IT was the year of Botham’s Ashes, Charles and Di’s wedding, innercity riots and Adam and the Ants at No 1 in the charts.

It was also the year when Southampton Football Club last won a competitive match in a European competition.

A 3-0 away victory against Irish club Limerick helped Lawrie McMenemy’s side progress to the second round of the UEFA Cup in 1981.

Saints fell at the first hurdle when they took part in the same tournament in 1982/83, 1984/85 and 2003/04.

Tomorrow night, Saints are back in European action, where they host Vitesse Arnhem in the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

Granted, it is not the cash-rich Champions League.

Superb achievement But Saints aren’t the giants of Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea, are they?

It is a superb achievement by the club to even be playing in the Europa League.

Lest we forget, five years ago Saints were setting out on their second season in the third tier of English football.

In August 2010, Saints had a midweek cup tie against Swindon in the JPT and were crushed 3-0.

Five years on, St Mary’s is hosting its second European night – also only their second European tie in the last 30 years.

Tomorrow evening’s match marks only the eighth time in the club’s history that they have taken part in a Europe competition – nights like this do not come along too often on the south coast.

So all the club’s supporters must celebrate the achievement and embrace it.

Who knows when the next one might come along?

You cannot live in the past in football, and you have no idea what is just around the corner.

Hence, you have to live in the present and the present for Saints is the Europa League and a two-legged tie against one of Ronald Koeman’s former clubs.

Vitesse Arnhem are not the easiest tie Saints could have had in this round, far from it.

There are some clubs in the Europa League that the average football fan would probably never have heard of.

Vitesse is not one of those clubs.

They have finished in the top seven of the Dutch League for the past four years.

Though the Eredivisie is not as competitive as the Premier League, that is still no mean feat.

Just ask Jordy Clasie for confirmation.

He was in the Feyenoord side that lost 4-1 at home to Vitesse towards the end of last season.

Beaten once Vitesse were only beaten once at home in the Dutch League last season and that was 1-0 against the eventual champions PSV Eindhoven.

In fact, PSV are the only club to have won a league game at Vitesse since February 2014 – also winning 2-1 in the 2013/14 season.

Peter Bosz’s side also only lost one of their last 19 league games in 2014/15, and that was to an 85th minute goal at Den Haag.

That underlines the fact that Saints do not have room to be complacent tomorrow night, or in next Thursday’s second leg in the Netherlands.

But providing they aren’t, a first European win for almost 34 years should be on the cards.

A great European adventure could be on the cards, and it could all starts tomorrow.