NO.122
T H E T R U S T Y S E RVA N T
Lew Chatterley
James Hodgins (Housedon, Chawker’s)
appreciates:
The 1995-96 Premier League season
finished with Southampton avoiding
relegation on goal difference. The Saints
board brought in Graeme Souness as the
new manager and, after over 30 years’
involvement in professional football as a
player and coach, Lew Chatterley was
once more out of a job. His career
spanned numerous clubs and spawned any
number of anecdotes (ask him, if you can,
about starting out as a pro at Villa and not
being allowed a ball during training, or
the time he grew a beard
whilst up at Sunderland, or
counting 50p pieces at Poole
Pirates, or his time at
Grimsby Town, or when
George Best nutmegged him
and laughed, or when he
broke his nose scoring the
winner at White Hart Lane,
or when he got the sack from
Reading on Christmas Eve,
or playing in the England
team that won the European
Youth Final at Wembley in
1963, and you might just
scratch the surface). And here he was, at
a loose end after a lifetime in football. So,
after a tip-off from a former colleague,
Lew drove for the first time into the car
park at the PE Centre in his Merc (I
imagine) in Short Half 1997 to help Chris
Good with the Yearlings.
His first game ended in a 14-0 defeat
at Bradfield. He tried to cheer the
goalkeeper up on the way back to the
dressing rooms. ‘Where