On Saturday, I switched on FiveLive and was greeted by the voice of former Brentford manager Martin Allen.

He was reminiscing about Brentford’s FA Cup fifth round draw with Southampton (then a Premier League side) at St Mary’s back in 2005.

While I don’t want to upset our current gaffer, Andy Scott, by mentioning Allen, it was nice to be reminded of one of my most memorable Bees away days.

Mad Dog’s nostalgia trip was also a timely one ahead of our weekend fixture at Southampton.

While I’ll forever associate somewhere such as Colchester’s Layer Road with the feeling of disappointment and the smell of human excrement, on the other hand the mere mention of St Mary’s sparks much happier emotions.

It might be one of those indenti-kit modern football stadiums with all the heart of an Australian bowler, but the Bees seem to raise their game there.

As well as the aforementioned cup match we also picked up a well-deserved point in our league encounter last term and I don’t want to tempt fate here but I do fancy our chances on Saturday.

Sadly, we won’t get a chance to be reunited with the hideous, Newcastle-bound Alan Pardew, who was unceremoniously dumped as manager of the Saints earlier this year.

We will, however, enjoy a reunion with our former left-back Ryan Dickson or, to give him his actual name according to the football punditry code of conduct, Dicko.

To boo or not to boo is always the question when facing a former player.

If the player is Martin Rowlands then clearly the answer is that you must jeer and hiss him as if your life depended on it, but, on the whole, I’m not a boo-er.

First of all, I’ve never been to South Africa in my life (boom, boom!) and, secondly, as far as Dicko is concerned it would be grossly unfair.

He was a superb player for us and thoroughly deserved his move to the Saints.

Despite Southampton’s huge financial resources, if the Bees win on Saturday we’ll be level on points with them with almost half the season gone.

Now schadenfreude might not be pretty (and I’ve heard Harry Redknapp is trying to sign him for Spurs) but after giving Dicko a warm round of applause before kick-off, I’m sure that, come 5pm, if we have picked up the three points, myself and a few thousand other Bees fans will be politely asking him to remind us of the score.

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