Best season ever?

It was nothing brilliant but after the famine of the Branfoot years, I thought Bally's time with us was good fun.

Yes it was. Particularly because MLT was in his prime.

Absolute madness I know, but the 2005 relegation season was actually a blast for me personally. Did almost every game, traveled a lot, drank a lot, had great memories despite endless defeats. Just had fun.

Poch's 1st season - we had a real identity - went toe to toe in every game until they ran out of puff around March?. Young, English players - all going to the World Cup (plus Fonte & Schneiderlin). And who can forget Lambert's goal against Scotland!

Other than that I enjoyed Tiss in his purple patch, scoring for fun - beating United regardless of which coloured shirts they were wearing!

Absolute madness I know, but the 2005 relegation season was actually a blast for me personally. Did almost every game, traveled a lot, drank a lot, had great memories despite endless defeats. Just had fun.

I think it's very much a personal thing as everyone is different when it comes to which season they enjoyed the most, even if Saints didn't do particularly well. For instance the Souness 96-97 season sticks in my head as the first time I went to "supporting" Saints to being mad about them, and even though we barely survived, there's a lot I remember about that season (GCSE year at school!). The 6-3 on MOTD which I tape recorded and watched over and over again, Mickey Evans banging a few in as we went on a late season run, the signings of Ostenstadt, Lundekvam and Berkovic, who I wished we'd kept hold of.

My personal favourite though was the Pardew season in League One, when we started to piece together a squad throwing our financial muscle around (comparable to the rest of League One) as well as utilising the youth of the previous season, Lambert in great goalscoring form, and of course the JPT win at Wembley. It was also the season I've been to the most games before or since. I still think if we'd had the squad we ended the season with at the beginning, we'd have ****ed all over that league, 10 point deduction or not. Still, it turned out OK!

I think it's very much a personal thing as everyone is different when it comes to which season they enjoyed the most, even if Saints didn't do particularly well. For instance the Souness 96-97 season sticks in my head as the first time I went to "supporting" Saints to being mad about them, and even though we barely survived, there's a lot I remember about that season (GCSE year at school!). The 6-3 on MOTD which I tape recorded and watched over and over again, Mickey Evans banging a few in as we went on a late season run, the signings of Ostenstadt, Lundekvam and Berkovic, who I wished we'd kept hold of.

 

My personal favourite though was the Pardew season in League One, when we started to piece together a squad throwing our financial muscle around (comparable to the rest of League One) as well as utilising the youth of the previous season, Lambert in great goalscoring form, and of course the JPT win at Wembley. It was also the season I've been to the most games before or since. I still think if we'd had the squad we ended the season with at the beginning, we'd have ****ed all over that league, 10 point deduction or not. Still, it turned out OK!

One of my funniest memories was Swindon away that season. It was about our 3rd or 4th game. We took about 3,500 filled the away end, lost 1-0 and were absolutely dreadful. I came away thinking we might actually be relegated again in L2. I remember the whole away end almost laughing at how sh*te we were and everyone singing make a sub at pardew doing the gesture physios make to the bench when a player is Injured

Whichever season it was that we ended up drawing 3-3 at Upton Park against the Hammers(94?). 14 year old me loved that after watching live games regularly since 87. Fond memories of attending with grandpa, dad and his mates. Saints for life, always and forever, no matter what.

Whichever season it was that we ended up drawing 3-3 at Upton Park against the Hammers(94?). 14 year old me loved that after watching live games regularly since 87. Fond memories of attending with grandpa, dad and his mates. Saints for life, always and forever, no matter what.

I was in Lanzarote for that game and was desperately trying to find out the result. Ended up ringing my mate back home to find out if we’d stayed up. Happy days!!

Gotta be 83-84. Just the best Saints team ever. Shilts, Mills, Wright, Golac, Armstrong, Holmes, Williams, Moran and Danny Wallace. Forever hate Everton and Adrian Heath and even now wish only bad things on John Bailey just for what happened in 77-78. Bitter sweet maybe with doing Pompey at Nottarf Krap and losing at Highbury but the one that always stands out in my mind was at the Dell three days after Highbury.

Gotta be 83-84. Just the best Saints team ever. Shilts, Mills, Wright, Golac, Armstrong, Holmes, Williams, Moran and Danny Wallace. Forever hate Everton and Adrian Heath and even now wish only bad things on John Bailey just for what happened in 77-78. Bitter sweet maybe with doing Pompey at Nottarf Krap and losing at Highbury but the one that always stands out in my mind was at the Dell three days after Highbury.

How can you have forgotten to mention Frank "The Provider" Worthington.

83/84 for sure, I was an impressionable teen and just started doing always with mates, height of the casuals and so much about what gear you had.

 

Forest in 3rd round was brilliant as were still a decent side then.

Pompey was superb of course. We were in their end as well. Oh the rage that halted ‘scummers scummers here we come’ 36000 fans and brutal after -we weren’t looked in of course and it turned into a war zone around the ground. Sh1tting ourselves but oh the adrenaline,

 

Sheffield Wed was superb turn out away and replay was one of best games at the Dell for me after going 1-0 down and hammering them 5-1. FA Cup was far more important than the league back then. We were bookies favourites of last 8 teams remaining which shows how good we were,

Highbury was insane - ‘sickening Face of Football Violence’ lead story in News of the World the next day. Would condemn now but at the time all we were talking about and got Saints a reputation. Following year away to Orient remember West Ham turning up. Different times and football wasn’t for families/women.

 

Talk of the double is bs though as we were never in with shout of the league despite coming 2nd.

 

Ahh memories.

That about sums up 83/84 for me. Being 17 at the time it was lively.

That said, the 2nd season in L1 and the Championship season are my favourites. Missed only a handful of games, home or way, cheap tickets, massive away followings who really got behind the team and shared it all my son and added to that, we had a hero we all adored in SRL.

Whichever season it was that we ended up drawing 3-3 at Upton Park against the Hammers(94?). 14 year old me loved that after watching live games regularly since 87. Fond memories of attending with grandpa, dad and his mates. Saints for life, always and forever, no matter what.

1993/4 is my favourite as well. The way Bally reinvigorated us after the despair of the Branfoot years, MLT in his prime, lots of exciting end of season games (e.g. 5-4 at Norwich). Other favourites are 1981/2 and the Championship promotion season under Adkins. I didn't see any of the second half of 83/4 unfortunately as i was abroad.

The mo po season v cup final appearance thread made me think - what is the best season ever in terms of experiencing the season rather than outcome.

 

I think the mo po season is right up there but I’m going with 81/82. The second Keegan season.

 

The promotion season to the prem is also very close.

I have the joy of starting to watch Saints in the early 90s under Branfoot, so I'm going for the Championship promotion season. We were good in L1 but we were unexpectedly good in that Championship season.

Koeman's first season came close, even though we finished higher the year after we were up in the top 4 into February (25 matches of 38 played), especially nuts as it followed the meltdown. A run of 8 wins out of 9 including the 8-0 thrashing of Sunderland, sticking six on Villa, three wins in a row against Arsenal, Man U and Newcastle (two away). We finished with 5 defeats in 8 and still came 7th with a shout of 5th until the final day. And ending up with a place in the Europa League qualifiers.

One of my funniest memories was Swindon away that season. It was about our 3rd or 4th game. We took about 3,500 filled the away end, lost 1-0 and were absolutely dreadful. I came away thinking we might actually be relegated again in L2. I remember the whole away end almost laughing at how sh*te we were and everyone singing make a sub at pardew doing the gesture physios make to the bench when a player is Injured

Pardew being Pardew and making a point about subs to free up some transfer funds. Back 4 of Harding, Thomas, Lancashire and Lloyd James. Ollie Lancashire somehow back-passed the ball from near the half-way line and conceded a corner at one point. Must have impressed Swindon though, he was there last season...

By the time we won our first league game (8th league match of the season), we had Harding, Thomas, Jaidi and Neal Trotman back there. Looking back it's bizarre to realise that Lambert, Rasiak and Saganowski all played on the pitch at the same time, as did Saganowski, Waigo and Matt Paterson... in a team in the third tier also featuring Schneiderlin and Lallana. The REALLY nuts thing is that our first L1 win was against Yeovil, featuring Steven Caulker in defence for them.