SAINTS' star striker showed off his circus skills as well as his football credentials as he opened a school sports hall.

Shane Long was at Lakeside School in Chandler's Ford to cut the ribbon on its new £500,000 building.

He then bravely joined in a game of five-a-side with pupils despite the fact that he had to play barefoot as he had arrived wearing flip-flops.

• Shane Long at Lakeside - in pictures >>

The striker, who joined Southampton from Hull City in August last year, then posed for pictures and autographed shirts and photographs with delighted pupils.

However, Shane also got roped into a circus skills workshop.

Having declined trying on a straitjacket, Shane did have a go spinning plates and tossing a tray of spoons and mugs - the aim being to get as many spoons to land in the cups as possible.

He managed an impressive four out of five.

The school's former sports hall, still in use, was part of the original school when it opened 40 years ago and struggled to fit in the school's 84 pupils.

It was too small to even play one game of badminton on because pupils ran out of room at the back of the court.

The new facility, around double the size, came about thanks to funding from Hampshire County Council.

Contractors handed over the building three weeks ago after eight months construction.

Shane's visit to the school, which takes boys aged 11 to 16, came about through his friendship with Linda Howard, a senior support worker for the boarding part of the school, whose son Brian Howard played at Reading with Shane and who asked him to come down.

Excited Spencer Eakin, 12, wearing a full Saints kit, said: "He was really nice and he's my favourite player.

"It was scary [to play with Shane] because he was really good."

Shane said: "It's an amazing set up - to see the old and new you can see the big difference it is for the children and the more opportunities they have to come on in sport and excel at it.

"It's an investment.

"When I was young I never had those facilities for me - two years after I left they built a big sports hall at my school.

"I go back home now and you see the difference it makes to the kids."

Shane, who starts back training on Monday before flying out to Austria for pre-season training the next day, said he had emerged from the five-a-side unscathed.

"I loved it," he added.

"It's been a couple of weeks since I kicked a football so five-a-side was a bit testing you know, legs everywhere and toes getting stood on and stuff, but it was good fun."

Headteacher Gareth Evans said: "It gives us a proper game of badminton, five-a-side football, basketball, volleyball, a full range of sports in a facility that is fit for purpose."