well, as he didn't score on Saturday!

"It was terrible having to wear a Portsmouth shirt but I had my Saints one on underneath - and that raised a few eyebrows when I walked out of the gates at Fratton Park."

Brian is now hoping he won't have to go through all that again as he waits for tickets for the final.

He said: "I'm determined I'm going to get to the final, we'll definitely be going.

"Sunday was a great day.

"Let's hope the final's even better."