With Liverpool having been knocked out at Brighton in the 4th round Saints travelled to Blackburn Rovers as favourites for the FA Cup.

Both clubs sat in sixth place in their respective divisions for this 5th round game, Saints in Division 1 and Rovers chasing promotion in Div 2, indeed they were unbeaten in their previous 16 games and had only lost at Ewood Park once that season, that to top flight Ipswich in the League Cup, so this was certainly a slippery tie for Saints.

There were two anomalities for this game, the first was that the game was played on a Friday night so it could be broadcast on TV and the second was that both of Saints strips clashed with Rovers home kit, so Saints played in an all red shirt.

Ewood Park has been completely rebuilt since this game and would be unrecognisable to younger Saints supporters now, some 2,000 Saints fans made the trip and the bulk of these were housed in a big covered terrace behind one goal whilst the rest of the 15,357 crowd were accomodated on the other sides of the ground.

As in the other rounds Saints were on the back foot from the start as the opposition pushed forward looking for an early goal, Saints for their part dealt with the early pressure easily and the game was goaless at half time, but it was the home side asking the questions and Peter Shilton had to be alert and Mick Mills kicked one off the line, Saints had barely threatened with the only real goalmouth action being when Steve Moran was brought down by Keeley in the Blackburn goal but the ref waved play on.

In the second half you could see that Saints were stepping up a gear and just after the hour mark David Armstrong got the only goal of the game, Mick Mills picked up a wayward Rovers throw and released Moran down the right flank, he played the ball low and hard to the near post and there was Armstong to force it home.

Once they had the game by the scruff of the neck Saints were never going to let go, and although Blackburn had a late flurry they never looked like pulling a goal back and taking the tie to a replay and the hordes of Saints fans sang their way back to the convoy of coaches that had conveyed them northwards.

There actually was one more fact oft forgotten about this game, this was only the second FA Cup tie aints had appeared live on TV for, the first had of course been 8 years earlier in 1976.

Photo: Action Images

Colchester United Polls