DAVE'S TREASURE HUNT

FORMER SOUTHAMPTON STRIKER DAVE PUCKETT TELLS JAKE GUNTON ABOUT HIS EFFORTS TO TRACK DOWN SOME PRECIOUS MEMENTOS OF HIS PLAYING DAYS...

WHEN the whistle blew on the final day of the 1983-84 season, the last thing Southampton youngster Dave Puckett wanted to do was throw his shirt into the packed Meadow Lane away end.

A nimble-footed striker who played under the stewardship of Brian Clough and Harry Redknapp (twice) in an illustrious 20-year career, Puckett was a Saints boy raised on the terraces of The Dell in the late '60s.

At 18, having spent time in the youth set-up, then manager Lawrie McMenemy handed him his first professional contract.

1 "I idolised the likes of Mick Channon as young kid," he said. "Ten years later, I was playing alongside him and Steve Moran for my boyhood club. It was the life I'd dreamt of from my first game at eight years old. I still feel lucky now." In May 1984, Southampton had just secured their best-ever finish with a win against already-relegated Notts County - First Division runners-up behind champions Liverpool. The club had also embarked on a memorable FA Cup run, only to be halted by Everton in the semi-final.

Puckett had played a bit-part role across the season, often having to bide his time behind the prolific Moran, Danny.

Wallace and Frank Worthington.

But after being preferred to the latter for the run-in, the forward seized his I chance as the No.9.

"I'd worn various numbers throughout the season, so to be given the nine for the run-in of Southampton's best-ever season, it was the perfect moment," he recalled.