What was the dell like as a stadium?

[OldNick]

I went a few times as my sister worked hospitality but I barely remember it to be honest, I remember walking round the pitch once but that's it, shame as I'd love to have some proper memories of the place but sadly not quite old enough/ wasn't into football enough when I was 13

You really missed out if you were not into football when you were 13. Football was my love for as long as I remember. It was the only thing that the teachers could use as a weapon as a punishment. 'No football for you, detention'

[Right sider]

Memories of milton in the early 90s include the half time sit down, almost choreographed as you all had to do it at the same time. Reading your copy of the ugly. With your pirate pete t shirt on. Were the Right side..........

[dubai_phil]

How different was it?

 

Well, fans would queue up to get in as soon as the gates opened at around 1pm on a match day (none of this 2:50pm of SMS)

 

The first time you were tall enough to actually stand in the middle of the Milton Road end (with the Muppets) in their Crombies & DM's even though your Mum would have killed you if she knew.

 

Wagon Wheels and Bovril.

 

Rain running down the back of your neck and someones p1ss running down the back of your leg. Smoking a cigarette during the game and stubbing it out on the back of a Coppers' Coat. Kids would know their Dad/Grandad loved them because they would get a little wooden stool to stand on.

 

A crowd so aggressive and loud, yet would part like Moses himself had commanded it to let another nipper get to the front.

 

European Football when the UEFA Cup MEANT something.

 

It started to change when the Cages went up, then after Hillsborough it had to become all seater, it could still be loud but not 32,000 people loud.

 

Oh and the Club Shop probably the size of your average new Persimmon En Suite Bathroom. People climbing trees in the Archers road to try and sneak a view when we were sold old.

 

The Supporters Club with it's Double Diamond, Lager and fans drinking Light & Brown Ale mixers with their soggy Pie for lunch.

 

And the whole crowd singing in unison - You'll never make the Station...

 

Yeah it was brilliant. It changed. We changed.

 

IF you want to know what it was like then a trip down to Nott Arf would give a poor but passable impression (minus the crowd & atmosphere)

 

Thank God we moved

[John Boy Saint]

When was that? It must have been the early 80s. If you were getting 6 quid a week paper money ,you must have been delivering to Sandbanks and Kensington lol

Back end of the Seventies my Paper money and sometimes helping Milko got me on the train from Basingstoke with my school mates into the ground a programme and pockets full of sweets from the Garage down the slope. When we got to the 1st Division I can remember being outside the Boys door at the Milton road end around 10am!! Just so we could be down the front and see the game. The programmes would arrive and we would take turns to go and get them signed by the Saints players as they arrived. When we got into the ground having established which TV station we were going to be on by the vans in the car park (Match of the Day wow the cables were immense) we would hang over the wall to see what letter in the advertising we were over so that we could see ourselves on TV later or next day.

All my Paper round customers knew when Saints we at home as they all had their Saturday papers before they got up!!

[Turkish]

Back end of the Seventies my Paper money and sometimes helping Milko got me on the train from Basingstoke with my school mates into the ground a programme and pockets full of sweets from the Garage down the slope. When we got to the 1st Division I can remember being outside the Boys door at the Milton road end around 10am!! Just so we could be down the front and see the game. The programmes would arrive and we would take turns to go and get them signed by the Saints players as they arrived. When we got into the ground having established which TV station we were going to be on by the vans in the car park (Match of the Day wow the cables were immense) we would hang over the wall to see what letter in the advertising we were over so that we could see ourselves on TV later or next day.

All my Paper round customers knew when Saints we at home as they all had their Saturday papers before they got up!!

 

How were the pies in those days pal?

[swisscottager]

Night games were amazing! Anyone remember when we beat RANGERS 2-0 in the Texaco Cup? How the Archers stood up after that I never know !

Pre segregation it could be quite nasty and if we were playing Man U or Chelsea there would be scraps all round the ground for hours before and during the main event.

We seemed to have mobs in all parts of the ground and were excellent at dishing out abuse at the likes of Summerbee,Hunter and co. They loved it though and gave it back tothe crowd

Spent spells standing in all of the stands but 'under the west' was my favourite.

[Hockey_saint]

Did a nice panoramic once from my Archers Road seat... so there

 

​

 

I can see my old seat...just

 

Block X, Row 15, seat 101 in the Milton!!.... Happy days!

[DaveyR]

Mid eighties terraces and railings in the Milton Road end for me, my best memories. Caught the bus from Hythe and I think the return bus cost more than the £1 to get into the football.

[Huffton]

 

A crowd so aggressive and loud, yet would part like Moses himself had commanded it to let another nipper get to the front.

 

 

This. And then compare it to todays crowd which in certain sections will see you started on for not joining in with such inane songs as pompey fan on a string...

[saint lard]

The dell was fantastic, and worth so many points over aseason

[adrian lord]

loved paying £2 as a kid to get in the milton

 

i remember the horror of when it went up to 75 pence !

[Viking Warrior]

The dell was special being in crushed in that 31k plus game against united . Tommy Jenkins Ron Davies john mgrath Gerry gurr Brian o'neill pea hey nick Holmes john Sydenham and many more so many memories of the dell . I still miss it

[Gemmel]

Si That was very modern and progressive lol. the Albion band ,the RAF dog displays, the little club shop in the car park that only sold the odd badge, rosettes and scarves. What a revelation when the bright new shop opened in the Milton road in the 80s ?

 

That shop was owned by tottenham

[John Boy Saint]

How were the pies in those days pal?

Not a clue! At 13 the matchday diet consisted of sweets and crisps!!

Plus if we had got down there a bit too early, catch the number 2 bus to Dale Valley Road nip into my Gran and Grandads and she would feed sometimes 4 of us with enough bacon butties to keep us going till getting home!

[9-3]

Dougal ruled the Milton, police had to segregate that end. Us underneath the chocolate boxes, away supporters to the left. He had a police escort to the ground with his heavies always wore white builders helmet.

Dockers, who worked at the docks situated near the clock East Stand?

Hill Lane and around The Winstone in Archers Road were battle grounds.

Away supporters were always chased down Hill Lane to Southampton Railway Station.

[STEVEADAMS]

A proper old football ground, great memories of queuing up to get in when the terraces opened at 1.30, my £6 a week paper round money got me a bus to and from town, £2 entry to the milton, a copy of the ugly inside or on the March fanzine and a bag of chips of mcdonalds before going home. Many a Saturday afternoon stood in the cold or pouring rain getting soaked. The atmosphere was fantastic at times and being bundled down the terrace after a goal, ending up 10 rows in front of where you started was brilliant. Remember the excitement when me and a few of the lads from school decided to go and stand with the lads at he back of the Milton under the family centre for the first time. As others have said it was night games when it was really special, a great place to grow up watching football.

 

This, it was a special place and for such an old ground it was well looked after. We had to move though, we had wanted and waited for a new ground for years and was so exciting to see St Mary's go up and so sad to see the Dell demolished. Managed to get in to the Dell one night before it was torn down with mates and we we went everywhere, I still have my seat. only hope that we soon see st. Mary's become more like the images we have seen coming from the club. I would love us to have a stadium up there with the best

[Lord Duckhunter]

I loved all of the old grounds, the atmosphere was so much better. Even places like Anfield aren't the same anymore, and dont get me started about The Emirates. Night games were seemed so much better in those days, the taste, the smell, the atmosphere, even the walk to the ground seemed more memorable.

 

Personally, I thought The Dell didn't cut it as an all seated, so I had no real sense of loss when we moved. The place had its day and it really was time to move on. The thing I miss most is the banter and wit of the crowd, both collectively and individuals, although curbing some of the excesses, all seaters do seem to have rid football of the genuine wit and eccentric, to be replaced by numptys just wanting to get a screenshot on sky ir match of the day.

 

I just loved the amateurism of the game back then, blokes like Cloughie, Shanks, Bestie, the GBH like tackling, the half time band and the "scoreboards" with their letters and numbers hanging down. But most of all the pointless way my Granddad and Dad would mark every line up change on their programme. Crossing out the listed player and writting in his replacement, I mean WTF, they must have spent hours of their life changing names, for what? They've never looked at the programmes to check since.......

[diggers]

My first game was a 3-3 draw home to Coventry in 1966, I was three and my Dad barged me to the front of the East Stand/ Archers Rd corner, (wired memory I know) that was the first of hundreds of memorable visits to the Dell. The 1976 cup run, the European nights, Anderlecht in particular, giant killings by the dozen. Ground rebuilds. I used to stand in the cages on the Archers terrace, squashed in like sardines. Channons testimonial night was the biggest crowd I think I ever saw in the Dell, what a night that was. Only downs were as I got older and slightly more sensible, the lack of half time facilities such as somewhere to have an emergency dump used to cause alarm. In the last couple of years of the Dell, I was in the fortunate position of being able to be the main sponsor of the "junior Saints" . One of the perks was us having a couple of advertising boards. My last memory of the Dell was seeing some nipper chuffed to nuts cos he"d liberated my company's advertising board at the end of the Brighton friendly. My uncles still got a turf in his garden, or so he claims. - we probably wouldn't be the clud and fans we are now if we didn't have that heritage behind us.

[Brizzie Saints]

Started going with my brother in my early teens and sat in every part of the old ground at some time or another. Had season tickets under east, Under west, milton and finally the best of the lot the archers bike shed. fantastic memories.

Getting to the pub for opening and just making KO with a gut full of ****. fantastic days, the singing, hurling abuse at opposition fans & players and then back to the pubs in bedford place before finishing the night with a kebab at Zorbas.

Although I loved every minute in the old girl we always complained about the crap view, tiny bogs u had to que for half an hour for, **** food and drinks (no beer) I think most people would admit the move to SMS was a long time coming.

 

And still people complain.....thats life i guess

[John Boy Saint]

Surprised at no mention of the Pig Pen, the cheese shaped caged away section in the corner of the Archers and West Stand, it looked (from memory) like a spare enclosure from Southampton Zoo!! Someone is going to ask Southampton had a Zoo??!

[adrian lord]

Surprised at no mention of the Pig Pen, the cheese shaped caged away section in the corner of the Archers and West Stand, it looked (from memory) like a spare enclosure from Southampton Zoo!! Someone is going to ask Southampton had a Zoo??!

 

I used to look at it with a mixture of awe, fear and pity. They seemed to put the most violent away thugs in there, seething and boiling like a pressure-cooker within it's confines, and there was a sense that they could break out and attack at any moment...

 

Can you imagine the Health and Safety officer's face if presented with such a cage nowadays?

 

 

My most bizarre Dell experience was watching the now legendary Ali Dia match from within the (Leeds) away section in the East Stand. The reason was I got invited by a girl I fancied and who supported Leeds. God their fans were animals.

Edited 11 November, 2013 by adrian lord

[martyg1950]

The Dell had CHARACTER and came from an age when most football grounds did and the fact that we used to crush 30+ thousand in there gave it an incredible atmosphere. You just had to remember to take turns to breathe

 

No modern stadium can ever be as dangerous, scary, exciting and fun!. As a younger man, I loved it, at the stage of life I am now, I'm delighted to sit with my son at SMS where we still manage to create a decent atmosphere and drown out the opposition.

[lifeintheslowlane]

I was interviewed on the pitch after the last game by Radio Solent...I was choked...all I could think of were my Mum and Dad who both loved Saints and sadly didn't live to see the move. When asked what they would have thought about the new ground I said they loved The Dell but they would have loved the new ground...time to move to the next level. Now where have I heard that before.

[Cabrone]

Great stadium, I preferred it to SMS but times move on and the Dell was a stadium of its era.

 

Wierd shaped stands and a big cage in the corner for opposition fans, the local hards would go down to the open aired Archers and exchange pleasantries esp when the more notorious teams were in town.

 

Atmosphere could be incredibly intense due to the players playing virtually ontop of the crowd. I remember being at the front of the Milton and being so close I could pretty much reach out and touch the players. Some of them took some real s**t, esp the GKs.

 

Due to the cramped size quite a few players ended up head first in the stands when the couldn't slow down fast enough.

 

If you are a football romantic you'd love the Dell, if you are a football pragmatist you'd prefer SMS.

 

I loved the Dell.

[ericb]

Started out in the archers/east stand corner as a nipper in 84 (Coventry at home) then moved around a fair bit, east stand, west stand and the roof before I started going regularly with a group of mates in the Milton about 87/88.

 

It was a crack ground back then, as people have said queuing up outside from two having decided on the day we were going, getting in and ripping up our free copy of the echo to chuck when the players came out.

 

Also remember the Milton's lung busting version of owts. Holding each word till you were almost out of breath. And then surges down the Milton when we scored.

 

It wasn't the same after they put the seats in but could still rock - literally if you were in the upper east or west - at times.

 

St Mary's won't ever be the same to be honest, footballs been too heavily sanitised now and there's less groups of lads 13-18 who just went as groups now.

 

Sad thing about that is that I made my best mates from the Milton terraces people i still see almost 30 years later, **** that makes me feel old, and who I trust completely.

[sydenhamssocks]

A great place! Not so much a stadium but a real old football 'ground'. Atmosphere was like having an extra man. My first game there was 68 I think, a draw with dirty Leeds. Miss the old Dell club too. Great after wins when the man of the match would pop in.

[ecuk268]

Had a mate who spoke fluent Dutch so he got down the front at the Milton when we were playing Wimbledon and called Hans Segers "a dog's ****". Segers burst out laughing and something incomprehensible back.

[Cabrone]

Started out in the archers/east stand corner as a nipper in 84 (Coventry at home)

 

Quite a game to start with, an 8-2 victory.

 

The 6 we put in the 2nd half was one of the most amazing halfs I've ever seen.

[bognor regis pete]

Loved the Zoo

[Toadhall Saint]

Brilliant, amazing and the atmosphere was superb, Under East, Milton and Archers, great memories and only wish I was there in the 70's and early 80's when it must have been amazing.

 

It was - bloody brilliant.

[sussexsaint]

£2 to get in the Milton, pay at the gate.Stand behind the goal. Bloody brilliant atmosphere. Yes we've come a long way and SMS is gorgeous, but there was a real intimacy with the community of the Dell that the stadia just won't get. Anyone else bring along aload of worms from their garden when they put out a plea on the radio

[70's Mike]

It was - bloody brilliant.

 

we were all younger then

[jasonb]

Great thread. Another Milton Muppet from the late 80s here. Went all through the early 90s until buggering off to Uni. Loved the Milton. A proper laugh and even managed my only ever brush with law for a hand gesture that my mother wouldn't be proud of. Copper grabbed me by the scruff of the neck... marched my up the stairs to the back of the stand and picked me clean up off the floor by my collar and read me the riot act. Taught me a bloody good lesson. proper policing that. None of this nanny-state nonsense. Been on the straight and narrow ever since LOL!

 

Funny thing is I remember that incident far more clearly than many of the games. I did fail in one mission though to convert my younger brother to support the Saints than Liverpool. I almost had him when Le Tiss and Shearer et al were doing the biz. To this day he denies ever saying to me during a game that he was thinking of changing his allegiances. Bloody plastic!!

[lifeintheslowlane]

26th May 2001...shortly before myself, (left) and my mate Mike (right) began digging up the penalty area.

[Window Cleaner]

The Milton couldn't exist in today's football, people would be awanting to bring women and kids in there and that would be sort of fatal for them. On a good day when the team were playing well you got knocked about a fair bit in the Milton when everybody surged forward. If you were so unfortunate (or stupid) to take your young lady there she'd probably got felt up by about 3000 blokes on a good day (well presumably for her it was). There was one regular in there, Christine I think her name was, blond girl from down Fareham way, she absolutely loved it, police suggested to her that she might be better off in the Archers but she was having none of it.

Edited 11 November, 2013 by Window Cleaner

[ericb]

The Milton couldn't exist in today's football, people would be awanting to bring women and kids in there and that would be sort of fatal for them. On a good day when the team were playing well you got knocked about a fair bit in the Milton when everybody surged forward. If you were so unfortunate (or stupid) to take your young lady there she'd probably got felt up by about 3000 blokes on a good day (well presumably for her it was). There was one regular in there, Christine I think her name was, blond girl from down Fareham way, she absolutely loved it, police suggested to her that she might be better off in the Archers but she was having none of it.

 

Not sure about the kids bit mate, there was always a healthy two or three rows of them at the front being slowly crushed into the wall. Also think the first game i did in the milton - half way down by the crush barriers - i must've been about 11/12.

 

In fact our prematch ritual used to include getting there early enough to sit on the terrace with our legs stretched out so no tall fu.cker would stand infront of us. Of course this would work for all of about half an hour then you had no choice but to sway side to side to see past the head of the giant infront of you (giant in a small nippers terms anyway).

 

Also remember a black lad at the back of the milton, east stand side, always took his nipper under the roof. That must've been late 80s though as we'd graduated up to the back by then, and people used to lift his nipper up to see.

 

Seriously miss those days to be honest, great times and a great laugh.

[sussexsaint]

Never found out if it was true but got chatting to a seward there oncd who told me the heating was always 'broken' in the away dressing room ie cranked up really high to sap their energy before the game.

[Saint George]

The best year at the Dell was without doubt 1976.....Mick Channon’s testimonial and Anderlecht in the European Cup Winners Cup......For me, no game in any ground has ever come close since.

[sussexsaint]

The last game was pretty special TBF, stood behind that goal when MLT thumped that goal in was incredible

[rallyboy]

The best way to sum it up for me is that I found it much sadder leaving The Dell than I did getting relegated.

 

When the ground went, many of us left behind memories, and you feel like you've lost parts of your life.

 

Whereas relegation comes knocking on the door from about September onwards and really wasn't a surprise.

 

And anyway, I suspected that we'd be back from the third tier to third in the country within no time at all...

[Saintandy666]

Never got to go the dell either; as was only 8 when it shut. First proper saints game was first season at St. Mary's. Feel like I missed out on a certain era of football stadium as a lot of them are just flatpack now.

[Bucks Saint]

Wonderful memories. For modern games it was increasingly tight, cramped, outdated, some restricted views, uncomfortable, with terrible facilities - but was in a class of its own for home-advantage-atmosphere, especially at night.

 

In terms of the actual ground itself, I was usually under the East Stand and loved it, except when we scored three goals in the last 5 minutes and I cut my head open on the stand above during my celebrations. Dont get those days anymore...

[david in sweden]

The Dell had CHARACTER and came from an age when most football grounds did and the fact that we used to crush 30+ thousand in there gave it an incredible atmosphere. You just had to remember to take turns to breathe

 

No modern stadium can ever be as dangerous, scary, exciting and fun!. As a younger man, I loved it, at the stage of life I am now, I'm delighted to sit with my son at SMS where we still manage to create a decent atmosphere and drown out the opposition.

 

 

I could have written the same post Martyg.

 

...went to SMS with my eldest ...some years back.....and it was a great feeling, but difficult to compare (for better or worse) with the Dell.

[lil 1]

Although changes had to be made over the years,i dont think the Dell was ever the same

when they made half the Milton the family centre 79/80? season.

That said,i had some of my best days/nights at that unique football ground.

[saintedwill]

Was anyone at the game when the wall fell down?

[lifeintheslowlane]

The Chocolate Boxes...best view in the ground.

[Saint George]

Although changes had to be made over the years,i dont think the Dell was ever the same

when they made half the Milton the family centre 79/80? season.

That said,i had some of my best days/nights at that unique football ground.

 

Agreed...The Family center killed the Milton stone dead... I became a nomad after that, drifting between under the West stand and the Archers....didn't stop moaning about it for years...Had some 'interesting' games in the Archers though heh

[svetigpung]

Standing on the packed caged terraces. What a feeling.

 

Awful views from behind the goals. You could never see anything near the corner flags. Hard to see the whole goal at times.

 

Memories of watching Channon Case Keegan and the three Wallace brothers.

[LaptopSaint]

The night games most of all - real magic. Anderlecht in the Cup Winners Cup and for some reason my clearest memory: standing packed like sardines on the Archers v Man City in the League Cup quarter final in 78-9 and being lifted clean off my feet and carried 12 rows forward when we (was it Phil Boyer?) scored our second. And finally not having a ticket for the semi-final second leg and trying to climb a tree outside the Archers when Terry Curran scored and falling out of the tree in excitement... Great days.

[lil 1]

I went to school across the road from the Dell,so used to see the goings on there throughout the 70s.The players training in the car park,seeing ossie before news got out that he was signing for us,being given Anderlect scarfs through the school railings,saints playing at 2pm on a tuesday during the power cuts,the whole school seeing off the cup wining team for their tour of Eastleigh on the Monday,buying packs of old programmes from the Halo club and finding a European cup final one amongst them,but my favourite memory was when we had Rangers in the Texeco cup.Loads of them were down first thing in the morning,went in the Saints shop and robbed loads of souvenirs,and gave them to us in the playground.What they didnt realise is that we were a catholic school!!