In 2001 the move from the Dell to the new St Mary's Stadium was something of a spiritual homecoming for Southampton Football Club.

The team that play in red and white today can trace their roots back to the club formed in 1885 by members of St. Mary's Church Young Men's association who played their football on the banks of the Itchen for 13 years before moving on.

Originally called Southampton St. Mary's, the club joined the Southern League in 1894 and won the championship for three years running between 1897-99 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904.

That success spanned some major changes for the Saints as they moved to a newly built £10,000 stadium called The Dell in 1898.

Although they would spend the next 103 years there, the future was far from certain in those early days and the club had to rent the premises first before they could stump up the cash to buy the stadium outright in the early part of the next century.

Good omens were quick to arrive though and before the century was out the South Coast was given a taste of things to come as the 1899-1900 season saw them reach the first of their four FA Cup Finals so far.

On that day they went down 4-0 to Bury and two years later they would suffer a similar fate at the hands of Sheffield United as they were beaten 2-1 in a replay, but it had given the club a thirst for the big occasion - albeit one that would not be truly satisfied for over seven decades.

After the First World War when many football teams were broken up by the call of national service, Saints joined the newly-formed Football League Division 3 in 1920 which split into South and North sections a year later.

The 1920-21 season ended in triumph with promotion and marked the beginning of a 31-year stay in Division 2.

Saints were briefly forced to switch home matches to their local rivals Portsmouth's ground at Fratton Park during World War 2 when a bomb landed on The Dell pitch, leaving an 18-foot crater which damaged an underground culvert and flooded the pitch.

Promotion was narrowly missed in 1949 and 1950 by a margin of one point and then goal average as Charlie Wayman rattled in a total of 56 goals. Then relegation in 1953 sent Saints sliding back into Division 3 (South).

It took until 1960 for Saints to regain Second Division status, Derek Reeves plundering 39 of the champions' 106 League goals. In 1963 a crowd of 68,000 at Villa Park saw them lose 1-0 to Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final.

The dream of Division 1 football at The Dell for the first time was finally realised in 1966 when Ted Bates' team were promoted as runners-up. It was a never-to-be-forgotten achievement.

For the following campaign Ron Davies arrived to score 43 goals in his first season and Saints stayed among the elite for eight years. Twice they qualified for Europe before becoming the first victims of the new three-down relegation system in 1974.

The most memorable day in Southampton Football Club's history came in 1976 when the Second Division side, managed by Lawrie McMenemy, won the FA Cup for the first time with a sensational 1-0 victory at Wembley over odds-on favourites Manchester United.

In 1978 Saints gained promotion back to Division 1 and a year later they were back at Wembley, losing 3-2 to Nottingham Forest in the League Cup Final. Alan Ball was in the Saints team, one of several star names to join the club.

The signing of Kevin Keegan, twice European Footballer of the Year, from Hamburg, was a masterstroke by Lawrie McMenemy, a move which stunned the football world and one that was followed in the 1983/84 season by the most successful campaign in the clubs' history.

With the great Peter Shilton in goal they finished runners-up to Liverpool in the league and reached the FA Cup semi-finals, losing to Everton in extra time.

By finishing fifth in 1984/85 Saints qualified for European football for the fourth time in five seasons and the following year reached the FA Cup semi-finals again, only to go out to Liverpool.

Lawrie McMenemy then left in the close season to be replaced by former Saints player Chris Nicholl.

In 1986/87 Saints were again stopped one step short of Wembley with Liverpool again their tormentors, beating them over two legs in the Littlewoods Cup semi-final.

During the 1988/89 season Saints created history by becoming the first club to include three brothers - Danny, Rodney and Raymond Wallace - in a Division 1 match.

The following year Saints emerged as one of the country's most entertaining teams as second top scorers in Division One with 71 strikes in their goals for column. Matthew Le Tissier, 24-goal leading scorer, was named PFA Young Player of the Year with strike partner Rodney Wallace in second place.

In 1990/91 Le Tissier was again top scorer with 23 goals. Alan Shearer proved what an exciting prospect he was by captaining the England Under-21 team and the following season a change in management saw former Reading manager, Ian Branfoot take the helm.

Saints reached the Zenith Data Systems Cup Final at Wembley, going down 3-2 to Nottingham Forest in extra-time after an epic battle. Shearer was Saints' top scorer with 21 goals and was capped by England.

On the eve of the 1992/93 season an English record transfer fee of £3 million saw Blackburn Rovers prise Shearer away from the south coast and Saints were amongst the teams in the newly formed Premier League.

Tim Flowers followed his former team-mate to Lancashire mid-way through the 1993/4 season, with Blackburn signing another record breaking cheque for £2 million, the largest sum ever paid for a goalkeeper in the world at that time.

After Branfoot was sacked in January 1994 he was replaced by the fans' dream partnership of ex-club captain Alan Ball and Lawrie McMenemy who rejoined the club as Director of Football.

Against all the odds they steered Saints to final-day survival.

The 1994/95 season saw Saints finish a highly creditable 10th with 30-goal top scorer, Matthew Le Tissier, being named club Player of the Year.

Former youth and Reserve coach Dave Merrington took over as manager in July 1995 when Alan Ball left the club for Manchester City and Saints scraped through another final day survival battle with 0-0 draw at home to Wimbledon.

Ironically Saints stayed up at the expense of Manchester City who bizarrely played for time in their game against Liverpool under the impression that their 2-2 draw was enough to keep them up!

1996/97 saw the arrival of Scotland hero Graeme Souness as manager.

Souness brought in several new players including current centre-back Claus Lundekvam and despite masterminding a 6-3 annihilation of Manchester United, for the third time in four years Saints were not safe until the final day when they stayed up despite a 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa.

Souness and McMenemy resigned soon afterwards and were replaced by Dave Jones who had just led Stockport to promotion from Division 2.

He took Saints to 12th in his first season but the 1998/99 campaign saw the Saints brush perilously close to the drop as they took just one point from their first eight games.

A storming second half of the season saw them stage a magnificent recovery and the "Great Escape" was completed with three consecutive victories in their final three matches to stay up at Charlton's expense.

Jones continued to build and his side were comfortably 13th when he found himself facing totally unfounded child abuse charges. He was given paid leave of absence to prepare his successful defence and Glenn Hoddle was recruited in January 2000.

He steered Saints to safety but stayed little more than a year, leaving in March 2001 for his spiritual home to take over the vacant manager's position at Tottenham Hotspur.

First team coach Stuart Gray stepped up in a caretaker capacity for the final few games of the season including the memorable final league game at The Dell where Saints triumphed 3-2 over Arsenal thanks to Matthew Le Tissier's magical last minute winner

Gray was confirmed as the new man at the helm in the summer of 2001 as the finishing touches were added to the club's superb new 32,000 capacity Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium, built at a cost of around £32m.

His tenure was brief however. A poor start to the new season brought just two wins from the club's first eight Premiership games, to leave Southampton second from bottom of the table.

Chairman Rupert Lowe acted swiftly dismissing Gray and his assistant Mick Wadsworth in October 2001 and bringing in former Coventry manager Gordon Strachan to revive the team's fortunes and he promptly led the side to 11th place. The fourth time in five years that saints had been safe well before the end of the season.

In his second season in charge the wee Scot went on to surpass all expectations as he guided the team to a record breaking 8th place in the Premier League with a final day victory over Manchester City and the FA Cup Final.

Although the big day at Cardiff was ultimately a disappointment with Arsenal winning 1-0 in a hard fought game, the day will be fondly remembered for the phenomenal support of the fans that out-sang their counter-parts even as the Gunners were walking up to collect their trophy.

With Arsenal having already qualified for the Champions League though, Saints runners-up spot was good enough to earn them a place in the UEFA Cup in 2003/4 season. A tricky first round tie against Steaua Bucharest meant their European tour was a brief one however and a couple of months later Saints' season looked even more shaky when Gordon Strachan announced his decision to leave the club at the end of the season to spend time with his family.

Ultimately his departure came even sooner when a mutual decision was made between Strachan and the board to part company in February 2004. Steve Wigley stepped into his shoes in a caretaker role to steady the ship and saw the team go unbeaten during his two games in charge.

Eventually a successor was found in the shape of former Plymouth boss Paul Sturrock who guided the team to a respectable finish of 12th in his first season in charge but at the start of the 2004/5 season he parted company with the club after just two games.

Wigley again returned to the hot-seat, but this time on a permenant basis as Rupert Lowe showed his faith in Saints' Former Director of Youth and reserve team manager.

It was another brief appointment however as Wigley was also unable to transform the team's fortunes, notching just one win against Portsmouth in 14 Premiership matches in charge. Saints then pulled off what seemed a massive managerial coup as they snapped up former Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp after he had left their bitter rivals only weeks earlier.

However Redknapp was unable to halt the decline despite bringing in five new players during the January transfer window and, after a 27-year stay in the top flight, Saints were relegated on the final day of the season. They lost 2-1 at home to Manchester United to finish bottom of the Premiership.

Inevitably that sparked a mass exodus of players and Saints struggled to adjust to life in the Coca-Cola Championship. Redknapp abruptly quit in December 2005 to return to his "spiritual home" at Portsmouth. Dave Bassett and Dennis Wise took temporary charge before George Burley was appointed as head coach with Clive Woodward as Director of Football.

Burley cleared the decks in the January transfer window ready to build for a promotion push in 2005-06 and the campaign finished on a high as Saints won five of their last six games to finish 12th.

The 2006-07 campaign was a roller coaster one which built up to a thrilling finale as Saints won five of their last seven matches to secure sixth spot and a play-off place.

They lost the first leg 2-1 at home to third-placed Derby but produced a performance and pride and passion to win the return 3-2, forcing a penalty shoot-out for a place at Wembley.

Sadly, Leon Best and Inigo Idiakez missed the target and Derby went through leaving Southampton to face a third season in the Coca-Cola Championship but now without a parachute payment.

That forced Saints to sell Gareth Bale to Tottenham for a fee rising to £10m. Chris Baird went to Fulham and Kenwyne Jones to Sunderland for £6m plus Stern John who went on to score 19 crucial goals in 2007-08 which proved a disappointing campaign. The expected promotion push did not materialise and the team ended up fighting to stay in the Coca-Cola championship.

In January 2008, George Burley left to become manager of Scotland. John Gorman and Jason Dodd took over as caretaker bosses until Nigel Pearson was appointed in February.

His appointment was initially greeted with dismay but he quickly won over the fans with his passion, knowledge and tactical awareness. He inspired the team to safety with a 3-2 win over Sheffield United on the final day of the season to stay up at the expense of Leicester who could only draw 0-0 at Stoke.

In May 2008, Rupert Lowe returned to St Mary's as chairman of the PLC with Michael Wilde taking over as chairman of the football club. Andrew Cowen returned as a director. Leon Crouch stepped down as chairman along with directors Keith Wiseman and Patrick Trant while Lee Hoos resigned as chief executive to spare the club an EGM.

On May 31 Jan Poortvliet was named as Saints Head Coach with Mark Wotte coming in as Academy Director. They will work closely with current Reserves boss Stewart Henderson and Under 18's coach Dave Hockaday in a revolutionary new continental set-up designed to produce a seamless transition from youth football to the first-team.

Nigel Pearson was thanked for his contribution but told his contract was not being renewed in June, partly as a cost-cutting measure with the new duo costing less than the previous manager's salary.

The Dutch duo pledged to play Total Football and to give youth a chance, mixing style with steel. It proved easy on the eye when it worked, but after a string of poor results in December and January, Poortvliet resigned two weeks after facing Manchester United in the 3rd round of the F.A Cup.

Wotte took over the role of Head Coach, and his first move was to promote long serving Swedish defender Michael Svensson to his coaching staff. Svensson was joined by Dean Gorre, another Dutchman who had a successful spell in both England and Holland as a player.

The trio worked hard to try and secure Southampton's Championship status for another season and were on course to do so until the Holding Company (Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC) went into administration. A Football League ruling decided that the club was linked to the holding company so they applied the ten point deduction rule for clubs going into administration which effectively relegated the club just six games before the end of the season.

The points were to be deducted either in the current campaign or the next one depending on where Saints finished in the table, and in the end it was a lose-lose situation for the club as they lost their fight on the pitch with relegation and were subsequently deducted ten points going into their first season in the third tier of English domestic football in nearly 50 years.