Southampton Football Club is a professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football, after achieving promotion in the 2024 EFL Championship play-off final. Its home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which it was based at The Dell. The team play in red and white shirts. They have been nicknamed "The Saints" because of the club's beginnings as a church football team at St Mary's Church. Southampton shares a long-standing South Coast derby rivalry with Portsmouth, in part due to geographic proximity and both cities' respective maritime histories.
St Mary's Stadium is a seated but also safe-standing football stadium in Southampton, Hampshire, England, which has been the home stadium of Premier League club Southampton since 2001. The stadium has a capacity of 32,384 and is currently the largest football stadium in South East England.
Edric Thornton Bates MBE was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. He spent the majority of his career at Southampton F.C. as a player, manager, director and president which earned him the sobriquet Mr. Southampton.
Thomas Robert Parker was an English footballer and manager. Parker played as a right back for clubs Arsenal and Southampton in his playing career. As a manager he was at the helm of Southampton as well as Norwich City.
Terence Lionel Paine is an English former professional footballer. Originally from Winchester, Paine is best known for his career with Southampton, for whom he made over 800 appearances in 18 seasons with the club. He played primarily as a winger, but was also comfortable in other midfield positions and as a forward.
George Kay was an English football player and manager of Luton Town, Southampton and Liverpool.
Nigel Howard Adkins is an English professional football manager and former footballer and physiotherapist. He is currently the manager and technical director at Tranmere Rovers.
John Farrell was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Farrell played in the Football League for Stoke and New Brighton Tower and played a major part in Southern League club Southampton's major cup runs at the turn of the 20th century.
James Alfred McIntyre was an English footballer who became manager at Southampton, Coventry City and Fulham.
Harry James Osman was an English footballer who played as an outside left for Southampton for two seasons in the 1930s and went on to become manager of Winchester City where he "discovered" future England international Terry Paine.
John Arkison McIlwaine was a Scottish footballer who played as a centre half for Portsmouth, where he captained the team in the 1929 FA Cup Final, before moving to south coast rivals Southampton. He also played for Falkirk and Llanelly, whom he helped win the Welsh Football League championship in 1932–33.
Douglas McGibbon was an English footballer who played at centre forward for Southampton, Fulham and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic in the years just after the Second World War. He once scored six goals in a match, one of which was timed at under 5 seconds from the second half kick-off.
Charles Robson was an English cricketer, who played first-class cricket as a wicket-keeper for Middlesex between 1881 and 1883, and for Hampshire from 1891 to 1906, for whom he served as captain for three years from 1900 to 1902. He was later associated with W. G. Grace's London County team. He was also secretary to Southampton St Mary's Football Club for one season, from 1895 to 1896, and was one of the founding directors of the company which was established in 1897 when the club changed its name to Southampton Football Club.
Hugh Murray Lindsay is a former amateur footballer who played as an inside-forward for Great Britain in the 1960 Summer Olympics held in Rome, as well as making two Football League appearances for Southampton in 1961, making him the last amateur player to play for Southampton.
Aaron Martin is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back.
The 1921–22 season was the 27th season of competitive football by Southampton, and the club's second in the Football League. After finishing second in the league the previous season, Southampton achieved promotion to the Second Division as champions of the newly regionalised Third Division South. Following a false start to the campaign, the Saints quickly asserted their dominance in the league when they went on a club record 19-game unbeaten run until the end of 1921. The club also remained unbeaten at The Dell for the entirety of the league season, as well as conceding a Football League record low 21 goals in 42 games, which remained in place until the 1978–79 season. Southampton finished atop the league table with 23 wins, 15 draws and four losses, ahead of runners-up Plymouth Argyle only on goal average.
The 1922–23 season was the 28th season of competitive football by Southampton, and the club's first in the Second Division of the Football League. Having secured promotion from the Third Division South as champions the previous season, the largely unchanged Saints team avoided relegation comfortably and finished in the middle of the league table in their first season as a second-flight club. After a poor start to the campaign in which they picked up only one point from their first five matches, Southampton began to improve in form and move up from the Second Division relegation zone. The club picked up several wins over higher-placed opponents challenging for the division's two promotion places, allowing them to finish mid-table. Southampton finished in 11th place with 14 wins, 14 draws and 14 losses, and an even goal average.
The 1930–31 season was the 36th season of competitive football by Southampton, and the club's ninth in the Second Division of the Football League. After securing their place as a top-half side in the Second Division over the past two seasons, the Saints began to lose their footing on the league and dropped to ninth in the division. The club failed to win any of their first four games of the campaign, briefly struggling to stay above the two relegation places, but had soon made their way to the top half of the division where they remained for the rest of the season. The Saints were unable to challenge for promotion to the First Division, however, briefly reaching the top five but remaining a long way off the top two sides. Southampton finished the season in ninth place in the table with 19 wins, six draws and 17 losses.
The 1931–32 season was the 37th season of competitive football by Southampton, and the club's tenth in the Second Division of the Football League. After finishing in the top half of the Second Division league table for the past three seasons, the Saints struggled to challenge in 1931–32 and ended up finishing in 14th place, closer to relegation than promotion. Southampton's first season with manager George Kay started strongly, as the team picked up four wins in their first five matches and reached the top of the Second Division league table for the first time in the club's history. Form quickly deteriorated, however, and the club was briefly involved in a fight for survival in the new year. After picking up a few more wins, Southampton secured their safety and finished in 14th place with 14 wins, 14 draws and 14 losses.
The 1933–34 season was the 39th season of competitive football by Southampton, and the club's 12th in the Second Division of the Football League. The season was another mediocre campaign for the Saints, who finished in the bottom half of the Second Division table for the fifth time since joining the league. The club equalled their Football League record of 15 home wins from 21 games, but failed to win a single away fixture all season, continuing a club record run of 33 games without an away which started late the last season and continued until December 1934. Despite starting the season strongly and spending months in the top half of the table, Southampton finished the 1933–34 season in 14th place with 15 wins, eight draws and 19 losses, just five points above Millwall in the first relegation spot.
England 
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