Given I've been proper miserable over the last few months on here, I'm starting a thread to make me remember why I bloody love this club so much, and to remember it's just the last few months which have been depressing! So I thought I'd start a thread on the best and worst home and away games you've ever been to. Home Best- Southampton v Yeovil in the league Cup, must have been around 2006? A midweek game which I'd finally persuaded my best mate who hated football to come along to. An afternoon long piss up followed by 5 Saints goals including a Rudi Skacel rocket of a free kick. A brilliant night which resulted in my mate coming home and away with us ever since. Worst- Saints v Ipswich (another midweek game) we lost 2-0 and played some of the most depressing turgid football I've ever seen. Freezing ****ing cold, and the pub shut early on the way back. Absolutely awful evening Away Best- Toss up here, but probably away to Exeter back in the league 1 days. 80 minutes of playing absolute ****e, followed by a Lambert smash and grab. Walked out of that ground feeling like I'd partaken in a robbery and got away with it. Brilliant piss up with some Exeter fans after who were lovely Worst- Millwall. BTP being well over the top at London Bridge, no beer at the ground. Served a burger which genuinely could have counted as an offensive weapon it was that hard. What I thought was a last minute winner for us only for them to equalise from kick off. Then no train back for hours, which resulted in more attention from BTP Special mention to forest away after we'd already been relegated to league 1. Brilliant away day, which turned into a cracking weekend long event. Can't remember anything of the game at all though, but beautiful ground.
That Forest away game is a highlight. Being ushered into Notts County's club bar to stop us running riot in Nottingham - had they ever met Saints fans? - where the songs celebrated our future - "By far the greatest League One will ever see' being a favourite. Applause from the Forest fans at the end as they decided we were completely mental, and drinking with them afterwards - yes after that it's hazy! Best away though has to be standing on The Anfield Road end singing "We're going to Wembley" after Shane's winner. Still warms me, as we've got nowhere near that again since in my experience. Worst for me was Sheffield United away in the League Cup when the team just didn't show up. A bunch of knobheads purporting to be Saints fans started a fight with police outside, and then there was the most miserable wake in the world at The Premier Inn. Seeing us lose is so common place that I usually disregard the result when evaluating a game, but that night was all round awful. Best home has to be Coventry in recent times. Worst. 0-0 draw with Rochdale in Division One. Doing an eight hour round trip to discover that my usual football mate was ill, and then a game so dire it defied description.
I can't remember dates, cos I'm that age now, but... Best - Saints vs Newcastle - it was a 2-2 draw in the end, but we were 2-0 down and thoroughly miserable before Maddison in the 88th, then Le Tiss a minute later with a thumping volley rescued a thoroughly unlikely draw. It was a turn around and hug the bloke next to you moment. Special mention to the Valentine's Day Massacre in the snow against Liverpool. Worst - Saints vs Spurs - that Rosenthal day. Enough said. Away - Best - Weirdly I'm going to go for the League Cup Final loss against United. We were so good, so unexpectedly so, and Gabbi got a hat-trick in real life to lead us to an unlikely win. I'm sticking with that result. Worst - Last season's cup game against Spurs. We absolutely battered them, only to be Mourinho'd. (The journey back was interminable as well).
Best home game I went to was Saints v Arsenal in 2001 which was the last league game at The Dell when Matt Le Tissier scored what looked like an impossible goal to win it 3-2. It was a brilliant goal at what I considered to be my spiritual home. Although Saints have played some memorable games before and since then, that last league match was really something very special. I must admit I shed a few tears that day, had brilliant fish n chips on the way back to The Bay Tree pub and got absolutely hammered that evening. Best away game for me was Man Utd v Saints at Old Trafford in 1969. We went 1-0 down before Ron Davies headed three goals from John Sydenham's crosses and then big Ron smashed one in with his boot. Saints fans went mental but in those days it was a case of running half way round Manchester to avoid a kicking if anyone won up there. Unfortunately 3 of us couldn't run fast enough and got clobbered. Worst home game was one I refuse to mention but it seems to have caused some kind of mental affliction in football pundits where they feel they have to mention it over and over. They clearly need some kind of therapy but I am not convinced it would really do any good. I think the poor things are all too far gone. Worst away game was a hammering at Leeds in 1972 when we lost 7-0. The atmosphere was awful in the ground and felt dreadfully menacing. The Leeds fans were throwing filed down penny coins at us and a fair few of us got cut. One copper got hit just above his eye and was led away by a few St Johns Ambulance people. There was trouble before the game, during the game and after the game. Never have I been so pleased to get on a piss soaked train in all my life and it was one of the most miserable away games I ever went to. I still think of Leeds as a ****-hole and would never want to visit there again.
I'll always remember Des Lynam's closing comment on MOTD, they replayed that goal from Matty and he said with a knowing look to the camera "Le Tissier takes the.....shine off of Kenny's first match" with reference to the "takes the piss" song.
My best away Saints game is possibly my best game full stop. Home or away or neutral. Saints or not Saints. Anfield. Shane Long. End of.
One of the best, coming from 2 down to beat Liverpool 3-2. One of the worst, spurs in the cup, when it was the Ronnie show.
Best: Pompey away game cup 1984 Worst: far too many attended but I reserve special mention for Reading away in the FA cup third round when were 3-0 down (can’t remember the year) only game I have left with 30kins remaining.
Best: As a young lad in my first season watching at the Dell, the feeling when we beat West Ham 6-2 in February 1967 was hard to beat, even after all these years. Moore, Peters, and Hurst were all playing, and for many of us it was the first time we had seen them play since the World Cup final the year before. Thrashing a team with 3 World Cup winners gave Saints fans bragging rights for ages. Worst: Getting thrashed 6-1 by Liverpool in December 2015 in the EFL Cup. Only game I’ve ever left before the end. Just dire.
Best home game - Coventry at home with the pitch invasion at the end. The Sunderland 8-0 game gets an honourable mention Worst home game - if half a game counts then it has to be THAT game. The weather was atrocious and the less said about the football the better. Best away game: Millwall away sticks in my mind when we won 3-2 with 2 Rickie pens in the last 10 mins. That was when I really started believing we were PL bound. The FA Cup Final in 2003 was pretty special for a 12 year old me as well despite the result. Worst away game is without a shadow of a doubt the Man City 6-1 game. We were awful and I wrote my car off about half an hour into the journey home.
I can't say I was ever a regular but these are my highlights and lowlights Best Home Games: Seeing the 9-3 win against Wolves in 1965 and the 2-2 draw against Manchester United in 1968. In more recent times the 1-0 against WHU in 2011-12 and 4-0 against Watford (they were my father's team) Worst: Losing 3-1 to Reading in the promotion run-in!! Totally unmeritied!! Away: As a youngster a trip to White Hart Lane where I was standing outside the Shelf to stand on the terrace, when this Spurs fan invited me to join him and his friends in the seats above the Shelf. Althought it was a 1-0 defeat, in the League Cup, SFC looked very good that evening. I also enjoyed the 0-0 against Everton in 1978/79 and the 0-0 against Bolton earlier that year. Worst: Losing to Villa 2-1 in 1981 after destroying them for the first 30 minutes. Then age caught up with that team of Ball, Channon and a few other over 30s who were playing in that game.
