“I got the inkling before and sensed something wasn\u2019t quite the same.”<\/h2>\n

The date was August 19, 2012. It was a sunny Sunday morning in Manchester and Southampton’s players had just woken from their overnight stay in the team hotel close to the city. In just hours time they would be back on the sport’s grandest stage, a return to the intoxicating theatre of Premier League football.<\/p>\n

After years of hardship and false dawns, today was the day dreams were set to be realised. The late Markus Liebherr had pulled the club back from the oblivion and the plan, which he so sadly never got to see fulfilled, was actually happening. Southampton were back. Back to where Liebherr, players and supporters had long yearned to be.<\/p>\n

The first fixture pencilled in was away to Manchester City, a side beginning a defence of the title they sensationally won three months before. Sure, a match away to the champions was daunting. But who was really going succumb to fear? After all, the Saints squad were still riding the crest of the promotion wave, overflowing with excitement and a chance to test themselves on the most glorious of platforms.<\/p>\n

Players began to surface from their rooms and made their way down to breakfast. Though they were now about to embark on top-flight football, pre-match preparations remained the same. The team would sit down to have their early morning meal before making their way into a conference room in which boss Nigel Adkins would run through the starting line-up and deliver any final tactical or technical points.<\/p>\n

As far as the majority of the squad were concerned, everything appeared to be running as normal.<\/p>\n

Dean Hammond was one of the members at the team hotel having travelled up on the team coach. The midfielder had been a feature in pre-season and was feeling good within himself. After a protracted build-up to the season’s curtain raiser and months waiting in anticipation, Southampton’s captain could be forgiven for feeling a little more giddy than most. Hammond had worked his way up through the rungs of the football league ladder, his fortunes and hardship in direct alignment with the club he was now representing.<\/p>\n

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