Southampton 95-97: The Saints were assigned PL code "17" and received sixteen sculpts in total. Corinthian released nine players in stores, those players were; Matt Le Tissier, Bruce Grobbelaar, Jim Magilton, Francis Benali, Ken Monkou, Neil Shipperley, Barry Venison, Neil Heaney and Manager Graeme Souness. The remaining unreleased Masters were Simon Charlton, Jason Dodd, Richard Hall, Gordon Watson, Neil Maddison, Dave Beasant and Mark Walters. Walters and Hall were particularly unlucky not to receive any kind of release as Walters was originally planned for Liverpool and Hall was in line for a West Ham release, both Masters exist in these kits.   

Custom Sculpts: With sixteen slots taken by all the released and the masters, I've got plenty of saints players to make. A real disappointment was Terry Hurlock had left Southampton by the time 1995 came around, I always thought he would have made a great figure. Only one player made the switch to Southampton whilst they wore this kit and that was  Robbie Slater (who in himself is another unreleased Master). Instead of an assistant manager I've opted to make Dave Merrington since he was in charge for the whole of 95-96 before being replaced by Souness. Alan Neilsen, Tommy Widdrington, Matthew Oakley, Egil Ostenstad, Claus Lundekvam, Eyal Berkovic, Ulrich Van Gobbel and Richard Dryden make up the complete squad which I feel gives a balanced reflection of Southampton's average team selection over both seasons.

Kit Usage: Southampton debuted their new kit at the beginning of the 95-96 campaign in which they lost 4-3 to Nottingham Forest at The Dell. Colin Cooper opened the scoring for Forest before Le Tissier levelled from the spot. Ian Woan and Bryan Roy put the visitors 3-1 up before half time. After the break Le Tissier scored another penalty,  Bryan Roy netted his brace before Le Tissier completed his hatrick. Southampton wore this kit until the final day of the 96-97 season where they lost 1-0 to Aston Villa at Villa Park with Richard Dryden being the unfortunate man to score an own goal.

Achievements 95-96:
Premier League: 17th
FA Cup: Quarter Finals (2-0 loss to Manchester United)
League Cup: R4 (2-1 loss to Reading)

 

Achievements 96-97:
Premier League: 16th
FA Cup: R3 (1-0 loss to Reading)
League Cup: Quarter Finals (2-1 replay loss to Stockport County)

A terrible time for Southampton in this kit, however, regardless of their struggles they did manage to survive relegation. Reading also proved to be a thorn in their side, causing The Saints to exit the League Cup in 95-96 and the FA Cup in 96-97. If we look past the relegation battles, some interesting things did happen to Southampton during this time, most notably when George Weah's "cousin" Ali Dia was touted to Graeme Souness. After a call from Weah to Souness asking him to give his cousin a chance, Ali Dia turned out for Southampton against Leeds, after one very dubious training practice he still made the bench. The truth was that George Weah was not George Weah,...George Weah was actually Ali Dia's friend from university pretending to be Weah and was calling all premier League clubs in London and the South. Souness took the bait. He played 55 minutes for Southampton, coming on as a substitute and was taken off in the same game - the substitute was substituted and was never seen at Southampton again. Oh how I'm still tempted to sculpt this man, the famous number 33, I just might sneak him in as a secret unlockable somewhere on this site....   

Make & Sponsor: Southampton's kit was supplied by Pony and Sanderson (Retail & Manufacturing Software) sponsored them. The kit was very well replicated. The v-neck when buttoned means the red striping continues all the way until it meets with the center of the collar but when opened gives the appearance of a white "V". Corinthian got this right and left the detail in give most collars were open on the figures - aside from Francis Benali who's center red line usually comes right up to the V base (strange given that Venison is in the same pose and the red line is cut short). Another nice fact is that the long sleeve variation of the kit had a band of red around the sleeve ends and these are present on Le Tissier figures. The socks should have always stared with red at the top, but Corinthian started with white so the sequence isn't correct but it's a minor thing. The red vertical stripe down the side had Pony's logo in black font that was centered, so maybe two thin vertical lines would have been a better choice but I'm not marking it down for this. The badge should have sat on the second white line but often this line was too close to the sleeve and so Tampo printing here would have been difficult - it would have also heavily depended on the paint job underneath and where the lines were placed prior to Tampo printing, so Corinthian chose a black ink so it did not matter if it fell on Red or White. Really (if all was lined up correctly) a negative of the badge and a red ink would have suited the kit better but the alignment issues and all the variables hampered this.
Rating: 9/10

Pack Releases:

Single Blisters:
All nine players were available in single blister format

SN01: Le Tissier (5029310201179)
SN02: Grobbelaar (5029310223379)
SN03: Magilton (5029310212571)
SN04: Monkou (5029310234177)
SN05: Benali (5029310285919)
SN07: Shipperley (5029310285933)
SN09: Heaney (5029310285957)
SN12: Venison (5029310285988)
SN14: Souness (5029310504331)

4 Packs:

Only Souness is excluded from the two 4 packs issued

SN4A: Le Tissier, Benali, Magilton, Grobbelaar (5029310285995)
SN4B: Monkou, Shipperley, Venison, Heaney (5029310286008)

12 Pack:
N/A