Southampton

Foundation and Southern League (1885–1920)

Southampton were originally founded at St. Mary's Church, on 21 November 1885 by members of the St. Mary's Church of England Young Men's Association.

St. Mary's Y.M.A., as they were usually referred to in the local press, played most of their early games on The Common where games were frequently interrupted by pedestrians insistent on exercising their right to roam. More important matches, such as cup games, were played either at the County Cricket Ground in Northlands Road or the Antelope Cricket Ground in St Mary's Road.

The club was originally known as St. Mary's Young Men's Association F.C. (usually abbreviated to "St. Mary's Y.M.A.") and then became simply St. Mary's F.C. in 1887–88, before adopting the name Southampton St. Mary's when the club joined the Southern League in 1894.

For the start of their League career, Saints signed several new players on professional contracts, including Charles Baker, Alf Littlehales and Lachie Thomson from Stoke and Fred Hollands from Millwall. After winning the Southern League title in 1896–97, the club became a limited company and was renamed Southampton F.C.

Southampton won the Southern League championship for three years running between 1897 and 1899 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904. In 1898, Southampton moved to The Dell, a purpose-built stadium on Milton Road near the city centre. Constructed at an estimated cost of £10,000, the ground hosted its first Southampton match on 3 September 1898, when the club defeated Brighton United 4–1. The Dell remained Southampton's home ground for 103 years, until the club relocated to St Mary's Stadium in 2001.

Southampton reached their first FA Cup final in 1900, becoming one of the first clubs from the Southern League to reach the competition's final. They were defeated 4–0 by Bury at Crystal Palace. The club reached the final again in 1902, drawing 1–1 with Sheffield United before losing the replay 2–1. These appearances came during a period in which Southampton won six Southern League championships between 1897 and 1904.

Reaching those finals gave Southampton recognition, even internationally: in 1909, an Athletic Bilbao representative who played for affiliated team Atlético Madrid purchased 50 Saints shirts during a trip to England, which were shared between the two squads. This early Southampton connection is the reason why the colours of both Spanish clubs became red and white, as they are nowadays.

Joining the Football League (1920–1966)

After World War I, Southampton joined the newly formed Football League Third Division, which split into South and North sections a year later. Southampton finished as runner-up in that season. The 1921–22 season ended in triumph with promotion and marked the beginning of a 31-year stay in the Second Division.

The 1922–23 season was a unique "Even Season" – 14 wins, 14 draws and 14 defeats for 42 points, or one point per game. Goals for and against statistics were also equal and the team finished in mid-table.

In 1925 and 1927, they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, losing 2–0 and 2–1 to Sheffield United and Arsenal respectively.

Southampton were briefly forced to switch home matches to the ground of their local rivals Portsmouth at Fratton Park during World War II when a bomb landed on The Dell pitch in November 1940, leaving an 18-foot crater which damaged an underground culvert and flooded the pitch.

Promotion was narrowly missed in 1947–48 when they finished in third place, a feat repeated the following season (despite having an eight-point lead with eight games to play) whilst in 1949–50 they narrowly missed out on promotion to second placed Sheffield Wednesday. In the 1948–49 and 1949–50 seasons, Charlie Wayman scored 56 goals, but relegation in 1953 sent Southampton sliding back into Division 3 (South).

Southampton returned to the Second Division in 1959–60, winning the Third Division championship under Ted Bates. Derek Reeves scored 39 of the club's 106 league goals during the campaign. On 27 April 1963, a crowd of 68,000 at Villa Park saw them lose 1–0 to Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final.

Reaching the First Division and cup win (1966–1977)

Southampton secured promotion to the First Division for the first time in their history in the 1965–66 season, finishing runners-up in the Second Division under manager Ted Bates. Martin Chivers scored 30 league goals as Southampton recorded 85 goals during the campaign.