When was your first ever Saints game ? what made you support the club ? read about mine and then tell us all about your own first game.

The first visit to a football stadium is a magical event: the crowds; entering the stadium; and seeing that green pitch for the first time is an experience that you never forget. Most of all, it often moulds which team a person supports for the rest of their life.

Perhaps the whole experience has been diluted in the past decade or so. The introduction of so many live televised matches in full HD is far different than it was when I was a boy. We only had the highlights shown each week with just the FA Cup Final and the odd England International shown live on the box.

Indeed back then in the early 1970’s not everyone yet had colour TV. My impressions of football stadia were mainly in black and white. In consequence, it was the colour that struck me most when entering the Dell for the first time. The colour of the pitch, the colour of the stands, the colour of the supporters’ scarves.

So this article asks the question: ‘What was your first ever football game attended and if it wasn’t Saints, then what was it? Also, if so, what was your first ever Saints game? Tell your experience on here and let’s see who was around to share it with you.

To kick things off here is mine.

My first game was on 15 January 1972, and it was against Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup: a great introduction to both live football and, of course, Southampton Football Club.

10 years old was, perhaps, a later age to go to a football game than many of my schoolmates. But I came from a Liverpool family and my father was a die-hard Liverpool fan. Sadly he had died three years earlier - just at a time when he would probably have taken me to my first match. Things could well have turned out differently in the team I supported had fate not taken a hand.

So, all the talk in the school playground back in the 1971/72 season was Saints. My mates were all starting to go to games - some with their parents and some on their own. But some went with older kids from the area. So I started to veer away from the team that had been drummed into me by family and want to support my local team as well, so I could go to a game week in week out.

So one of the older kids said he had a spare ticket for the Cup Tie with United and it was all systems go.

Thus I found myself entering the Dell for the first ever time for a sold out FA Cup third round tie with a Manchester United team who only four years previously had been Champions of Europe.

I can still remember entering the ground. The ticket was for the terracing under the West Stand and we were in there early. I sat on the wall in the corner of the terracing between the West Stand and the Archers Road. It was the bottom of that quirky piece of terracing that used to be under the old scoreboard. It meant that I had a great view of both the game and the crowd by being above their heads.

I was lucky that the ticket was for there because it was relatively under-cover and the game was played in torrential rain. Indeed there were puddles on the pitch and perhaps today it would have been called off. But this was 1972, and it needed a lot more than rain to call a game off.

28,160 were packed in the Dell. Some 2,000 shorter than it should have been for a sell-out. That excellent book In That Number suggests that the rain kept a couple of thousand away who already had tickets. But back then, manipulating the attendance figure at a game was commonplace so money could be pocketed without declaring it to the tax man. At least I was told this, mainly by Pompey fans who swear that they didn’t really have such poor averages in their 1950’s heyday.

Some of the names in both sides were legendary, Saints had Terry Paine, Mike Channon (always Mike back then, never Mick) and Ron Davies, whilst United had George Best, Bobby Charlton and Dennis Law.

United played in bright yellow shirts with blue shorts whilst we were, of course, in our iconic stripes with perhaps my favourite incarnation. We had a round red collar, black shorts and red socks with a solitary white hoop in the middle.

Saints kicked off towards the Milton Road end and the game was fast and furious. Although given that my only reference point at this time was the football played on Green Park in Millbrook, it was probably quite slow compared to today’s games!

It was United who opened the scoring on 37 minutes. A well-worked move involving Law and Best was finished off by Bobby Charlton. I thought it was all over but luckily it wasn’t: it was only half time.

The second half saw chances at both ends and it took a fantastic save from Eric Martin in the Saints goal to keep the deficit to one. However, ten minutes after the break it was all level and again I had a great view of the goal as it was up at my end.

It was classic Saints from that era, a Paine cross, this one from a free kick, to the far post. Ron Davies leaping and hanging in the air before heading the ball either at the goal or down for the knock in. This time it was the latter and it was Jimmy Gabriel who knocked it home to silence the United fans massed behind the goal.

But my eyes were on the opposite end where they were going crazy under the Toomers sign. I knew that for my next game I would be going there myself. And I did! For several years later it was the Milton end for me.

There were other chances but the game was now scrappy due to the weather and the mud and the score stayed level. This meant that the teams would meet four days later for the replay which United won 4-1 after extra time in front of 50,966 ( it would have been 50,967 but my mum wouldn’t let me go lol).

But the die was cast, I would return a few weeks later to stand on the Milton Road terraces, little knowing that this would not be the last time I would see Bobby Stokes and Alex Stepney in an FA Cup tie. A little over four years later and they would meet again and this time there would be no replay.

Below Shows Saints Take On Manchester United At The Dell In A Vital Relegation Clash In April 1974.

Thanks to Duncan Holley and Gary Chalk for their excellent book, In That Number. This has enabled me to fill in the blanks that almost 44 years and somewhere between 1,500 & 2,000 subsequent games has dimmed my memory.

So what was everyone else’s first ever game? What do you remember? If you can’t remember it all, I will try to fill in the gaps courtesy of In That Number.

Photo: Action Images

patred added 16:52 - Nov 16 Southampton v Tottenham Hotspur, 04 October 1947 Football League Div 2.. res 1-1 SAINTS Goalkeeper....Len Stansbridge Full back...Bill Rochford Full back...Alf Ramsey Centre half...Stan Clements Wing half...Joe Mallett Wing half...George Smith Outside Left....Bobby Veck Outside right...Eric Day Centre forward....George Lewis Inside forward....George Curtis Inside forward....Jack Bradley Tottenham... Goalkeeper...Ted Ditchburn Full back...Syd Tickridge Left back...Vic Buckingham Centre half...Horace Woodward Wing half...Ron Burgess Wing half...Bill Nicholson Outside Left...Les Stevens Centre forward...Len Duquemin Winger....Freddie Cox Inside Forward....Ronnie Dix Inside forward....John Jordan ...................................................................................................................................

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saintnige added 16:58 - Nov 16 I remember my first game clearly -- apart from who we were playing! It was an evening game in 1966 -- before we had been promoted. My friend Dickie and I bunked off cubs in Chandlers Ford and took the 47A to Southampton. Dickie was an old hand and we leapt off at Stag Gates and walked down the Northam Road to the Archers Road stand. Once we had paid our 1s 6d, we worked our way to the side of the terraces and, when we thought no-one was looking, we jumped over the side wall into the narrow concrete walkway until we came out underneath the East Stand. We wormed our way up to the halfway line and that's where I saw my next 10-15 games. The Archers Road gave way to the Milton Road, Ted Bates gave way to Lawrie McMenemy and the chip shop (and Plesteds Pies) at the bus station gave way to the pub. It's coming up 50 years now - next year will have to be a special celebratiopn With a faithful group of friends (now dispersed all over the country) we have been to two FA cup finals, have seen Saints play in Europe (many times) and seen the despair of relegation to League One and almost certain extinction turned to joy, epitomised by the JP Trophy final -- surely one of the most satisfying days to be a Saint, EVER!

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patred added 17:04 - Nov 16 continued.... At the age of 3 and a quarter I remember little detail, except that Alf Ramsay had a nightmare. Eric Day tore the Spurs defence apart all afternoon and rounded off a great game scoring the Saints goal. Ramsay missed a penalty, and was all at sea when Duquemin equalised for Spurs. Saints were all over Spurs and Ditchburn Englands No1 made some amazing saves to give Spurs the draw they hardly deserved. I was sat in the East stand with my uncle, and the man next to me was smoking a big cigar. Even today nearly 70 years after, everytime I get a whiff of cigar smoke it reminds me of the Dell..

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IanRC added 17:05 - Nov 16 Man Utd 1 Southampton 4 at Old Trafford, we lived and live up north and my Dad took me hoping I would become a rugby fan after a good drubbing. Ron Davies et al had other ideas .....
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A1079 added 17:24 - Nov 16 My first experience of live football was actually Bristol City Vs Rochdale which was 0-0. Cannot recall exactly when it was. My first experience of Saints was an evening match on 17 March 1981. It was Southampton Vs Everton and we won 3-0 with goals from Keegan, Williams and Graham Baker. Dave Puckett made his debut coming on for Mick Channon. I went by chance to the game. Someone had a spare ticket who I was working with and went along with him. I already had an interest in Saints and if anyone asked who I supported I always said Saints, mainly as I wanted to support a relatively local team and not follow the crowd at school and follow London teams or Liverpool. But, my interest in football was generally a passing one until I went to this game. I was hooked from then on and started going regularly to home matches, to the point I rarely missed one, until I got married and had children and then moved up north for my sins.

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SalisburySaint added 17:29 - Nov 16 My Dad tells me my first game was at home to Wolves in 1965 which we won 9-3, but cannot remember a thing about the game I can however remember the trip by coach from my village just north of Salisbury to Bristol City the next Easter where we won 1-0 thanks to an own goal which helped Saints in their promotion push to get up to Division one for the first time in their history, I can remember the excitement of the trip to and from and standing on the terrace at the side of the ground where the Dolman Stand now is at Ashton Gate but that's about it. the first game I remember clearly is Saints 2-1 win against Nottm Forest at the end of our first season in the top division in 66/67 when I was eight years old. My Dad's mates couldn't go to game so he and I got seats in the Centre of the West Stand. At that time this was the only area of the top of stands that had proper tilt up seats, the seats in the Wings and East Stand were still benches. Our seats were very central just behind the directors box. and in Front of glass fronted Press box at the back of the stands Forest had Ian Storey-Moore on the Left Wing and I think were still in with a chance of winning the league and we needed a win to stay up. Our goals came from a Terry Paine penalty and Martin Chivers, and was enough to keep us up and game was shown on Match of the Day later that night to end a great day for me

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Capt_Koons added 17:35 - Nov 16 Saints 2 Fulham 1, February 1976. An evening game. I was 9 years old, and hooked straight away. 3 months later we won the cup of course. I wouldn't have believe you if you told me then we would still be waiting to repeat that feet 40 years later!! Channon scored one of ours I can't remember who scored the other. The Dell under floodlights was always magical.
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rebelsaint57 added 17:41 - Nov 16 Southampton 2 Tottenham 1 1968 or thereabouts , Jimmy Greaves scored first and Ron Davies got 2,,
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abingdonsaint added 19:17 - Nov 16 The 12th of October 1968......Saints 2, Everton 5. I was 10 years old and sat on the wall in the East Stand. Some ups and downs since, but a great club to support!
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Number_58 added 19:19 - Nov 16 Saints 2 - QPR 2, 1974. Sat in the upper East Stand Milton wing level with the six yard box. I clearly recall seeing Eric Martin save two penalties. Looking at In That Number the Saints team didn't look very strong, not surprised we went down that season.
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ThereIn76 added 19:22 - Nov 16 1st Saints match was the 0-0 at home to Fulham on 21/12/74. My Dad was so taken with Osgood that he said he'd take us to every Saints home match from then on. Almost a year later, 13/12/75 we were home to Notts County and were each given vouchers at the turnstiles to give us priority for all ticket matches that season. I remember there was one at Wembley the following 1st May - hence my moniker.

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aceofthebase added 19:44 - Nov 16 It was Southend when we were in the third division South. Only about six years old and couldn't see a thing! Never mind I saw Stanley Matthews later and the first of many games for my hero Terry Paine, Chivers and Channon. Saw Bobby Charlton and the crowd hooted with laughter when he took his ey off the ball and it went past him into touch. The kids section was brilliant and the pre match atmosphere was much better than nowadays. How we yelled 2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate, S A I N T S, SAINTS very loud. I loved going to the Dell but then I got selected for an adult team and played SAT afternoons. So many more great memories but not the details of this article..

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SaintNick added 20:56 - Nov 16 Some great memories keep them coming
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cotswoldsaint added 21:04 - Nov 16 Saints 6 - 2 Aston Villa last game of the season early 70's (I think), my Uncle Fred from North Baddesley took me in early to get a place near the front at the Archers End, a brace each for Ron Davies and Big Chiv. Hooked ever since!!!!
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ChristchurchSaint added 21:31 - Nov 16 3rd March 1962 against Scunthorpe, when I was 9 and we won 6-4! A family outing, and the great Terry Paine scored twice. ( Reeves, O'Brien, Mulgrew and Sydenham scored the others)
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SaintNick added 21:37 - Nov 16 Interesting to see the differences between the oldest and newest first games
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ramplee added 22:00 - Nov 16 It's not often that I feel young nowadays, but this thread is helping! My first game was 20th November 1991, I was 17. Saints were playing Sheffield Wednesday at the Dell, League Cup third round replay, we won 1 - 0. I can't remember anything about the match apart from the goal - Matt Le Tissier played the ball from the middle of the pitch out to Micky Adams who was storming down the left. He crossed it for Barry Horne to head in. I was in the Milton End, it was a cold crisp night, the pitch was shining bright green under the floodlights. I remember seeing the glow of the lights and hearing the crowd as we walked down Wilton Avenue to the ground. I crouched a bit through the turnstiles and got in for £2.

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SanMarco added 23:17 - Nov 16 Saturday 26 Feb 1967 at Bramall Lane. My only memory is that Saints played in gold and the game seemed to go on forever - we lost 2-0 but I am not sure I actually 'remember' that. Better than the first game I properly remember though which was a league cup match at Ipswich when we were first division they were second (1967-8 season). We lost 5-2 and were 3-0 down after not much more than five minutes. So my earliest proper memory of Saints is 0-3 after 5 mins - no wonder I'm a pessimist

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Chesham_Saint added 00:25 - Nov 17 Saints 1 West Ham 2 in 1971. I was a neutral and went along with a West Ham supporting mate (later to become a Saints fan himself). Nick's absolutely right about the green of the pitch - it was simply awesome - particularly under the floodlights. I'd not long started school in Portsmouth and putting up with their deluded fans day in day out (yes, even then) drove me into the arms of the Saints. I've loved Southampton and hated portsMyth ever since. Nearly 800 games on and I'm still hooked!

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snicko added 00:31 - Nov 17 1967 at the Dell v QPR, Rodney Marsh, Gerry Francis, Dave Clement, et al. Row C of the West Stand with my Grandfather. Martin, Kirkup, Hollywood, McGrath, Gabriel, Paine, Channon, Davies, Walker, Sydenham. Saints won 3 - 2. Can't remember the scorers for Saints, sadly!
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WestSussexSaint added 00:43 - Nov 17 31 Jan 1995. Saints 1-1 Man City. A midweek match between 2 teams struggling at the wrong end of the table, but the Dell under floodlights made for an electric atmosphere and despite the unremarkable game I was hooked.
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ericofarabia added 06:30 - Nov 17 I must be the original Glory Hunter ... my 1st game was our 1st ever Top Tier game v Man City at The Dell in Aug 66. I can't remember much about the match or even the actual preceding few weeks which seeing as England had won with World Cup and Saints promoted to Div 1 must have been pretty special. The match was a 1-1 draw with Terry Paine scoring for us. As Nick said it was the vivid green of the pitch on entering the stadium that hit me and all the other colours (ground had probably had a fresh lick of paint) and 1st match of the season the pitch would have been immaculate ... but not for long in those days, by the end of the season there would be more mud and sand than grass!! Nick also made a good point about watching black and white TV which I'd never thought of before as to why just how vividly the Red and White Stripes and Black Shorts stood out. The highlight for me in those innocent days was hearing adults swearing and shouting insults at the ref. As a kid you never heard your parents swear or even hear so much as a damn or bugger on TV!! Leaving the ground was scary, desperately hanging onto my dad's hand and being dwarfed all around by tall adults, it felt suffocating. My earliest memories of watching MOTD was seeing the crowd surges at The Stretford And Kop Ends and hearing the classic "you're gonna get your fekkin head kicked in" a nanno second after the away team scored a goal ;-) Over the next 30 odd years I have stood in every part of the ground, progressing to Under The Choc Boxes when I started going with mates, no segregation and knowing you'd be feet away from punch ups each week when London or Man / Liverpool were in town was all part of the fun!! Archers Road, West Stand near the cage, East Stand near the halfway line. Supporting Saints has been such an integral part of my life, even now near on 50 years later from three and a half thousand miles away!!

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TallSaint added 07:07 - Nov 17 Mine also a 1-1 draw with City at The Dell for the first game of the 1970-71 season. I was 10 and was taken to the game by my elder brother from home in Worthy Down near WInchester. Colin Bell put City in front before half time and Ron Davies equalised with a header in the second half. City's Mike Summerbee got sent off late in the game.
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SaintNick added 09:23 - Nov 17 so many great memories I should have done a thread like this a long time ago, lets hear a few more though
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perazi added 09:24 - Nov 17 Great fun, reading so many recounted stories from Saints fans. As an ex-pat living in Australia for many years, my first trip to see SFC was 16 September 1995 v Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Tight game until late in the game when Ruud Guillit (sp?) and Mark Hughes scored along with Frank Sinclair. Sadly for me Le Tiss had a quiet game and our best player from memory was Fran Benali. I recall coming out of Stamford Bridge and being herded towards the Tube station by mounted Police even though I needed to go in the other direction.

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