9th January 1960 saw Division 3 side Saints travel to first division Manchester City, City were mid table in the top flight and Saints were chasing promotion from the third tier, but this was expected to be a formality.
Back in 1960 the FA Cup was a big thing, and 42,065 were in attendance at Maine Road, the biggest crowd that Saints had played in front of since Ted Bates then a player and not yet manager, had lost at Sunderland in the 4th round in 1951 when 61,319 had seen the home side win 2-0, yes you read that right.
Now Bates was the manager and he was plotting the downfall of City in what was Saints 4th match of the competition, beating Coventry at the Dell 5-1 after a 1-1 draw at Highfield Road.
In the second round Saints beat Southend United 3-0 and this set them up for their biggest game in almost a decade.
The Saints team lined up as follows, Charles, Davies, Traynor, Conner, Page, Huxford, Paine, O'Brien, Reeves, Mulgrew, Sydenham.
The team had prepared for the game with 4 days at Blackpool culminating with a light training session on the beach on the morning of the game.
It was a tale of two ends, at one in the Southampton goal was 18 year old Bob Charles and at the other end Bert Trautmann, famously an ex German prisoner of war in England who had stayed after the war and who only 4 years earlier had starred at Wembley as City beat Birmingham City in the final.
This was notable for the fact that Trautmann had broken his neck during the game but played on, he had dived at the feet of a Birmingham player and the opponents knee had smashed into his neck, with 15 minutes to go and no substitutes allowed back then, Trautmann bravely continued.
It was not a quiet ending of the game for him, Birmingham knew he was injured and went for the jugular with no pun intended, however Trautmann showed no fear. Manchester City held on for the victory, and Trautmann was the hero because of his spectacular saves in the last minutes of the match. he later admitted that he had spent the last part of the match "in a kind of fog"
It doesn't end there, Trautmann attended that evening's post match banquet despite not being able to move his head and it was only four days after the final that an X ray revealed that he had broken his neck.
For the travelling Saints supporters it was a great chance to see a genuine legend of the time and several thousand made the journey including those who travelled up on an overnight special train.
Despite being underdogs Saints started well and went close to opening the scoring in the early exchanges, but it was the home side who took the lead on 18 minutes and even Bob Charles in the Saints goal said after the game that his thought was "Bloody hell here we go" as he picked the ball out of the net.
But this would be the last time that he would do that, within 5 minutes Southampton were level, Terry Pain played an exchange with John Sydenham, jinked around a few opponents and then crossed for Derek Reeves to equalise.
But it got better and on just after the half hour mark, it was the Paine/Reeves combination gain and Terry again crossed for Derek and Saints were ahead.
Saints finished the half strongly and could have added to the lead as the home side struggled to get a grip on the game.
Surely Saints couldn't play as well second half and City as badly, but the truth was they did and they did, the home side barely got into the Southampton half and when they did rarely threatened a goal.
At the other end Saints made it 3-1 on 64 minutes, it was again a Paine & Reeves combination, but with a twist, Paine gave the ball to Reeves again but this time it was he who delivered the ball into the box and there was George O'Brien to smash to ball home off of the underside of the bar.
Surely this would stir City into some sort of life, there was still plenty of time to get back in the game, but just as the game was entering the last 20 minutes it was Terry pain again dancing through the City players and flaoting in another inch perfect cross which left even the great Bert Trautmann flapping and Derek Reeves completed his hat trick by heading into an empty net to send the travelling Southampton supporters wild.
City were now demoralised and were just hanging on, with 4 minutes left came the goal that turned it from just a mere drubbing into a rout, it was reeves again, but this time a solo effort beating his man and then a rocket of a shot that gave Trautmann no chance.
At the end hundreds of Saints supporters swarmed onto the pitch to acclaim the team and celebrate perhaps the greatest win in a decade or more.
Southampton were the toast of the national press who lauded Terry Paine for his contribution and for what would now a days be called assists and for Derek Reeves who scored 4 on the day, a feat which in any age away from home would be considered an achievement, let along that it was for a team from the third division against one two league higher.
For those of that era and no I wasn't even born then, so I can't claim to be one of them, this was one of the great games of the 1950's & 60's perhaps even in our history.
Many expected this team to go on to greater things, talk of Wembley was even in the air, but in the 4th round it would all go pair shaped, after first division Manchester City it would be fourth division Watford at the Dell, that is perhaps for another day but after a 2-2 draw at the Dell, we lost 1-0 at Vicarage Road.
We would however go on to gain promotion and be back in the Second Division for 1960/61 season after a 7 year hiatus, but it would take us another 6 years before we achieved the holy grail and gained promotion to the top flight for the first time.
That ironically enough was rubber stamped at Maine Road, the scene of the FA Cup triumph, City had spent 3 seasons in Division two, but won the title in May 1966 to return to Division One, things were complicated back then, it wasn't goal difference but goal average, don't ask me how that is calculated !
But in simple terms we had to avoid a 6-0 defeat at Maine Road to go up as runners up, 34,643 were in attendance, some 8,000 less than the crowd in 1960, but more than the 10,047 that had watched the fixture the previous year.
That level of defeat never looked to be an option as Southampton stayed calm and solid throughout what would end a 0-0 draw.
With thanks to Duncan Holly & Gary Chalk for their excellent reference books, more information on Saints players and games past and present can be found at Duncan's superb website saintsplayers.co.uk