Editing Southampton F.C. (section)

===Foundation and Southern League (1885–1920)===
Southampton were originally founded at [[St. Mary's Church, Southampton|St. Mary's Church]], on 21 November 1885 by members of the St. Mary's Church of England Young Men's Association.

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|The Common]] where games were frequently interrupted by pedestrians insistent on exercising their right to roam. More important matches, such as cup games, were played either at the [[County Ground, Southampton|County Cricket Ground]] in Northlands Road or the [[Antelope Ground|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 in English football|1887–88]], before adopting the name '''Southampton St. Mary's''' when the club joined the [[Southern Football League|Southern League]] in 1894.

For the start of their League career, Saints signed several new players on professional contracts, including [[Charles Baker (footballer)|Charles Baker]], [[Alf Littlehales]] and [[Lachie Thomson]] from [[Stoke F.C.|Stoke]] and [[Fred Hollands]] from [[Millwall F.C.|Millwall]].<ref name = "Chalk16">{{cite book | title=Saints – A complete record|last= Chalk|first= Gary|author2=Holley, Duncan | publisher= Breedon Books| year=1987| isbn= 0-907969-22-4 |pages=16–17}}</ref> After winning the Southern League title in [[1896–97 in English football|1896–97]], the club became a limited company and was renamed '''Southampton F.C.'''

Southampton won the Southern League championship for three years running between 1897 and 1899 and again in 1901, 1903 and 1904. During this time, they moved to a newly built £10,000 stadium called [[The Dell, Southampton|The Dell]], to the northwest 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 afford to buy the stadium in the early part of the 20th century. The club reached the first of their four [[FA Cup Final]]s in [[1900 FA Cup final|1900]]. On that day, they went down 4–0 to [[Bury F.C.|Bury]] and two years later they would suffer a similar fate at the hands of [[Sheffield United F.C.|Sheffield United]] as they were beaten 2–1 in a replay of the [[1902 FA Cup final|1902 final]]. Reaching those finals gave Southampton recognition, even internationally: in 1909, an [[Athletic Bilbao]] representative who played for affiliated team [[Atlético Madrid]] purchased 50 Saints shirts during a trip to England, which were shared between the two squads. This early Southampton connection is the reason why the colours of both Spanish clubs became red and white, as they are nowadays.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CONNECTIONS: Southampton and Athletic Club |url=https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2016-06-23/connections-southampton-and-athletic-club |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022032239/https://southamptonfc.com/news/2016-06-23/connections-southampton-and-athletic-club |archive-date=22 October 2017 |access-date=26 November 2019 |website=Southampton FC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thesefootballtimes.co/2019/09/16/the-football-kit-family-tree-the-stories-behind-clubs-famous-colours/|title=The football kit family tree: the stories behind clubs' famous colours|date=16 September 2019|website=These Football Times|access-date=26 November 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://as.com/futbol/2010/01/09/mas_futbol/1263022051_850215.html|title=El Southampton sirvió de modelo cuando se imitaba al Blackburn|last=AS|first=Diario|date=9 January 2010|website=AS.com|language=es|access-date=26 November 2019}}</ref>