page_title: History of Southampton F.C.
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: History of Southampton F.C. / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: The first known photograph of St. Mary's YMA (later Southampton Football Club) taken April 1888
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: 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 Football Club, 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.
  The club's first match was played 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 the club was usually referred as in the local press, played most of its 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 the club won the Southern League title in 1896–97, it became a limited company and changed its name to Southampton F.C.
  The club won the Southern League championship for three years running between 1897 and 1899 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904. This success spanned some major changes for the Saints, as the club moved to a newly built, £10,000 stadium called The Dell, to the northwest of the city centre in 1898. Although it 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 it could stump up the cash to purchase the stadium in the early part of the 20th century.
  Good omens were quick to arrive, however, and before the 19th century closed, the South Coast was given a taste of things to come as it reached the first of their four FA Cup Finals in 1900. On that day, the club went down 4–0 to Bury and two years later would suffer a similar fate at the hands of Sheffield United as it was 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.
  In 1904, Southampton F.C. became the first British club to tour on South America to play a series of friendly matches in Argentina and Uruguay. They would be followed for other English and Scottish clubs that visited the region, contributing to the spread and develop of football in South America during the first years of the 20th century.
caption: The first known photograph of the St. Mary's team taken two weeks after the Hampshire Junior Cup final in April 1888.[1]
  (Standing: F. J. Montgomery, G. Carter, M. Warn, J. L. Sommerville,  A. A. Fry, G .C. Gandy.  Sitting: A. Varley, C. E. Bromley (Capt.), G. Muir, A. Gandy. On ground: C. Deacon, F. J. Crossley, R. Ruffell.)
   Picture by  F. G. O. Stuart.
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