The Saints also played four friendly matches during the campaign, beating Aldershot Command 4–0 and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic 1–0, drawing 1–1 with Exeter City, and losing 3–2 to Guildford United.
[4] Taylor soon switched to the left side, with fellow new arrival Dick Rowley taking over for the rest of the season after joining from Swindon Town.
[14] Goalkeeper Harry Yeomans also left the club and retired from football altogether, joining the Southampton police force after less than four years as a professional player.
[16] The home side took the lead after 21 minutes through Willie Haines, who scored again in the second half after Sam Taylor had equalised with a goal on his debut before the break.
[17] New signing Murdoch McKenzie also scored a debut goal late on to secure a 3–1 win for Pompey, sending them to the top of the league table.
[21] Two more losses followed at the hands of Port Vale and Hull City, before the Saints went on another unbeaten run of seven games starting with a 2–2 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
During this period, the club beat recently relegated Manchester City 4–3 at Maine Road, as well as picking up home victories over mid-table Fulham 4–1 and promotion hopefuls Blackpool 5–3; in the latter two games, Rawlings scored his second and third hat-tricks of the campaign to bring his running total up to 15 goals.
[22] Two losses and a draw were followed by three more wins in December (one over Barnsley and two over Notts County, recently relegated from the First Division),[19] ensuring that the club remained in the top six moving into the new year.
Despite their ongoing success in the FA Cup, the club lost four league games in a row between 1 January and 5 February, failing to score a single goal in defeats against Reading (1–0), Portsmouth (2–0), Bradford City (2–0) and Preston North End (1–0).
[19] Still occupying a place in the top ten of the league table, the Saints bounced back to beat South Shields 6–2 in their next fixture, with two goals each for Rawlings and Dick Rowley, and one each for Bill Henderson and Sam Taylor.
[24] After this, Southampton went on a run of eleven games without a win, including losses at the hands of clubs like Clapton Orient and Fulham who were fighting relegation.
Southampton entered the 1926–27 FA Cup in the third round against Third Division South club Norwich City, who they beat 3–0 at The Dell thanks to a brace from Dick Rowley and a penalty from Michael Keeping.
The lower league team beat the Blues comfortably, winning 4–1 thanks to goals from Rowley, Bill Rawlings (two) and George Harkus; Birmingham's England international centre-forward Joe Bradford saw a penalty during the match saved by Tommy Allen.
[26] A tenth consecutive home fixture in the competition for the fifth round saw Southampton host another First Division side, Newcastle United, who were then top of the league table.
[27] The Magpies initially took the lead through a Tommy McDonald penalty following a handball by Keeping, but a second brace in three cup games for Rowley, as well as some "resolute defending", saw off the soon-to-be English Football League champions.
Goals for the home side came from Haines (two), Frederick Cook, Jerry Mackie and Goodwin, while recent signing Fred Lohse scored the consolation for the visitors.