Southampton Trivia
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7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Southampton trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Southampton began as a church young men's team in 1885, gave Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid their red-and-white stripes, and won the FA Cup as a Second Division side. This quiz covers the whole story: the six Southern League titles, the two early Cup finals, the bomb that cratered The Dell, England's first permanent floodlights, Ted Bates and Ron Davies, Lawrie McMenemy and Bobby Stokes in 1976, Kevin Keegan's two years, the 1984 runners-up, Le Tissier and Shearer, the 1999 Great Escape, the last goal at The Dell, Markus Liebherr and the League One rescue, Adkins and Lambert's double promotion, Pochettino and Koeman, Mané's 176-second hat-trick, van Dijk's £75 million, the two 9-0s, Russell Martin's play-off win and the 2026 spying scandal. Early questions suit anyone who has sung 'When the Saints Go Marching In'; later ones are for supporters who know their Antelope Ground from their Archers Road end: what the 'Even Season' was, which Spanish clubs owe their colours to a batch of Saints shirts, and who scored seven in one match in 1901. Good for a supporters' club night or a Hampshire pub quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on the club and its records, and each question shows its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Southampton were founded in November 1885 by members of what organisation?
A church young men's association
A church young men's association at St Mary's founded the club in November 1885 as St Mary's Y.M.A., which is why Southampton are still nicknamed the Saints.
Q 02Where did the newly formed Saints play most of their matches in the late 1880s?
The Common
The Common, the city's open parkland, hosted most early matches, with play often halted by walkers insisting on their right to cross; cup ties moved to the County Cricket Ground or the Antelope Ground.
Q 03Southampton won six titles in which league before joining the Football League in 1920?
Southern League
Southern League titles came in 1897, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903 and 1904; its leading clubs, Saints among them, were then taken in together as the Football League's new Third Division.
Q 04Which club beat Southampton 4-0 in the 1900 FA Cup final, the Saints' first?
Bury
Bury won 4-0; Southampton, then outside the Football League, reached the final again two years later and lost to Sheffield United after a replay.
Q 05Which two Spanish clubs are said to owe their red-and-white colours to 50 Southampton shirts bought in 1909?
Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid
Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid, then Bilbao's offshoot in the capital, wore blue and white until, in the usual telling, Juan Elorduy came home with 50 Southampton shirts; a 2023 study argues they came from another English club.
Q 06George Thomas, who built The Dell in 1898, sold what for a living?
Fish
Fish was his trade: Thomas, a fishmonger and Southampton director, secured the land himself and took charge of the building work; Saints then played there for 103 years.
Q 07What made Southampton's 1922-23 Second Division campaign a perfectly 'even' season?
14 wins, 14 draws and 14 defeats
14 wins, 14 draws and 14 defeats, with 40 goals scored and 40 conceded, left Southampton 11th of 22 clubs on exactly 42 points from 42 games.
Q 08Why did Southampton play the rest of the 1940-41 season away from The Dell?
A bomb cratered the pitch
A bomb cratered the pitch on 30 November 1940, leaving an 18-foot hole in a penalty area; while it was repaired Saints played away, even staging one 'home' cup tie at Portsmouth's Fratton Park.
Q 09In October 1950 The Dell staged a friendly against Bournemouth to show off which new feature?
Permanent floodlighting
Permanent floodlighting lit The Dell for that friendly on 31 October 1950; the first official match under the lights, a reserve game against Tottenham, did not come until a year later.
Q 10Which striker set a Southampton record with 39 league goals in the 1959-60 Third Division title season?
Derek Reeves
Derek Reeves scored 39 of the champions' 106 league goals, a record for the division as well as the club, and four more in a 5-1 FA Cup win at top-flight Manchester City.
Q 11Which striker scored 30 of Southampton's 85 goals as they first reached the First Division in 1966?
Martin Chivers
Martin Chivers scored all 30 in his first 29 league games, four of them in a 9-3 win over Wolves, as Ted Bates's side finished runners-up to Manchester City.
Q 12Southampton's first European campaign, the 1969-70 Fairs Cup, ended in the third round against which English club, the holders?
Newcastle United
Newcastle United, the holders, went through on away goals after a 0-0 draw at St James' Park and a 1-1 draw at The Dell; Southampton had beaten Rosenborg and Vitória de Guimarães to get there.
Q 13Who scored Southampton's winner against Manchester United in the 1976 FA Cup final?
Bobby Stokes
Q 21Which former England manager took over Southampton in 2000, then quit for Tottenham a year later?
Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle, England manager from 1996 to 1999, kept Saints in the Premier League, then left in March 2001 for Tottenham, saying it was the only club he would have left Southampton for.
Q 22How was the last league goal at The Dell scored, in a 3-2 win in May 2001?
A Le Tissier volley
A Le Tissier volley in the last minute won the farewell league match 3-2, a fitting goodbye to the ground Southampton had called home since 1898.
Q 23Southampton reached the 2003 FA Cup final, losing 1-0 in Cardiff, in a season of 23 league goals from which striker?
James Beattie
Bobby Stokes ran on to Jim McCalliog's pass late in the game to beat Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley, a shock win for a Second Division side relegated two years earlier.
Q 14Southampton's 1979 League Cup final ended in a 3-2 defeat to which club?
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest, the holders, came from behind at Wembley after David Peach had put Saints ahead; Southampton had only returned to the top flight the previous summer.
Q 15Which England captain did Lawrie McMenemy sign for Southampton in 1980?
Kevin Keegan
Kevin Keegan, twice European Footballer of the Year, was unveiled as a Southampton player in February 1980, five months before he could leave Hamburg and formally sign.
Q 16Southampton finished runners-up in 1983-84, three points behind which champions?
Liverpool
Liverpool finished on 80 points to Southampton's 77; Lawrie McMenemy's side, in the Second Division only six years earlier, also reached that season's FA Cup semi-finals.
Q 17Which Southampton player was voted PFA Young Player of the Year in 1990?
Matthew Le Tissier
Matthew Le Tissier, born in Guernsey, spent his whole professional career at Southampton, from 1986 to 2002, and says he has no regrets about missing out on major honours to stay.
Q 18Alan Shearer announced himself in April 1988 by scoring a hat-trick against which club at the age of 17?
Arsenal
Arsenal were beaten 4-2 at The Dell as the 17-year-old Shearer, making his full league debut after two substitute appearances, took Jimmy Greaves's record as the top flight's youngest hat-trick scorer.
Q 19Which two Souness signings each scored twice when Southampton beat Manchester United 6-3 in 1996?
Egil Østenstad and Eyal Berkovic
Egil Østenstad and Eyal Berkovic each scored twice against the champions; Østenstad thought he had a hat-trick until a panel ruled his third an own goal, though he kept the match ball.
Q 20Which striker, signed weeks earlier, scored both goals against Everton on the final day of Southampton's 1998-99 'Great Escape'?
Marian Pahars
Marian Pahars, a Latvian signed from Skonto Riga that March, scored twice in the 2-0 win that kept Saints up; he later said he spoke no English and had no idea how much the game mattered.
James Beattie's 23 Premier League goals made him the division's top English scorer and won him an England debut that February; the final was in Cardiff while Wembley was being rebuilt.
Q 24Which manager did Rupert Lowe appoint in December 2004?
Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp had resigned at Portsmouth only two weeks earlier; he took Saints down in May 2005, ending 27 years in the top flight, then walked out that December and went back to Portsmouth.
Q 25Which rugby union coach did Rupert Lowe bring onto Southampton's staff in 2005?
Clive Woodward
Clive Woodward, who had coached England to the 2003 Rugby World Cup, was a friend of Lowe and came to professional football with no experience of it.
Q 26Which 17-year-old left-back broke into Southampton's side in 2006-07?
Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale scored five goals for Saints, free-kicks his speciality, before Tottenham paid an initial £5 million in 2007; six years later Real Madrid bought him for a fee widely reported as a world record.
Q 27Which businessman bought Southampton out of administration in 2009, a year before his death?
Markus Liebherr
Markus Liebherr, the German-born son of a crane-making family, rescued the club in July 2009 and died in August 2010, leaving it to his daughter Katharina.
Q 28Southampton's 4-1 Wembley win over Carlisle in March 2010, their first silverware since 1976, came in which competition?
The Football League Trophy
The Football League Trophy, then sponsored as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, capped a League One season Saints had begun on minus 10 points after their parent company went into administration.
Q 29Rickie Lambert joined Southampton for about £1 million in August 2009 from which club?
Bristol Rovers
Bristol Rovers sold Lambert to League One Saints; four years later the striker, who had once worked in a beetroot factory, scored with his first touch for England.
Q 30Nigel Adkins had twice won promotion with which club before joining Southampton in 2010?
Scunthorpe United
Scunthorpe United, where Adkins had been the club physiotherapist before taking charge, won the League One title under him in 2007 and went up again through the 2009 play-offs.