When Spygate initially broke last week, it did not seem to be a major issue, it was laughed off by Boro manager Kim Hellberg, who seemed happy to play it down and use the story to ramp up the atmosphere for the game against Saints, but when it didn't get him the result he wanted he got dirty.

Initially it seemed that the situation now dubbed Spygate was a news story that would soon blow over, after all on the scale of misdemeanours in football such as the alleged indiscretions by Manchester City that have been dragged out by their lawyers for years in the face of football authorities who run scared from lawsuits.

It was almost accepted that this sort of thing is common in football and that in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't much of an issue, after all if Saints or anyone wanted to film another club's training session, they would not have to skulk in bushes around the training ground, they could just get someone to send a drone up.

Indeed I watched a similar you tube video of a drone over Staplewood at the beginning of last week, it was done by a Southampton fan who wanted to show the training ground to his subscribers, there was training sessions going on, but he was more concerned about showing off the facilities.

However for all I know he could have been approached by another club to make a second video, the one put up on line was just a decoy, a bit far fetched I know, but with every day Spygate seems to get more bizarre.

When it broke is seemed innocuous, the plethora of ex footballers trying to increase their media profile and income, including some of our own ex players all tried to make this out as a major crime and that this was big news.

At this stage Kim Hellberg seemed happy to sit back and let his local media fan the flames, this could actually work in his favour, something to motivate his players with and to stir up the Middlesbrough fans to levels rarely seen at The Riverside in it's 31 years of existence.

That looked to be working on Saturday, a pyro welcome for the team bus, followed by a frenzied start from both his team and the home fans.

If Boro had won 3-0, then I probably would not be writing this story, however they didn't it was a 0-0 draw and he was now well and truly miffed.

At his post match press conference he went into full rant mode, TeessideLive reporting these post match comments.

“It will be interesting to see what happens with that. I was trying to focus on the session as much as I could. I’ve seen some people talking about it not being a big advantage because you can see the games on film, but it is a massive advantage.

“It’s weird to say that, to be fair. But if you took that game today, we’d never used that shape that we used in the first half. That was impossible to know from whatever game you watch.

“Set-plays, goal kicks, it’s just unfair, and I think everyone would agree with that. We will see what happens but I just think it's weird that they do that and try to cheat in this type of game. It’s just wrong.”

Interesting to see that he claimed that he would never have used the shape he used in the first half, Boro have been awful for weeks with whatever shape Hellberg has employed, yet they battered us, with one he didn't intend using. If I was a Boro fan I would raise eyebrows at my manager for that one.

Luckily for Kim though we didn't take advantage of his set plays at goal kicks, we could really have punished them on that one, this actually surprised me that his team practise goal kicks, anyway it didn't matter, in the first half we barely got in their half let alone had to defend a goal kick.

I don't know much about Kim Hellberg, his wikipedia page seems to suggest he is a combination of Will Still and Russell Martin, but he is under pressure at Middlesbrough, after a good early start building on the work of Rob Edwards, it's all gone a bit pear shaped since January.

I think this pressure led him to his outburst, he had hoped that Spygate would inspire a glorious victory, but in the aftermath when he realised it hadn't he got nasty.

But this could well work against him, having had the momentum, his comments will be used by Tonda Eckert and the Southampton media to inspire their own team, the Saints boss will be telling his side that they have earned their right to be in this second leg on the pitch over the past 4 months, not by a spy in the training ground, are they going to sit back and be called "Cheats"

As Hellberg had on Saturday, Eckert will not need much more needed in the way of motivation for his team.

Likewise the Southampton supporters, our 2,000 hardy fans who were lucky enough to get a ticket in a reduced allocation for Saturday's game, a situation made even more insulting in that Boro fans did not sell out their stadium, the crowd being 2,500 short of their highest crowd of the season, even with cheap tickets.

St Mary's was sold out over a week before the game and we could have sold thousands more tickets, we were all revved up and ready to go before Spygate, now the supporters are even more ready to pump up the volume.

I have seen footage of Boro's pyro welcome for their team on Saturday, without bias it was not anything like the intensity of the welcome our fans gave their team in the play offs against West Brom two years ago and on Tuesday night, it is now going to be even more frenzied.

Kim Hellberg has pushed up the levels in this game using Spygate, initially quietly and now more loudly, no one will be hearing him say it in St Mary's, has he has shot himself in the foot, he wound up his own fans and now he has wound up ours and that could be a big advatage.

I am sure that the next 24 hours or so will see even more comments in the press, demanding all sort of draconian punishment, I am sorry but when I see various ex professional footballers screaming for justice for cheats, when I have watched them employ the so called dark arts on the pitch, then I can't take them seriously, having said that I suppose it takes one to know one.

A big big game at St Mary's, we have earned our right to be in this position by our play on the pitch, if Kim Hellberg want's to know our tactics at goal kicks then he can drop me a message on here and I'll save him the price of a pair of binoculars.

All Photos Via Reuters