I am going to take this as support for my suggestion that he played better with the game in front of him. Another player who I saw play sweeper, a few times for Saints reserves was the Lesser Wallace, Ray, who looked good in that position, but maybe because of the level. Martin Cranie looked as though he could read the game well at centre back, but didn’t do as well as I hoped he would. Maybe playing him out of position, on debut, and scoring an OG held him back. With Luton now.
I am astonished that nobody has mentioned that cult hero and true saint in every meaning of that word - Frannie!
Graham Baker had two spells at Saints. Alan Ball brought him back but his second spell was not a success although I believe he scored on his debut against Liverpool in an evening match. He was sold to Man City when I was on holiday with my parents in Yorkshire and I remember at the time thinking what on earth were we doing selling him as he had so much potential. Funny to see Malcolm Waldron's name crop up as I can recall him yet have little recollection of him playing. I seem to recall that his career got overtaken by Steve Williams. We had so many great players in the later seventies and early eighties that it was difficult for some of the players in the academy to cement a position for themselves. Of that era, the player who I liked most as a schoolboy supporter was Phil Boyer who struck up a lethal partnership with Ted McDougall. I was also someone in awe of Ivan Golac too.
Hadn't appreciated that Malcolm Waldren played for that mob down the M27 some time after he left us? One of a crop of quality youngsters that broke into the first team in the mid seventies, a good classy defender as I remember? May be wrong but I think he's passed away.
Went looking after your last sentence and found the following. No mention of him having died. Biography: Emsworth born Waldron was a former England under 23 international who spent nine years with Southampton. He missed out on their 1976 FA Cup win but won an England 'B' cap following a string of impressive performances. He ended up at Fratton Park in 1983 after failing to settle 'up north' with Burnley. His calming influence helped to shore up a leaky defence but injury brought his career to a premature end in 1985. He became an advertising sales representative in Portsmouth and sold double glazing before moving onto Abbey Life and is now a Health Care advisor for BUPA in Poole.
He might be a cult hero, but he was never underrated - we knew all about his limitations, and he showed them every week. He was solid(ish) and dirty when required and that's kind of what we expected to see.
Best mates with an old mate from school now. I often see him in his posts on FB. Took me a year to message my mate and say...is that Malcom Waldron the ex Saints player lol (my mate doesn't follow footie )
It seems funny when you look back to the 70s and early 80s when I first started to follow football. My first match was 74/75, I think. (Saints v Blackburn followed two weeks later against Bristol Rover) and a lot of the excitement came from recognising the visitor team's players by who you had seen in "Shoot!" magazine. For ages I had the impression that Saints were invincible and the first two defeats I saw against Leeds United and Coventry City shocked me. Players like Mal Waldron seemed to be part of the mix whereas the likes of Steve Williams and later Steve Moran always appeared to be a cut above the rest coming through at that time. Everyone recalls Lawrie bringing in Kevin Keegan yet he also gave the impression of being a "Shoot!" reader too because so many familiar names were signed by him. You tend to forget that the likes of Dave Watson, Mick Mills, Joe Jordan, Terry Curran, Frank Worthington, Charlie George, Ted MacDougall , etc all lined up for Saints at some point in this era. I was hardly surprising than so many youngsters found it difficult to get in the squad as we became a kind of retirement home for former England or Scotland players. The greatest of these was Alan Ball and his influence was instrumental in part of some of the greatest Saints teams of all time. Some of the aspects of these teams seem quite strange now. It was the norm for local players to enjoy long sojourns at the club. There was also far more of a high profile Scottish contingent and , I would have to say, that back then Scottish players were pretty decent. These days signing someone from Scotland is almost like taking a punt on a League One player whereas back in the 1970s it was seen as adding some teeth to the squad - although obviously not in Joe Jordan's case! Flicking through some of my Saints book briefly over the weekend, it is interesting to be reacquainted with some names I had forgotten about. I grew up with the impression that Nick Holmes was under-rated although this might be due to have some affection for the fact that he played in the 1976 cup winning side. It is funny how players that seemed significant at the time such as Andrew Davies, Nigel Quashie, Paul Telfer, etc, seem to slip from the consciousness and get replaced by current squad players in your affections.
Brett Ormerod. Another hard working, but hardly prolific, forward. Loved his time at the club too. Saw him once in the Bargate on the escalator and watched him as a saints fan passed him going in the opposite direction. The saints fan either didn't recognize him or was playing it cool, but I noticed Ormerod turn round to look at who the saints fan had on the back of his shirt. Needless to say it was Le Tiss.
Ken Wimshurst. A stalwart of our defensive midfield for 6 years, played over 150 games for us, was part of the promotion-winning side to Division One in 1966, and hardly gets a mention nowadays.
Don't know if Dave Armstrong was underrrated but my own personal opinion is that along with Steve Williams that midfield was fantastic for Lawrie Mac would love to know their goals and assists stats.
Also of that vintage were Cliff Huxford, Tony Knapp, George Curtis, Denis Hollywood. One, who is more up to date would be Chaplow from 2011/12.
Was about to post a similar thought. Brilliant for us and always seemed to be proud to wear the shirt without all the exaggerating behaviour we see a little too often these days.
We also remember when Glastonbury was a fringe event and not a commercially driven one, when all cricket matches was played with a red ball, when Grandstand was the major sports programme of the week, and when top footballers earned twice the salary of a head teacher in a year.
Always remember at Wembly when we lost to Notts Forest in 1978/79 League Cup Final him scoring with a wonderful volley just inside the box to bring it back to 3-2 and not celebrating, just running back to the halfway line and urging his teams to get on with the game
Classic behaviour. I'm probably old fashioned but I really do prefer the days when players used to congratulate each other with a handshake or pat on the back etc. All this pre-rehearsed stuff is way over the top for me at any rate. When the game is actually finished then I'm happier with a bit more bravado, but each time a goal is scored, just too much. Still it suits our time I suppose, with 'greatest' etc used for fairly moderate achievements at times.
