Fans urged to get behind Southampton FC to stave off relegation

The Daily Echo today is urging all those who hold Southampton FC dear to their hearts to pack out St Mary’s for this weekend’s ultra-crucial home clash with rock bottom Charlton Athletic.

There are 200,000 people on Saints’ database – that’s 200,000 people who have bought tickets to games at the stadium.

That’s 200,000 fans.

We want to see just 31,000 of them inside St Mary’s this weekend creating a cauldron of noise and getting right behind head coach Mark Wotte and his players.

Many times over the course of this season we have described games as ‘crucial’ or ‘vitally important’ or ‘a real six-pointer’.

Now we come to, for the time being, the most important of them all.

Victory against the worst team in the Championship is a must if Saints are serious about avoiding a second relegation in five seasons.

If they don’t beat the Addicks then of course they won’t definitely go down.

But a failure to pick up three points this weekend would be a crushing psychological blow for everyone connected to the club.

After this weekend there are only six games left. Time is running out.

That is why Saints have to win, and why YOU, the fans, have such a big part to play.

Saints are doing their bit to encourage the largest attendance of the season by slashing admission prices.

Adult tickets cost £15 this weekend and it’s just £5 for youngsters.

While appreciating that money is tight for so many people, those are the sort of prices which should encourage some of the stayaways to return and do their bit in the club’s hour (and a half) of need.

Of course, we recognise there are possibly thousands of supporters who have stayed away from St Mary’s this season following the returns of Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde.

The credit crunch allied to the cost of tickets at St Mary’s and Saints’ league position are two of the biggest factors that have contributed to Saints’ falling attendances in 2008/09.

But the return of Lowe and, to a lesser extent that of Wilde, has also been a major factor and one that cannot be ignored.

There have been thousands of words written about the pair in the Daily Echo in the last few years, and doubtless there will be thousands written again.

There are arguments and discussions which need to be taking place, but they can wait.

Saints’ league position cannot wait.

We repeat, the sands of time are running out for the club as they bid to avoid dropping into the lower divisions of the Football League for the first time in almost half a century.

Many of the fans who have stayed loyal this season will never have seen the club play in the old third division, what is now League One.

Until recently many fans had never seen Saints play outside the top flight.

That is why the current plight is so hard to bear for so many thousands of dedicated supporters.

Surely no one who calls themselves a Saints fan wants to see the club relegated again?

Even Rupert Lowe’s worst enemies would, surely, not wish for that scenario to happen?

All 200,000 people on Saints’ database fell in love with the club because they got hooked on football.

They wanted to be part of the emotional rollercoaster that is supporting a club, any club.

They didn’t fall in love with Saints because of who was in the boardroom.

And at a time like this, again it shouldn’t matter who is in the directors’ box.

Many men have hit the headlines in the last five years at St Mary’s.

But the only ones that matter now are Mark Wotte and his squad.

They are not the people really responsible for the mess Saints find themselves in now, but it is up to them to pull the club out of the mire.

Whatever you think of them as men and footballers, they are the only ones we have who can get Saints out of trouble.

If they are to do it, they need YOU, they need thousands of fans getting right behind them at the three home games left.

After Charlton, Crystal Palace visit on Easter Monday and play-off hopefuls Burnley follow on April 25.

Your role as fans is simple – create three phenomenal atmospheres, and beyond that hope and pray.

If you can do that, then at least you have tried, at least you have done your best.

It’s not just the club that has suffered since relegation in 2005.

The city of Southampton has been affected by Saints’ demotion too.

In an instant, the city lost the gravitas of having an elite club, and the city’s businesses have lost out – no longer do we get 3,000 away fans at every Saints home game spending their money in and around the stadium.

One relegation was bad enough; two would be truly heartbreaking.

So we repeat our call to all those who have been to St Mary’s to cheer on the Saints prior to this season to come back this weekend.

To return to the stadium ready to roar Mark Wotte’s players on to the victory they so badly desire.

St Mary’s was supposed to mark the dawn of an exciting new era for the club.

It hasn’t turned out that way, but hope has to spring eternal for all football fans.

Without hope there is nothing.

But Saints STILL have hope. They STILL have time. They STILL have their destiny in their own hands.

There are people they can rely on, and people they can’t.

They can’t rely on the other clubs doing them a favour, they have to go out and do it themselves.

However, they CAN rely on YOU, their supporters.

The backing at St Mary’s for the team in recent matches has been fantastic, and greatly appreciated.

All we ask now is that even more of you attend.

Show the team you care, show the board your passion for the club can’t be dimmed, show everyone that the heartbeat of a football club is not those in the suits and the directors’ box, it’s on the terraces and it’s in the stands.

Show them all that the lifeblood of a club isn’t money, it’s the emotional bond between fan and club.

Show Barclays Bank, the organisation that indirectly controls Saints’ future, that here is a club who can attract 30,000, even if they might be going through their worst period for almost 50 years.

Yes, the present might be grim, but show them the future can be brighter – if only someone can be found to pull everyone together again.

Show the Spirit of Southampton, the spirit that once bubbled so fiercely at the Dell on so many glory afternoons and nights.

Show everyone how much you care.

For an afternoon at least, forget the past.

This is YOUR time to do YOUR utmost to help save YOUR club.

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