Saints Look To Go Unbeaten At Home In Calendar Year In Football League For First Time
Thursday, 29th Dec 2011 09:54

If Saints avoid defeat against Bristol City then they set a new club record.

If Bristol City fail to beat Saints then the club will achieve the distinction of going a whole calendar year without a home loss in the League.

Technically this is not the first time this has happened, as when the Club was in the Southern League it actually went two consecutive calendar years without a home league loss in 1896 & 1897, in fact it was so nearly three consecutive years, in 1895 they lost the first home league game of that year on the 5th of January and would then go to May 1st 1898 before they lost another, all of this was before we moved to the Dell in the summer of 1898, they also went through 1904 without loss at the Dell in the League.

The Club went nearest to going a whole calendar year unbeaten in 1921, ironically though the chance was gone before the year was a day old, Saints lost at home to Reading on January 1st and it would then be 31 games and 20 months before they lost again, the longest unbeaten home run in the league in our history.

So it depends how you like your records, if you are a purist and count only games played after we joined the football league in 1920, the Bristol Game will see history made, our first ever complete calendar year unbeaten in the league, if you take our whole history and remember back then the Southern League was almost as strong as the Football league it was just that professional football had taken a grip in the north first, then this is the fourth time we will have managed this feat, a record made greater in that if we remain unbeaten on Friday night, we will have achieved it on three different home grounds, in 1896 &97 we were playing at the County Cricket gground in Northlands road, in 1904 we were at the Dell and of course now St Mary's.

However there is a twist, it could be said that we have done it on four, as for the first half of 1896 we played at the Antelope Ground, moving to the Cricket ground for the start of 1896/97, so the feat in this year was achieved on not one, but two home grounds, ironically we almost remained unbeaten in 1895 at the Antelope, like 1921, we lost the first home game in January and it would be 3 1/2 years before we lost again.

So a big piece of club history could be made on Friday night and indeed at some stage in the New year if we continue to remain unbeaten when the Club record could be smashed and the good thing is if we keep winning promotion comes a step closer with every win.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters

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bstokesaint added 13:03 - Dec 29

An incredible achievement however you look at it. This is one of the best Southampton sides I have had the pleasure of watching. Even when we were in the higher tier I can only remember us playing football of this calibre under Strachan. That's not to say we didn't have better individuals before that, because we did, but I can't remember a better all round team playing such good football. This is down to a combination of ML, Cortese, Pardew and NA. They've all played a part in our success up until now.

SaintNick added 17:07 - Dec 29 Although this is a good side, its far from being a premiership quality side, not being nefative here just realistic, we should keep our feet on the ground till promotion is achieved, remember our calbre at home is far better than our caibre away from home where we have been decidely average.
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bstokesaint added 17:24 - Dec 29

Point taken, although the current gulf between the top teams and the bottom teams in the Premiership has got bigger and the teams outside the top 8 or so aren't all that. I believe with 2 more windows and just a few more quality additions we can cope at the next level. A few seasons back Reading made the transition with no big names in their side, but a good team ethic. I'm still grounded on the possibility of promotion, but believe we can do the same.

cotswoldsaint added 19:32 - Dec 29 The 89-90 side were the best I've ever seen, Razor & co leaked a few too many goals at the back but the attacking play was a joy to watch, the 4-1 demolition of Liverpool at The Dell typified the style of the team, they would more than hold their own in the current Premiership.
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A1079 added 20:23 - Dec 29

I just hope we are not complacent against Bristol City. We were poor at their ground when many seemed to expect we just had to turn up. We cannot afford to do that again either home or away. Stating the obvious I know and I don't believe Adkins treats any side other than with respect but I am not always sure about some of the players. There are no easy games, as Doncaster proved.