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Southampton Football Club is a professional football club that was formed in 1885. The roots of the club can be traced to members of St. Mary's Church Young Men's Association, who played their football at various venues in Southampton for 13 years, prior to the move to the Club's former ground, The Dell in 1898, where it remained until 2001. == Formation == In 2001 the move from The Dell to the new Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium was deemed to be a spiritual homecoming for Southampton F.C., because of the new stadium's proximity to St. Mary's Church, the church where the club was founded by members of the St Mary's Church of England Young Men's Association. Their first match took place on 21 November 1885 on a pitch in Northlands Road, where the Hampshire Bowling Club was subsequently situated, close to the County Cricket Ground; St. Mary's won 5–1 against Freemantle, with three goals from Charles Bromley and two from A. A. Fry; in goal was Ralph Ruffell, who would remain with the club for nearly ten years. St. Mary's Y.M.A., as they were usually referred to in the local press, played most of their early games on Southampton Common, and games were not infrequently interrupted by pedestrian insistent on exercising their right to roam. More important matches, such as cup games, were played either at the County Ground, Northlands Road, or the Antelope Cricket Ground in St Mary's Road. The club was originally known as St. Mary's Young Men's Association F.C. (usually abbreviated to "St. Mary's Y.M.A.") and then became simply St. Mary's F.C. in 1887–88, before adopting the name Southampton St. Mary's when the club joined the Southern League in 1894. After they won the Southern League title in 1896–97, the club became a limited company and changed their name to Southampton F.C. They won the Southern League championship for three years running between 1897 and 1899 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904. That success spanned some major changes for the Saints as they moved to a newly built £10,000 stadium called The Dell, to the North West of the city centre in 1898. Although they would spend the next 103 years there, the future was far from certain in those early days and the club had to rent the premises first before they could stump up the cash to buy the stadium in the early part of the 20th century. Good omens were quick to arrive though and before the 19th century was out the South Coast was given a taste of things to come as they reached the first of their four FA Cup Finals in 1900. On that day they went down 4–0 to Bury and two years later they would suffer a similar fate at the hands of Sheffield United as they were beaten 2–1 in a replay of the 1902 final, but it had given the club a thirst for the big occasion – albeit one that would not be truly satisfied for over seven decades. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Southampton F.C.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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