How did it all start for you?

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

I was around for the 1966 World Cup Final but can’t remember a single thing about it. The first time I really started to take an interest was 1970 with a sketchy recollection of the FA Cup final replay and the World Cup. From 1970 onwards I was hooked, every FA Cup final was special (until we won it and it was never the same again) and the 1974 WC remains my favourite despite England not qualifying (same for ‘78 but another glorious tournament).

 

I started going regularly to the Dell in the 1971/72 season, over the next decade I only missed one home league game (saw most but not all cup games), saw us relegated, win the FA Cup and get to the quarter finals in Europe the following season. Promoted back to the top flight, League Cup Final and the signing of some fantastic big name footballers leading up to the biggest of all time at SFC in Kevin Keegan.

 

I miss the old terraces and atmospheres, the big seventies centre forwards like Peter Osgood, Malcolm McDonald and Martin Chivers to name a few, even being a staunch Southampton supporter, I loved watching other teams back then. Keegan and Toshack, what a pairing.

 

Guess I’m just getting a bit nostalgic, t’s been a sad 24 hours hearing of KK’s cancer and the deaths of Chiv and Terry Yorath, where did all those years go?

[Hamwic]

One evening in 1963 when on holiday from boarding school, being taken by my dad to see Saints against ? on the west stand terrace. I was cold, wet and bored as football was alien to me. At some point, Terry Paine blasted a ball which hit me. From that moment I was Saints to the core and apparently I refused to let my jacket be cleaned. The stain from the ball was going back to school with me.

[Lord Duckhunter]

My mum was a Londoner & the old man from Boscombe. They moved to Southampton so they weren’t too far from either (it was the early 60’s). The old man used to go back home every time Boscombe were home & see his mum & catch the game. By the time  I was old enough to go to football he had started visiting The Dell as it was easier to watch locally than drag a 6 year old down to Dean Court. ‘69/70 was my first season, but I don’t remember too much about it. By our relegation we had moved back to Dorset as my mums’s mum & Dad had retired down here (meaning we didn’t need to visit London). The old man tried to get me to switch allegiance, but I was hooked on Saints by then.  The old man is 90 now, he still bangs on about me supporting “that lot”….

[Stud mark of doom]

First football game I can remember is the 76 cup final, watched on our black and white TV, celebrating in the road outside afterwards and in town the next day. 
 

first game was a 2-0 win against Sheffield United in 77/78 and then every home game until the end of the season culminating in our promotion against spurs and a pitch invasion. 
 

Within a few years I’d been to Wembley, saw us play in Europe with Keegan, Ball, Channon, George, etc - all before I’d gone to secondary school. 

Edited 13 hours ago by Stud mark of doom

[West Dean FC Legend]

My late brother, Simon (he was my half-brother and kept his dad's surname so lot's of people didn't know he was) was big-time Saints fan. As a little boy, he was 6-years older than me, he used to bully me properly, I mean physical violence, to remember the full line-up of the Saints team at that time from memory if he asked me to repeat it. Then in 1971, I was 9, he persuaded our mum to let him take me to the Dell to watch Saints vs Leeds United on Mick Jones birthday. Mick Jones score two goals and Leeds won 3-0 - so they did give me an idea even then - but I was dying for a pee after about an hour and he took me to the toilet and said he'd never known someone pee for so long. We walked back to the coach (we come from villages so used to get the Buddens Saints bus in to games) and we heard a big roar and Simon 'Saints might have scored' oh well.

I never went to another game until my mate Michael asked if I wanted to go on the Budden's bus to watch Saints in 74 in Division Two. I think it was Bristol Rovers and Saints won 3-0. I went to every home game from then on for years - until I started playing football, so that was Saturday afternoons messed up and only midweek games. I saw the FA Cup Final at Wembley though.

I moved to Swindon and got married and got into ice-hockey in my 30s so I used to watch on the telly only, and nowadays I live in the Highlands of Scotland so it's still TV but we are moving back down south soon hopefully, very near to Southampton.

So I watched home and a few away games for quite a while but then I really got into football and played in goal (hence West Dean FC Legend) plus my mates all started falling in love and getting married and having babies, so there was no one to go with. I have been to the Dell with Roger East the former referee, I also played football on the same teams as him, his entire family are Saints supporters and he was - so he lies about not supporting a club. 

A few of my mates still go too - they message me about games and so forth - and I look forward to seeing them again in person where they will try and force me to go again.

But I saw a Saints team win the FA Cup Final live at Wembley (none of you youngsers will ever see that) and I saw them win the Football League Trophy at Wembley too - I got tickets from the football club I was secretary for as an end of the season reward for that game!

So I've not been a full-time supporter for I think fair reasons but I've been a 'fan' for decades and decades and I will be until the day I die - like my brother - not matter how painful it is I guess.

Sorry for the small novel that didn't really say much and apologies for any typos.

Edited 12 hours ago by West Dean FC Legend

[Winnersaint]

My dad took me to The Dell in October 63, a few weeks short of my 6th birthday. It was against Leeds. Bremner, Giles, Collins etc. We lost 4-1, they got promoted under Don Revie, and I was hooked from that point. I went sporadically after that. My dad was in the Fleet Air Arm and was stationed at Boscombe Down we were living a fair distance the other side of Salisbury at the time so it was a bit of trek. Went a few times in our promotion season, but the old man was away on HMS Eagle for three months of it, although I was at Mick Channon's debut game. The 66 World Cup followed and by that point I was a confirmed Saints fan. By this point my dad was stationed largely at Daedalus and we were in North Baddesley so I went more regularly and then the lifetime of the ups and downs of being a Saints fan truly began. 60 odd years later the ups and downs continue. 

[benjii]

Inititially some itching then I noticed a residue...

Edited 21 minutes ago by benjii
Wrong thread.

[Hatch]

First game was Oct 1976 at the Dell against Terry Paines Hereford.

 

 

Both my parents were regulars at The Dell and they thought it was wise to take a 6 year old me to begin the torturous journey through a lifetime of supporting Saints

[Turkish]

It started for me in 1992. I was looking to get into football as i'd heard it was going to be cool again and i needed a club to support it never occurred to me Southampton had a premiership club back then. I a game with Saints and Manchester and straight away i was hooked and went down to the club shop to buy the kit and never missed a game on TV for the next 13 years.

In 2005 a mixture of surprise family birthday parties and my then girlfrend and mate being Arsenal fans meant i watched them more and got gifted an Arsenal kit for my birthday. Luckily by 2011 i had ditched her, had a bit more time on my hands and started being a fanatical saints fan again, never missing a game on Sky OR BT up until 2023. I'm pretty busy at the moment though so only really free 4.30pm sundays plus tuesday and wednesday evenings so only get to really watch premier league and champions league games at the moment, luckily for me my second teams Chelsea and Real Madrid are doing pretty well so get to see them a lot at the moment.