Most of the regulars on here will know that I have supported Saints for a very long time through thick and thin. There has been euphoric games and performances and dire ones too. We have had good managers and bloody good managers. We have had poor managers and diabolical ones. Many a time I have gone home and said no more...that's it ....what a load of plonkers. (Or words to that effect) By the next home game I couldn't resist going down and getting my ticket. I struggled the most during the Lowe years. I couldn't and didn't take to the bloke, although I had met him on numerous occasions on the Hockey field. Even then he was a twat and very self centred not to mention a prick. (sorry ladies) When I learned of his companies' involvement and later that he was to lead the company and therefore the Saints, I predicted disaster. At first I was accused of being a bit biased in my views but gradually as time went on and things didn't materialise, although granted the Stadium did. People began to come round to my way of thinking and later totally agreed. In his final years with the club in and out of the Chairmanship I still went to St Mary's. However the Saints were just not the same club, the same atmosphere. Lowe's decision making got worse and worse getting rid of Pearson was the final straw. That was when I came the closest to rapping it in with Saints. How I managed to keep turning up I still cannot fathom, why even. Then the penny dropped it isn't the players or the team as a whole, it was just Lowe and his cronies. No I didn't go to any of the demonstrations and no I didn't chant Lowe out etc. I did vent my feelings on occasion at shareholders meetings though, then at last he was gone and good riddance. The rest as they say is history. As a supporter that has gone through the years, wanting like hell to believe what the Saints board tell you. It makes you very sceptical when you hear managers and Chairman saying that money is available for this we are going to do that. Five year plans and the like. We want more than just to survive etc now we are in the top flight. It makes such a change for people to say things and for once actually seemingly doing it. NA is proving to be a good manager. Has he the staying power, has he the knowledge to go onto greater things only time will tell. If he actually does what he says he can do he will become a legend just as great as those other legends Ted Bates and Lawrie Mac. For me he hasn't earned that status yet, although he has done quite well! Finally I come to our clubs current leader Nicola Cortese. This man is just about to come into his own. He is fast making himself into a legend, so far everything he said he would do has materialised. If he hangs around for another few years and See's it all through to fruition he too will get that Icon. Things look bright........
I have never felt like quitting as a saints fan ... Ever. When I have lived too far away to go regularly I still went as often as I could. The toughest thing for me was when I thought we were going bust completely and for a moment I thought there would be no SFC - at that point I decided that I couldn't follow any other clubside so i told my wife that if we went I would start to follow England. It would be just as heartbreaking and painful so I'd be used to it.
Suffered over the years, but never thought of leaving the club. Knew I'd follow them down to non-league if necessary.
I can't imagine ever turning my back on Saints. I had some friends who stopped going in protest toward the end of the Lowe era. They now feel vindicated. But they are wrong, they and we just got lucky. We could well have been in a Portsmouth situation and the income from the 5,000 or so who stayed away could have helped prevent that. We got lucky that a wealthy benefactor came along but it could easily have gone the other way. Ironically, it was the things that Lowe initiated that eventually led to us being a decent club that someone wanted to buy. In many ways he was no different than Cortese. He tried to run the club as a business which people didn't like. He wouldn't give money to Strachen, he let Pearson go because we couldn't afford the wages etc etc.. The big difference between then and now is that now we have money and then we didn't. With our resources we were increasingly going to struggle and relegation was an inevitability but we just couldn't see it at the time. All the "Lowe out" people did was help to speed the process along as, with the exception of Crouch, the people who came in were far worse . I'm maybe a bit of a masochist but I actually enjoyed much of our Championship relegation season. We played some good football at times. More than once on TV the commentators likened us to Arsenal (hard to believe but true). The fact that we'd play well and inevitably end up losing was to me an heroic kind of failure. It actually brought me closer to the club. Rock bottom wasn't during the season but the month or so at the end of the season when I really thought we could cease to exist. I can't honestly say if I would have kept on going had we just survived and tootled along in the 1st or even 2nd divisions as looked likely at one time but I'd like to think so.
I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of home games I have missed since 1971 and those were mainly because the bloody TV moved the games to days when I had prior engagements. PS I aways like to take in a handful of away games as well each season.
It's something I have honestly never contemplated. My family stopped going during the branfoot era and my dad refused to finance my season ticket for his 2nd season, so I missed the Le Tiss goals against Newcastle, but probably not much else. Sturrock was not great, but there have been hardly any purely football related reasons to refuse to go. When the club is struggling financially then that's when it needs your help the most and I never refused to go during the Dutch season.
As long as I have a Saturday to kill, I'll be supporting. Supporting some team in London, Manchester or Liverpool from afar is no fun and I'm hardly going to support Portsmouth.
I'll stand and watch kids kicking a ball around in the park with coats as goalposts and curse the fact that I am too old to join in. What great fun - football matches that lasted all day and in our village with about 25 a side. The local girls would also join in and two of my sisters were better than many of the local boys. Little tom-boys they were too. Those were the days!
Thanks for all of the posts. Thank you Beddytare for the PM as well. I think the fact that we have all felt so down at times shows what us football fans put ourselves through. When the going is good we are in Euphoria but when bad, well!!! Some of the younger brigade won't know the joys still to come such as when we play and beat the likes of the United's of this world. Funnily enough the first game my dad took me to was against the mighty Wolves in 1952. We lost but that didn't matter at the time as dad had spent his Saturday afternoon with me. As Beddytare says we have a chairman we can trust and a team management that seems to be reliably good. Long may it last.
There are so very young fans who have now been trapped for life based on the fact that they think football is about winning every game, promotion parties and pitch invasions.
I am fairly confident that we will continue to win plenty of games. Especially at fortress St Mary's. Even the younger element must realize that we are now going to face the best teams in the land and we will have to find our feet.
Great post and my first post I've followed Saints for many years and I have now got my son into the Saints big time (he's 8) He has only had the good times so far. We are getting a season ticket next year if I can get one. I've had to sit him down and explain we won't win every game and it could be a hard season but his reply was I don't care I want to see Saints in the Premiership. What a proud moment that was. I'm glad I got him following Saints with all the Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea fans and now seeing a Few Man City fans about. He has asked when he was 6 why we follow Saints and why he can't follow a big club, My reply was go and ask your friends when they go to a live game. He will now see the reward with his 1st season ticket.
Can't say it's ever occured to me to stop supporting Saints. I've always just felt lumbered with and had to make do with the misery. It was a bit like being born with a disability of some description, you just have to be brave and make the best of it despite not being as fortunate as others.
Yeah I think you can only truly love one club, nothing can change that if you are loyal and thanks for that hopefully it should go good for me.
We know that is untrue, when you support clubs like Gillingham you have to understand things like that, I just love supporting the club. It is just about the thrill of the game, you go through the highs and lows, I have known that for years, supporting the Gills is tough but that is what I love about them. That is a major problem you find as a lot of people support the big clubs like Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal (Don't know why) and Man City now after they become big, this in my eyes is glory hunting, I think people should only support a club if either they have links to the club due to family or being born in the area so for me that would have been Gillingham because of being from there or I could have supported Tottenham as nearly everyone in the family supports them because my Grand Parents are from there, however I choose Gillingham, but I have a soft spot for Tottenham.
I have not been even into football for a long while. My friend took me to my first game around 5 years ago (I think) against charlton (I think) and it was 0-0 (I think) but from then my love for the game just spiraled during the next season I went to a few more games the last of which being the draw against Burnley which saw us relegated and already in administration there I was thinking great just as I got into football it would all be over for me. However, the takeover of the club changed that. I brought my first season ticket in our first season of league 1 having never actually seen us win a game. Haven't looked back since and picked my uni choices so I could continue to have one next year. Westminsters not too far
I have been a saints fan for a while and went to at least 10 games a season during Prem and Championship. However when we were relegated to League 1, that's when I followed the club even more. I have had a season ticket for the past 2 years and they haven't been bad for results but I feel I enjoy the football more in those leagues (probably because we won the majority of the games). I remember the day on SSN when they announced administration and when the said Saints may not have a future as a football club, I didn't know if I was going to follow anyone, everything like that crossed my mind. But when Markus took over, I was overjoyed and that was probably the main reason I followed even closer, the fact that I nearly lost my club, I felt that I would do anything to keep it going and when that day came along, I felt I had to pay Markus back. Ever since then I have bought both Home and Away kits, I have had 2 season tickets, went to Wembley, often give money to the Saints Foundation and buy the ridiculously overpriced Hot Dogs and Drinks!!!!!
