Saints fans still tell me 1976 final was the best day of their lives ...now let’s do it again!
NICK HOLMES recalls the last time Southampton played in a League Cup final, in 1979, they took a 1-0 half-time lead against an apparently hungover Nottingham Forest team. ‘I’ve talked about it a few times with a couple of their players and they insist Brian Clough made them drink too much on the Friday,’ says Holmes with a laugh, a Saints player that day and still revered by fans as a one-club man who spent 14 years at the Dell.
‘Clough thought it was good for bonding, so the Forest lads had their champagne or whatever they wanted the night before.
‘They felt it! We completely outplayed them in that first half but something obviously changed at the break. John Robertson came back out and was stunning. Garry Birtles and Tony Woodcock caused us all sorts of problems and scored three goals between them.
‘I managed to get our second, very late on. It dropped on the edge of the box and I hit a half-volley.
‘That was back to 3-2 with two minutes left, but we didn’t get another chance. It’s what you’d call a consolation. Except it wasn’t. Losing any game was horrible.’
Fortunately Holmes already had another Saints occasion under his belt to provide a lifetime of memories, the 1976 76 FA Cup win against Manchester United. He hopes that final will inspire Southampton as they play United this afternoon.
‘People didn’t believelieve we could really do it in 1976,’ he says. ‘United are favourites again but upsets happen and the way Saints have made it to this final shows they are capable.
‘They’ve seen off four Premier League teams [Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Arsenal, Liverpool] and conceded no goals. Their record against United hasn’t been bad over the last few years, with a couple of wins at Old Trafford.’
Even almost 41 years on, few days pass without Holmes being approached by a Southampton fan wanting to thank him for the part he played in beating United on May 1, 1976.
He was just 21 when the Saints went to Wembley as the Second Division underdogs against the Goliaths from Old Trafford.
When Bobby Stokes scored the 83rd-minute winner, Holmes, after a 60-yard madcap dash, was the first to catch him to celebrate.
‘Most vivid is the sheer joy of our fans,’ he says. ‘I knew how they felt because I was one of them. As a boy, my dad and I had season tickets, I never missed a game.
‘My dream was to play for Saints and it came true. A few times over the years the gaffer [Lawrie McMenemy] said there were other clubs interested but I never wanted to move.’
Holmes, now 62, played in a no-frills era on something close to ‘normal’ pay. When he retired in the late Eighties, coaching and scouting offered a less-lucrative living than being a shopkeeper. He ran an open-all-hours village shop for 10 years.
He had one spell as a manager at non-League Salisbury between 2002-09 and now works as a stock control manager at a friend’s internet company.
He retains hunger for the ‘glory game’ where silverware matters above all. ‘Fans want to win trophi trophies,’ he says. ‘Present-day managers perhaps don’t rate the cups too highly. Doing well in the league is paramount.
‘But ask any supporter, certainly of Southampton, and they’ll tell you how important a trophy is. People regularly come up to me and say that day in May 1976 was the best day of their life.’
That FA Cup success remains the only major honour in Saints’ 131-year history. To commemorate the 40th anniversary last year, the team who won it — barring the late Stokes, the late Peter Osgood, and captain Peter Rodrigues, who was ill — met up for dinner and a few days together.
They even tracked down the same open top bus from the 1976 victory parade and did the journey again. Thousands of supporters flocked to see them.
As for today, he hopes manager Claude Puel will pick ‘star man this season’ Oriel Romeu, ‘great servant’ Steven Davis and homegrown James Ward-Prowse alongside Dusan Tadic — ‘the player who can unlock the game’.
He believes new striker Manolo Gabbiadini — ‘he’s sharp, he’s got finesse’ — can provide goals, and memories, for the ages.
‘They’ve got a chance,’ he says.