Eventually the club found its first enclosed venue and this was called the "Antelope Ground" in the St Mary's area of town. A former home of Hampshire Cricket Club, it was situated on St Mary's Road roughly opposite British Gas on land now partly occupied by a large secure storage facility and bordered by the Royal South Hants Hospital. . With a record crowd of 12,000 in 1895/96 the club looked to purchase the ground outright but before they could achieve this the land was sold and the club found themselves homeless.

The cricket club came to the rescue and Saints played at the "County Ground" which ironically saw its last season of cricket in 2000 as Hants moved to their new headquarters at the Rose Bowl in West End in 2001 only months before Saints moved to St Mary's. The club was aware of the need for a permanent home however and when plans fell through to move to rivals Freemantle's ground, Saints were saved by an enterprising fish merchant called George Thomas who leased a piece of land and built a ground on it and this was the "Dell".

The ground was seen as although not being the biggest but having the most luxurious facilities in the land at the time. The Dell was opened on 3rd September 1898 and the first opponents were Brighton United and we won 4-1. Saints continued to lease the ground until 1926 when having purchased it outright they embarked upon building a new West Stand that after opening in 1928 has remained pretty much the same since.

The club could not afford any further building work but this was taken out of their hands when the East stand burned down after the last home game in 1929, probably on the back of the insurance payout the club constructed what is the current east stand and this opened in September 1929. The Dell had a supposed capacity of 35,000. Remembering that this was in a recession and people were thinner then, although this figure was never tested(not officially anyway).

During World War Two the ground suffered many hits from enemy bombers and the club were forced to play their home games away and even had to play at Fratton Park which escaped enemy action during the conflict. After the war with crowds flocking back to football the club looked on ways to enlarge the ground and it was then that the famous "Chocolate Boxes" as they were affectionately known were built.

Milton Road End With Chocolate Box 1974

Floodlights came to the ground in 1951 and one of the first competitive matches to be held under lights in Britain took place when 13,654 saw a reserve fixture against Spurs on 1st October of that year.

For the next 27 years the ground remained pretty much unchanged with the record attendance of 31,044 being set for the visit of Man Utd on October 8th 1969.

In 1978 bench seats were installed under the east stand in the Milton Road half and the Archers end was fenced off. The following year the West Stand was given a similar revamp, in 1980 the Archers end was completely rebuilt with the terracing being lowered to give a better view, and again the Milton was rebuilt in 1981. This bought the capacity down to 24,000 and although still one of the worst grounds in the top division it was a lot better than previously.

The next change came in 1993 when the Archers was demolished and an all seater stand rose in its place. This was to be nicknamed the "Bike Shed" due to its small size,

AERIAL VIEW 1994

Under the West and East stands also saw proper tip up seating installed throughout their entirety. The Milton followed suite in 1994 and a strange wedge shaped structure was built with the idea that if the club did not relocate then the other half could be tacked on as it is little known that in this event the club had been in talks with the City Council and had plans drawn up that would have brought the capacity up to about 24,000 although by the clubs own admission all the stands would have slightly odd shapes.

MILTON ROAD STAND BUILT 1994

On 19th May 2001 came the last ever competitive game at the Dell as Arsenal were the visitors and it could be said that the old ground saved the most dramatic ending for the finale, with the score locked at two goals apiece and Matthew Le Tissier brought on for a supposed cameo role as the game entered injury time he swivelled and unleashed a shot into the top corner that sent the crowd wild, this coould only happen at Southampton.