I was driving back from Peterborough with my 11 year old son on Tuesday evening. It was a very pleasant journey, listening on the radio to the Reading celebrations and West Ham's suffering after the draw at Brissle City. I then started to realise what a fantastic time my lad was having and had been having for three seasons. My first game was in 1975 and probably saw two games that year and two the following season. We won the FA Cup in 1976 when I was 6 years old. I remember it vaguely (I think I played outside for a lot of the match). I recall (partially) getting promoted, but not much is clear. I then recall from 1979 onwards very, very clearly. A league cup final defeat, a Zenith Cup final, defeat, a league runners up spot, a league cup semi-final defeat, two FA Cup semi final defeats, countless relegation battles, the Branfoot Days, Steve Williams leaving for Arsenal (personal disaster for me, he was my hero), the Rupert Lowe period, the million managers in 10 years period, the relegation from the Premier League, the struggle in the Championship, the semi-final at Derby, the 10 point deduction, the administration, the relegation to League One and the actual belief at one point that my club might disappear completely. Now my son really switched on to football when he was five during that first season in the championship, so he has suffered a little, but as a five year old, he wasn't really effected and would sit at the games we would go to and read the program and eat his sweets. The last three years since he was 7/8 and a great age to really start to understand football (and playing it too) have been unbelievable for him. He lives in Northampton. One of his mates supports Cobblers (bless him), the rest support Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool. He sticks by The Saints. This season we got him a season ticket for the first time. I told him on Tuesday that he must try his hardest to remember these days as fondly as he can. This is his last three years: In 2009/10 - attended approx 15 matches (mix home and away) and go to Wembley to see Saints win a trophy! In 2010/11 - attend approx 20 matches (mix home and away) see team promoted! In 2011/12 - gets his first season ticket and attends just the three away games and look what is likely to happen! Fabulous times to be that age. I am so jealous and just hope he appreciates what a great time it is to be 11; I sometimes wish I was 11 again!
Great post FLT! I Remember all the stick I had through mainly senior school supporting Southampton however we were in the Premier League. Since leaving school I had the hype of the cup final against Arsenal but also a the awful recent times with the last few years of Mr Lowe. This is worthy of being a article I've got my beedy eye on it....
A great read LeTiss, and don't forget to enjoy these years yourself, cause there's no telling how things might work out with your boy. My son caught the gooner virus when he was about 12, despite several previous visits to St Mary's with me and his grandad. I still look back on those days fondly, and don't even regret the time I took him to Highbury for a Champions League tie between Arsenal and Real Majorca, although with hindsight Dennis Bergkamp stole his football heart that night. As far as Saints games, he fondly remembers watching us thrash Spurs 4-0 in the FA cup. Wonder why?
So far the eldest Lamballana offspring who has just turned 13 has been fully converted to the cause but the younger son (11) who until recently showed no real interest in football seems to have picked up an unfortunate affliction called "Liverpool". Have tried all sorts of remedies but he is still suffering. May have to try a dose of promotion syrup on Saturday!
Archers/Lamballana, tut, tut, tut. Back to parenting school for you two. You can be reported for that you nknow... letting your offspring wonder off in another footballing direction. I have no concerns about my lad, he is Saints mad and with an in law family full of Man Utd nd Wigan fans, they have been trying for years to convert him; no chance! I hve shown him the cold, damp shed at the bottom of the garden where he might end up!
Good thread. My son is Saints through & through since he started coming to games with me a couple of years after we moved to SMS. He often remarks on how few of his mates, or kids at his large comprehensive school in general, support Saints with many of them supporting the larger clubs. A couple of his mates have family who have relocated to the southampton area and support their original clubs - Sheff Utd, Man City, etc - and this is fair enough. My younger brother married a girl from Northumbria and lives just outside Newcastle but he still supports Saints and his boys do as well - in fact we are meeting them at the Middlesborough game on Sat ! Maybe if Saints have a more high profile future then more local kids will support them - having said that you always see loads of nippers at SMS on match days so the future looks pretty good. Its odd how it works out but everybody has their reasons for which team they support, and amen to that in a free world !
I'm 16 so i've had a very similar football life to your sun but my earliest memories are of Beattie always scoring as I would be outside playing and my dad would always run in and say guess who scored (I wasn't really old enough or my family wealthy enough to go to every game), and I'd answer with glee JAMES BEATTIE? After that I remember having to go into school for the fa cup final day(no idea why) and watching arsenal beat us in black and white on a fuzzy screen! I have since watched our 1976 triumph though! And have been an avid supporter of the saints despite 70% of my football loving friends being massive glory hunters, the worst thing is people now think they know all about us since we've become more successful! Its really frustrating in a nice sort of way
There's a young lad that sits in front of us, probably around 12/13 and he's been coming with his Dad ever since I've been going since 2006 and up until about halfway through last season, it was obvious he wasn't interested. He spent most of the game either reading the programme or playing a PSP. Now though, he seems to have been bitten by the Saints bug and he watches the whole game and is almost as loud as his Dad! On a personal note, I used to follow Spurs when I was younger but it was only when my own Dad started bringing me to games in 2006 that I really started getting into Saints. So in response to your thread FLT, what an amazing time to be a Saints fan - no matter what your age.
Very true Kate. Like FLT i've been following since the late seventies and apart from the Keegan/Shilton years there has been nothing to touch the excitement of the last two years. Long may it continue!
My 11 year old little brother's first game was in the 06/07 season, I convinced him to go and to be honest, by the end of the 08/09 season, he didn't know why I bothered. He has a very good footballing brain and asks me what would be my line up for the next game etc.. But the last 3 seasons he has really enjoyed but he has never seen us the Premier League and is a very passionate supporter, so I want us to do this so much.
I've converted the lovely Mrs SF4L (Using a Godders-ism here) into a saints fan, she is often caught watching the live updates on the OS, and when questioned, purely answers to see them lose! (Although I know this ain't the case)
I was to "support" Chelsea when I was 5,6 years of age it was largely down to the fact that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was my favourite player at the time for some unknown reason?Then when Saints beat them (Chelsea) 4-2 at Stamford Bridge I started to grow fond of them and the bug grew and grew on me.
My sister's partner is a gooner; he has a 7 year old boy who looks up to my son. They have just purchased two new fish for their aquarium. The young gooner, much to his father's dismay, has just named them..... ... Rickie 1 and Rickie 2. Brilliant, I feel another conversion happening.
Lovely post Le Tiss. I "failed" on the parenting stakes, but my excuse is that I encouraged my kids to support local teams and so ended up with Liverpool and Man Utd fans. My wife's a Manc, just to add to the general malaise. I can cope with all this, it's the mindless following of "big" clubs that does my head in. I am quite tempted to stop people in the street in Southampton and ask them to find Manchester on a map when I see their United stickers in the car. Part of my daughter's joy with United, for example, is that she was bought up in Altrincham and still lives locally. United are her local team, so she's shares something with her fellow local fans. She is quite dismissive of glory hunters, as are my other two who support Liverpool. These days we discuss footie within the family from various perspectives and value each other's ups and downs. I'll support Liverpool in the Cup Final; I want United to win the title and my kids will each be watching on Saturday and desperately hoping for the right result. By accident rather than design, we have managed to raise 3 people who fully understand that the passion for their club is shared by supporters of other clubs so they'll banter but never hurt. This ain't a bad life lesson. What you share with your lad will run deep. Enjoy these moments now. As others have said these are great moments for you as a Saint. For me, this is the best time ever in over 50 years of supporting them because of the awful days preceding them. But they are also great moments to be sharing with your lad. Enjoy them before he hits monosyllabic grunting stage, and remember they will be precious to him too.
I love that last paragraph Channon H2O. This is a special time for me and to be honest I had overlooked how special this time will be for him too. We cherish the two hour drive back from home games and I do hope these moments help us both understand each other when he does reach the monosyllabic stage. It's great that your kids chose teams that are local to them. I always said I would have accepted him coming home from school a Cobblers fan. He was born in Wigan and fortunately we moved further South when he was two as I feared that I would not have been able to stop the inevitable United effect. My mum (rest her sole) was a United fan from Hampshire and she would have tempted him that way. The in laws support Wigan and that would have been ok. As it is we have a lovely little Saint and what a perfect good reason for season tickets!
Great post, my sons (9 and 5) are both getting more and more into football and the mighty Saints. The 9 yo came to Wembley when we won the JPT, great day out, etc, etc. When I asked him the next day what his mates had said about his big day out he said he hadn't told anyone as he was too embarassed to admit he was a Saints fan...... Every since that day I've not been careful not to pressure him into any public displays of affiliation since his mates are ManU, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, etc and kids are cruel at the best of times. Thankfully this season he has been a very proud Saint, wearing his shirt at every given opportunity. His little brother has now got the bug too and desperately wanted a Lambert 7 shirt for his birthday (club shop said shirt was too small to print name on though!??!?!). Great times and brilliant to be able to share them with my boys! Mrs H (a gooner) isn't so happy when we are singing around the house after a victory but frankly who cares!
Took my eldest to Wembley too. Only problem was we were in the Carlisle end so we couldn't sing too loudly!
This thread has generated some great posts so we done FLT. I dont think we should underestimate what that JPT trip to Wembley did for our support and particularly it gave the younger Saints fans something to be proud of their team about at school etc. I had only got back from my latest trip to sea the day before and was quite knackered but it was great day - i had a few generations with me, my son, daughter, grandson, son-in-law and s-i-l's Dad. No other cup final would have allowed a club to take over 45000 fans ( it may even of been more ) to Wembley ! I see that Liverpool have been allocated just over 25000 tickets for the FA Cup Final and that is so wrong - both clubs should surely get at least 35000 each, leaving loads for hangers-on etc. JPT may be called the paint pot trophy but i feel it was a major milestone for us, esp the younger support as loads of them could go.
Hi, tried to post on this thread yesterday but think it was being converted to an article so it didn't send. Anyway, good read; I wonder what your sons win ratio for the club is?! Secondly everyone saying that they cannot get their sons to support the same club as themselves - well isn't that rebellious streak normal, how many of you support the same club as your father. Finally, it is good to see that more people are happy to take their children to the game and now it is increasingly daughters as well as sons too - football is becoming more family friendly, which is of course a good thing .
