In 2003, guided by Gordon Strachan, Southampton had had their best season in recent memory, finishing in an impressive 8th place and reaching the final of the FA Cup for the first time since winning the tournament in 1976. The following year, however, Strachan resigned to take time out of the game for personal reasons and everything started to unravel for the club who, just five years later, would find themselves in administration. It all started with the appointment of Sturrock. As a player and manager with Dundee United Sturrock had built up a good reputation in Scotland before moving to the South coast to manage struggling Plymouth Argyle. Able to build his own squad and develop the team, Sturrock led Plymouth to two successive promotions up to the Championship before he was picked by Saints as Strachan's successor. Within weeks of his appointment in March 2004 he had committed the cardinal sin of defeat in the Hampshire derby to fierce rivals Portsmouth and never really won over the fans after that. Without a win in the final 5 games of the season, Saints still finished a relatively creditable 12th, but Sturrock's reputation and his relationship with the club were already in steady decline. Struggling to deal with the pressure of the step up to top flight management, there were rumours that Sturrock was suffering personal problems and had little connection with the club's senior players who pushed for a change in management. Whatever the truth of the matter, his 13 games in charge were a sharp come down in quality from the Strachan era and Sturrock was abruptly fired after just two games of the 2004-05 season. Things only went from bad to worse after that, though, as we shall see.
