FEW Saints supporters can offer a spectator's perspective as varied as BBC 5 Live and Sky Sports commentator Stuart Pyke.

Bitten by the bug as an inquisitive seven-year-old boy, Pyke has been able to follow the men in a red vee in a number of guises for the past 47 seasons, including a spell as a club director.

And although his professional career has taken him across the globe with international cricket, world darts and top-flight football it is the crest of St Helens that is engraved upon his heart.

Like many a follower backing the Saints in that time span, Pyke has enjoyed what can only be described as a rollercoaster ride – but he cites last year’s Grand Final win over Wigan as a high point.

But he is also glad he opted to leave his microphone for the day and simply sit back and enjoy the occasion.

“It is great to be able to commentate and it is like getting paid for a hobby - but sometime have to say no,” he said.

“I was due to be on duty with Radio 5 for the Grand Final, but turned it down and bought 10 tickets for family and friends and it was one of the greatest days of my life.

“Last year Saints had achieved so much against adversity, taken the knockbacks and ignored the critics and the sniping that ‘Saints are useless’.

“Sometimes in sport there is destiny and it was ours this year.

“The image that will live with me forever and a day is Wello’s reaction at the hooter. That was sheer joy, elation, relief – if ever a player deserved that it was Wello, who had done more than most in turning the season around.

“It is brilliant that he is going around again at Saints – and I think he deserves the chance to beat Kel Coslett’s club appearance record.”

It has been a busy time for commentator Pyke with the World Darts Championships taking centre stage in the festive sports calendar, but soon it will be back to rugby where his professionalism through years of practice allows him to be the consummate professional – showing no signs of partiality even when commentating on his beloved Saints.

The club has been a big part of his life since being taken up to Knowsley Road as a young boy in February 1968 – and seeing Vollenhoven play on the wing in his last ever season at Saints.

“I recall my first Saints game – it was against Huddersfield in the first round of the Challenge Cup and remember crying for a week because we lost 5-0 – but that was it, I was hooked.

“For all pleasure and pain Saints has been my passion for more than 40 years.

“I have been through it like everyone else – the heartbreak of Mark Elia and Derek Noonan.

“In fact 20 years of winning nothing really started at Wembley in 1978 and I was in the corner where Derek Noonan knocked on in front of the line.

“There are two moments for me that sum Saints up – Noonan dropping the ball there and then on the other hand there is Wide to West. There tends to be no in between on the Saints roller coaster. That is what supporting Saints is about, you are in it for life.”

But Pyke was in it deeper than most in the early 1990s, having inherited shares from his grandfather Howard Hunter – a former vice chairman of the club – and took a seat on the board.

This was of course at time when full-time Wigan, backed by massive crowds at Central Park, wiped the floor with all comers.

It was a tough time for the Saints who at that stage seemed destined to live in the shadow of their rivals, made tougher by losing the likes of star men like Andy Platt and Gary Connolly to their rivals on the other side of the lump.

Pyke accepts some mistakes were made by the board, but he nevertheless stoutly defends the men who had to put their hands in their own pocket to try and build a team that would eventually match and then overtake The Riversiders.

“Saints lived from hand to mouth and we were hung drawn and quartered as a board, maybe some times deserved. But those people kept St Helens alive at a time when the town had suffered massively economically.

“On that board everyone played their part – without men le Joe Pickavance, Eric Latham, Mally Kay, Tom Ellard and Howard Morris – Saints wouldn’t be going now.

“Some of criticism is just wrong because people put their hands in the own pockets – I actually paid for Chris Joynt’s right leg – the members of the board put up their own money in to sign him from Oldham.

“Eric Ashton was one of nicest guys and shrewdest and most knowledgeable guys I have met – and he was determined that Saints were going to start progressing, but everyone played their part.

“I had a lot of work on the other side of the world with my job cricket commentating so decided to leave the board – and then we started winning things – so I take credit for the upturn after 1995!” he said.

Like all fans of a certain generation, Knowsley Road was a massive part of his life and he was sorry to see it go – but he believes the move to Langtree Park has given Saints a new lease of life.

"You have to pay tribute to Eamonn McManus – he has saved this club, and pushed through the move to Langtree Park – and the club is making a profit now – weddings, dinners and conferences– it is busy all the time and long may it continue. Eamonn has been hugely instrumental that and in helping to build two champion teams really.

“And now look - we are playing South Sydney in February in front of an 18,000 sell-out crowd at Langtree Park.

“Everyone has dreamt of days like this - Russell Crowe is going to be in St Helens along with one of best teams the NRL has produced in recent years and we have got a chance of winning the game!”