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.