That's true enough...I'm looking forward to supporting Saints in the Champions League for the next few decades..
There has been lots of good feel factors over the years but none have the same Feel factor as now. I started going to the Dell 65/66 and queued up outside with my World Cup Willy scrap book and was so fortunate to get so many great player autographs such as a world cup player himself, Terry Paine and along with that era the likes of Martin Chivers and Ron Davis etc etc etc. So that was a great time to be a Saints fan. Division 1 and great top players. The Lawrie Mac time was unbelievable with our own top grown players like Channon and Williams etc but bringing in names like Peter Osgood, Kevin Keegan, Peter Shilton and Alan Ball etc etc etc, meant the world of being a Saints fan had gone mad. For the first time Southampton Football Club had become World News. But now after seeing the Football Club you Love and Cherish survive seconds from folding for good, start to grow like a beautifully grown plant, it really is like a new beginning. To have a person like Cortese at the helm has in its own right been unbelievable but to now see players like Lambert and so many Home grown players start to get recognised by your own Country is a step all honest true Southampton fans could never have imagined even if we hadn't had gone into Liquidation. So I would say Being Saints fan now is the best feeling I have ever had.
OK, first my pedigree. I started in 1958, which makes me a youngster on here I reckon! Winning promotion in World Cup year was a bit special, and then some great players - Channon, the greatest of all in my view;the magic of Le Tiss; the power of big Ron; that all too brief wonder time of seeing Keegan. All great, but nothing compares with the pride I feel now in the way that my beloved Saints have been restored as they now look to exceed anything we've seen so far. I love the fact that we took a jobbing centre forward and turned him into an England striker; that we have repaid the loyalty shown by the likes of Schneiderlin and Lallana as they have developed with the club in its amazing rise. Add to that the rise of our "kids" like Shaw and Ward-Prowse and the ambition shown by Nicola Cortese and you realise you are in at the start of something totally special. Living away from Southampton, in a soccer "hot bed" has always been interesting. The respect that the club has earned in the last year or so is something very special. So as you'll have guessed, a resounding "Yes, this is the best time" from this old fogey.
Now that is impressive? To start watching Saints in the Branfoot era and continue watching is some achievement as the Branfoot spent with him at the helm was pretty desperate.
76 was definitely the highlight for me. As a kid I also used to queue outside the Milton road end from 11 am to get a decent view from the chocolate boxes up high. The standard and pace of football then was amazing with Paine and Sydenham playing a seemingly endless number of crosses onto Ron Davies head. And you felt you were cheering on your mates, not superstars. That team gave us a lot of joy in cup runs and a few tasty games with Pompey. Ending probably when we lost to Anderlecht in the dying minutes and then lawrie leaving for hi spiritual home in the north east. But today's SFC is special. Not just the team , but the academy, the commercial side, the emphasis on English home grown players and the fact that we are shaping the style of play for years to come. It won't last forever of course but I'm enjoying the ride
It's great reading all these stories We'll no doubt be doing the same in the future with this era of Southampton FC
Have been a Saints supporter for over sixty years, and 1976 saw the best day of my life, nothing has come near to it. However the JPT was a great taster for things to come, like others I am very unsure and apprehensive about how things are going to go, an Optimistic Pessimist I guess, I always hope for the best, but always, from past experience, expect the worst! For the moment I am enjoying the ride, long may it continue.
Am guessing but you and I must be about the oldest supporters on here. My first game was approximately Christmas 1947.......Having been to a Pompey match the week before....(Sorry about that) A crowd of us youngsters used to go to both Pompey and Saints with our respective relatives each week. We carried that tradition on until about five years ago as much as we could, Sadly there is just a couple of us left now. one supporter for each club. Man oh man what a ride, what pleasures Saints have given me over the years....tremendous.. more highs than lows and long may it continue.....
I don't think the current era will surpass the early to mid eighties until it actually achieves more if you know what I mean. Those days of being regularly top 8 in a much more competitive league were the best so far but if we can finish Top4 this season then it will be close and if we can regularly finish in the top6 then I suppose it would equal it.
