Ask any Southampton supporter about their best moment and, if they are old enough, they will no doubt tell you that it was the F.A. Cup win in 1976. What will roll off their tongue is this...
‘Bobby Stokes in the 83rd minute...magic!’
And it was just that..magic! What made it even more so was that ‘The Saints’ were the underdogs and not expected to win as they were a second division club!
But when it’s the F.A.Cup, anything can happen. It’s often the stuff out of ‘Roy of the Rovers’ and everyone likes a ‘David’ to slaughter a ‘Goliath’, don’t they?!
I was living in Hampshire at the time so I adopted Southampton as a kind of substitute for my own club (Torquay). I went to many matches at The Dell. (Southampton’s former football ground before they moved to St. Mary’s.)
And I remember the ‘big day’ at Wembley, so well, as I was lucky enough to get a ticket! Yes! I was one of the 99,115, in Wembley Stadium all those years ago...45 years ago to be exact!
Interestingly, Saints played in yellow and blue..the colours of Torquay!
And even more interestingly...look at the team sheets! What do you notice?!
I notice lots of Englishmen, some Scotsmen, a Welsh man, three Irish men ( Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). Just saying! 😁
( pic from Wikipedia)
It was certainly a day that I’ll never forget! And I was in good company too... as The Queen presented the trophy to the winning team! I hope she enjoyed the day as much as I did! 😁
The 70’s isn’t it?
ReplyDeleteJumpers for goal posts, beans on toast for tea.
That decade, we were finalists four times.
We won two, lost two.
Man Utd were three time finalists.
They lost twice and won once.
We, like Soton, beat them.
Man Utd beat Liverpool, as did we.
Chelsea, Leeds, Ipswich, West Ham, Sunderland and Liverpool were also winners that decade.