Southampton Football Club can trace their roots back to 1885 when St Mary's Young Men's Association FC was formed. This name changed to St Mary's FC, followed by Southampton St Mary's and finally the more familiar Southampton FC after winning the Southern League in 1896/97. A year later the Saints moved to The Dell, a quirky ground which would be home for a further 103 years.

Ted Bates: Saints Player & Manager

In 1920 Southampton joined the newly formed Third Division and gained promotion to the Second Division the following season. However, Saints were relegated to the Third Division South in 1953.

In 1955 former Saints player, Ted Bates, was promoted from coach to team manager. In 1959 Bates led Southampton back to Division Two and then capped this with a further promotion in 1966 to the top flight of English football for the first time in the club's history - Terry Paine scoring the goal that secured promotion.

1976 FA Cup Final Glory

After having been a Southampton player from 1937-1953, Ted Bates managed the team from 1955-1973. Saints who were still in the top flight when Bates stepped down had qualified for Europe twice and were about to go down in Saints' history under new manager Lawrie McMenemy. After acting as McMenemy's assistant Bates joined the Southampton board and was finally appointed as Club President. Ted Bates served the club for 66 years and was awarded the MBE in 1998.

Southampton were relegated to Division Two in 1974 but amazingly won the FA Cup Final in 1976 after beating Manchester United 1-0 thanks to a goal by Bobby Stokes. And, two years later Saints were promoted back to the First Division. Times were good for Southampton and The Dell was a ground for opponents to fear. In 1983/84 Saints achieved their highest ever finish as Runners Up to champions Liverpool.

Matt Le Tissier & The Saints

Southampton have enjoyed the services of many great players, such as Martin Chivers, Ron Davies, Peter Osgood, Alan Ball, Kevin Keegan and Mick Channon, but arguably the greatest hero of them all was Matthew Le Tissier. He played first team football from 1986-2002 and scored 206 goals in 540 competitive games. Practically every single goal he scored was an absolute cracker. Le God fittingly scored the last ever goal at The Dell. Southampton then moved to their new stadium, St Mary's, at the start of the 2001/02 season.