Niemi's pursuit of perfection ensures Southampton stay in safe hands

Michael Svensson must have a hell of a stare. Jason Dodd surely does a great line in disdain. "If I lose a bad goal I can live with it but I hate the way the defenders look at you because you've let them down," admits the Southampton goalkeeper Antti Niemi about his team-mates.

Michael Svensson must have a hell of a stare. Jason Dodd surely does a great line in disdain. "If I lose a bad goal I can live with it but I hate the way the defenders look at you because you've let them down," admits the Southampton goalkeeper Antti Niemi about his team-mates.

"Everyone is trusting you and expecting things from you. It's a horrible feeling." But not one he has had to suffer often during his two seasons so far on the South Coast after five years in Scotland.

For Niemi is one of the Premiership's best. Perhaps the very best - although the Finn is having none of that. "I think that is strange," he frowns. "How can you say who is the best in this League? You can't. All the goalkeepers are good. I could give you half a dozen names who, in my opinion, could be the goalkeeper of the season."

Go on then. "I think first of all the goalkeepers from Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal have done really well as it's a different pressure because they are even more under the microscope," Niemi contends. "If you are at a Premiership club expected to win the League the pressure you have to handle is even bigger. And then there's Dean Kiely, Shay Given, Maik Taylor. All have had a fantastic season so I can't say who's the best... and I know a thing or two about goalkeeping." Having conceded under a goal a game, he does.

Niemi adds that he's "a big fan" of Kiely, in particular, having once, while at Rangers, been on loan to Charlton, and Given. All three share one thing: a sense of serenity. Niemi ascribes it to his deceptive "laid-back nature" adding "maybe sometimes people get the picture that I'm a little too laid back".

But it's laced with an obsessive pursuit of perfection - a goal that is rarely achieved although constantly sought. Collectively the closest Southampton have come is their sublime, televised destruction of Tottenham Hotspur - today's opponents - in the FA Cup last season.

"I think about my goalkeeping," Niemi explains. "Every time I lose a goal I like to go through it many, many times and see why it happened." Either on video or, even, re-enacting each moment on the training ground. To such an extent that Niemi makes a mental note of the points he has cost Southampton since his arrival in the summer of 2002 for a fee of £2m from Heart of Midlothian.

Although he doesn't admit it, it must be a meagre total. "Always when I play I start with the idea that the team is not going to lose points because of me," he says. "I'm always trying to do that." When he conceded three at home to Everton the other week, an unprecedented occurrence in the League, a process of mental torture ensued. "I went through the goals again and again, looking at how I reacted, the positioning - and I couldn't see how I could have done anything different. And a few weeks later we played Liverpool and I saved everything."

That was Paul Sturrock's first game in charge at St Mary's - a 2-0 victory, including a Niemi penalty save, followed by defeat in the local derby against Portsmouth. It's been a fiery baptism. In neither game did Southampton, in truth, play well and they have struggled to recapture last season's brio.

"Against Liverpool at half-time we noticed that he can say a thing or two," says Niemi ruefully of Gordon Strachan's successor. "He's quite calm but has another side of him that every good manager has." Not that the Finn deserved criticism. His man-of-the-match performance - maintaining his position as The Independent Index's best goalkeeper of the season - was astonishing. He appeared invincible.

"Sometimes you get that feeling," he says. "But then you shouldn't be that busy. I would rather win every game 3-0. But that's not going to happen." The Premiership is just too competitive, he argues. "You have to look at the big, big teams in this League, and it's a very tight League, and I think Southampton are more or less where they should be at the moment. And that is not being pessimistic. That's being realistic."

Expectations were raised a notch or three after last season's exploits - although Niemi immediately intervenes. He bristles with ambition. "You talk about a fantastic season - but we were eighth in the League and lost a Cup final. Is that so brilliant after all? It was good, especially for a club like Southampton which in the past has been fighting relegation. But I would love to see more."

Nevertheless, Niemi concedes it is difficult for clubs such as his to compete. "Have a look at the League table," he says. The big boys are there. "And then there will always be those who surprise. We've been up there, so have Charlton. Fulham have done well, Birmingham also. But those other five are the biggest.

"It's not just about money. It's fantastic to see Arsenal when they score. Everyone is jumping, the team spirit is there. The work-rate is there. The same at Man Utd. They have huge salaries, nice cars and all that but they work all over the pitch and that's what keeps them together." Not that any Premiership player, he believes, lacks motivation. "Every one of us realises how lucky we are," Niemi says.

He speaks from experience. Having grown up in Oulu, the northern Finnish city where there's no darkness during summer nights but where Niemi recalls going to school in -42C one winter, it all seems a little surreal. Life as a Premiership footballer was not supposed to happen.

"I never thought I could make a living," he says. "That didn't come until quite late - when I was playing for the [Finnish] Under-21 side." Which was fabulously successful, recording victories against France and Sweden and opening his eyes. "I was always in goal since I was five." Niemi explains. "It's one of those things - I was always diving about and the other kids would ask 'doesn't it hurt' and I would say 'no, it's fun'."

The enthusiasm was a prerequisite, especially in a country where football struggled before crowds of 1,500 people. "But it's a possibility now," says Niemi of the public's reaction. "It's not a dream any more." Names such as Jari Litmanen, Sami Hyypia, Mikael Forssell and Niemi have fired the imagination. "So now there's a different look in people's eyes," he says. "A different attitude."

And so the game competes with other sports. Niemi's first love was ice hockey. "But I wasn't very good at skating... which is rare in Finland. It was always football for me." He loves the National Hockey League in the United States but is immersed in his own profession. "I signed for five years when I came here," the 31-year-old says. "And I can only hope that the club is happy with me." He wants to play for "another four of five years and then go home". "That's my plan," says Niemi. "It might change. You have to remember that I'm from Finland and I've got young kids and a wife here and the grandparents and all that are over there."

Until then he will dedicate himself to the Southampton way. "That means attitude and work-rate - plus we have some very good footballers," Niemi says. Such as himself.