Southampton

Of all the clubs who have been hundred percenters in the Premier League Southampton’s 
achievement is arguably the most staggering. For what used to be termed an ‘unfashionable’ 
club Saints defied the odds from day one with a combination of good housekeeping, excellent 
coaching, the occasional quality player and a whole lot of luck. Throw in attendances that 
rarely filled The Dell before they splashed out on a superb new St Mary’s Stadium and you 
have the unlikely background for a club that, despite just two top ten finishes in 12 seasons, 
managed to compete with the big spenders when their record fee, paid, was £4 million for Rory 
Delap.

For most football fans Southampton’s survival in the Premier League was synonymous with, 
nay dependent on, one player, Matt Le Tissier. A one-club man, a concept rare in modern top 
flight football, for his entire 16 year career, the Channel Islander could have moved on, many 
times, to wider fame and greater fortune, but instead chose to devote his unique talents with 
a football to keeping his club in the Premiership.

Southampton struggled for the first two Premiership seasons, finishing 18th both times but 
fittingly the club’s first Premier League goal was scored by Matt Le Tissier, in the team’s 
second game, a defeat at QPR, following a drawn first game, at The Dell, against Spurs. After 
slumping to 20th the Saints improved to ninth by March but just one win in the last eight 
games meant finishing 18th just one point above the last relegation place.

The team spent half of the following season in the bottom three but four wins early in 1994 
lifted them out of the relegation zone but Saints diced with the drop right up to the last day 
when Matt Le Tissier, who else, hit a brace, including a penalty, which was his 100th goal for 
the club, in the draw with West Ham that again prevented relegation by one point. Matt Le 
Tissier’s 25 goals were a priceless contribution to that survival.

Southampton then enjoyed their best campaign but the 10th place finish owed much to the 
team equalling the Premiership’s record number of draws,18, of which seven came in 
successive matches. Although the side were still 20th in March they lost just two of the 
remaining 11 fixtures to finish 10th and once again Southampton’s reliance on ‘Le Tiss’, and 
his goals, was immeasurable.

It was to be five more seasons of struggle before the team matched the 1995 finish. In 1996 
and 1997 the club only survived on goal difference before finishing 12th in 1998 but were still 
only eight points better off than the last relegated club. That finish could have been better 
had they not lost four of the last seven games to drop from 10th.

The first half of the following campaign saw Southampton alternate between 19th and 20th. 
Survival was came after the team only climbed out of the drop zone with three games to go, 
winning all three, a season’s best sequence. Matt Le Tissier, the club’s most famous number 
7 was top scorer, for the seventh season in a row, with seven goals.

In 2000 Southampton finished 15th. With ‘Le Tiss’ hampered by injury Glenn Hoddle used 29 
players but consistency eluded Saints and the side were 15th from mid-March.

On the back of five Marian Pahars goals and a start of just one defeat in seven Southampton 
climbed to eighth, a position they did not achieve again until the second half of the campaign 
when five consecutive wins took them up from 14th. But five scoreless games proved costly, 
although the team recovered and beat Manchester United and Arsenal to finish 10th. The 
victory over The Gunners was particularly memorable as Matt Le Tissier hit the last minute 
winner to end 103 years of football at The Dell before the move to St Marys.

In 2002 Matt Le Tissier played his last game for the club, against West Ham. It was another 
disappointing campaign as Southampton never climbed higher than 11th but it was seen as 
an achievement as the team had been bottom in November.

The following season saw Southampton’s best-ever Premiership finish and the first FA Cup 
Final appearance since 1976. With James Beattie a regular scorer, he was only bettered by 
Van Nistelrooy and Henry, the team, under Gordon Strachan proved worthy of it’s high placing 
of fifth, in January. But three consecutive February defeats destroyed any hopes of European 
qualification, via the League, although James Beattie, scoring in six successive games, tried 
to rescue that dream, and a last day win at Manchester City earned that best-ever eighth 
place finish. Even losing the FA Cup Final, to Arsenal, brought the reward of qualification for 
the UEFA Cup.

No one will ever know what effect Gordon Strachan’s decision to leave Southampton, for ‘ a 
rest away from football’, had on Saint’s finish, the following season. But the Scot’s departure, 
in February, came the month after the team dropped to within goal difference of the 
relegation zone. The campaign had started so well with August’s win over Manchester United 
and after 20 games, with a defensive record bettered only by Manchester United and Arsenal, 
the team was eighth. The New Year arrival of Kevin Phillips provided much needed support for 
James Beattie but injuries exposed the lack of depth in the squad and the team only won four 
of the last 13 games to finish 12th.

Managers

Ian Branfoot          1991–1994

Alan Ball               1994–1995

Dave Merrington     1995–1996

Graeme Souness     1996–1997

Dave Jones            1997–2000

Glenn Hoddle          2000–2001

Stuart Gray            2001

Gordon Strachan     October 2001–February 2004

Paul Sturrock          2004–