THE streets of Southampton spawned a certain type of footballer in the late 80s and early 90s.

Skilful, full of flair and willing to try the crowd-pleasing spectacular rather than wasting energy bursting into the box.

It's hardly surprising considering that Matt Le Tissier was the boyhood hero strutting his stuff round the corner.

It also explains why Wade Elliott, one of those adoring Dell regulars of the era, has scored all his goals from outside the area this season.

"That's the similarity between me and Le Tissier - we're both too lazy to run in the box, so our goals have to come from outside," joked the Burnley winger, who is hoping for a dream return to his home town club tomorrow.

In reality, Elliott's liking for the long range is the only Le Tissier trademark that's rubbed off him in all those years cheering on the Saints.

You can tell just by looking that he doesn't share Le Tissier's phobia to training and 'lazy' isn't a regular word in the vocabulary.

But the way the Southampton side of the time played in general was Elliott's greatest inspiration to hone the tricks of the trade he has displayed during his own rise through the ranks.

"It was fortunate for us to have players like Le Tissier at our local club that we could go and watch," said Elliott.

"I started watching them when Jimmy Case was there, and Jimmy went on to be my manager in non-league.

"Then Le Tissier came though around 1986-87 and it was that team that played decent football.

"They had two full backs flying on with Barry Horne and Case sitting in midfield and Danny Wallace, Le Tissier and Shearer up front. They just used to really go for teams.

"It was a tight little ground where the crowd would get behind them so it was great and going to watch them you always knew you were going to get a decent game and a few goals.

"You never knew who would score them because they were so gung-ho, but the games used to be brilliant and a good atmosphere."

Elliott became a Junior Saint at the age of six but his dream of wearing the red and white stripes ended when he was released from the club's centre of excellence.

But after continuing to learn his trade under Case at Bashley, he was given a professional contract at Bournemouth, where five successful years led to his Clarets switch in the summer.

And this is where the divided loyalties could cause an Elliot family feud when he faces Southampton for the first time in his career tomorrow.

Elliott said: "I've been on the phone to family and friends all week and getting a bit of stick.

"All the women in the family are in the Burnley end like my mum and my auntie. My uncles and a lot of family and friends are season ticket holders and go every week so I'll have to make sure my mum and everyone knows where they're sat so they can give them some stick.

"But I've been in the club shop here all week buying shirts for my auntie's little girls so they know where their loyalties lie early on.

"Maybe they will wear both shirts though, depending on who scores."

Elliott isn't as frequent a visitor to St Mary's these days, but his one trip this season did convince him that Burnley will be in for a tough time tomorrow.

"I went to the Stoke game a couple of weeks ago and they won it pretty convincingly," said Elliott, who cheered the Saints to a 2-0 win.

"Stoke went down to 10 men but Saints were pretty comfortable and Stoke are a decent team, they are right on our coat tails.

"So from the game I saw, reading reports and speaking to people, they seem to be playing pretty well."