Everton on 11 September he never fully recovered from his injury. His early season was rather stop-start and was not helped by the suspension for receiving a red card at home to Manchester City on 5 October. He then severely injured an ankle in November 2002, which kept him out for most of the rest of the season with another operation on the eve of the FA Cup Final to round off a miserable 2002–03 season. The start to the 2003–04 season was again hampered by injury and comebacks for the reserves were ruined by injury recurrences. He did manage to play the closing minutes as Latvia claimed a place at Euro 2004. With that as an added incentive to get himself fully fit he found himself back in the Saints starting line up for 3 successive games which all ended in victories. His first goal of the season – and in more than a year – came at home to local rivals Portsmouth on 21 December 2003 in a 3–0 home win when he curled a superb right footer into the bottom right corner. After recovering from injury, he was then injured in 2004–05 pre-season in an away match at Swindon Town. A heavy, late tackle to the same ankle which had already undergone three operations ruled him out of the early part of the season. Comebacks for the reserves were promising, until problems flared up again, causing him to miss the whole of the season in frustrating circumstances, as Saints were relegated after 28 years in the top flight of English Football. His 2005–06 season was another frustrating one with injury after injury again seeing his comebacks ruined. He did make 10 appearances during the season, scoring one goal, but it was not enough to save his Saints career, and, in May 2006, after seven years with 156 appearances and 45 goals for the club, it was announced that his contract with Southampton would not be renewed for the following season. After the final game of the season, on 30 April 2006 Pahars took part in a 'lap of appreciation' by the Saints players around the St. Mary's pitch, in an emotional goodbye for the player and many of the Southampton fans present. Later spells In July 2006 Pahars signed with Anorthosis Famagusta, a Cypriot team managed by former Georgian International Temuri Ketsbaia. His injury problems were frequent