Just looking at our opening matches from the last decade and realised that we haven't actually won on opening day in this millenium! The last time was when we beat Coventry 1 - 0 away in 1999/2000. Here are our opening day results since then: 2000/01 - Derby 2 - 2 Saints 2001/02 - Leeds 2 - 0 Saints 2002/03 - Saints 0 - 0 Middlesbrough 2003/04 - Leicester 2 - 2 Saints 2004/05 - Aston Villa 2 - 0 Saints 2005/06 - Saints 0 - 0 Wolves 2006/07 - Derby 2 - 2 Saints 2007/08 - Saints 1 - 4 Crystal Palace 2008/09 - Cardiff 2 - 1 Saints 2009/10 - Saints 1 - 1 Millwall 2010/11 - Plymouth 1 - 0 Saints 0 wins, 6 draws and 5 defeats! Do you think we can end this long run without an opening day victory when we take on Leeds? We're on Sky as well, which doesn't bode well as our TV record is equally as bad!
I was at that game! We were singing 'we are top of the league' walking out the ground! Gonna be hard to break the voodoo this year.
To be honest a "first game curse" has nothing to do with it. No one looks up the 11th or 34th game of the season for the last decade, and goes on about us winning, losing or drawing those games. It's one game of a very long season, if we beat Leeds fantastic, if we lose or draw then we know we have to improve in the next game. Simplessss!
I know it's one game in a long season, and it doesn't matter what result you get amongst all the others. However, it's nice to win on opening day as it's one of the footballing highlights of the year. The same as it's nice to win on the last day of the season, Boxing Day, New Years Day and the FA Cup 3rd Round weekend (if you're in the third round). They are big dates on the football calender!
I hear what your saying. And yes it would be nice to win on those dates you highlighted. But at the end of the day, are target is to get promotion. I dont care how we do it.We could lose on boxing day, new years day, easter, who cares as long as we get the job done.
It's a marathon not a sprint - yet saying that it would be nice to win on the first game of the season
It'd be nice to get off to a good start. The outcome of our opening game(s) could affect how we perform in latter parts of the season. Anyone any idea when we last won at home on the opening day of the season?
The 4-1 victory over West Ham in 1988 was my 1st ever match and we won the 1st three games that season to go top. I hope it's not but would not be surprised to hear if that was our last opening day victory at home. I remember after that Coventry game a big thing was made of it being our 1st opening day win in some years!!
What is just as scary is our record of different managers opening up the season for us during that time (Off the top of my head, I believe the following is correct) 2000/01 - Glenn Hoddle 2001/02 - Stuart Gray 2002/03 - Gordan Strachan 2003/04 - Gordan Strachan 2004/05 - Paul Sturrock 2005/06 - Harry Redknapp 2006/07 - George Burley 2007/08 - George Burley 2008/09 - Jan Poortvliet 2009/10 - Alan Pardew 2010/11 - Alan Pardew 2011/12 - Nigel Adkins Something tells me that Nigel might just break this run, and eventually become the first man since Dave Jones to be sitting in the dugout for three consecutive opening day games.
