SAINTS today achieved their long-held dream as they moved into the Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium.

Hundreds of crates, fixtures and fittings were transported from The Dell over the weekend ready for staff to take up residence this morning.

The day was being spent settling in and the club will re-open for business at 9am tomorrow when tickets for the Espanyol game go on general sale.

And with the possibility of Oliver Bierhoff making his debut, it is unlikely the ticket office will get a gentle start as they expect a sudden rush for tickets.

Director Andrew Cowen said: "It is a momentous day for the club. It is a huge undertaking and the staff have done brilliantly to cope with it all.

"Of course it is a difficult operation with crates and furniture being labelled, packed and stacked in the gym at The Dell ready for the move.

"Barrs have achieved an enormous amount to get the stadium ready and he have been moving things in and installing computer equipment since the end of last week.

"I have been living this 24 hours a day for the last few months and it is wonderful to see it all happening. It is avery exciting time. I just wish I had time to enjoy it!"

Saints will continue to clear up and move out for the next few days and then they will begin the completion process to hand over The Dell to Barratts.

That will probably be activated next week with the hand-over coming as soon as the legal formalities have been completed.

Saturday was checkout time for staff at the Saints shop.

The Dell store was the last part of the old ground to close for business as they prepared for the big move at the weekend.

The club shop remained open until Saturday afternoon to finish off a clearance sale.

But on Friday, the tills will be ringing out at the Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium.

The megastore is scheduled to open at 1pm when the new home kit will go on sale for the first time along with other new ranges.

Head of retail, James McLaughlin, said: "We are tremendously excited about the move. At last we have the space to satisfy demand.

"The closing down sale and away kit launch have been a huge success with more than 10,000 items sold in the past month. But it was a sad to bring down the shutters for the last time."