Match of the Day - Week 17

This week's Match of the Day features two Southampton v Tottenham Hotspur games and the history of goal nets at the Dell.

Our first game is on an 1989 gluepot of a pitch. It's a victory for Spurs played out between the much-loved and much-missed old stanchions at the Dell.


Our second game is from ten years later. Though the old stanchions have given way to Continental D's, the ground staff still have very little area in which to hang and pin the nets.

As an early Christmas present, look out for a Matt Le Tissier special to equalise for Saints about 4:00 in. Merry Christmas.

Southampton FC

At The Dell, Southampton used to have the littlest of Little Ones.



Little Ones may not be your cup of tea, but you could look at this goal and know immediately it was Southampton.

Now at St Mary's, the goalnets are boxes made of trampoline like everybody else's.



But spy the fancy red and white tubing, and the obvious decision to let the nets hang loose, and, in their own way, the St Mary's nets might be thought as distinctive as the old ones at The Dell. A goal scored into them is certainly more aesthetically pleasing.

Loftus Road - Keira Knightley

Sexy only if skinny and spindly float your boat though surprisingly popular, with similar stanchions at West Ham and Southampton. Nil points for ball retention.

QPR



West Ham



Southampton