In order what decade was the best time supporting Saints

[chocco boxo]

However many decades you have been watching Saints, taking everything into consideration what in order was the best one?

 

70's young lad who was just in awe of Channon and the whole Dell experience.

80's

Noughties

This decade so far!

Nineties

60's only saw a couple of matches cannot really remember.

[tttdcs]

However many decades you have been watching Saints, taking everything into consideration what in order was the best one?

 

70's young lad who was just in awe of Channon and the whole Dell experience.

80's

 

Same here

[Norm]

I loved the mid to late 50s but the 70s are and will forever be my No.1.

[Roger]

90s watching le tiss. Was like watching art.

[trousers]

1. This decade so far

2. 1980s

3. 1990s

4. Noughties

5. 1970s

[ART]

I loved the mid to late 50s but the 70s are and will forever be my No.1.

Have to agree with you here Norm only that I'd add the early 60's. We were so lucky where being a Saints supporter is concerned.

[Supersubpuckett]

1 definitely the 80s - entertaining football, lots of characters, lots of goals and the club over achieved

2 this decade

3 00's, the early years

 

90s were terrible, awful kits, a different manager virtually every season, branfoot and annual relegation battles. The odd moment of brilliance from MLT although (and dare i say it) when he had a bad game, it was really bad but we tend to forget that

[lifeintheslowlane]

60s and 70s for me. Demands and expectations weren't so high and we supporters weren't so saturated with two-bit Internet "Experts" and "Analysts." We just paid our 35p to watch the lads play flowing attacking football, making heroes of great players who lived in the same street.

 

I do still enjoy my football but the dissection of every minute of every game...and the demand of instant success from our latest signing, takes the edge off it for me.

[lordswoodsaints]

However many decades you have been watching Saints, taking everything into consideration what in order was the best one?

 

70's young lad who was just in awe of Channon and the whole Dell experience.

80's

Noughties

This decade so far!

Nineties

60's only saw a couple of matches cannot really remember.

This ^^

[THINWHITEDUKE]

60s and 70s for me. Demands and expectations weren't so high and we supporters weren't so saturated with two-bit Internet "Experts" and "Analysts." We just paid our 35p to watch the lads play flowing attacking football, making heroes of great players who lived in the same street.

 

I do still enjoy my football but the dissection of every minute of every game...and the demand of instant success from our latest signing, takes the edge off it for me.

 

This ^^

[KelvinsRightGlove]

This decade

Noughties.

 

In my defence, only been a Saints fan since around 01/02, when my Dad got an ST at St. Mary's.

[Barry Sanchez]

90's for me, thats when I went to most of the games, didn't miss a home or away for 3 seasons. The football was awful, **** managers but it was the last era of terracing, cheap pricing and sense of belonging to the club.

Football has changed beyond comprehension over the last 20 years and most of it not for the better.

[ericb]

80s will always be favourite, my formative years. Saints playing mental attacking football and the atmosphere was ten times what it is now.

 

90s (though only till about 97), Matty at his peak, still cheap and away days were affordable.

 

This decade. Lower leagues, taking over grounds and having a great laugh along the way. The trip up the leagues made it fun too.

 

Other than the Cup final and wins over the skates the noughties weren't that great. By the time we went down i was bored of the premier leauge and st mary's seemed (and still does) soulless compared to the Dell. Also the noughties saw the rise of the statto fans, the final death knell of terrace culture and the sky generation taking the game over (prices, atmosphere, hype etc.).

 

I guess that unless we get europe or go down the next decade will be fairly dull and what soul we built up in the lower leagues will be diluted again until we're just another quiet premier league side, where rich people go for a "entertainment"

[Barry Sanchez]

I would hate to be a 16-21 now and going to every game at St Marys, there is no atmosphere at all compared to the Dell, its woeful.

[Minsk]

1+2 - Hard for me to chose between 70's and 80's

3 - this decade

4 - 90's

5 - 00's

[ericb]

I would hate to be a 16-21 now and going to every game at St Marys, there is no atmosphere at all compared to the Dell, its woeful.

 

When i was about 13/14 we'd go in a group of a good 10 - 15 of us, decide on the day, pay £3.50 on the gate, stand on a terrace as a group and have a great laugh.

 

No way you could do that now, most normal people are priced out and good luck getting a space where you and your mates can all stand together and have a laugh.

 

It's no wonder the atmosphere is getting worse to be honest, since it was those little pockets of lads that would grow up together, start songs and go on the **** as they got older.

[Turkish]

80s will always be favourite, my formative years. Saints playing mental attacking football and the atmosphere was ten times what it is now.

 

90s (though only till about 97), Matty at his peak, still cheap and away days were affordable.

 

This decade. Lower leagues, taking over grounds and having a great laugh along the way. The trip up the leagues made it fun too.

 

Other than the Cup final and wins over the skates the noughties weren't that great. By the time we went down i was bored of the premier leauge and st mary's seemed (and still does) soulless compared to the Dell. Also the noughties saw the rise of the statto fans, the final death knell of terrace culture and the sky generation taking the game over (prices, atmosphere, hype etc.).

 

I guess that unless we get europe or go down the next decade will be fairly dull and what soul we built up in the lower leagues will be diluted again until we're just another quiet premier league side, where rich people go for a "entertainment"

 

When i was about 13/14 we'd go in a group of a good 10 - 15 of us, decide on the day, pay £3.50 on the gate, stand on a terrace as a group and have a great laugh.

 

No way you could do that now, most normal people are priced out and good luck getting a space where you and your mates can all stand together and have a laugh.

 

It's no wonder the atmosphere is getting worse to be honest, since it was those little pockets of lads that would grow up together, start songs and go on the **** as they got older.

 

Pretty much sums it up for me.

[Wurzel]

When i was about 13/14 we'd go in a group of a good 10 - 15 of us, decide on the day, pay £3.50 on the gate, stand on a terrace as a group and have a great laugh.

 

No way you could do that now, most normal people are priced out and good luck getting a space where you and your mates can all stand together and have a laugh.

 

It's no wonder the atmosphere is getting worse to be honest, since it was those little pockets of lads that would grow up together, start songs and go on the **** as they got older.

 

Exactly what killed the atmosphere at grounds. You can still meet your 10 - 15 mates for a pint before the game, even learn a new song, but once you reach the stadium you all go your separate ways and sit in 1s and 2s in various parts of the ground. A couple of blocks of unallocated seating are desperately needed to bring back the atmosphere to even a fraction of what it was in the 7os/80s.

 

 

And in answer to OP, the eighties.

[derry]

60's Promotion, 60, 66, A Cup SF 63. 100 goals a season. Ron Davies, Terry Paine, John Sydenham, Martin Chivers etc.

[chocco boxo]

One night game at The Dell in the 70's really stood out for me for atmosphere vrs Newcastle, I can remember OWTSGMI starting off under the west stand and then it seemed then the whole ground were singing it ! Fantastic memories, I so love that song.

[kpturner]

90s watching le tiss. Was like watching art.

 

Didn't know ART was any good and football!

[DT]

Keegan, Patrick boots, Channon, Shilton, Ball, Armstrong, Nick Holmes, Moran, 2nd in the league. Awesome.

[FloridaMarlin]

As a nostalgic old fart, I still remember the 60s with fondness. It was the time I first started to go, taken along by my late dad. As I was so young, a lot of it was all fantastic mystery but the memories stay with you.

 

A whiff of a certain tobacco (no, not pot) immediately transports me back to half-time at early season games. Everybody seemed to light up at half-time and I can still picture looking across to the West Stand and seeing a blue haze over the standing paddock underneath.

 

When The Dell emptied out after the final whistle, the streets around seemed to be a solid heaving mass of people, especially as you looked up Wilton Avenue from the dip.

 

I remember feet frozen to the point of numbness, and then the tingling hurt as the feeling returned to them on the walk up Milton Road to Bedford Place.

 

We used to stand with a crowd of dockers under the East Stand, and although I didn't understand their jokes and some of the words they used, they were obviously funny as my dad and his mates would roar with laughter, and as it was infectious I would laugh too.

 

I think my favourite era in terms of watching the team was the years after the FA Cup win, when we won promotion, and those early years back in the top flight. The football played by that team which included Boyer, MacDougall, Ball etc, was some of the best I have ever seen.

 

Good times.

[orchardsaint]

80s will always be favourite, my formative years. Saints playing mental attacking football and the atmosphere was ten times what it is now.

 

90s (though only till about 97), Matty at his peak, still cheap and away days were affordable.

 

This decade. Lower leagues, taking over grounds and having a great laugh along the way. The trip up the leagues made it fun too.

 

Other than the Cup final and wins over the skates the noughties weren't that great. By the time we went down i was bored of the premier leauge and st mary's seemed (and still does) soulless compared to the Dell. Also the noughties saw the rise of the statto fans, the final death knell of terrace culture and the sky generation taking the game over (prices, atmosphere, hype etc.).

 

I guess that unless we get europe or go down the next decade will be fairly dull and what soul we built up in the lower leagues will be diluted again until we're just another quiet premier league side, where rich people go for a "entertainment"

 

agree with this

[orchardsaint]

Keegan, Patrick boots, Channon, Shilton, Ball, Armstrong, Nick Holmes, Moran, 2nd in the league. Awesome.

 

brings back memories. my first boots and i was every one of those players! and wright, jordan, case, wallace etc, etc, etc

[Norm]

When i was about 13/14 we'd go in a group of a good 10 - 15 of us, decide on the day, pay £3.50 on the gate, stand on a terrace as a group and have a great laugh.

 

No way you could do that now, most normal people are priced out and good luck getting a space where you and your mates can all stand together and have a laugh.

 

It's no wonder the atmosphere is getting worse to be honest, since it was those little pockets of lads that would grow up together, start songs and go on the **** as they got older.

 

 

Bullseye! Says it all for me.

[ericb]

Bullseye! Says it all for me.

 

Whatever people claim about it being The Best League In The World (copyright Sky circa 1992) football was just better then.

 

My best mates now, the best part of 30 years on still come from that time. We grew up together on the Milton, then the archers and the terraces of grounds round the country.

 

Yeah there were problems but if you had common sense you could avoid them, and besides the unknown was part of excitement when you were going to away games.

 

Also the support was more local, from all clubs, and most had their own culture still.

 

I tend to think too that the obsession with stats, fan base size/stadiums etc is a new thing. The fault of sky, badiel and skinner, and computer games.

 

Back then a sense of humour and terrace wit was more important than a replica shirt and as someone else mentioned that smell of stale smoke and wet woollen scarves stays with you, and is one I love to this day.

 

I really do find it sad what football has become, we've sold out out clubs heart and souls for perceived quality. We attack players for not meeting bizarrely unrealistic standards, and swallow propaganda wholesale.

[david in sweden]

As a nostalgic old fart, I still remember the 60s with fondness. It was the time I first started to go, taken along by my late dad. As I was so young, a lot of it was all fantastic mystery but the memories stay with you.

 

A whiff of a certain tobacco (no, not pot) immediately transports me back to half-time at early season games. Everybody seemed to light up at half-time and I can still picture looking across to the West Stand and seeing a blue haze over the standing paddock underneath.

 

When The Dell emptied out after the final whistle, the streets around seemed to be a solid heaving mass of people, especially as you looked up Wilton Avenue from the dip.

 

I remember feet frozen to the point of numbness, and then the tingling hurt as the feeling returned to them on the walk up Milton Road to Bedford Place.

 

We used to stand with a crowd of dockers under the East Stand, and although I didn't understand their jokes and some of the words they used, they were obviously funny as my dad and his mates would roar with laughter, and as it was infectious I would laugh too.

 

I think my favourite era in terms of watching the team was the years after the FA Cup win, when we won promotion, and those early years back in the top flight. The football played by that team which included Boyer, MacDougall, Ball etc, was some of the best I have ever seen.

 

Good times.

 

 

Ah yes......except it was under the West Stand for me, but close my eyes ....and I can recall it all.

[SarniaSaint]

60s and 70s for me. Demands and expectations weren't so high and we supporters weren't so saturated with two-bit Internet "Experts" and "Analysts." We just paid our 35p to watch the lads play flowing attacking football, making heroes of great players who lived in the same street.

 

I do still enjoy my football but the dissection of every minute of every game...and the demand of instant success from our latest signing, takes the edge off it for me.

 

This

[SarniaSaint]

60's Promotion, 60, 66, A Cup SF 63. 100 goals a season. Ron Davies, Terry Paine, John Sydenham, Martin Chivers etc.

 

and this

[Hamilton Saint]

60's Promotion, 60, 66, A Cup SF 63. 100 goals a season. Ron Davies, Terry Paine, John Sydenham, Martin Chivers etc.

 

Yes. Those were the days!

 

[Miltonaggro]

80s for me, teenage kicks and all that. Followed by the 70s going to games with my Dad, and then first forays with schoolmates. Anything seemed possible for Saints in the 80s, the obvious things being the signing of Keegan (current European player of the year and the biggest name in football) and the runners up finish.

 

We played fantastic football and had brilliant players all over the park, a game I remember from the Archers was against Bobby Robson's Ipwich, then a very good side. Both teams playing great football and a see saw open game which Saints won 4-3 with Keegan, Moran, and a brace from Armstrong - Ipswich on fire but the whole ground knew we would score more in 90 minutes, that's how it was! Other often forgotten highlights were Saints stuffing reigning European Champions Notts Forest and the great Brian Clough saying 'that was the biggest footballing my side has had since I've been here' and Bob Paisley stating prior to a Saints v Liverpool match 'Southampton is a proud port town with a passion for football, and a passion to play the game the right way, just like Liverpool'. The poster above who mentioned Patrick was spot on, having arguably had the best shirt in the league with the Admiral 'candy stripes' in the late 70s, the Patrick Shirt was a revelation, and whilst the ground was bijou we always had the best kit. Lots of talk about the Dell being Saints twelfth man in all decades, but it was, floodlit games in particular were wonderful, smell of deep heat from the players mingling with the terrace odours you always stood a chance of a player colliding with a wall and falling on top of you, hearing what your favourite had just said to his marker (Ivan Golac to Alan Gowling after a bad foul on little Austin Hayes 'I am going to f*cking kill you later') or being close enough to tell them yourself.

 

In short, we were spoilt rotten, with incredible entertainment for a few quid, characters on the park, in the dugout, and on the terraces. It was un-PC, unpredictable, and belonged to the people of Southampton...

[Miltonaggro]

80s for me, teenage kicks and all that. Followed by the 70s going to games with my Dad, and then first forays with schoolmates. Anything seemed possible for Saints in the 80s, the obvious things being the signing of Keegan (current European player of the year and the biggest name in football) and the runners up finish.

 

We played fantastic football and had brilliant players all over the park, a game I remember from the Archers was against Bobby Robson's Ipwich, then a very good side. Both teams playing great football and a see saw open game which Saints won 4-3 with Keegan, Moran, and a brace from Armstrong - Ipswich on fire but the whole ground knew we would score more in 90 minutes, that's how it was! Other often forgotten highlights were Saints stuffing reigning European Champions Notts Forest and the great Brian Clough saying 'that was the biggest footballing my side has had since I've been here' and Bob Paisley stating prior to a Saints v Liverpool match 'Southampton is a proud port town with a passion for football, and a passion to play the game the right way, just like Liverpool'. The poster above who mentioned Patrick was spot on, having arguably had the best shirt in the league with the Admiral 'candy stripes' in the late 70s, the Patrick Shirt was a revelation, and whilst the ground was bijou we always had the best kit. Lots of talk about the Dell being Saints twelfth man in all decades, but it was, floodlit games in particular were wonderful, smell of deep heat from the players mingling with the terrace odours you always stood a chance of a player colliding with a wall and falling on top of you, hearing what your favourite had just said to his marker (Ivan Golac to Alan Gowling after a bad foul on little Austin Hayes 'I am going to f*cking kill you later') or being close enough to tell them yourself.

 

In short, we were spoilt rotten, with incredible entertainment for a few quid, characters on the park, in the dugout, and on the terraces. It was un-PC, unpredictable, and belonged to the people of Southampton...

[Wurzel]

80s for me, teenage kicks and all that. Followed by the 70s going to games with my Dad, and then first forays with schoolmates. Anything seemed possible for Saints in the 80s, the obvious things being the signing of Keegan (current European player of the year and the biggest name in football) and the runners up finish.

 

We played fantastic football and had brilliant players all over the park, a game I remember from the Archers was against Bobby Robson's Ipwich, then a very good side. Both teams playing great football and a see saw open game which Saints won 4-3 with Keegan, Moran, and a brace from Armstrong - Ipswich on fire but the whole ground knew we would score more in 90 minutes, that's how it was! Other often forgotten highlights were Saints stuffing reigning European Champions Notts Forest and the great Brian Clough saying 'that was the biggest footballing my side has had since I've been here' and Bob Paisley stating prior to a Saints v Liverpool match 'Southampton is a proud port town with a passion for football, and a passion to play the game the right way, just like Liverpool'. The poster above who mentioned Patrick was spot on, having arguably had the best shirt in the league with the Admiral 'candy stripes' in the late 70s, the Patrick Shirt was a revelation, and whilst the ground was bijou we always had the best kit. Lots of talk about the Dell being Saints twelfth man in all decades, but it was, floodlit games in particular were wonderful, smell of deep heat from the players mingling with the terrace odours you always stood a chance of a player colliding with a wall and falling on top of you, hearing what your favourite had just said to his marker (Ivan Golac to Alan Gowling after a bad foul on little Austin Hayes 'I am going to f*cking kill you later') or being close enough to tell them yourself.

 

In short, we were spoilt rotten, with incredible entertainment for a few quid, characters on the park, in the dugout, and on the terraces. It was un-PC, unpredictable, and belonged to the people of Southampton...

 

 

This. Very much this.

You probably didn't intend posting it twice but it was worthy of a second read. . Particularly remember the Ipswich game you mention - from under the West Stand, tunnel corner - thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest with the sheer nervous excitement of it all. And that just a bog standard league game. Can't imagine ever getting that feeling back nowadays.

[gr00031]

the noughties for sure