In a bid to strengthen the team for their return to the First Division, Bury signed Southampton's experienced left half Bill Turner with Woodhouse and John Callagher moving to the south coast as part of the deal.
Woodhouse made his debut for Southampton on 30 August 1924 in the opening match of the season playing at inside left, before losing his place to Cliff Price after six games.
The following season he began to make the left half spot his own, lining up with either George Harkus or Bert Shelley on the right and Alec Campbell or Arthur Bradford in the centre.
During this season manager Arthur Chadwick settled on his favoured line-up with eleven players featuring in at least 35 of the 42 league games; Woodhouse lined up in midfield alongside Bert Shelley and George Harkus in front of full-backs Michael Keeping and Ted Hough.
Woodhouse spent twelve seasons at The Dell, during which he made a total of 366 appearances (with 5 goals); all his league matches were in the Second Division in a period during which the Saints struggled financially and were generally forced to sell their better players to survive.