Saints don’t do promotion. Well, not often.

When I was born in 1951, SFC were a middling Div 2 side but were relegated the

very next season and wallowed in Div 3 (South) until 1958 when the 3rd Division

proper was formed.

In 1960, Saints won the 3rd Division Championship but this went unnoticed by me

on the IOW. I was more excited about Burnley topping the First Division that

year!

In the second tier, Saints gradually improved their league position until, in

1966 they were promoted as runners-up; 5 points shy of champions Manchester

City. I probably took more notice this time because, during the very next

season, I made my first visit to The Dell - where my beloved Burnley were

soundly thrashed by Big Ron and Co. The Saints then spent several seasons in the

old Div 1.

1973/4 was the season of my conversion. I became a regular Saints watcher during Lawrie’s first season at the helm and, as you know, it ended in relegation when

Saints were trapped by the newly introduced 3 up - 3 down rule. So I followed

them in Div 2 until, in 1978, they achieved the only promotion that I can

actually remember - 33 long years ago FFS.

I’m going to try to tell the story of that promotion season using my fading

memory and some of the match programmes from the time. I always tried to buy a programme but back then it was not unusual for them to sell out - particularly

at away games where Old Bill tended to herd you in and out of grounds without

contacting any other living beings. Upshot is, I’m not absolutely sure which

games I actually went to!

The 1976/7 season promised much but turned out to be rather a disappointment. In the FA Cup, Saints defended the trophy strongly, turning over Chelsea and Forest before succumbing to Man Utd in the 5th Round. In the league they finished 9th, 8 points shy of Forest who were promoted behind Wolves and Chelsea.

The new season began with a visit from Brighton - yes, they had a big part to

play in our story then too. It finished 1-1. In the next 3 fixtures we got a

loss, a win and another draw before wins at Notts County and home to Burnley got us moving up the table. This little run was ended at Cold Blow Lane in

mid-September when Millwall tonked us 3-0.

The next four matches saw Saints lose at Bramall Lane but pick up two 1-0 wins

and spank Sunderland 4-2 at The Dell. Another away win and a 2-2 home draw with high flying Bolton kept us in the promotion hunt. October ended with a League Cup defeat at Highbury and a 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers.

November opened with another defeat, this time at Blackburn, who jumped above us in the league, so when we faced Blackpool at home on 12th November 1977 we were sat in 6th place on 17 points. The top of the table was:

Pts.

22 - Bolton

21 - Spurs

18 - Blackpool

18 - Blackburn

17 - Brighton

17 - SAINTS

16 - Luton

15 - Palace

etc.

The programme for that Blackpool game (price 15p) shows Saints wearing their

splendid triple stripe Admiral kit on the front. It has adverts for Carrefour at

Eastleigh, Parkers Photographic, Gibbs Sight & Sound and Ashes men’s boutique in

the Hannover Buildings. Other advertisers were Selwood Plant, J.W. Metals, A Buckett & Son, Buddens Skylark and Club Tiberius. Fox & Sons asked “Promotion Year for You? Then consult us for your new home to put you in A HIGHER LEAGUE”. They don’t write ’em like that anymore. A full page Lex Mead advert offered a 1972 Vauxhall Viva for £995 and a 1976 Jag 4.2 Coupe at just £6995! Saints Sports Shop was flogging a range of footwear (including Puma of course).

The programme has just 3 paragraphs from Lawrie Mac, a double page on Blackpool, a letters page, the Family Centre page, Coaching corner, Stats, Here & There, Quizzes and an article by Ian Henderson of Radio Solent speculating on who the next England manager would be. All the serious money was on….Brian Clough!

Southampton sat top of the Football Combination and Saints A were top of

Hampshire League Div 1. Our Div 2 line up that afternoon was: Wells,

Andruszewski, Peach, Baker, Nicholl, Pickering, Ball, Boyer, Hebbard, Holmes and

Neville. Austin Hayes was on the bench. The game was refereed by Jim Bent of

Hemel Hempstead.

I honestly have no recollection of what went on that afternoon but had the

foresight to write the scorers down on the team sheet - in that rather ghey

turquoise ink that was all the rage back then. Apparently Graham Baker scored

after just 58 seconds and we held that lead into the second half, when a David

Peach penalty gave us a 2-0 win to lift Saints above the Tangerines in the

table.

The next 3 games saw Saints draw away at Oldham and Spurs and beat Fulham at The Dell. We then lost at home to Luton but beat Blackpool again up at theirs.

Between Xmas and New Year Saints had 3 games in 6 days but ran into some real

form and won them all. Cardiff were despatched 3-1 on Boxing Day, the next day

we won at Charlton by the same score and on New Year’s Eve beat Stoke 1-0 at

home.

Our first game of 1978 saw us away at Brighton - another 1-1 draw. Our league

run was then interrupted by two 0-0 draws and a 4-1 win against Grimsby in the

3rd round of the FA Cup - although we did manage to beat Mansfield away between the replays.

On 21st January we entertained Notts County at The Dell. I have the programme

for that too. The cover and many of the ads were the same but there was a full

page splash for the new B&Q DIY Supercentre at Millbrook and two pages of

pictures of the Stoke game. Julia Williams (who she?) was appearing at the

Saints Supporters Social Club and Lex Mead were still trying to flog that Jag

(now £6495).

Darryl Reeves officiated that afternoon and lining up for Saints were: Turner,

Waldron, Peach, Williams, Nicholl, Pickering, Ball, Boyer, MacDougall, Holmes

and Coak. Sub: Neville.

My notes (in more manly blue ink) don’t tell me the time of the goals but in the

Match Summary at the bottom of the penultimate page I wrote “Marvellous!” so it

must have been good. Looks like it was 1-1 at half time with Phil Boyer scoring

for Saints and Mick Vinter for County. The away side brought on Brooks for Bradd

but Saints XI kept plugging away and goals from Williams and Boyer (again) saw

us triumph 3-1.

We’d started the day in third place on 34 points and this win kept the pressure

on Bolton and Spurs at the top. Blackburn and Brighton were tracking us but

below them a gap was starting to open.

Game on!

Next time: February to April 1978 - “Squeaky Bum” time.

Photo: Action Images

Spot51 added 11:00 - Feb 28 If any of our older posters have recollections of these matches, please add them below. Cheers, Spot.
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huelinsaint added 14:36 - Feb 28 I remember the Notts County match being only my second ever game at The Dell, I remember being one up, then County equalising and hearing a pin drop.If i recall correctly it was 65p to get in under the West Stand as a nipper and i remember my old man saying sod that "we're going in the Milton next time"
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SaintNick added 16:51 - Feb 28 I remember the two blackpool games, I was meant to go to Blackburn the week before but i was ill and couldnt go so didnt witness Peter osgood's last game for the club, but I was just about well enough to go to the blackpool game and remember that it was also on match of the day that evening so the fastest goal was recorded for posterity. I also went up to Blackpool just before Xmas and it was a freezing cold afternoon warmed only by a 1-0 win

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ericofarabia added 09:28 - Mar 1 LOL Nick ...... I'd bet the freezing wind swept January afternoon for the Cup match at Grimsby was colder!! I joined up with The Bingo Club to get to that one - no pub stops and no time to go drinking on arrival in Grimsby - not my normal routine for sure!! Lawrie Mac got a fantastic reception from the Grimsby fans. Can't remember much about any of the games in the first half of that season - but am looking forward to part 2!!

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