Southampton will honour its 1976 FA Cup heroes with a series of events in 2016 to commemorate the greatest day in Southampton Football Club's history.

It has been announced that finally the FA Cup heroes of 1976 will have a proper celebration on the 40th anniversary of the occasion.

Clubs like Liverpool despite winning countless trophies have always respected and commemorated their various success's but here in Southampton we have often shown a criminal neglect for our history with the low point being the Nicola Corstese years when we saw club legend's banned from St Mary's by a man who utterly refused to acknowledge the Club's past.

That is all changing and finally the 1976 FA Cup team will get true recognition, of course there have been various dinners etc on the big anniversary's but they have been quite low key and often quite exclusive in the fact that the average fan would not be able to attend in numbers.

At the Civic Centre yesterday on the 39th anniversary it was announced that the 40th would not be low key.

On 2nd May 1976 hundreds of thousands lined the streets to welcome the team back with the FA Cup with many coming in from surrounding areas and replicating that open bus tour in part will be the focus of the celebrations.

Organiser Mike Osman said: “We won’t do the full tour but will go round some of the key places on the Sunday and finish up back here at the Civic Centre, with the blessing of the council.

“We’ll wander over to the Mayflower Theatre for the main show that evening, with big-screen clips, analysis and messages from the world of sport.

“Tommy Docherty, the Manchester United manager that day, will be there and we’re hoping the Queen, who presented the Cup, will send us a telegram.

“We’ll also have a whole week of events — a golf day, lunches and personal appearances from the players.

“These guys deserve the recognition and respect. A lot of younger supporters wouldn’t know them if they bumped into them so it’s about raising awareness of the players that gave this city its greatest sporting day.

“It’s a chance for the city to say thank you because these guys deserve it. They were a team of no- hopers according to the pundits of the day, but they inspired the city.”

Two of the 1976 heroes, Peter Osgood and goalscorer Bobby Stokes, have sadly passed away, but the rest of the squad is expected to be in attendance next year.

Nick Holmes was one of those at the Civic Centre for the official launch, hosted by Councillor Sue Blatchford in the Mayor’s Reception Room — which has the balcony from which the players looked out on a sea of red and white all those years ago.

“We’re a very fortunate bunch, only a few people every year win an FA Cup final and it doesn’t mean the same nowadays,” said Holmes, 60.

“So today is a special day because 39 years on, people still want to talk about the FA Cup win and celebrate it.

“It was an amazing day. Certain things stand out; Stokesy’s swing of the left foot for the only goal, the 15-minute bus ride around the city that became four hours, and playing QPR in Micky Channon’s testimonial the next day.”

Tickets for the 40th anniversary celebrations will be available at the Mayflower Theatre Box Office from Tuesday.

Great news, now hopefully the club itself will chip in, it would be great to think that they might honour that 1976 team and its manager with a statue, over a decade ago this website first started the campaign for a statue of Ted Bates and now it would like to put forward that perhaps Lawrie Mcmenemy should be similarly honoured, ironically on a day when Saints supporters up at Sunderland will pass the statue of Bob Stokoe the manager who won Sunderland's last FA Cup in 1973, it is fair to say that Lawrie McMenemy did more than just win the FA Cup for Southampton Football Club it is time he was recognised.

Photo: Action Images

undertoomers added 13:48 - May 2 All good news, only the difference between Ted & Lawrie is that Ted was a very humble man. Also he did not walk out on the club, not once but twice!
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SaintBrock added 17:59 - May 2 Is it only me that find this embarrassing, talk about clutching at straws?
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ItchenNorth added 15:04 - May 3 Not sure how you can have a pop at Cortese to start with then end the article by saying 'now hopefully the club will chip in'. So are they not involved at present? I'm sure they will but; we've had a lot of chairman in 40 years not just one!
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densham41 added 15:10 - May 3 Good article Nick. I saw the statue yesterday at the stadium of light and it hi-lights the history of their club. 1st May 1976 was the greatest day in our clubs history and one the greatest days in the city of Southamptons history. It should be celebrated and remembered.
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