Southampton fans from Salisbury and Basingstoke

[eurosaint]

I was born in Scotland (Partick Thistle supporter) but my wife is from Southampton hence my Saints allegiance (btw, she hates football) !

I lived in Wokingham for 20 years and had ST's for me and my kids ! I lived in Belgium for another 20 years and still kept my ST's !

I have kids and grandkids in Belgium and Cape Town all of whom wear the kits and support the Saints !

You may find it weird but supporting Partick Thistle, Saints & Scotland I've never been accused of being a 'glory hunter' 😀 !

The original post in this thread is just bizarre as folks have their own reasons for supporting a team and geography is not by any means the sole factor !

As Rod Stewart once famously said "There are two things in life you cannot change - your mother and your football team" 

COYS 😇

 

[oldsarum]

I’m from Salisbury, and have supported the closest football league to to me Southampton for over 60years, many others in the city do too, and are amongst the most loyal fans around.

wouldn’t you rather we supported our local team than support a glory team?

Also support Hampshire the nearest county cricket team and Salisbury FC.

 

 

[Turkish]

the whole fucking country south of the line from London through Birmingham up to Liverpool is ours.

[Miltonaggro]

This thread proves once and for all that we urgently need a stadium expansion. 49,000 should be the aim so that Salisbury, Basingstoke, Romsey and Andover can get fully involved.  If Sport Republic miss this golden opportunity history won't be kind to them.

[Chocolate Box]

Don't forget Alton

[Miltonaggro]

2 minutes ago, Chocolate Box said:

Don't forget Alton

Fuck Alton!

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, Rebel said:

What about Weymouth, Dorchester and dare I say it Bournemouth. There used to be a lot of Saints fans based in those places.

 

 

 

I’ve lived in Poole since ‘92 & there were loads from Weymouth/Dorchester/Wareham already on the train when I got on every home game.

Now there’s nowhere near as many, and the odd occasion that my travel coincides with Boscombe supporters on the train, there’s hardly any stay on past Poole, so it’s not like that area of Dorset has switched sides. Whether it’s local football, both Weymouth & Dorchester have decent set ups & stadiums now , a new generation watching games on TV instead, or even car travel due to the Olympic upgrade to the roads, but there’s nowhere near as many football supporters on train from Weymouth now as there was then.

 

The other major difference is the local attitude towards us. There was never any animosity at all except a few chumps in Bournemouth, now it’s all scammer this & scummer that, even in Poole (which is surprising because football aside I find Poole people don’t particularly like Bournemouth). Started around the time Redknapp went to Pompey & has gotten worse since then. Obviously being in the same league encouraged some of it, but it was definitely turning before then.

Edited 5 July, 2023 by Lord Duckhunter

[COMEONYOUREDS]

8 hours ago, Paul Chuckle said:

There seems to be a a lot of Southampton fans on social media platforms who come from Salisbury or Basingstoke and have no ties to Southampton. This seems to be a hot topic of debate on twitter at the moment.

What are people's thoughts on out of city folk supporting us?

Should they be allowed to refer to themselves as Scummers?

Will we see a decline of tourist fans now we have been relegated?

 

 

Didn't realise it was a requirement to live in Southampton to support saints... someone should've told me I wasn't welcome when i spent 10 years driving to every home game from Kent and Sussex

[Miltonaggro]

1 hour ago, eurosaint said:

I was born in Scotland (Partick Thistle supporter) but my wife is from Southampton hence my Saints allegiance (btw, she hates football) !

I lived in Wokingham for 20 years and had ST's for me and my kids ! I lived in Belgium for another 20 years and still kept my ST's !

I have kids and grandkids in Belgium and Cape Town all of whom wear the kits and support the Saints !

You may find it weird but supporting Partick Thistle, Saints & Scotland I've never been accused of being a 'glory hunter' 😀 !

The original post in this thread is just bizarre as folks have their own reasons for supporting a team and geography is not by any means the sole factor !

As Rod Stewart once famously said "There are two things in life you cannot change - your mother and your football team" 

COYS 😇

 

My abiding memory of Partick Thistle is Alan Rough in the sticker albums of the late 70s early 80s.  Remember a rumour that AR was going to sign for Saints early 80s to replace Peter Wells, but we got Peter Shilton instead.  Think Alan Rough ended up at Hibs   

[Chocolate Box]

2 hours ago, Miltonaggro said:

Fuck Alton!

Thank you for your kind thought. UTS

[The Cat]

If you didn't grow up living within the sound of the bells from St Mary's church then you can fuck off and support someone else.

[Badger]

I see that both Alton and Alresford get mentions.

Anyone from Petersfield ? That’s got to be Saints territory hasn’t it ?

Edited 5 July, 2023 by Badger

[LGTL]

I was born in the Princess Anne and have never left the city, but I can’t say it’s ever something that’s bothered me.

The posh out of town Twitter teenagers are annoying as fuck though and look down their nose at the city the majority of the time, so they can get fucked. We were all spotty twats once upon a time though I guess. 

[Crab Lungs]

I think someone threw a line out and hooked a few 😂

[Winnersaint]

4 hours ago, Miltonaggro said:

My abiding memory of Partick Thistle is Alan Rough in the sticker albums of the late 70s early 80s.  Remember a rumour that AR was going to sign for Saints early 80s to replace Peter Wells, but we got Peter Shilton instead.  Think Alan Rough ended up at Hibs   

Can I be a Saints fan? I’m in Wokingham.

[Saintsfan79]

14 minutes ago, Winnersaint said:

Can I be a Saints fan? I’m in Wokingham.

That's really random I live there also 😆

[Winnersaint]

6 minutes ago, Saintsfan79 said:

That's really random I live there also 😆

There you go. I'm in Winnersh, I know there's someone in Hurst who's a Saints fan and have come across a couple of entire families in Bracknell.

[John Boy Saint]

I’ll play

Born up the General where the carpark is now situated, feel a bit like Damien from the Omen. Place burned down -didn’t really kids - when it turned out my mother was a Jackal, those old enough to have seen the original can hear the Ave Satani theme tune (I always hear it driving past Guildford Cathedral- again you have to have seen it) - anyway I digress. Gran and Grandad and Mum proper Sotonians according to my £19.99 Ancestry dot com subscription. Ok I digress again, my Grans Mum came from Cape Town from a family going back to 1700’s Prussia - but if anyone at this point wants to step outside on this, I must add that she did marry a Fireman from Shirley, who when he wasn’t rescuing cats from up trees, did a bit of plumbing on the many ships down the docks - as for my late Grandad he could remember Titanic leaving Southampton as a nipper. He also had the minerals to sit outside on a sun-lounger during the second war with his broken leg from having a mishap on his Norton 500 dispatch riders bike, watching the dog fights (that’s the RAF Johnnies sticking up Gerry over Southampton kids) while mum and gran were safely in the Anderson shelter where Grandad ended up building his greenhouse as the existing foundations were pretty good……….see I have digressed again.

So my Mum was the bird who took my Dads eye (don’t ask about his heritage ‘cos we’d be here another couple of hours) anyway they got it on.Married in Shirley and nested in Bedford Place at the end of the road leading to The Dell before decamping to Bitterne where I turned up one afternoon after a ride in an ambulance with the bells going (no neeee-naaaa’s back then kids) right past where St Mary’s now stands. Dad was the main man for a janitorial supplies company (we were never short of soap) but had to work in that there London - no M3 in those days - and he moved us out of Southampton to a little village right on the Berkshire border north of Basingstoke. Despite a “Heinz 57” ancestral make up, I was still an ‘Ampshoire hog , but Southampton boy first! For 45 years, from the age of 13, I have been pretty much been making the pilgrimage down the Saints, and in those early days by any means possible.

I married a girl from a village outside Basingstoke and live in that village now, and if I can be arsed, walking to the end of the road I can see the metropolis. The fact remains I am a Sotonian and if anyone wants to question the validity of my support of the Saints because I now live adjacent to Basingstoke they can sit on my middle finger and swivel 😁

 

[Saint Fan CaM]

I’ve decided not to respond to this inane drivel.

Oh.

[Brissysaint]

From fordingbridge originally but my old man and his family all lived in Southampton, I suppose technically it’s a bit closer to bournmouth so I might switch teams

found out that my mums dad(never met him and mum moved down south when she was a baby) was from South Sheilds in Newcastle so I’ll be doing a bit of glory hunting this year.

[eurosaint]

8 hours ago, Winnersaint said:

Can I be a Saints fan? I’m in Wokingham.

I lived in Wokingham for 20 years (Rances Lane) and my boy was playing for local teams. Quite a few Saints shirts around in those days but of course the glory hunters had more ! Easy journey down to the Dell which we did for years 🏐

[Toussaint]

8 hours ago, Winnersaint said:

Can I be a Saints fan? I’m in Wokingham.

No, sorry. But we can’t issue refunds on your expenses to date, you should have thought about the consequences of your despicable actions.
 

You have been allocated to Reading. 

 

you are not allowed on here either. 

[Turkish]

13 minutes ago, eurosaint said:

I lived in Wokingham for 20 years (Rances Lane) and my boy was playing for local teams. Quite a few Saints shirts around in those days but of course the glory hunters had more ! Easy journey down to the Dell which we did for years 🏐

What that little pub by the station, Molly Millars? Used to pop In there from time to time 

[Fitzhugh Fella]

21 hours ago, Paul Chuckle said:

The slagging off of the city by the Salisbury twitter folk I find very odd. I've seen some call Southampton a shit hole and that they'd never move here. Not a good look at all for those who support the club. Would rather fans like that stay at home. 

 

Calling ourselves Scummers I'll never get. All very odd

To be honest Southampton is a bit of a shithole and I speak as someone who regularly walk down Shirley and Portswood High Streets. Having lived in the town off and in all my life I’m staggered at the decline but a lot of cities in this country have gone the same route. But it’s mine and I remain proud to be from Southampton and I’m proud to be a Saints fan despite everything. I also very much welcome fans of the club wherever they live or come from. We need every fan we can get to counter the rise of Uber state owned clubs that are sports washing their way to financial domination. Anyone who “chooses” to support us needs a medal to be frank. 

[Sweet dee]

15 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I’ve lived in Poole since ‘92 & there were loads from Weymouth/Dorchester/Wareham already on the train when I got on every home game.

Now there’s nowhere near as many, and the odd occasion that my travel coincides with Boscombe supporters on the train, there’s hardly any stay on past Poole, so it’s not like that area of Dorset has switched sides. Whether it’s local football, both Weymouth & Dorchester have decent set ups & stadiums now , a new generation watching games on TV instead, or even car travel due to the Olympic upgrade to the roads, but there’s nowhere near as many football supporters on train from Weymouth now as there was then.

 

The other major difference is the local attitude towards us. There was never any animosity at all except a few chumps in Bournemouth, now it’s all scammer this & scummer that, even in Poole (which is surprising because football aside I find Poole people don’t particularly like Bournemouth). Started around the time Redknapp went to Pompey & has gotten worse since then. Obviously being in the same league encouraged some of it, but it was definitely turning before then.

I moved to Poole about 5 years ago, around the same time my brother moved to pompey, I regularly get called scummer more than he does 🤣

[Turkish]

You’re not a true scummer unless you had a relative that died on the titanic anyway 

[suewhistle]

51 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

To be honest Southampton is a bit of a shithole and I speak as someone who regularly walk down Shirley and Portswood High Streets.

Or The Mutant Mile, as I've heard some refer to it..

Just to reply to the obvious wind-up OP, I get similar comments when I watch Saints on TV in a local PO area village pub; the landlord will lose a bit of trade next season with Saints not being on the box! It's all friendly but to the question 'why don't you support Pompey?" I reply "Haven't you ever left the village?".

 

[Ribtickler]

Got a SO postcode, you are allowed in the gate....that's my view.

[rooney]

17 hours ago, Rebel said:

What about Weymouth, Dorchester and dare I say it Bournemouth. There used to be a lot of Saints fans based in those places.

 

 

 

I used to see Bluebird Coaches with Weymouth Saints banners on the back picking up fans from Bere Regis but havn't seen that for a long time. 

[manina-pub]

The fact that this is even a thread says a lot about Saints fans

[SW5 SAINT]

18 hours ago, Rebel said:

What about Weymouth, Dorchester and dare I say it Bournemouth. There used to be a lot of Saints fans based in those places.

What about Alresford - that's a Saints area as well? 

Newbury?

There was a group of Saints fans who used to sit behind use from Gosport and there are quite a few based in Fareham.

In reality I think Saints catchment area is really most of Hampshire (excepting the South East Corner) plus large areas of East Dorset and South Wiltshire, as well as a parts of South West Berkshire.

The rise of traditionally smaller teams such as Bournemouth and Reading has had an impact though.

Its really anywhere in the wider South Coast / South Central socio economic area which is centred on Southampton.  You could argue the core areas are really Southampton itself, Eastleigh, Romsey, Winchester and Totton. 

Eastleigh Town didn't exist when I was a kid - they were callled Swaythling then if I remember correctly.  

I grew up in Eastleigh, but both my parents grew up in Southampton, and I now live in Winchester - a pattern which is similar to many Saints fans I know.   I also know a few Saints fans who went to University in Southampton and stayed around and now support Saints (but grew up in Essex and Kent for example).

 

 

I grew up in South Coast Worthing and supported Saints, just based on visits to Southampton….!

[Saintsfan79]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

What that little pub by the station, Molly Millars? Used to pop In there from time to time 

Yes its called the Station Tap now still there still a dive but fun.

[goodymatt]

11 minutes ago, manina-pub said:

The fact that this is even a thread says a lot about Saints fans

It’s nice to hear people’s Saints stories though and why they follow the biggest team on the south coast 😇

[iansums]

39 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

It’s nice to hear people’s Saints stories though and why they follow the biggest team on the south coast 😇

Agreed. My brother and his lads are West Ham fans because our old man was a West Ham fan born in the East End. My brother was born in Essex but I was born down here and didn't feel ay affinity to the Hammers. I did enjoy taking my brother to the cup game against them the season before last.

[Winnersaint]

9 hours ago, Brissysaint said:

From fordingbridge originally but my old man and his family all lived in Southampton, I suppose technically it’s a bit closer to bournmouth so I might switch teams

found out that my mums dad(never met him and mum moved down south when she was a baby) was from South Sheilds in Newcastle so I’ll be doing a bit of glory hunting this year.

Lived in Breamore when in my teens. Went to Burgate 71-74. 

[Miltonaggro]

14 hours ago, Winnersaint said:

Can I be a Saints fan? I’m in Wokingham.

Really not for me to say Winnersaint, Mr Chuckle is the official Sport Republic arbiter of supportive geography, this post was the first part of the club's engagement strategy.  I'm just here to offer opinion and poorly judged frivolity as usual

[Miltonaggro]

3 hours ago, Turkish said:

You’re not a true scummer unless you had a relative that died on the titanic anyway 

I think that's too wide a definition.  For true mushdom you need to have died on the Titanic, the shook ones in the lifeboats and their limp offspring should support Bournemouth. 

[Turkish]

39 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

I think that's too wide a definition.  For true mushdom you need to have died on the Titanic, the shook ones in the lifeboats and their limp offspring should support Bournemouth. 

My grandad fought off a pack of killer whales as he swam back to Southampton after being on the titanic when it sank. He survived by using their blubber for food and made a necklace from their teeth which is now a family heirloom 

Edited 6 July, 2023 by Turkish

[Miltonaggro]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

My grandad fought off a pack of killer whales as he swam back to Southampton after being on the titanic when it sank. He survived by using their blubber for food and made a necklace from their teeth which is now a family heirloom 

This is the kind of stoic resolve we need for next season, assume he landed at Weston Shore!

[Convict Colony]

I've lived in a load of countries around the world and still do but I've never lived in Southampton.

I use the pain of being a fan to balance the happiness in the rest of my life 🤣

 

[Crab Lungs]

Good to see this thread still going strong, will make it easy to root out the outliers. 😂

[Miltonaggro]

33 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

I've lived in a load of countries around the world and still do but I've never lived in Southampton.

I use the pain of being a fan to balance the happiness in the rest of my life 🤣

 

AAT - Ankersen Aversion Therapy (c)  

[Southner]

At 4 years old, I didn't choose Saints for a laugh, otherwise I'd have been considered a comical prodigy, you big bags of dumps. 

[Southner]

On 05/07/2023 at 09:19, beatlesaint said:

as an "out of city folk" supporter I see no issue......you should think yourself bloody lucky we picked Southampton to support 🤣

Much truths. 

[Paul Chuckle]

3 hours ago, Crab Lungs said:

Good to see this thread still going strong, will make it easy to root out the outliers. 😂

Shhh don't ruin my plan

[CheshireSaint]

I was born in Chester, live in Chester now too. Dad from Southampton and most of my paternal family still live in Southampton. At 51, I have had to grow up with gloating Liverpool fans, then Everton, then Liverpool, then United, then Liverpool and now City. Chester is a mix of all of them to varying percentages. Despite that, I am famously Southampton despite never living within 200 miles of the place. Supporting Saints has definitely been a labour of love. Not sure someone coming up to me and telling me I am not a true fan, would end too well. 

[Chris cooper]

Born at the general lived in Hythe all my life .. last ferry boat ⛴️ back to Hythe when we’ve won isn’t as rocking and as lively as it was when we were at the Dell…

That ferry nearly sunk a few times on the way back at 11pm.. 

Young  lads now tho arnt as game to rock the old girl.
we used to belt out the tune of “we will follow Southampton..over land and sea and WATER” even the skipper used to join in back in the day.

it’s more of a light sway these days from the mop haired younguns singing shit songs about pompey ! I miss the dell and it’s support . 
just ain’t the same these days ! 

[SotonianWill]

I can’t be a saints fan as I was born in Princess Anne instead of the General 😢

[Brissysaint]

1 hour ago, SotonianWill said:

I can’t be a saints fan as I was born in Princess Anne instead of the General 😢

Oh god I just remembered I had to have emergency surgery when I was a nipper in Portsmouth (queen mary???) so I technically owe my life to our fishy friends.

[Breeny]

What a stupid thread ! Im from Southampton went to Bitterne Park school , worked at Vospers.

Dell regular , Milton end  went  to FA Cup final May 76 , been many times to St Marys.

I now live in Perth Western Australia .Does that mean accoring to some dumb idots on here Im not respected

anymore as a Saints supporter !