who is the Saints oldest fan. I am 83 and supported from afar when I was 10 and in person when moved to Totton

[Totton Saint]

I remember Terry Paine and John Sydenham. What a character Brian O'Niell was!!

 

[OldNick]

watching Saints for over 55 years makes me feel 105

[spyinthesky]

But do you remember Len Wilkins last game before he retired and emigrated to Canada or watching the Busby Babes, including Duncan Edwards, beat Saints Youth (including Messrs Paine and Sydenham) in the First Leg of the FA Youth Cup?

My first lapel badge showed a picture of Don Roper.

I actually look about 40 years older than the date shown on my birth certificate as a consequence of all the disappointments, heartache and stress suffered as a long time Saints fan, and I wasnt even born here!!

I need Sympathy or Psychotherapy.😒

[sad saints fan]

First game with my Dad would have been 1965 but at 7 years old it didn't make much impression on me . Started regularly in first season in the 1st division . Went with Dad for a few games then there was a crowd of us from Bevois Town school and we used to meet up in Lodge Road and go down together . 

[Saint Fan CaM]

I wanted to be Billy Bremner when I was a kid (I’m not a ginge 😉), so naturally followed Leeds Utd not really understanding the significance of ‘home’ teams. Then as I got a little older I wanted to go to live games and Leeds was obviously too far, so started going to Saints reserve games at the Dell. I could only just afford the bus fare from Swaythling to Shirley, so kids getting in free at the Dell was the only way I could watch a pro game. I loved seeing the first team players coming back from injury and playing in the reserves to get back to match fitness. The key thing I guess in hindsight is that watching pro live football was the impetus to me switching to supporting Saints proper - as a kid, it provided a deeper connection than watching on TV.

Does the Bremner idolising give my age away? 🤔

[Barton Saint]

1967 first game I saw in the West Stand against Forest won 2-1 58 years ago as a 9 year old it had me hooked as a Saints fan forever 

Paine and Davies scored 

[Verwood Saint]

First game Jan 1967 (birthday treat aged 11) 4-4 draw with Leicester

Ron Davies hattrick and one for Martin Chivers - Gordon Banks was in goal for them and Peter Rodrigues was playing full back.  Great way to get started eh?!

 

[Tommy Mulgrew]

First game was Millwall at home to Accrington Stanley at the (old) Den in the early to mid ‘50s with my dad and then several other home games there; we used to walk from the East End of London under the Thames at Rotherhithe and onto the ground, which was nowhere near the new Den.  Later Brentford home games with my dad and uncle before, from 1960 onwards, supporting Saints always at the Milton Road end at the Dell, first with my dad and then without him.  St Mary’s, sadly, gets nowhere near the atmosphere at the Dell.

My username gives a clue to whom the crowd generally blamed if we were not winning.  I’ve been through loads of ups and downs with Saints but nothing as bad or prolonged as the period since the demise of the team in the late-Ralph period.  I cannot seem to help it but red and white blood still surges through my veins and almost every week nowadays I endure disappointment; the occasional exciting wins are few and far between.  😞

😇

[Charlie Wayman]

Heading should have been "Who has been the longest suffering Saints fan"

My first match was v Swindon in the FACup in 1948. 

Edited 23 hours ago by Charlie Wayman

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, Charlie Wayman said:

Heading should have been "Who has been the longest suffering Saints fan"

My first match was v Swindon in the FACup in 1948. 

Bloody hell Charlie, that’s some going. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Toussaint

[die Mannyschaft]

Watched Saints for 48 years, 28 years season tickets. First full season 77-78 promotion. Brilliant football,  lots away games. Skived off school at evening games away, got platform tickets to get on train, football  specials packed and just jump on last minute. 80 also very entertaining. Did Hamburg v Saints first European away game 84. Used to climb over Archers wall, get in just after KO and give the steward bit cash if sold out. Winchester used to have few independent coaches for away games, allway could meet up outside with mates or find in same terrace not like now with purchasing seat upfront. Still got tickets from 80s and programmes from 77-78 onwards. 

[Football Special]

Been going for years ever since my Dad first took me down the Antelope Ground, miss the old days 

[Toussaint]

7 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Been going for years ever since my Dad first took me down the Antelope Ground, miss the old days 

That ceased in 1896, let’s say you were ten when you first went. That makes you 138 years old, at least. I can’t see anyone beating that anytime soon. Congratulations 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

25 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Been going for years ever since my Dad first took me down the Antelope Ground, miss the old days 

I thought we could never lose after watching us dismantle Freemantle on Northlands Road.

[LiberalCommunist]

The last seven seasons have felt like a hundred years for me. Does that count?

[Turkish]

9 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

I thought we could never lose after watching us dismantle Freemantle on Northlands Road.

Been a season ticket holder since the days when the home games were at the Common. Saw us beat Northam Gasworks 4-1 and i was hooked, not missed a game since. We were very angry when we changed our name from St Marys YMA to Southampton, i wrote a strongly worded letter to the club about how we were losing our tradition.

On a seperate note I was surprised to see that young man ejected on sunday for being on the pitch, back when i started going people would often enter the pitch on the common exercising their right to roam. Another example of how mass uncontrolled immigration has take away our liberties. 

Edited 9 hours ago by Turkish

[Fitzhugh Fella]

I still haven't got over being robbed by a snowstorm in the 1898 FA Cup semi-final v Forest

[revolution saint]

Lawrie Mac is 89 now, might not have started out a Saints fan but I reckon he's earnt the right to be classed as one now.

[Ken Tone]

Ignoring the joke claims,  genuinely,  my wife got chatting to a 93 year old lady late last season,  who's been coming since she was 6. 

[Morse]

My mums 93 and is a Saints fan, although it's been 20 years since she last went to a game, she still follows it all in the Echo and on Radio Solent. In the late 40's and early 50's she used to cycle to every game with her mate from Eastleigh. 

[Totton Saint]

2 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

I still haven't got over being robbed by a snowstorm in the 1898 FA Cup semi-final v Forest

Nice to read all the reminiscings above that my thread has prompted.

 

[John Boy Saint]

20 hours ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I wanted to be Billy Bremner when I was a kid (I’m not a ginge 😉), so naturally followed Leeds Utd not really understanding the significance of ‘home’ teams. Then as I got a little older I wanted to go to live games and Leeds was obviously too far, so started going to Saints reserve games at the Dell. I could only just afford the bus fare from Swaythling to Shirley, so kids getting in free at the Dell was the only way I could watch a pro game. I loved seeing the first team players coming back from injury and playing in the reserves to get back to match fitness. The key thing I guess in hindsight is that watching pro live football was the impetus to me switching to supporting Saints proper - as a kid, it provided a deeper connection than watching on TV.

Does the Bremner idolising give my age away? 🤔

We must be a similar age. I grew up in a non football household, when I was 4 we moved out of Bitterne to a little village in the north of Hampshire as it was close to the M4 that was creeping out of London towards Reading making my Dads regular selling trips to London much easier (M3 was ages away at that time). All the kids at the village primary school were like sheep with that seasons best football teams. Leeds were in their pomp, so joining the herd they became my team too, and one Christmas I get an all white football kit with the Leeds United smiley face badge AND number 4 printed on the back - Billy Bremner. (I even got the funny numbered sock flag). Like I said having no parental guidance on football and school chums following the next best team of the time Derby, QPR, all had a turn (never Liverpool weirdly) most confusing. Thankfully a trip to Granny and Grandads in Shirley and the back pages of the Echo saw a parting of the clouds and a revelatory shaft of light guiding me to where I should go. 

Alas I've only done 50 years - so a mere stripling compared to some on here.

[Chris cooper]

41 years following..

1st game at the dell 

Southampton 8-2 Coventry 

Hatricks from Moran & Danny Wallace can’t recall the other two scorers think Frank Worthington might have been 1 of them not sure 🤔 anyone know & go to that game in April 1984 ?

obviously I was hooked at 10 years old & thought we’d win like that every game !

As you all know how wrong I was & found out in the seasons after that wonderful year .

Who remembers Wallace overhead kick on a Friday night under the lights vs Liverpool .. ? Check out the reverse pass from Frank worthington to release mark Wright down the left flank to cross for Wallace .. masterclass !! On YouTube!

[Miltonaggro]

4 hours ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

I still haven't got over being robbed by a snowstorm in the 1898 FA Cup semi-final v Forest

Nowadays it's just a shitstorm! 

[Weston Saint]

Although a Saints supporter since birth in 1952 (at least from when I understood football) my first game was John Hollowbread testimonial at the Dell against Portsmouth at the end of the 1965/66 promotion season. We won 6-1 and I was hooked attending all home and some away games until work intervened at the end of the 1970 season. Just occasional then until a got a season ticket following retirement in 2003. We had just been relegated from Premier when I signed up and I continued to go until about 4 years ago when I got disillusioned with the incessant poor football from us. Now follow from the armchair although I get the occasional offer of a seat in a box which I usually take   

[64saint]

I googled my first ever game ,it was 61 years ago !!! and luckily this report and pictures came up.  We won ,6-1 .v Rotherham, George O Brien hat trick, Terry Paine got a couple and David Burnside and I was hooked for life.  I'm sure I've still got the programme somewhere that I bought at a programme fair many years later as, being a nine year old kid  I maybe at the time didn't realise the significance of getting a programme on that monumental day !!!!!!

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/24092303.photos-southampton-v-rotherham-dell-1964/ yes ,this was my first game v Rotherham in 1964 (as per  my user name on here 64saint !! ) My Dad's boss had 4 season tickets in the West Stand center block, almost next to the Directors box on the half way line. One of his family couldn't go and they took me. Best seat and view I ever had in all my years of going to the Dell. I naturally assumed at the age of 9 this would be quite normal, oh boy,was I in for a shock !!!!!   My next game a couple of years later in 1966 after we had been promoted was against West Ham who had the world cup winners, Hurst, Peters, and Moore playing. I was crammed in under the old scoreboard at the Archers road end and couldn't see a thing !! 🙄.  🤣🤣 As a teenager after that it was usually the Milton road end chocolate boxes before my regular spot under the East stand. Great memory's, good times and bad times over the years  but nothing will ever match that first visit, walking up those steps of the old West stand as a 9 year old and then looking out across the Dell for the very first time. 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by 64saint

[ecuk268]

11th September 1957 against Port Vale. My dad knew the bloke on the turnstile so I got in for free.

We lost 0-3.

On the 16th we played them away and lost 4-0.

I'd forgotten how close together matches were back then. We played 9 games in September and had a double-header against Aldershot on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and another one on the 28th away to Gillingham.

[ecuk268]

11th September 1957 against Port Vale. My dad knew the bloke on the turnstile so I got in for free.

We lost 0-3.

On the 16th we played them away and lost 4-0.

I'd forgotten how close together matches were back then. We played 9 games in September and had a double-header against Aldershot on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and another one on the 28th away to Gillingham.

[OldNick]

20 hours ago, Toussaint said:

Bloody hell Charlie, that’s some going. 

He was 45 when he went to his first game as well 😀