Southampton - time to forgive?

[Goldstone Rapper]

Where are you on this, Peanut Roaster?

[yt]BlWkrRbeb_o[/yt]

 

[The Peanut Roaster]

No, it was a shot near the end of the game when we had a corner in the South West corner, ( I wasn't allowed in the North Stand then ) where the invalid carriages used to go.

I was right by the flag, waiting for the end to run on, and the camera zoomed in on the player with me right by him.

 

[Pot noodles for everyone]

before you start preaching "bollocks" palace are only our rivals if you are under 40 or thereabouts.

perhaps people a little older than you have the history to care or are we no longer categorised as "good fans"


btw I have an equal dislike of Palace, Reading, Swindon, Bournemouth and Aldershot all of who - in my time - were much more our direct rivals

Thanks for the compliment. I'm over 40 though and I'm not preaching either. Any poll that's ever done on here has Palace as our rivals. Palace is the only team we regularly sing about hating and I don't recall chants about Reading, Swindon, Aldershot or Bournemouth being sung ever at Withdean or Gillingham. Can't recall any at Goldstone either - certainly not in the late 80s to 90s.

Any rivalry we ever has with any of the others has truly been usurped with hatred for the one true enemy in Norwood. To pretend otherwise is frankly pointless.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Before palace there was a healthy contemp of Luton and games between the two would often start and end with a bout of fisticuffs.

 

[HoveHorace]

I'm still trying to find the bugger at the back of the North Stand that started the rumour that Southampton had scored with ten mins left. Hopes crushed.

 

[Fef]

Along with being jilted by the lovely Carol Phillips, this day was one of the most disappointing days in my younger life. I couldn't really give a monkey's about her any more, - she's probably vastly overweight with six kids by now - but I can never forgive, nor forget Southampton or Spurs for stitching us up by engineering a draw.

 

[Biscuit]

No bloody way and why even suggest it this season of all seasons?!!

 

[clapham_gull]

I've always disliked them alongside Palace, I even look out for their scores for a defeat. Since the 70s.

I'm completely indifferent towards Portsmouth.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Mr rapper, you have to remember that, before the game, the situation was that both saints & Spurs were in the promotion spots and a draw would mean they both stayed there. Any losers and an Albion win would see us taking the place of the loser.

Saints and Spurs were both very good teams and both capable of winning. It's easy to see why, if "official" or not, the cleverest way was to hold onto that point each and they'ed both be winners. Also, as the saints fan said earlier, there was real fear of crowd trouble, which was rife in those days. A draw suited everybody connected with saints & Spurs.

I also thought there was a penalty miss in that game, but maybe I'm mistaked as nobody else has mentioned it.

A little aside on our game with Blackpool. 'pool had been riding high in the table but had a dramtic loss of form after january. That said, they didn't really feel in too much danger but, way back then, postponed games would often be tacked on to the end of the season and, after this final day, orient still had a couple of games to play, which they won and Blackpool ended up relegated.

 

[generation x]

This. Spot on Freddie.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Cheers Freddie.

It would rather have added to the sense of conspiracy if a penalty had been missed!

I've just looked at the results between Brighton, Southampton and Tottenham that season. Obviously, it doesn't prove anything, but with exception of our 3-1 win over Spurs at the Goldstone, all the other games ended in draws, which may suggest that these promotion rivals were skilful at cancelling each other out. I don't doubt that both teams were cautious on the day. Must have been a very tense atmosphere, for the reasons suggested earlier. What I was questioning was the the level of certainty of the impression that the game was 'fabricated' into a 'comfy 0-0' draw as the original poster put it. Or that the teams 'settled down to a game of volleyball over the half way line' as Jim D says. In the past, I've heard the term 'fix' used in relation to that match. I suppose anything would look like a 'fix' or a half-hearted effort compared to the whole-hearted efforts of the Albion against Blackpool that day. If Alan Mullery's speech was anything to go by, what's interesting is that the impression of a fix was solidified before MOTD was on that evening.

Thanks for the background on Blackpool's team. I hadn't realised they'd been doing well earlier in the season. The way Pete Suddaby was skinned by Peter Ward, who'd have thought he'd be the one steadying the ship in the top division two years later?

 

[cyanide-sid]

As I remember it there was 15 minutes of action followed by 75 minutes of long ball stuff with each team playing one up front. Not that I blame the cheating, conniving cnuts. I was in front of the old radio Brighton box and Eric Steele was telling us that NO there was no score and that the 'cheers' going up where unfounded.
Maybe the most gutted I`ve ever felt leaving a football ground

 

[AnotherArch]

Never forget, never forgive.
I'd "love it, just love it" if Huddersfield could get up before we play them and so if Gus and Clark could patch up their differences, they could then walk arm in arm around the pitch !
Mind you, as it turned out, the extra season in the Second Diivision probably made us stronger to be able to survive in the First than if we had have gone up that day.

 

[colinz]

Mr rapper, you have to remember that, before the game, the situation was that both saints & Spurs were in the promotion spots and a draw would mean they both stayed there. Any losers and an Albion win would see us taking the place of the loser.

My recollection of that game is that Spurs had to lose, for us to clinch the final promotion spot.
Southampton had already clinched promotion even if they lost the game. It was this that made it such a bitter pill to swallow.
I remember thinking maybe it was pay back for Alan Ball, for when the Saints played at the Goldstone. 25,000 fans chanting, "We all agree Alan Ball is a Wanker". I think it would piss me off.

What would be great is if Albion had to beat Huddersfield for the Saints to go up, and we play out a tame nil all draw, having already clinched top spot.
But some how I don't think Gus would allow it.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

My recollection of that game is that Spurs had to lose, for us to clinch the final promotion spot.
Southampton had already clinched promotion even if they lost the game. It was this that made it such a bitter pill to swallow.
I remember thinking maybe it was pay back for Alan Ball, for when the Saints played at the Goldstone. 25,000 fans chanting, "We all agree Alan Ball is a Wanker". I think it would piss me off.

What would be great is if Albion had to beat Huddersfield for the Saints to go up, and we play out a tame nil all draw, having already clinched top spot.
But some how I don't think Gus would allow it.

Freddie has it right. Southampton had not yet clinched promotion.

Interesting that you mention Alan Ball. On one of the accounts of the game, as told by an Albion fan, Alan Ball was the only Southampton player trying to win the game rather than accept a draw. But because of this, so this version goes, his team-mates stopped passing to him.

 

[colinz]

English 1977 division 2 Football league

For Saints to have missed out they would of had to lose to Spurs by a few goals, & Brighton to have beaten Blackpool by a few, they only had a remote mathematical chance of missing out had they lost to Spurs.
Their GD was +6 better than Brighton's. They are guilty as charged.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

That was seriously close at the bottom of the division, as well as the top.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I also remember playing Blackpool (maybe the year before) and they had a keeper called Ian Hednesford. He was only a kid at the time and the North Stand ripped the piss out of him. But he was brilliant and bantered back with us the whole half. He was even chatting with us during the game. Endeared me towards Blackpool.

 

[colinz]

Spurs can probably look back on their 9 nil win over Bristol Rovers as the game which got them promotion. (as well as the farcical Saints game )

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I remember going to the Rovers game a week or two later expecting a goal fest, I think we drew 1-1? Or won 1-0... but we didn't emulate the Tottscum result!