Russell Martin and his team came in for some criticism from Saints supporters back in December after a run of four defeats, but they have proved their doubters wrong in the best possible style with a 18 game unbeaten run in the League, can they now equal the club record.

Southampton were a top club soon after their formation 1885, back then the Football league was made up of club's North of Birmingham whilst South of the Midlands the big clubs joined the Southern League and Saints then known as Southampton St Mary's were no exception.

In their third season as a member in 1896/97 they were champions and they would win it for 4 out of the next 5 seasons, Spurs might have been the first side to win the FA Cup outside of the Football league after it's formation, but it was Southampton who were the first to reach an FA Cup semi final.

Saints were the biggest club in the South of England for between 1896 and 1904, winning 6 of the 8 titles on offer plus reaching two FA Cup Finals.

Shortly after the First World War though things changed in football and in 1920/21 Saints joined Division 3 along with most of the clubs in the South, although in London in the years before the war several new clubs had been created including Chelsea & Arsenal had joined the Football League rather than the Southern League and Spurs had already defected.

Our first season saw us finish second to Crystal Palace , but our reward was not promotion to Division 2 as only one went up back then and we were in Division 3 South for season 1921/22.

This would be a great season for the club, we would win it on goal average on the final day of the season, beating Newport County 5-0 and Plymouth Argyle in losing at QPR blew their chances and Saints came in on the rails to take the title.

But our run was built on what is still to this day our longest ever unbeaten spell since joining the Football League, 19 games unbeaten in the League and if you want to be pedantic it was 20 games in all competitions because we slotted in a 3-1 victory against South Shields in the Fa Cup in the middle of it.

The run started on September 5th with a home win against Luton and ended 4 months later on January 14th with a defeat at Brentford, in total it consisted of 13 wins and 6 draws, so for those looking for a good omen if we beat Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday we will equal the record to make our own run exactly that 13 wins & 6 draws.

The run ended with a 1-0 defeat at Brentford, but in the remaining 19 games of the season we lost only twice, one of those against the side we pipped to the post Plymouth Argyle at Home Park, so if we can equal this record I would say that if we can replicate the 2021/22 sides end of season then we should have a good chance of automatic promotion.

With thanks again for Duncan Holley for the invaluable information and statistics provided in a number of his excellent publications, more details about the great games and players of the past can be found at saintsplayers.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

Bowlercow added 20:39 - Jan 10 Astonishing Wouldn't it be good to end the season with a 38 league match unbeaten run I know the 4 match run in September cost us but equally some of the draws have hurt us just as much
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