AS I tour the away grounds of the country with the mighty Saints I assess their facilities with a little help from a different pie taster each week.

This week it was Dave Hughes of Winchester which he describes as: "A nice suburb of Southampton."

His views on the Goodison Park Jumbo Cornish Pastie at a price of £1.80: "It's nice and warm but where's the meat It's just all pastry. "All in all a very average pie especially for the price - 2 out of 5."

Dave wasn't all that impressed with the pastie which is a mark behind Coventry's.

The toilets were of a decent size and cleanliness though and the programme was average for £2.00 so Everton end up with 8 to put them joint first with Coventry in the Fans Essential Premier League 1999/2000 season.

Fan's lot not a happy one!

DIEHARD fans catch up with scores and results in the most bizarre ways from time to time when they cannot make it to the game themsevles.

Anthony Dunne of Sholing is no exception and his devotion to the cause is more than worthy of a mention this week.

It's a tale of dedication beyond the call of duty and is one of the more offbeat ways of keeping in touch with his beloved Saints - unless of course you know better.

Unable to make it to the Wimbledon v Saints match at Selhurst Park at the tail end of last season due to a business trip Anthony found himself driving on a narrow country road in Ireland with his wife.

As his friend, an Arsenal fan at the Arsenal match, rung him on his mobile with the news that Saints had taken the lead he was stunned into disbelief. But then the phone went again and an official text message appeared on the screen confirming the wonderful news.

In his celebrations he failed to notice a car approaching head on and in swerving found himself and his car - unscathed - but in a ditch!

Songs of Praise

WITH Saints having pulled one goal back with 15 minutes left at Goodison Park on Saturday the Saints fans were heard to sing:

"We're going to win 5-4" and "We Want 5." With only seconds of the game remaining the Everton fans started to make their way out of the ground to Saints choruses of: "We can see you sneaking out."

I am also very keen to hear from whoever makes up the chants in the Archers Road end so we can print them in the paper prior to the matches so everybody can sing along.

If you've got anything worthhy of a mention in the Mad for It column contact Adam Leitch at the Daily Echo by mail or email sportsdesk@:soton-echo.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.