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Hughie FISHER

Hughie Fisher - Southampton FC - League appearances.

Photo/Foto: George Herringshaw

Date: 19 August 1972

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    • POSITION
      Midfielder
    • DATE OF BIRTH
      Sunday, 09 January 1944
    • PLACE OF BIRTH
      Glasgow, Scotland
  • CLUBS
  • Southampton FC
    • Club Career Dates
      1967-1977
    • League Debut
      Saturday, 18th March 1967 at Everton (Aged: 23)
    • Club Career
      297 League apps (+5 as sub), 7 goals
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Hughie FISHER - Southampton FC - League appearances.

Hughie Fisher is pictured playing for Southampton Football Club during their

1-1 draw with Coventry City at Highfield Road.


 

Blackpool:   1963-1964     Played   1     Scored   0   goals   (Division 1)
     1964-1965     Played   3     Scored   0   goals   (Division 1)
     1965-1966     Played   27     Scored   0   goals   (Division 1)
     1966-1967     Played   23     Scored   1   goal   (Division 1)
 
Transferred in March 1967
 
Southampton:   1966-1967     Played   11     Scored   0   goals   (Division 1)
     1967-1968     Played   30     Scored   1   goal   (Division 1)
     1968-1969     Played   12     Scored   0   goals   (Division 1)
     1969-1970     Played   36     Scored   0   goals   (Division 1)
     1970-1971     Played   42     Scored   1   goal   (Division 1)
     1971-1972     Played   11     Scored   2   goals   (Division 1)
     1972-1973     Played   42     Scored   0   goals   (Division 1)
     1973-1974     Played   42     Scored   2   goals   (Division 1)
     1974-1975     Played   34     Scored   1   goal   (Division 2)
     1975-1976     Played   29     Scored   0   goals   (Division 2)
     1976-1977     Played   13     Scored   0   goals   (Division 2)
 
Transferred to Southport in March 1977
 

 

Career at Southampton.

 

After defeat by Blackpool, Southampton manager Ted Bates tried to sign a player to boost their midfield, having an offer of £75,000 for Howard Kendall rejected by Preston. He then turned his attention to Fisher, who had helped to rip Southampton apart on New Year's Eve, and he was signed for £35,000 at the beginning of March, making his debut (together with goalkeeper Eric Martin) on 18 March 1967 away to Everton (who by then had themselves signed Kendall). He made a good debut and remained ever-present to the end of the 1966–67 season when Saints narrowly avoided relegation in their first season in Division 1, thanks largely to the goal-scoring talents of Ron Davies (37 league goals) and Martin Chivers (22 league goals).

In 1967–68 he was the regular at No. 4, but the following season he lost his place to Fred Kemp. By November 1969 he had re-established himself as first choice in midfield and was ever-present in the 1970–71 season as Saints finished 7th in the First Division.

 

On 2 October 1971, he broke his leg in a collision with Arsenal’s goalkeeper Bob Wilson,thus ending a sequence of 50 consecutive appearances. Fisher was then side-lined for the rest of the season, when again Saints struggled to avoid relegation. He was restored to the starting line-up the following season and barely missed a game over the next 3 seasons as Saints finally slipped back into Division 2 in 1974.

During the summer of 1975, he played in the United States with Denver Dynamos in the NASL.

 

His greatest moment in a Southampton shirt came in the 1975–76 season. The Saints were having a mediocre season in Division 2, but on 3 January 1976, in an F.A. Cup third round match at the Dell, Saints were 1–0 down against Aston Villa when, in the 89th minute of the game, the ball was crossed into the area by David Peach. The ball was touched on by Pat Earles to Mick Channon and back to Fisher, who shot the ball into the goal through a crowd of defenders. This goal, Fisher's first for 16 months, kept his side in the competition.

 

Southampton progressed through the remaining rounds of the cup to reach the final. Fisher had played in all the rounds up to the semi-final, but had to withdraw from the starting line-up, in favour of Paul Gilchrist, with a pelvic strain. For both the semi-final and final on 1 May 1976 Fisher was on the bench, as Southampton went on to win their first trophy.

 

At the start of the following season, Fisher was still carrying the injury that had prevented him playing in the cup final, but he still appeared in most of the league games until 20 November 1976, when he played what was to be his last game for Southampton in a 3–1 home defeat by Bolton Wanderers. By this time, Steve Williams was beginning to make a name for himself in midfield and shortly afterwards Saints signed Fisher's former Blackpool team-mate, Alan Ball. As the pairing of Ball and Williams became a virtual fixture in midfield, Fisher became a regular in the reserves, together with several other members of the team that had won the cup only a season earlier.

 

In all he had played 366 games for Southampton, scoring 11 goals and over his 10 years with the club he played a massive part in Saints’ survival and ultimate establishment among England's elite football clubs.

 

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;  from Wikipedia.