 Tuesday, 8th Feb 2011 17:51 by Forgotten Heroes You dont often get a player who scores for Pompey at the Dell and then is revered by Saints fans. It has to be said that when Barry Horne arrived from Pompey in March 1989 that he wasnt the most popular man in Hampshire, at the Eastern end of the M27 they were calling him Judas for defecting to the enemy and Saints supporters still hadnt quite forgiven him for scoring the second goal for the Skates in a 2-0 victory at the Dell just over a year earlier. He therefore had to work twice as hard as anyone who had ever pulled on a Saints shirt to win the fans over especially as he was at £700,000 the Clubs then record signing. Unusually Barry had come into football late after completing his degree at Liverpool university. When he arrived Saints had been in freefall and had got a little too close to the relegation zone, indeed his debut was a 3-1 home defeat to Arsenal followed by a 2-1 loss at Coventry City, but in his third appearance his second at home Saints beat fellow strugglers Newcastle at the Dell with a last minute penalty and Barry would be ever present as Saints stormed to safety losing only once in the final nine games, The following season 89/90 would be eventful Barry would play 28(1) league games as Saints finished seventh, in fact they went into the final four days of the season with a good chance of finishing third, in the penultimate game an evening fixture at Arsenal, Barry scored in the 35th minute to give Saints a dream opportunity and it was a lead they held until the 76th minute when a controversial penalty gave Arsenal an equaliser and four minutes later they notched the winner, an indentical score at Spurs condemned Saints to seventh but two victories would have seen that coveted third spot achieved, only Champions Liverpool had scored more than Saints that season with 78 goals as opposed to our 71, sadly our defence was the third worse in the division with two of the three relegated clubs conceding less. 1990/91 was probably Horne's best in a Saints shirt, he was the sides only ever present and had by now truly won over the fans who appreciated his tough tackling no nonsense approach, they also had notice of his shooting prowess, he only scored one league goal but it was a screamer against man City on Boxing Day. In the FA Cup Saints reached the fifth round and lost in a replay at the City Ground, but Barry for some reason had by now become the mortal enemy of Stuart Pearce and both players seemd to revel in kicking lumps out of each other, Barry might have looked diminutive but he was as hard as nails and never flinched in a tackle, ironically as he once revealed in an interview with The Ugly Inside, if they hadnt have been kicking lumps out of each other they probably would have had a good chat about music probably being the only two players in the top flight who were interested in a more alternative stle. But it would be the following seasons FA Cup where Barry would cement his name in Southampton folklore, after throwing away a two goal lead at Burnden Park to third division Bolton, it seemd like there would be only one winner at the Dell, but the visitors didnt read the script, in the 90th minute they scored their second goal to lead 2-1, Saints looked beaten and the fans were streaming out of the ground, in those days the number of minutes for injury time were not signalled and rarely exceeded one or two at the most, but as the fans headed for the exits the game kept on gioing, Bolton for their part defended with gusto and Saints couldnt get near the Bolton goal, then Barry picked up the ball on the half way line, advanced about ten yards and then unleashed a shot that seemed to dip, then pick up and then dip again and fly past the keeper into the Milton net, for a moment there was silence and then mayhem as the ground erupted, a mini pitch invasion ensued and with the last kick of the game it was saved. In extra time it got better as Horne socred a winner that in itself would have been a decent strike, but will forever be dwarfed by that wonder goal, some Saints fans admitted that they were half way to Shirley High street when they heard the roar and told of how thousands in the streets outside turned round as one and headed back into the ground. Sadly in the next round Barry would end his FA Cup career with Saints by being sent off in a controversial replay at Norwich where the home side got away wth murder lead by chief villain Robert Fleck who could never visit the Dell again without being booed. At the end of 91/92 Barry had been virtually ever present, 34 league games, all in the league cup, all but one in the ZDS including the Wembley final, and ever present in the FA Cup, so it was a surprise that this season would be his last. In the summer of 1992, afer 148 appearances plus 3 as sub and 13 goals he surprisingly joined his boyhood idols Everton, but the fans understood, they sensed that Barry was not manager Ian Branfoot's sort of player, he preferred someone a lot less subtle than Barry like Terry Hurlock. Barry had a four year stint at Goodison where he won the FA Cup in 1995,,, before he played for a plethora of lower league clubs, finally hanging up his boots at Walsall in 2001 as he approached his 40th birthday. Initially he became Chairman of the PFA, but then left and put his degree to good use teaching chemisstry and physics at a school in Chester, He continues to supplement this income with media work on Merseyside commenting on his beloved Everton including a column in the Liverpool Echo.
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