Fitzhugh Fella

Yes

Just back from SMS and was told at the ticket office that over 27,500 have been sold for the West Ham game as of 11am this morning.

I think starting this thread has been the most worthwhile achievement of my adult life on the internet! So much pleasure watching and recounting what will be the biggest ever decline of a football club. I sense they are edging nearer and nearer the precipice and Steve Coterill's departure could be the trigger that really sets things in motion. He is not a bad manager and has done well to keep their noses above water thus far. Sit back and observe.....there is a whiff of panic in the air down Fratton Way I reckon.

But we have been lucky with injuries. Against Preston our lack of forward options were exposed.

There is an element of irony in this post that is not lost on me

"Off the pitch he has done nothing wrong"? You may be right you may be wrong but your words are incredibly presumptive. Jeoffrey Archer was once held up as a man of virtue.

Absolutely You only has to go to the Swnidon and Preston League Cup games to see our lack of depth in this crucial area.

Who was Andrew Bernstein? I for one don't think this is about freebies.

I have been lucky enough to get to know MLT a little through all the help and time he has given us with the books and I have even crossed swords with him over the Pinnacle affair but I do want to say this. He is as big a Saints fan as anyone reading this and would not expect to get free tickets and certainly would not knowingly do anything to de-stabilise the club. I have also recently had conversations with LM - again history related - and his love for Southampton FC burns as brightly as it ever did, regardless what people may say, rightly or wrongly about his ego. I think this needs to be said. I also acknowledge that NC seems to be doing an excellent job with running our football club, in NA he has found a manager who seems to be able to build an excellent team spirit which is going a long way to us being, right now, a really good attractive football team. I just wish NC could build bridges with Matt and Lawrie - there is much to be said for all pulling in the same direction as he acknowledges in the article. Finally it goes without saying, it was a massive blow that ML died when he did, because I have this fear that his family will not want to put the same level of finance into the club. I think were he still alive then NC's ambitions of Champions League and a bigger stadium could well have been realised in time but now, working on his own, the task will be that much tougher. To survive in the Premiership these days you need outside investment, to do well in it you need billions.

But we "floundered" around after the wage cap of 1907 was introduced to the Southern League and all of a sudden our best players sought fresh "plaices" back in the Football League.

You got to remember though we only got to be top dogs by throwing money at buying players and sooner or later when the money runs out - as it did after building the Dell we would have been found out. And the reason Freemantle were usurped was because they too ran up debts that were unsustainable despite having their own ground.

Just back - one thing very evident we need back up forwards who can score goals. Forte - I just don't see the poimt - he is not a footballer full stop. Fast maybe but on tonight's showing forget it!

Yes big rivals and they had their own ground too - which is still there. We proposed a merger around this time but their debts were too large by that stage and so George Thomas a local fishmonger dug deep (with an idea of a profit) and got the Dell built in 1898. You know the rest. We were in debt ourselves from thereon in.

There are some good questions in there - a lot was to do with the politics around - the North were furious that the South deemed to be their equals and equally furious that with no wage cap in the South a lot of the best players chose the Southern League. I think Spurs were eventually let in but Saints had upset too many big Northern clubs by nicking all their players. Around 1907 the Southern League began to lose ground when a wage cap was introduced and by the time Saints and the others were invited to join in 1920 they were no longer a force in the land. Saints won the SL 6 times in 10 years around the turn of the century and like you say throw in 2 FA Cup Final appearances and you have one of the best teams in the country at that time.

As the Dell was not yet built you must have got pretty wet stood in that stream

Glad to see you are all awake!! This was also the first season we wore stripes (although in those days the shorts were navy.)

was in 1896-97. We started with nine striaght victories, then a draw followed by 2 more wins. In the remaining 8 games we drew 4 and won 4 to end the season winning the Southern League (then the Football league's equal) undefeated. P20 W15 D5 L0 F63 A18 In the FA Cup we took Man United (Newton Heath) to a replay. All home games were played at the old Hampshire County Cricket Ground and our star players inc Clawley the goalkeeper, Joe Turner on the wing and Jack Farrell our main goalgetter (20 goals in 27 games inc Cup). Over to you then Nigel - a city expects and all that.

He should be and replaced with a poodle.

was described thus in the Guardian (apologies toTrousers and all you other D Mail readers) "symptomatic of a team in synchronicity" pretty much sums it up for me - certainly going forward.

I think the question is quite comprehensively answered by the fact that NC and NA made such strenuous efforts to get a stiker in before the deadline.

Believe it or not they finished 4th!

Having a fan on the board is something we have done since 1898, because I think you will find that up until the time ML bought the club most board members had started off as fans and then been invited onto the board. Admittedly it wasn't just because they were fans that they were invited on - it had more to do with money or expertese, but they were all passionate fans from John Corbett right through to good old Keith Wiseman and Guy Askham.

But I was right - we only ended up finishing 3rd that season!

1908-09 Won our first 7 games then drew our 8th 4-4 v Palace A Lost our next game H Northampton won our next A Exeter. The first 7 results were v Brighton A won 3-1 v Brentford A won 3-2 v Brighton H won 4-1 v Luton H won 6-0 v Palace A won 3-2 v Swindon A won 2-0 v Portsmouth H won 2-0 Hope this helps

If you check out David Bull's two books on Terry Paine and Ted Bates all is revealed