Which Southampton striker was the First Division's top scorer in 1966-67, netting 37 goals in a single season, still a club record?

Ron Davies: Southampton's Forgotten Goal Machine

In the late 1960s, Ron Davies was one of the most feared centre-forwards in English football. Yet today, he remains one of the sport's great underappreciated talents — a man who outscored some of the biggest names of his generation and still holds a record that no Southampton player has ever come close to breaking.

The Season That Defined a Career

The 1966-67 First Division campaign was Davies at his devastating best. Playing for a Southampton side that had only recently been promoted to the top flight, the Welsh striker plundered an extraordinary 37 league goals — enough to make him the division's leading scorer by a considerable margin. To put that in perspective, he was doing this in Southampton's very first season among the elite, against defences that included the best defenders in the country.

Those 37 goals remain a Southampton club record to this day, untouched by anyone who has worn the red and white stripes since — including celebrated names like Mick Channon, Kevin Keegan, and Matt Le Tissier.

The Man Behind the Goals

Born in Caernarfon, Wales, in 1942, Ron Davies was a classic old-school centre-forward — powerful in the air, strong on the ground, and blessed with an almost instinctive sense of where the ball was going to land. He was renowned as one of the finest headers of a ball in the game, a quality that made him virtually unplayable on his best days.

His ability in the air attracted admiring glances from the very top of the game. It's widely reported that George Best — not a man given to handing out compliments lightly — once called Davies the best centre-forward he ever played against. That's a remarkable endorsement from arguably the greatest player of that era.

Welsh Through and Through

Davies won 29 caps for Wales during his career, cementing his status as one of the nation's finest footballers of the 1960s. Despite his enormous talent, he never played at a club widely considered to be among England's very elite, which perhaps explains why history hasn't always been as kind to his reputation as it should have been.

A Record That Still Stands

Southampton have had brilliant strikers come and go over the decades. They've had players with bigger transfer fees, bigger profiles, and bigger media coverage. But none of them have managed to hit 37 First Division or Premier League goals in a single season. That record belongs entirely to Ron Davies, a Welsh goal-scorer who lit up English football for one unforgettable campaign and deserves to be remembered as a true Saints legend.

If you got this one right, you clearly know your football history — and the hidden gems within it.