A SURVEY last week showed that Sheffield has the highest incidence of tooth decay of any city in the country and Southampton one of the lowest. An analysis of the two fluoride-striped football clubs would tell a different tale.

Sheffield United travel to St Mary’s Stadium still clinging to hopes of an instant return to the Premier League via the playoffs, while Southampton are on the brink of relegation out of the top two leagues for the first time since 1960.

James Beattie, once a legend at Saints, has been the mainstay of United’s challenge for the playoffs. His goals could consign his former club to oblivion. More bizarrely, Chris Lucketti, the Sheffield United centre-back on loan at Southampton, was wanted back in Sheffield to cover for the suspended Chris Morgan and the injured Ugo Ehiogu, though, under the terms of his contract, Southampton are not obliged to release him. Lucketti, not wanting to be responsible for ending the playoff hopes of his real teammates, will not play.

The confusion sums up Southampton’s fall from grace. “Strange as it may seem, the problems stem from the day we reached the cup final,” says Nick Illingsworth, chairman of the Saints Trust. “We were eighth in the league and in a cup final and everyone thought, ‘Ah, we’re ready to move into the big time now’. Expectations were raised and they were unrealistic.

“There’s not a Saints fan under 60 who has ever experienced anything like this before. When we went down in the seventies we won the cup, then we went back up again and we had players such as Kevin Keegan and Mick Channon playing for us. For the first time we’re having to live with the fact that we’re not very good.”

Southampton have also been riven by personality clashes and boardroom feuding at the moment the club needed common sense and clear thinking. Rupert Lowe, the long-standing chairman, paid the price for relegation and was replaced by Michael Wilde, who was ousted by Leon Crouch. An extraordinary general meeting postponed to the close season will see Wilde and Lowe, two bitter adversaries, form an unlikely alliance to get rid of Crouch. Every week, some sugar daddy was on the verge of buying the club – with its £20m outstanding mortgage payments on the stadium and monthly deficit of £1m on the running costs – and investing millions to reverse Southampton’s fortunes.

“Nobody has a divine right to stay in the top league, look at Leeds and Nottingham Forest,” says Channon, who will be tuning in to the fortunes of his old club from Newmarket today, where he saddles Nahoodh in the 1,000 Guineas. “I’m just a fan these days, but even I can see they’ve made a million mistakes at Southampton But it's all about reality now and all about the players.”

Southampton’s decline was masked by a run to last season’s playoffs and a defeat on penalties by Derby. But the Youth Cup-winning team, including Theo Walcott, Gareth Bale and Chris Baird, were sold and the fees were not all they seemed. Only £5m of Walcott’s £12m transfer to Arsenal was paid up front, the rest dependent on appearances for club and country. Bale’s £10m move to Tottenham was similarly structured. Kenwyne Jones soon followed those two into the top flight with Sunderland.

George Burley, who replaced Harry Redknapp three months into the 2005-06 season, was forced to rebuild but his transfer record is not easy reading for Saints fans. Rudi Skacel, Grzegorz Rasiak, Kelvin Davis, Jhon Viafara, Chris Makin and Jason Euell all arrived on Premier League wages. Though bolstered by the purchase of Wayne Thomas for £1m from Burnley, the absence of Claus Lundekvam, injured for the whole season and unlikely to play again, has been critical to their rapid decline.

When Burley bailed out in January, the club made another poor decision. With Saints a win or two above the relegation waterline, they promoted John Gorman to the role of caretaker manager, alongside Jason Dodd, with Lawrie McMenemy as the wise overseer. By the time Nigel Pearson was recruited from the Newcastle bootroom five weeks later, Southampton were fighting for their lives. Pearson, new to management, made early mistakes, losing 2-0 to Plymouth in his first match. With only two subsequent wins, Southampton have lurched deeper into trouble.

Southampton’s woes have coincided with the rise of their south coast rivals Portsmouth. Southampton have a bigger ground, better training facilities and a flourishing youth academy, yet Portsmouth are thriving on the investment of a polyglot owner, Alexandre Gaydamak, and the management of Harry Redknapp.

Nick Illingsworth, chairman of the Southampton Supporters’ Trust, believes a new start in League One might not be the end of the world. “We need stability and we have to cut our cloth, that’s the reality of it,” he says. “Anyway, where is Hartlepool?“