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Southern: My Premier League Pool dreams
WHEN Keith Southern steps out against Preston, he will be making his 256th Blackpool appearance.
In this day and age, when footballers are lucky if they spend more than a couple of seasons at the same place, that is a record of which to be proud.
A fine midfielder, who has improved every season he's been at the club, Southern is also one of the most decent blokes you could hope to meet.
It suddenly strikes me that there aren't all that many people who have played more than 250 times for the Seasiders and that he's part of a select group.
He may also become that very rarest of breeds – a one-club man, like Jimmy Armfield or Glyn James.
That's a long way off, though, which is why even the ever-talkative Southern pauses when I ask if he's ever thought about the legacy he might leave at Blackpool when his playing days are over.
It's a big question, but he answers it well.
"I don't really look too far ahead. You can't look too far beyond the next game," he replies after a moment's consideration.
"What I was really proud of was playing at Wembley and winning (in the play-off final). And I scored our first goal in the Championship (at Leicester) – that will stay with me forever, no matter where my career goes after the next couple of seasons.
"I will always be the player to score the first goal in the Championship for Blackpool after 30 years. I am really proud of that.
But I don't really like looking back. You can look back at that kind of stuff when you've finished your playing career.
"I still feel fit. I am 28 and I feel I am in my pomp. I still feel I have a lot of good years ahead of me and I want to achieve more, especially with Blackpool. I think the moment you stand still and you look back and think 'I've done this and that' is the time you come unstuck.
"If you don't keep improving in this game you'll be out because it is a very cut-throat business and it can end as quickly as it started.
"But you don't get carried away at Blackpool. The gaffer keeps your feet on the ground and nobody has done anything at this football club yet, so we just keep taking it game by game.
"But yes I've got some happy memories and I'll be able to tell people about them when I finish playing. But at the minute I am just enjoying playing and racking up the appearances."
Blackpool was a very different club when Southern first set eyes on it.
That was August 2002, when Steve McMahon signed the then 21-year-old midfielder and his Everton team-mate Peter Clarke.
After three months on loan there was a clamour for McMahon to sign the pair. Everton wouldn't sell Clarke but they did agree to let Southern go.
Pool fans were pleased but, if truth be told, would have preferred Clarke, who had rapidly become a hero after a string of impressive displays.
Ironic, then, that while Clarke is plying his trade in League One at Huddersfield, Southern is seventh from top in the Championship and has had the last laugh.
He's deserved it too. Not the most naturally talented player in the world, Southern is a grafter who puts every last drop of effort into every game.
That is why every manager he has played under (McMahon, Hendry, Grayson, Parkes, Holloway), has been quick to put his name on the team-sheet. Southern can rightly reflect on the last seven years with pride, though he prefers to praise others.
"The club has come a long way and there are a hell of a lot of people who have been involved with that progression from the bottom of League One to where we are now in the Championship. You would need numerous hands to count how many people have contributed to get this club to where it has got to.
"Simon Grayson, Tony Parkes, all the players, Wes Hoolahan, Kaspars Gorkss … I can reel off name after name who have contributed. It has been fantastic and I have had so many good times at this place.
"When I think back to 2002, I was just a young lad but I decided to leave a Premier League club because I wanted to further my career. I just wanted an opportunity to play in the League.
"I was at the stage where I knew I was probably never going to play in Everton's first team. I was 21 and I'd had a couple of injury-hit seasons, so I was desperate to play football – that's all I wanted to do.
"At the point I joined Blackpool it was a nice little club. It still is a nice club but we haven't half come on in leaps and bounds in terms of players we have signed, the money we are paying for players, the stand that is getting built, the football we are playing ... so many things.
I am proud to be part of what we have achieved in the last few years but hopefully there will be many more good times ahead."
Which leads to the obvious question – what ambitions does Southern have left?
"You want to play at the highest level. Everyone wants to play in the Premier League and I am no different, but not everybody can do that," he adds.
"My dream would be to play in the Premier League with Blackpool but am I getting ahead of myself?
"Everybody is entitled to a dream aren't they and mine would be to play in the Premier League with Blackpool – that would be fantastic.
"Whether it happens next season, or five years down the line … maybe it will never happen but you can always dream.
"If not that, then I'd love to see this club really establish themselves in the Championship and challenge year after year – not just have this as a one-off season, when Blackpool do well but then fade away and drift back down to the bottom. Let's kick on and if we're not going to challenge this season, then let's stabilise the club and be up there year after year."
But before that, the little matter of Preston. Southern played in both games last season – the disappointing home defeat and the Charlie Adam-inspired victory at Deepdale.
"It's a big game for the fans but it is also a big game for us," he declares.
"We want to win every game but especially this one against our local rivals. We'll do our best to get the result everyone wants."
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Weather for Blackpool
Monday 13 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
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