A trip back to the greatest months in Saints history.

When Saints travelled to bristol City on 7th February 1976 for a cruch promotion match there was no inkling amongst Saints supportes that in less than three months we would be FA Cup holders, true it had been a good 3rd round win against first division Aston Villa and Blackpool had been easily disposed ofin round 4, but with a trip the week after the Bristol City trip in the 5th Round to fellow promotion challengers West Brom, the feeling amongst Saints fans was that promotion was the priority.

The second division table stood as follows prior to the match

Sunderland    played 26 Points 36

Bolton           played 26 Points 36 

Bristol City      played 27 Points 35

Notts County   played 26 points 32

Saints             played 26 points 32

West Brom       played 27 points 32

As you can see if Saints could go to Ashton Gate and turn the Robins over then they were right in the driving seat to kick on and finish in the top 3 and get promoted, back then it was three only going straight up and two points for a win.

In the days before not just the St catherines Hill cuting, but the Sutton Scotney bye pass and the Newbury byepass, it could take around 1 1/2 hours just to reach the M4 at Newbury in those days, so most Saints supporters who went by road opted for the laborious route via Salisbury, Warminster and Bath, back then Warminster was always a popular stopping point for Saints supporters, although only being 14 myself i didnt have the money to go into the pubs, at least not for anything more than the odd scraped pint, but around 11am Warminster high street was awash with young Saints supporters decked out in jean jackets, DR Martens and the obligatory scarves, parading up and down and trying to look menacing to the locals, not to mention looking for any that might support City.

We went by a cioach run by National Express from the old coach station in Bedford place, who used to run as they called it Excursions to Saints away games, we pulled up outside Ashton Gate around 12.30 ish and most of the coach being old enough to go to the pub did so, whilst the dozen or so of us still at scholl went for a look around the ground, feeling brave in our Saints scarves, we didnt feel brave for very long though, we soon bumped into a bigger and older (I would of course say that, but truthfully these guys were in their 20's we were all 14 ) group of City fans with the upshot that we were soon luckily enough leading what might well have been the innaugral Bristol Half Marathon as we beat a hasty retreat down a dual cariageway. and we were just coming up around the back of the away end for the start of the second lap when salvation came in the form of an arriving coach full of Saints beer monsters who promptly disembarked and saw off our assaillants, ably assisted by ourselves of course hurling insults at their fleeing mob of what we would have done to them if we had let them catch us.

Our rescuers headed into the pub whilst we entered the ground, Ashton Gate hasnt actually changed that much since then, what is now the away end used to be the home end, and seats have been put in the front sections of both side stands, the only real change has been to what was the old away end, now its a modern all seater stand, back then it was a open terrace.

Segregation didnt exist back then and it was common for the home side mob to have a sniff around the away end, for some reason Bristol City didnt bother on this day, perhaps it was the large number of Saints fans present, in a crowd of 22,316 there must have been 3- 3,500 Saints supporters massed behind the goal in this open end, indeed the game was one of the chosen games for match of the day and I remember that evening they had a great shot from the camera behind the terrace of the Saints supporters celebrating our equaliser.

The match kicked off with both the Saints fans and the Bristol fans in the far end making loads of noise, but it was the home fans who had cause to celebrate first when Ritchie scored just after the half hhour mark.

In the second half the Yellow shirts of Saints rallied and sure enough with 13 minutes left Nick Holmes made it 1-1, but Ray Cashley in the Bristol goal stood firmand made some fine saves as the home side held on and kept the gap between them and Saints still four points, West Brom leaped over Saints with a win, but with a game in hand it wasnt too much of a concern at that point.

The coach trip home featured the obligatory stop in Warminster and an unscheduled stop outside Salisbury Police station after the driver got fed up of the boisterous behaviour of some on the coach, as was the norm in those days, many cans were taken onto the coach and consumed by passengers of all ages.

The following week National ran around a dozen coaches to West Brom in the cup, part of a fleet of around 100 as well as special trains, as 12,000 Saints fans started to get cup fever.

Come the end of the season though the Cup run cost Saints fans, Sunderland went up as did Bristol City and West Brom who held off Bolton, Saints finished 6th, four points off third spot, although Im sure we wouldnt have swapped it for that day at Wembley.       

Photo: Action Images

steadyeddie added 00:08 - Nov 24 I remember this game from the TV, thinking I am going to my first away game the following saturday at WBA in the 5th Round of the FA cup. Also Ray Cashley had Giant Side burns that knocked Noddy Holders into a cocked hat.
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