The team was founded as "Southampton Rangers" in 1878 and comprised employees of the Oswald, Mordaunt & Co. shipyard in Woolston, which later became part of Vosper Thornycroft.

[2] In their early days, the team played their home matches on Southampton Common[1] before moving to Woolston Park.

[3]In 1886, Woolston Works entered the South Hants & Dorset Senior Cup, defeating the Portsmouth Sunflowers 6–1 in the First Round on 9 October 1886.

The Sunflowers were run by Canon Norman Pares, who had played for the Old Etonians when they won the 1879 FA Cup Final.

The match was played at the Antelope Ground on 14 April 1888 and the home side were victorious by three goals to nil; the Bournemouth Guardian report on the match summed up the clubs' season: Both teams have had a wonderfully good time of it on the whole and the people of Southampton ought to feel proud of their football population.

reached the final of the Hampshire Senior Cup, where they lost to a team from the Royal Engineers based at Aldershot, By now, Oswald, Mordaunt & Co. were in financial trouble as a result of which many of their better footballers had returned to their native north-east and Scotland, causing the works to put out a weakened team for the final.

[6] The Woolston shipyard was closed in April 1889 and Oswald, Mordaunt & Co. was wound up, resulting in the disbanding of the football team.