Why Did You Start Supporting Saints?

It's not always as simple as supporting Saints because they're your local club,so what are the reasons for why the members of this forum support Saints? Any interesting stories?

Southampton born and bread its that simple for me.

so I can read people moaning on an internet fans board about inane topics.

I really started supporting Saints after moving from Peterborough with my parents, and we lived in a house in Milton Road and on Saturdays you could hear the cheering of the away team when they scored...

born and bred saints...

although will be interesting to see different answers..

i wonder how many did because of Matt Le Tissier...?

Born in Southampton lived there only for six years started watching them in 1962 followed them ever since.

My parents lived in Southampton for nearly fifty years in fact my dad died there ten years ago today so I was always going home for the weekend despite living in the West London area since 1964 to watch the Saints

I started supporting Saints because, as a child, my father took me to see them play, starting in the early fifties. I can remember my first game. For some reason, long since forgotten, my father and I were walking down Archers Road on a Saturday afternoon; the large gates behind the goal were open, he took me in onto the terraces (illicitly it has to be said) and I watched the legendary Eric Day play. A subsidiary reason is that my great uncle was Arthur Dominy, an ex Saints player and manager.

Live in Andover, my parents have been going to watch Saints since the 70s, i started going when i was 6.

Caught the bug as it were.

The biggest football influence in my life came from my mum's side of the family. Her dad is a Liverpool fan and took me to my first footie training sessions and her brothers support Everton and Southampton. There's not a massive age gap between me and my Saints-supporting uncle and he infected me with the football bug the most by taking me to my first match (an away friendly at Leyton Orient!) and buying me a replica shirt for Xmas (1995-96 season that was).

It spiralled from there into a full-blown addiction really! Later when it came to choosing a uni I didn't want to go too far (have always lived in Hampshire and love it down here) and Southampton did the course I was after so it all made sense to move there

I started supporting Saints because, as a child, my father took me to see them play, starting in the early fifties. I can remember my first game. For some reason, long since forgotten, my father and I were walking down Archers Road on a Saturday afternoon; the large gates behind the goal were open, he took me in onto the terraces (illicitly it has to be said) and I watched the legendary Eric Day play. A subsidiary reason is that my great uncle was Arthur Dominy, an ex Saints player and manager.

nice.

i like these stories...much more than just supporting saints through the natural selection of being born there

I started supporting Saints because my dad used to be on Saints' books. I was trying to post an image on here,but don't know how to do it. Can anybody help? Anyway,my dad tried to get me to support Liverpool at first,but I eventually saw the light!

My was done gone brung up there when he a mite.

For me it was Kevin Keegan that got me into Saints. Spent the day he joined putting red stripes on a white t-shirt with felt pens.

For my Dad it was me that got him into the Saints.

For my son it was me that got him into the Saints.

I fancied Ian Turner

Southampton born and bread its that simple for me.

Fancied a slice of the action...!

As a proper nipper i was never into football but at about 13/14 i got into italian football, no idea why?

But in the playoff season in the championship i started going to games with my grandad whos been a fan for 70 odd years and i just fell in love with southampton really.

I started supporting Saints because, as a child, my father took me to see them play, starting in the early fifties. I can remember my first game. .

Same for me but at the end of the 50's.

Dad would lift me over the turnstile and I'd sit on his lap up in the East Stand. Loved it from the first game (I think we lost to Port Vale).

Had a brief lessening of enthusiasm in my teens due to something called "girls" but soon saw the light and have never looked back.

Born in Reading. Growing up in the 80's though, every kid at primary school of course, supported Liverpool, I was no different.

It was spring, i was 6 years old, and my Dad had always supported the Saints since he was a boy (my Grandad was with the navy and for a while they were stationed at Gosport, but went to see the Saints rather than P*mpey as it was cheaper at the time). I was at the garden centre with my old man, and Liverpool had beaten the Saints 3-2, and I was winding him up about it (in a childish way too - shouting "3-2!!" at every available opportunity).

We bought various plants, went back to the car, Dad got in, but locked me out the car. Wound down the window and said "only Southampton fans get lifts back home". I balled my eyes out for 10 minutes, before agreeing to be a Southampton fan.

24 years later, I'm still a Saints fan, and very proud of it!

My home town club Newport County went bankrupt in 1989, the year I did my GCSEs. By the time I'd started looking for a Uni to attend after my A levels I was getting fed up of not watching live football, and I'd always gone to random matches as a neutral anyway, so I wanted to go somewhere where there was a team at a decent level so I could see some decent football.

I applied to Hull, Southampton and Leeds Unis. Hull was way too far and there was no football of note, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get the grades to get on the Leeds course as it had a year in the US. So Southampton was the most likely option - and their rescheduled Open Day was so brilliantly disorganised that I got the chance to wander around and see what I wanted rather than all the boring academic stuff, which sold me on the place.

The nice green campus, the areas around Winn Road and Banister Park, the Dell and the Common were what I saw walking back to the train station (past two places I have since lived in) and I got a really good impression of the City generally. The City was a decent distance from "home" but not too far, the football club was in the top division and it looked like the best place to watch a decent standard of football.

Just about got the grades, moved down for 3 years, watched Saints on and off from October 1991 til '95 as the ground changed and changed again, then graduated, got a job in South Wales and started getting paid to play football in the mid-90s.

That meant irregular attendance '95 until '98. In '98 I started seeing a girl from Gosport and caught up with a mate who could get me into the Dell when I was at the World Cup in France. I came down occasionally on days when I wasn't playing from '98-2001, knackered my knee, and got an ST in 2001/2 at St Mary's whilst living in South Wales.

Played another 18 months with the injury and retired from playing proper football in late 2003, then started doing footy weekends down here in 2003 staying with mates I met through Saints Forever and going to matches and then out on the beer. I eventually moved down in 2005/6 and have had an ST each season since.

When I was 5 or 6 and first knew about football it was because Man Utd were always on TV (probably why we have so many gloryhunters these days) so supported them. I was soon told at school about my local team Southampton, who some of the lads supported. I told my dad I wanted to support Southampton as they were my local team and duly took me to my first game a few weeks later against Aston Villa in 1998. A certain Mr Matthew Le Tissier scored the first goal and the addiction has stuck ever since.

Southampton lad & all that, even more so after when about to sign for poopy as a school boy they dropped me like a stone when I got seriously injured.

I'm Southampton born. That's it really.

Born in Reading. Growing up in the 80's though, every kid at primary school of course, supported Liverpool, I was no different.

 

It was spring, i was 6 years old, and my Dad had always supported the Saints since he was a boy (my Grandad was with the navy and for a while they were stationed at Gosport, but went to see the Saints rather than P*mpey as it was cheaper at the time). I was at the garden centre with my old man, and Liverpool had beaten the Saints 3-2, and I was winding him up about it (in a childish way too - shouting "3-2!!" at every available opportunity).

 

We bought various plants, went back to the car, Dad got in, but locked me out the car. Wound down the window and said "only Southampton fans get lifts back home". I balled my eyes out for 10 minutes, before agreeing to be a Southampton fan.

 

24 years later, I'm still a Saints fan, and very proud of it!

that is the best form of mild child abuse I have read..

your dad is a legend

Fancied a slice of the action...!

I'll toast to that!!

My lad started around 7 years old. This was in the mid 90's when MLT was in his prime and I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the kids at his junior school were Saints fans, very few Man U glory hunters.

Has it been the same in the last few years when we've been in the doldrums or have they been swayed by the more "glamorous" clubs?

I'll toast to that!!

That's the yeast you can do!

From here.

Local team ...end of .

I openly question anyone whose roots are local why they support the likes of Man U , Chelsea, Arsenal etc and the answers i get are sometimes quite staggering...you should try it... its fun watching them squirm when i dont let let off the " glory" hook so easily .

Born in P*mpey, bred in P*mpey, Dad got me into Saints, he came from an all Skate family... He saw the light, as did I!

Local team ...end of .

I openly question anyone whose roots are local why they support the likes of Man U , Chelsea, Arsenal etc and the answers i get are sometimes quite staggering...you should try it... its fun watching them squirm when i dont let let off the " glory" hook so easily .

To be honest even in places where there hasn't been a top division side EVER it's pretty good fun pointing out to most of the plastics that you've been to their team's ground more times than they have even though you support someone else.

I used to wind up Liverpool-supporting mates in school in the 80s because my dad would take me to Anfield a couple of times a season in amongst the trips to Walsall, Oxford, Reading, Brentford and Orient to see Newport's Div 3/4 matches.

I can't remember precisely. I remember supporting Saints when they won the FA Cup final in 1976 (aged but I've never been too sure if I 'chose' them because of the cup run or whether I'd been supporting them for a while beforehand.

My uncle used to play for Pompey in the 60s/70s, and my dad used to go and watch him play down there, so, somehow, I had a lucky escape there!

so what are the reasons for why the members of this forum support Saints? :

Bail conditions.

Dad was born in Hampshire, was the only Saints fan in his school apparently.. me and my bro were always gunna be Saints fans, it was passed down. When we went to our first game (a 3-0 loss at QPR) we were hooked.

Is this the thread where distant SFC fans get praise for supporting us despite not being from here?

I love the double standards of football fans.

Another Southampton Born and Southampton Bred

It is in the blood and genes

Being from Romsey, Saints were my local team. Even though my Dad is a Huddersfield fan, and my first ever for football game I went to was a Town game, he couldn't convince me. Instead, in 1988 I went to The Dell for the first time and saw Rod Wallace, Le Tissier and Shearer and my mind was made up! I was hooked from then on!

MovedTo the area from Norfolk 20 years or so ago..

My Dad is a Norwich fan but despite going to Carrow Road several times I never "supported them as a fan" - Rugby was my first love anyway !

After I moved to the area, an early colleague had ST's at the Dell and he took me a few times. What brought me into the arms of The Saints was the passionate and loud Dell crowd so close to the pitch - And a guy called Le Tissier was a joy to watch.

My dad first took me when I was 8[now 56]I have loved the club ever since.

For the glory and the endless trophies, no?!

In reality, I have family from both Hampshire & Sussex and my Saints supporting Uncle got me into Saints before my Brighton supporting Uncle tried to make me a Seagull (he tried hard to change my mind in the 80s, even giving me his 1983 Cup Final programme but they lost so that was never gonna work!). My Dad has no allegiance having moved here from abroad, has never been to a match and has 'supported' amongst others from the comfort of his armchair: Ipswich (when they were doing well), Liverpool (when they were doing well) & Man Utd (now they are doing well).

I took my son (aged 2 years, 11 months) to his first game (when we were relegated to League 1 by losing to Burnley) just in case that was to be our final ever season and that our final ever home match. Things were looking bleak at the time! Now 5, he's already a committed Saint, knows a few of the player songs and loves going along. Looking back, correct decision made even though I live near Brighton and all I hear is about their "marvellous new stadium". Looks a bit small to me...

Brought up in Surrey and moved to Alresford with my parents in 1964. Not at all interested in footie. Left school at that time and started work in Winchester, going on day release to Southampton Tech. Couple of friends from Tech persuaded me to go to a match at The Dell in October 1964 (Leyton Orient 2-2 Draw). Got the bug straight away. Apart from four years when I lived in Wales I have not missed many home matches since. Long since lost touch with the friends who took me to that first match.

Brought up as a Poopey fan by my parents, signed schollboy forms for Saints in 1972. Been a Saint ever since. Problem with the family though. Two brothers, three sisters and parents all Poopey fans. They just never grew up.

The Old Man is a Man Utd fan and tried his best to bring me up as one too. All my baby & kiddy photo's are of me in a United shirt. My Uncle however, huge Saints Fan. So as I was (unsuprisingly) never able to go up to Old Trafford and watch the club I was meant to "support", he took me down staplewood to watch quite a few reserve games as money was always tight and all. I loved it. I'll never forget the freezing cold evenings down there, with a hot cup of tea, watching Saints Reserves. It gave me that taste of football that I just didn't want to miss out on. I bugged and bugged and bugged him to take me to The Dell. Then, on October 24, 1993, he took me to watch Saints host Newcastle, the night of the infamous Le Tiss goal. I loved it.

However, I still had the old man putting pressure on the United front. I didn't know any better and started being one of those "I support Man United & Saints" kids. The same kinda kid that when I hear it now I want to throttle.

I went along to quite a few more games down Staplewood, with the few games down The Dell as and when he could afford to take me aswell, and I just couldn't get enough of it. And the rest of the time I had to watch United on the telly, which now I had experienced The Dell and what football really was about, just didn't appeal to me, but to please me Dad, i went along with it.

It wasn't until I was about 13 or 14, that I really wasn't interested in United and just wondered what the point was in just watching a team you want to support on the telly, when your home town club is on your doorstep for you to support. Instead of watching United on the telly, I would be in my room listening to Saints on the Radio. Quite often, by that age, in the summer I would ride over to my Uncles house, which was down Doncaster Road in Eastleigh, and listen to it with him. I just loved the thought that near on everyone in the City of Southampton was a part of this. Obviously, I was quite deluded, as most of Southampton supports United or Liverpool. But to me then, I felt a part of a big thing. I felt pride in going to School as a Southampton Fan, I took pity on those that stuck with their "Support" of United, Liverpool or Arsenal, as they were missing quite what the point of what Football should be about. Getting behind the club you are from.

So, I'm a teenager, who has gone from a Gloryhunter, to part Gloryhunter part Saint, to being a Saints fan. But what happened on Saturday 15th March 2003, changed my life forever, I experienced my first away day. My first experience of travelling out of my comfort zone into a place I had never been before, with about 2,000 other Saints. It was incredible. The atmosphere from the away end was like nothing I could have imagined. That feeling of being an outsider in someone else's back garden was something I got a mad buzz out of. It probably helped that Killer netted in the 92nd minute!

But that was that, I was hooked. Totally & Utterly. I had my heart set that as soon as I could afford to, I would have my Season Ticket. That didn't happen until the first season in League One, but many home & away games came in between.

I may not be able to say I'm a born & bred Saint (trust me when I say that pains me), But i'm as passionate as they come for the club I love.

The simple reason was my father. He used to be a steward down at the Dell and would sneak me in were ever there was a free space, although when i first started going i had to stay with him even when he was stewarding the away fans., hearing the banter and the atmosphere really caught hold of me. Great memories.

Season ticket waiting list at Man Yoo was too long so I had to settle for Saints.

I started going when I was 10 or 11 and used to pay the £3 "Boys" charge. If I'm being totally honest, I took the Saints for granted when I lived in Southampton. It was only after I moved away that I really started supporting them.

Have always lived in Croydon (South London) and got into football because my old man went to Southampton uni and was staying in a dig living with another family. The Dad of the family took him to the Dell a few times in our 3rd division south days and he was hooked from then and he just passed it on to me. I was never going to be given a choice, it was Saints or nothing.

I don't support Saints, I just like saintsweb.

I was born and bred in Sussex and all my brothers support Brighton. I always wanted to be different and this was no more true at the age of 7 when deciding what team to support.

I remember my mum saying "why not Southampton", my elder Brighton fan brother said "yeah theyve just signed keegan". I looked at a picture of the kit, and decided that was the team for me. My next birthday present was the Rank Xerox kit and the rest is history.

I was born and bred in Sussex and all my brothers support Brighton. I always wanted to be different and this was no more true at the age of 7 when deciding what team to support.

 

I remember my mum saying "why not Southampton", my elder Brighton fan brother said "yeah theyve just signed keegan". I looked at a picture of the kit, and decided that was the team for me. My next birthday present was the Rank Xerox kit and the rest is history.

Hey bender, nice story! I live in Hove. Many mates wear the stripey blue shirts too. Putting up with the ceaseless drivel about their new shiny stadium day-in, day-out is beginning to puss me off. Do you get to many games?

Hey bender, nice story! I live in Hove. Many mates wear the stripey blue shirts too. Putting up with the ceaseless drivel about their new shiny stadium day-in, day-out is beginning to puss me off. Do you get to many games?

maybe you two can be special friends (and not in the brighton way)

I was aged five and living in South Wales and wanted a team to support. I went through the old sticker albums looking for the name Ron (my Dad's name) and spotted a certain Ron Davies. That was it. Now a season ticket holder along with my eldest son and my youngest attends occasionally - they have both been brain washed into becoming Saints fans.