1894–95 season | |||
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President | Dr Henry William Russell Bencraft | ||
Secretary | Cecil Knight | ||
Stadium | Antelope Ground | ||
Southern League | 3rd | ||
FA Cup | Round 1 | ||
Top goalscorer |
League: Jack Angus, Charles Baker, Herbert Ward (6) All: Charles Baker (12) |
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Highest home attendance | 7,000 vs Nottingham Forest (2 February 1895) (FA Cup) | ||
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The 1894–95 season was the tenth since the foundation of Southampton St. Mary's F.C. and their first in league football, being founder members of the Southern League.
They finished the league season in third place behind the champions, Millwall Athletic, and Luton Town. In the FA Cup they reached the First Round Proper for the first time, where they were defeated by Nottingham Forest, of the Football League.
In 1894, Southampton St Mary's were one of the nine founder members of the Southern League, which had been created to enable clubs in southern England who were not admitted to the Football League, to play competitive football on a regular basis. St. Mary's were not originally invited to join the new league and their initial application to join had been rejected, even though seven of the original nine clubs were wholly or mainly amateur, whereas Southampton had employed their first professional footballer in 1892 and by now the team was composed mainly of professionals. Because of the interest in the new league, a Second Division was to be created, which Southampton were considering applying to join when the 2nd Scots Guards withdrew and St. Mary's were invited to take their place.
In his preview of the forthcoming season in the Southampton Times, "Ariel" predicted:
It is very wonderful to notice the pertinacity with which the prophets continue to prophecy. Southampton St. Mary's have not yet played in the competition, but their position at the end of the season has already been positively fixed by some people, and I have not heard anybody place them lower than third on the list, Millwall Athletic and Luton only taking precedence.
For the start of their League career, Saints signed several new players on professional contracts, including Charles Baker and Alf Littlehales from Stoke and Fred Hollands from Millwall.