First of all thanks to those Reds who have been so complimentary about Saints after last night. To the steward who chatted to me for much of the second half, cheers mate. And of course to Sir Alex, it might have been mind games but it felt good to hear his words of praise. But now to Nobby, bless. Yep, Nobby (great name; great player) we really feel for you. Poor old Bobby Stokes ruined your first Cup Final. Terrible. We all have games that still cause pain, so sit down, Nobby, and we'll share pain. Our nadir was 1984 v Everton, FA Cup Semi Final. We should have won it by a country mile, but lost 1-0 in the last minute of extra time. The final was a stroll in the park for Everton, as it would have been for us. This loss led to our board bottling it (again) and our manager (Saint Lawrie himself) left us. So let's compare what's happened to the two clubs since each of their dire moments: Start with Saints ... Well, 3 losing Cup Finals, several losing semi-finals; relegation from the Prem; Relegation from the Championship; administration ... relegation to League 1 with a ten point deduction. Man Utd Terrible record. In 1999 you failed to win the League Cup and could only manage a poxy three trophies to add to .. how many league titles, FA Cup wins (including doubles) another Champions League win and 2 finals. Yes, looking back I can see why you are so bitter. Pity that you couldn't take the view of your then manager, Tommy Doc, and be gracious in defeat and accept this was one of the few hiccups in an amazing history. Or put it another way, give us our moment in the sun, pal.
First cup final I remember this, although I never held it against you. Didn't even know what offside was. The following double wrecking year is far more vivid to me!
It's not just on here - actually, here is very good & Utd. fans have mainly been gracious in their victory, but there are a lot who seem very bitter against us Saints for no obvious reason. I think it may be because we're a team that always gives you a game when we play. Even a couple of seasons ago when we were in L1, we met in the FA cup at St. Marys and went in front. SAF had to sub on your bigger guns and wait for us to tire before you eventually beat us (We stll have people who played that game in our squad - Lambert & Chaplow, to name 2 that I remember). I think there is a large section of your fan base who think you have a divine right to win every match and resent it when "little Southampton" won't just lie down and roll over for you (as many other teams do against you, particularly at your place).
That's a wierd one, can't think why. Personally I have no issue as I spent eight months on an M3/M27 road widening and used to visit the Dell often. Went in the away end for a United game, obviously, and Oldham Athletic. Liked going so don't have problem with Saints, I do recall one of your fans on here when it was first set up calling up scum and such like and couldn't get my head round that either. I hope you stay up, they treated Adkins like **** but that's hardly the football clubs fault.
I think that hits the nail on the head. Sadly we, as with any other big and successful club, have lots of fans who care more about the glory than about the club or football in general. They probably have little concept of the histories of other clubs and don't care about anyone outside the top two or three in the league. Unfortunately our owners' current business policy seems to be predicated on attracting as many of them as possible, so they are unlikely to piss off any time soon. Try not to let them get to you, and good luck for the rest of the season
As I said, I think it's just big club syndrome - all the big clubs have loads of Glory Hunters & hangers-on who need to be have their choice of club validated; when a percieved small team like us dares to challenge their choice their world view is shaken. Had we drawn or won, people here would probably have been as gracious in defeat as in victory, with a side order of "oh no, not Saints again" - the fans I'm talking about would be put on twitter-suicide watch because they're (probably*) kids who don't remember the games that we gave last time we were in the prem, 7 years ago; let alone those classic grey shirts, the Taibi incident, the 6-3 etc. We never have such classic games against other top teams, when we beat them it's like any other win, but with Utd. there's always something that makes the game memorable. *can never tell on the net EDIT: Thanks - great minds... - I started writing this post in a break, finished it at lunch when you'd made the same point.
No, no no my Red friend. Sympathy is the last thing I'm looking for. I have supported Saints for more than 5 decades, and have loved it (pain and all). The last 3 years have been fantastic. We could have sunk without trace, but after back to back promotions and an ambitious Chairman things haven't looked this good since the 80's. No, my point is a simple one. How can a supporter of Man Utd feel that the one time Saints won a major trophy is a reason to "****ing hate Southampton". I count myself lucky that I lived in Manchester for a time. Great City, and brilliant people (many United fans to scotch the old rumour!). It always slays me when I hear fans of a team that wins something year after year whinge. I can recall in the Strachan days we were really motoring and I was so looking forward to going to SMS to see us stuff Liverpool. They came and nicked it 1-0 and I was gutted. I mentioned it to a Port Vale fan the next Monday in work. "Mate, I'd kill to be losing at home to Liverpool" he said. They'd just lost 3-1 at home to someone I'd not heard of at the time. So it's perspective, not sympathy.
My sympathy post was because this article has been up for a while and ignored.. It's kind of an in joke so to speak.. I've personally no problem with your mob never have had and I remember the games vs you in the 90's. That said I went to uni in Portsmouth so I'd rather them do well than your lot an I know how much you all love each other down there on the coast..
My in-laws are Saints fans and my father-in-law has been a season ticket holder for years. He tried to ambush my son into becoming a Saint but fortunately the Devil is strong in the little one. I went to the Dell a number of times and have been to St Marys on a few occasions. I've always liked Southampton. In my footballing lifetime they have produced some cracking players and their hardcore of supporters stayed loyal during the very bleak years of administration and relegation to League 1. The in-laws aren't from Southampton though. ****ing glory hunters!
It's funny, in it's own way League 1 was actually very enjoyable - and in our first (starting on -10pts.) season down there were a couple of other ex-premiership clubs with us. One week it was us v Leeds (who were top at the time) & most of the bigger prem clubs were playing on Sunday - our match had the 3rd higest attendance in the country, more than most premiership clubs playing that day. Also, fun fact from the same season - Saints have taken more fans to Wembly than any other club. We won the JPT trophy, and took 44,000 fans with people still wanting tickets. Because of there are far less corperate seats, we were allocated more tickets than clubs who get there for things like the FA cup final etc. We even offered to buy more seats, but the FA would have none of it and Saints v Carlisle obviously needs a giant amount of segregation. Our glory hunters are all Japaneese ever since we bought two of their international squad.
