Introduction

From last minute equalisers to the tension and high-drama of the penalty spot, things move quickly in football and in the blink of an eye everything can change...

The television cameras, photographers' lenses and the internet are great tools to document the here and now, but the bigger picture can often be lost amongst the clamour for the next big headline.

In an attempt to redress the balance, Saintsfc.co.uk will be bringing you up to date with the real history of Southampton Football Club in a new series of articles compiled by Saints Historian's Dave Juson and Gary Chalk.

Their research and devotion to uncovering every facet of our club's fascinating origins and history will gradually build into an indispensible guided tour of the past that we hope fans, both old and young, will enjoy discovering afresh.

Each article will gradually be archived in the new 'History' section, which can be found by clicking on the 'Club' tab at the top of the page.

In the first part of the series, we go right back to where it all started and give you a glimpse of the very different world of 1885, when a bunch of religious young men began by hoofing the ball about on the Common!

(Pictured above right - 'The Saints' in 1888. First known picture of Saints, taken at the Antelope Ground, a week after winning the 1888 Junior Cup, prior to being defeated 3-0 by Woolston Works, the Senior Cup winners. )

Chapter 1 - Champions of Hampshire

The history of Southampton Football Club began on the afternoon of Saturday 21st November 1885, when a team made up of members of the St. Mary's Young Men's Association defeated Freemantle FC 5-1, on the "backfield" of the Hampshire County Cricket Club's new ground in Northlands Road.

The St. Mary's Church of England Young Men's Association, to give the organisation its full name, was formed around 1881 for the benefit of the young choristers, Sunday-school teachers and others who took an active interest in the workings of the parish of St Mary's. Members pursued a number of interests from their Grove Street School headquarters, including 'glee singing', cricket, athletics, and, in particular, gymnastics, so adopting the "kicking game" was a logical progression.

YMA Athletics meeting, programme cover. Pre football club days.

The Young Men contented themselves with playing friendlies in an around the Southampton area throughout the 1885-86 and 1886-87 seasons, mostly on the Common. They became more serious in 1887 when, after the Hants & Dorset Football Association was dissolved on 13 April that year, they were one of the 16 clubs represented at the inaugural meeting of the Hampshire FA, at the Spartan Club in Southampton High Street a week later.

The 1887-88 season proved eventful: by the end of it the Young Men had split with the YMA and changed their name to St. Mary's FC, been adopted by an enthusiastic corps of supporters, been nicknamed "the Saints" and won the Hants FA Junior Cup.

The Saints won the Junior Cup outright in 1890, having prevailed in three consecutive finals, and then commenced a campaign to gain permanent possession of the Hants Senior FA Cup. That proved more difficult.

Increasingly large crowds watched the 1891 and 1892 Senior Cup finals at the County Ground, in which Saints first defeated the Royal Engineers and then the Army Medical Staff, both Aldershot based clubs, but the 1893 final, on 11th March, saw all expectations confounded when, according to the Bournemouth Guardian, "between 6,000 and 7,000 excited individuals massed together round the field of play, crowding the stand and occupying every position of vantage", to witness Saints defend the Cup against local rivals Freemantle.

To the horror of most of the crowd, Freemantle, thanks to a hotly disputed penalty awarded in injury time, won by two goals to one. Not only were the Saints no longer "the crack Hampshire club", they weren't even Southampton's. It was a devastating blow.

The Saints learned another salutary lesson when, a month later, they played an "exhibition match" at the County Ground against First Division Stoke, and lost 8-0. However, the biggest lessons learned that season had been their elimination from the FA Cup during October, and the supporters could take heart from the knowledge that the Saints were quick learners.

To be continued…