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60 seasons deep for me and only 10 wins. Yep we are traditionally crap at starting off the season with a bang 🙄 Worst, plenty to choose from but by far and away the worst from start of the day is 1/Burnley 2019 Lost 3-0 in howling winds and heavy rain befitting a winter's tuesday night in Stoke! Unbeaten pre season but all goodwill evaporated at Turf Moor. We were unable to cope with Burnley's long balls in the wind. As if the match wasn't bad enough, got drenched trudging back to catch train only to find that there weren't any due to trees on the line in both directions! I guess luckily for me I could catch a bus into Manc, but the will to go out in Manc for a few beers was long expired 🙄. I really should have taken John Cooper Clarke's advice 😉 2/ 1976 lost 2-1 at home to Carlisle. May 1st seemed a distant memory😏 3/1997 Lost at home to Bolton. Awlful awlful game.
Best. I guess 1 1/ 1999 at Coventry, for no other reason that it was our only win on opening day between 1989 and Leeds in 2011 😜 . I would love to include that Leeds match but only choosing from games I was at. 2/ 1986 Colin Clarke marked his arrival with a hat trick v QPR in a-1 win. 3/ 1980 after waiting since February we finally get to see Keegan in a competitive match. Channon stole the show with 2 goals v Man City, but there was no doubting Keegan was man of the moment, the unbelievable had happened KK in that Rank Xerox kit 😍 Sorry a bit long but hope it evokes memories good or bad. PS Man City 1966 my 1st ever game, as a wee ankle biter and the original glory hunter as we played our 1st ever Top Tier game should really be on there but I have no real recollections of the match, just the occasion 😉
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Top 3 Best and Worst 1st games of the season on 14:55 - Aug 14 with 2316 views
1. Everton at home 1993 (0-2 defeat). Just awful. Branfoot's last season thankfully.
2. Palace at home 2007 (1-4 defeat). I remember this mainly for Alan Bennett, who was laughably bad. Set the tone for a pretty bad season under Burley and then 2 or 3 others...
3. Spurs away 2022 (4-1 defeat). Writing was on the wall for us that season after a thrashing from a not particularly good Spurs team.
Best
1. Wrexham home 2025 (2-1 win) Can't beat 2 goals in injury-time. A marvellous weekend for me; saw Oasis at Murrayfield the night before and flew down from Edinburgh to Southampton early on the Saturday morning.
2. Cov away 1999 (1-0 win). A late winning goal, beautiful.
3. Sheff Wed away 2023 (2-1 win) Another late winning goal; we had really good support up there for a Friday night.
Manchester City who were promoted as Div 2 champions. 1-1 draw, Terry Paine scored in the Archers Road goal. Was stood under the clock so right behind the line of the shot on goal. First ever top flight goal.
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Top 3 Best and Worst 1st games of the season on 15:30 - Aug 14 with 2259 views
Brilliant debut from Paul Rideout, who scored 2 of the goals and, as Butty has mentioned, a classic Le Tissier goal to wrap things up.
We stayed top of the league, winning our next 2 games as well: the first time Saints had won their opening 3 league games since the 1957–58 season.
Worst 1976-77 Saints 1 Carlisle 2
What a letdown that was after our FA Cup winning season, and it began an awful run of league results, which scotched our hopes of promotion in spite of a good 2nd half to the season.
Top 3 Best and Worst 1st games of the season on 14:55 - Aug 14 by PatfromPoole
Worst (many candidates here):
1. Everton at home 1993 (0-2 defeat). Just awful. Branfoot's last season thankfully.
2. Palace at home 2007 (1-4 defeat). I remember this mainly for Alan Bennett, who was laughably bad. Set the tone for a pretty bad season under Burley and then 2 or 3 others...
3. Spurs away 2022 (4-1 defeat). Writing was on the wall for us that season after a thrashing from a not particularly good Spurs team.
Best
1. Wrexham home 2025 (2-1 win) Can't beat 2 goals in injury-time. A marvellous weekend for me; saw Oasis at Murrayfield the night before and flew down from Edinburgh to Southampton early on the Saturday morning.
2. Cov away 1999 (1-0 win). A late winning goal, beautiful.
3. Sheff Wed away 2023 (2-1 win) Another late winning goal; we had really good support up there for a Friday night.
Pat,wasn’t the Palace game in 2007 the one where a guy got out of the Kingsland stand and threw his season ticket on to the pitch in complete and utter frustration at our performance ?
Mind you, he had every reason to do so, as for one of their goals Bennett and our keeper Bialkoski went for the same ball which had been punted down the pitch by the Palace keeper. I recall it bounced over both of them and one of their players had a simple tap in.
Didn’t we also play a guy who in later years was convicted of drug offences in the West Indies or is my memory playing tricks once again ?
Top 3 Best and Worst 1st games of the season on 23:25 - Aug 14 by saintmark1976
Pat,wasn’t the Palace game in 2007 the one where a guy got out of the Kingsland stand and threw his season ticket on to the pitch in complete and utter frustration at our performance ?
Mind you, he had every reason to do so, as for one of their goals Bennett and our keeper Bialkoski went for the same ball which had been punted down the pitch by the Palace keeper. I recall it bounced over both of them and one of their players had a simple tap in.
Didn’t we also play a guy who in later years was convicted of drug offences in the West Indies or is my memory playing tricks once again ?
Top 3 Best and Worst 1st games of the season on 14:55 - Aug 14 by PatfromPoole
Worst (many candidates here):
1. Everton at home 1993 (0-2 defeat). Just awful. Branfoot's last season thankfully.
2. Palace at home 2007 (1-4 defeat). I remember this mainly for Alan Bennett, who was laughably bad. Set the tone for a pretty bad season under Burley and then 2 or 3 others...
3. Spurs away 2022 (4-1 defeat). Writing was on the wall for us that season after a thrashing from a not particularly good Spurs team.
Best
1. Wrexham home 2025 (2-1 win) Can't beat 2 goals in injury-time. A marvellous weekend for me; saw Oasis at Murrayfield the night before and flew down from Edinburgh to Southampton early on the Saturday morning.
2. Cov away 1999 (1-0 win). A late winning goal, beautiful.
3. Sheff Wed away 2023 (2-1 win) Another late winning goal; we had really good support up there for a Friday night.
Long term our record is awful, but short term it is a little better, we have won 2 out of the last 3 as Pat has documented here
Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime
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