Hang on one cotton-picking minute, at the risk of prolonging CBK's swan song I'm not having this......my Dad took me there c1952 to see Stan Mathews. Southampton was grey by day, black at night, there were bomb sites around Central Station, I think it was to celebrate the installation of our floodlights. We stepped out of the gloom and I saw the emerald green pitch radiating under the lights...a spectacle even surpassing the magic of Edwin Jone's Xmas Grotto! Such a crowd to see the big man, us nippers were passed from stranger to stranger and lifted over the wall to sit along the touch line. I was hooked, I fell in love with The Saints and the Dell...you can't take that away from me Godders.
Don't get me wrong I enjoyed our time at the Dell but it was primitive and I don't want to go back to that.
Exactly the same for me. And I found myself lifted over the wall on several occasions cause I couldn't see. Course, I had to be lifted back over once that was objected to, but the thought was there.
Yes,I remember really well. The CB's were really special. Had their own special magic, especially for a young teenager going to football just with his friends. So exciting, regardless of football!
Wow, that's a very good picture. Bit before me but I sorta had the same affection / romance; especially for an evening game.
Sometimes character can be overrated. I experienced The Dell. It was fun when there was nothing better. St Mary's is waaaaaaaay better. Too small though [had to get that in].
The one thing I do remember from the Dell is the smell of the grass. You don't get that at St Mary's. Oh and evening games at The Dell were magical. The close proximity of the players added to the intimacy of the place and you could say cheeky things to them knowing that they could hear exactly what you said.
All that is true. Some of the magic was undoubtedly due to those floodlights. They must have been the brightest anywhere, if a bit uneven. And I loved those 7.30pm kick-offs on a Wednesday. They were almost better than Saturdays. If we were at the Archers Road end, part of that intimacy was that we stood below pitch level [or it felt like that] and our heroes were above us. Hence Ron Davies used to soar into the air, whereas Channon would turn on a sixpence almost horizontal to the pitch, at eye level. There was also something to be said for having no stadium cover on a starry night. The sound would get outside the stadium and, if you were a bit tardy getting there, the swell of the sound as the wind changed direction could make you check your watch to make sure they hadn't already kicked off. But remember, these are all impressions to a young child. With my adult head on I know there is no contest between the two stadiums. It's only a bloody shame Saints didn't get their St Mary's back in the 1980s when it could have boosted us much more.
I sat on the right hand side near the bottom....perfect for seeing Matty's goal against Arsenal on the last day at The Dell. Heaven.
Looks like the one I have. What size is that TSS? Did it come in a white box with "made in Liverpool" on it? That did make me giggle.
Less than 6" square. Yes, that's the one: There's an element of the cottage industry about it, even down to the box, where they can't get 'suppliedby' separated and '&development', from their own title sorted. But the model itself is quite cute. What would happen if you rang the number now, I wonder.?
Yep. Same as mine. I rang the number and got an answer phone message: "Hello la, like.... you've reached the Liverpool scouting department. Please leave your name, telephone number and current address if you're a Southampton player, after the beep"
Quality post mate as gary said done a great job of painting a picture there. Really enjoyed reading that
Have to disagree about character, give me a White Hart Lane over the Madeksji any day of the week. I am (in my eyes) unfortunate to be too young to remember the old terraces. Of course there was a lot of bad then too which people have alluded too, but as Milton Archers post alludes to a lot of great stuff. I've made no secret of the fact that I don't really like St Marys, just another soulless bowl like umpteen other grounds around the country. Disagree it's too small either, about the perfect size for our fanbase currently, though if we were to go bigger, I'd rather build elsewhere than expand for reasons stated above.
The bad on the terraces outweighed the good by quite a way TLL. Yes, there was more atmosphere, but the discomfort and danger had to be stopped. I was put off going to football completely after our loss to Liverpool in 1986 at WHL, just because of how close I came to being crushed against a barrier by the crowd surging. Hillsborough and the Taylor Report put an end to all that, and not a moment before time.