Crystal Palace product may be remembered at Southampton for nightmare bow: View | OneFootball

Olly Lancashire was highly rated as a youngster who would eventually make his way to Southampton.

The now 35-year-old began his career at Crystal Palace, where he spent several years working his way up through the club's academy. Upon his release as a youngster, he was quickly snapped up by Southampton, who appeared to have a future star on their books. Before even making his senior debut for the club, he was attracting plenty of interest from bigger clubs as Liverpool and Manchester City were both keeping tabs on the player.

Despite heavy interest from the Premier League, Lancashire remained at St Mary's and geared up for his senior debut with the Saints at the start of the 2008/09 Championship campaign.

Unfortunately, despite the hype around the young defender, he struggled to really kick on for Southampton and endured a tough spell with the club.

His debut certainly set the standard for what was to come.

Lancashire's disaster debut

At 19, Lancashire eventually made his long-awaited professional Southampton debut in September 2008 as the Saints travelled to Loftus Road to face QPR in the Championship.

Lancashire started the game in defence, under manager, Jan Poortvliet, with the likes of Morgan Schneiderlin and Adam Lallana also in the starting eleven.

Within just half an hour of a ball being kicked, Lancashire went flying into a rash challenge on QPR's Damien Delaney, and as a result received a red card from the referee, reducing Southampton to ten men with an hour left to play.

The Saints were just 1-0 down at the time of the sending off, but the game finished 4-1 in QPR's favour following Lancashire's rash challenge.

It was a debut to forget for the youngster, and unfortunately, it is what he is mostly remembered for nowadays by Southampton supporters, as he failed to kick on for the rest of his time in Hampshire.

Lancashire's Southampton spell as a whole

It did not get much better for the defender following his horrid debut, as he went on to make just 13 league appearances for the Saints in total.

In his first season with the club, Southampton suffered relegation from the Championship, and Lancashire only managed 10 league starts. Of his 10 starts, six resulted in losses as he failed to really provide any defensive stability when required.

His discipline appeared to be a huge issue right from the off, and sadly, a red card on his debut was not the end of it. Less than a month after returning from suspension, Lancashire saw red yet again as he picked up a second yellow card away to Sheffield United in a 0-0 draw.

He was proving to be rather unreliable, which was a huge shame considering his potential. He would go on to pick up two more yellow cards in two consecutive league appearances, highlighting even bigger question marks around his discipline.

Lancashire made a couple of appearances in League One for the Saints following their relegation, but failed to make an impact as he was sent out on loan to Grimsby Town on three separate occasions.

Eventually, the youngster departed St Marys in 2010 for Walsall after an extremely disappointing spell, and will certainly be remembered most for his sending off on debut.

Lancashire returns to Southampton

It may be surprising to discover that Lancashire is currently on the books at Southampton as a 35-year-old. In 2021, the now experienced defender returned to St Mary's after a decade away to work alongside the club's academy.

He made over 30 appearances for Southampton's youth side in the last couple of seasons, while helping the academy players progress mentally.

Lancashire will have learned a lot over the course of his career, and one of the biggest lessons would have come from his debut, where he received a red card at Loftus Road.

While he will be remembered for that moment by many, the 35-year-old has gone full circle and is now educating Southampton's youth in order for them to properly develop.