The tiny, 14-inch TV screen is a time machine.

On it, an English soccer match flickers in black and white. A ball soars across the pitch to the blond-haired man waiting at the far post of the net.

He leaps, hanging salmonlike in the air above a Manchester United defender, then whips his head forward, delivering the ball into the upper-right corner of the goal.

It would be the first of four goals Ron Davies scored for Southampton Football Club on Aug. 16, 1969.

"No one's ever gone to that ground and scored four goals," Davies says of that day at Manchester's venerable Old Trafford stadium. "That's the feather in my cap."

Davies says this more than 38 years later, watching himself on videotape from the Spartan confines of his Winnebago, a home-on-wheels at an RV park along Wyoming Boulevard Northeast.

It's a far cry from his halcyon days in the top tier of English soccer, a time when one of the world's most revered coaches labeled him the greatest center forward in all of Europe.

Today, the Welshman's blond mane has all but disappeared along with some of his front teeth. More critically, he walks with a limp; the leaping ability that once made him famous in the United Kingdom has now left the 65-year-old, retired edition of Ron Davies hobbled with arthritis. As a result, he might require hip-replacement surgery, putting him in need of $20,000 to cover the costs.

Coming to his aid unsolicited is a collection of his biggest fans - Southampton supporters in England who are doing their best to give thanks to a man who electrified their youth from the soccer pitch.

"I was a teenager growing up in the late 1960s in England. He was my god, my idol, if you like. He thrilled me," said Duncan Holley, a member of a British Airways cabin crew and the official historian for Southampton Football Club, which now plays in England's second tier.

"I worshipped him as you do with your football stars, soccer stars or baseball stars."

Holley is chairman of the Give It to Ron Committee, a campaign that launched last month prior to a game between Southampton and Cardiff City to raise money on Davies' behalf.

So far, the campaign has raised the $20,000 to cover medical costs not paid by Davies' insurance.

Donors to his campaign have bought raffle tickets for copies of Davies' drawing of Southampton great Matt LeTissier. Davies was a caricature artist whose work appeared in a Southampton paper during his playing days.

There are 277 copies offered - one for every game Davies played for the Saints, Holley said.

• • •

Four minutes after the first goal, a Saints winger launches another ball from the edge of the field. The match commentator's voice builds with the action.

"Three men in the penalty box for Southampton . . . Looking for Davies again . . . He's got it again!"

This time the ball, again headed by Davies, bounces off a Manchester United defender. While it looks to be flying toward the net on its own, the commentator questions whether it isn't an "own goal," to be credited to the Manchester defender.

Davies, protective of his legacy, scoffs at the notion.

"You can't tell me that wasn't going into the net," he says, watching the replay.

• • •

Southampton won promotion to the First Division in 1966. Saints manager Ted Bates was looking for a star center forward, the team's key attacking position.

He purchased Davies from Norwich City for 55,000 British pounds - then a club record.

Davies rewarded Bates by becoming the league's top scorer. His 37 league goals in 1966-67 - and 43 in all competitions - helped Southampton avoid relegation back to the Second Division.

A year later he came back with 28 goals, despite being double-teamed, tying Manchester United legend George Best for the league lead, Davies said.

Following his four-goal performance, Manchester United manager Matt Busby declared Davies the best center forward in Europe.

Davies would go on to make 29 appearances for the Wales national team in a sport where playing for your country is one of the highest honors.

By today's standards, that curriculum vitae would make Davies a sporting legend worthy of a hefty paycheck. But where today's top English soccer stars can make upward of $100,000 a week, Davies' weekly wages peaked at just $200.

It was enough to afford some luxuries - he drove a Jaguar and his first wife employed a maid service - but not enough to live a lifestyle considered lavish, he says.

"We made nothing," he says, noting that the 55,000 pounds he was acquired for in 1966 is now a weekly wage for some players. "People can't believe the money I was making - 100 pounds a week? Your reputation? Your name? The best in Europe? They laugh at me."

Chris Davies, Ron's American-born wife, recognizes the relative absurdity of their circumstances. She knows what her husband, at his peak, would be worth in today's English game.

"The reality of the situation is, let's face it, if he were playing today he'd be making $15 (million), $20 million," she says. "He's not bitter. But I'm kind of upset about the whole thing. He gave his whole life to the game."

• • •

By the second half, a pattern is emerging. It's the 57th minute, and Saints winger John Sydenham again flings the ball in front of the net.

"This third goal shows how really high I could jump," Davies says as he watches the replay.

Sydenham's crossing pass reaches the far post.

"Over it comes. Davies there. Number three! Magnificent goal by Davies!"

• • •

Davies' Southampton career ended in 1973 with a transfer to Portsmouth, a rival team in south England.

That was followed by short stints at Manchester United and Milwall in 1974-75, before he received a call from Terry Fisher, coach of the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League, asking if he would come play alongside George Best in California.

"It was a resuscitation, basically," Davies says. "I started a new life in America."

His playing days continued in the now-defunct NASL through 1979 with appearances for the Tulsa Roughnecks and Seattle Sounders.

Davies moved back to Los Angeles for a while, working as a private coach. One player he coached improved so much, the boy's father bought Davies a Cadillac, he said.

After three years in Los Angeles, Davies moved close to Orlando, Fla., to be near Chris' family. He spent 10 years there, coaching at the semi-pro, college and high school levels as well as doing work for a security company.

"We lived on an acre of land with water at the back," Davies said. "She saw six snakes in the back and said, `That's it.' "

They moved briefly to Phoenix, where friends told them Albuquerque's climate was more suitable to Davies' ailing hip.

They've lived in the Duke City for about four years, for a while staying in hotels, he said.

Working for a local construction company, Davies' boss offered to sell him the 1990 Winnebago he and Chris now share with a cat named Snoopy.

His hobbled leg keeps him from working, so he spends his days inside the RV, reading or sketching old friends from his playing days, he said.

Davies says he isn't destitute, going so far as to joke that he's not in any danger of becoming homeless. He holds dual citizenship in England and the United States and receives Social Security from both nations. Chris, who continues to work in retail, once worked for the government in Florida and receives benefits from that work, Davies said.

"She absolutely loves this," he says of the Winnebago. "I love it, too. It's comfortable. My wife loves to travel. That's what we want to do.

"I'm retired now, so I've got time."

• • •

With about two minutes left against Manchester United, Davies is charging up the field, fighting for the ball alongside a Manchester defender.

He breaks free to kick the ball past United goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer.

For Davies, it was an unprecedented fourth score. To the post-match commentator, it was still a point of contention.

"I don't know about you," the commentator says while signing off, "but I reckon that it was three goals for Ron Davies."

Back in the Winnebago, Davies sets the record straight.

"Bollocks!" he says to the monitor. "Four!"

• • •

To this day, Davies harbors a secret. It was a question the media always asked, but he never answered.

"They'd been asking me for years and years, the press, when I was playing soccer, `How did you head the ball so well? What's the secret?' I wouldn't tell them," he said, adding, "It's quite simple. . . . "

That special ability, his salmon-like leap, is also what led him to the condition he's in today. It was forecast long ago.

"When I was 25, 26 years old, my club doctor, Dr. Ramsey, he said to me, `Ron, when you get into your late 50s or 60s, you're going to have a job to walk,' " Davies said. "He was dead right. I couldn't believe it."

A specialist in Albuquerque has prescribed anti-inflammatory medication that, if effective, could prevent or stave off the need for the hip surgery, Davies said.

In that event, he says, maybe he won't need to take the money being raised overseas.

Nonetheless, the Give it to Ron group is helping the former Southampton star in other ways. James Wallace, the group's treasurer, reports that a businessman and Saints fan has connected with a pottery-maker about producing tankards bearing images drawn by Davies.

Another fan, seeing Davies was missing some teeth during a recent TV interview broadcast in England, has offered to pay for his dental work, Davies said.

Davies is appreciative of the efforts, if not a little taken aback by it all.

"I've already told them, I think it's unbelievable. James Wallace, I don't even know the guy, and he just got involved in it," Davies said. "I'm over the moon about it. I can't believe people like me that much. It's a helluva thing."

Davies says he is perfectly content living anonymously in his Albuquerque Winnebago.

There is little memorabilia in his home, save for a few pictures from his playing days, some laminated news clippings and two Wales caps signifying his appearances for his country.

Much of everything else is either in storage or given away to family, he said.

Like many former professional athletes, his only regret is that he never won more trophies throughout his career.

Otherwise, bad hip and all, he wouldn't change a thing.

"When you get my age, you live every day like it's your last," he said. "One day, you might be right."