HOME GROUND: I dunno'bout the word "home" as we all miss The Dell, it's character, it's creature comforts and the fact that away teams & supporters loved to hate it, but The "Friends Provident" St. Mary's Stadium (or just St. Mary's...) is our brand spanking new ground. It's a similar affair to Derby's Pride Park, Sunderland's Stadium of Light and Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium as it was made by the same people. In terms of the size of the pitch in comparison to our dearly departed Dell, it has gone from one end of the scale to the other! We have even exceeded the width of Shite Fart Lane. (Tottenham Hotspur's home ground.)
The capacity of St. Mary's is just over 32,000. From what I have read the facilities are of definate benchmark standard, with Carlsberg & Tetley being served within the ground allong with some decent grub.
EVER-SO-BRIEF HISTORY: Hey, I'm no good with history! And you can find that on litterally any other site.:) The club has been around since 1885-6, and was originally named Southampton St. Mary's. Ever since then we have yet to win the league, but we have won the F.A. Cup. (Oddly enough when we were in the old Second Division.) West beat Manchester United 1-0. The late seventies saw us gain promotion to the old First Division and, thanks to a few last gasp escape acts, haven't looked back ever since. Since our FA Cup victory, we finished second in 1983-4, thanks to the likes of Peter Shilton, Kevin Keegan and that-time manager Lawrie McMenemy. I believe that we will one day repeat the feat. In that year, Everton stopped our Wembley dreams at the second last hurdle. Since then, the eighties were our golden era and the nineties have been more down than up. Not too far down, though, thankfully! In recent times we have seen Hoddle and Dean Richards come and go - both could have really aided a top six push, child-related contraversy later cleared on one of our ex-managers, two-near relegations and a new stadium to boot! Much more exciting than supporting a club where it's fans moan if they lose five matches in a season, don't you think? It's what footy is all about. (You want a flexible league table, follow the AFL! :)
CURRENT CLUB COLOURS: The current home shirt is of the traditional variety, with midwidth red & white stripes. The shorts are black and the socks are white. (Home.) The away strip is not too dissimilar to Man Ure's recent away or third navy blue and red strip, but ours is black. Oddly, the home shorts are worn with this top allong with matching black socks. The third strip is set to the classic away Saints colours of yellow / amber and royal blue.
RIVALS: Well, Portsmouth of course! (a.k.a. Pompey.) Or as us Saintly people like to call them, Skates or the "Blue Few." (both are rather amusing.) Don't ask me how the "skate" name came about, as it's a tad rude! Our other rivals are spring chickens (in more than one sense!) in this department, Tottenham Hotspur. Ever since Hoddle and Richards both did the dirty on us... well... serves you right for Campbell leaving you! At least we got some dosh for Super Deano (super Judas!) after he parted company! Of course, Spuds (as we now like to call 'em.) got a nice warm reception from the home crowd at St. Mary's apon their visit in late December, 2001. (1-0 win to Saints!!)
WHAT WE ARE MOST KNOWN FOR: Le Tissier, The Dell, our nickname and our chairman who makes it very difficult for abroad supporters to purchase Saints memorabillia!
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