This was a crucial day in two of our relegation battles, in one it changed it for the better and in the other it was perhaps the straw that broke the camels back. What did happen at half time in 2005 ?

A week after the win at Norwich we faced a far tougher task, Blackburn Rovers arrived at the Dell 2nd in the table, but only on goal difference from Manchester United, the problem for Kenny Dalglish's side was that they had played a game more and with only five games left for them, they simply had to win this one or risk finding that this weekend was the one that saw their title challenge drop off.

This meant that the biggest crowd of the season assembled at the Dell 19,105 in the penultimate game before the Milton Road end would be demolished and a new all seater terrace built. This would be the biggest home crowd for 7 years and the opening of St Mary's.

The game started well for Saints and they went at Blackburn with gusto, the visitors clearly on edge and after the win at Norwich Saints playing with more confidence then they had done all season and more importantly without fear.

Iain Dowie opened the scoring on 28 minutes with a far post header from a perfect chip and I don't need to tell you whose foot that came from.

10 minutes later and it was le Tissier again the provider as he put Paul Allen through for what would be his only goal for the club firing past Tim Flowers.

So the ground was buzzing at the break, but soon after the restart it would be an atmosphere of trepidation as Stuart Ripley reduced the arrears.

For 20 minutes the game could have gone either way but then with 20 minutes left it was Le Tissier's turn to get on the scoresheet, shooting past his old friend Tim Flowers from the penalty spot.

Now Saints were back in the driving seat and although the crowd were nervy they got behind the team and helped then stay strong to make sure that Blackburn would not get another way back into the game.

Saints were pulling two points clear at the bottom although due to other teams having games in hand on paper at least we still looked most likely to go down, but we had dragged Spurs and Everton into the equation.

Blackburn were still level with United after the weekend, but they would only get 5 points from their remaining four games where United would get 13 from five and win the title comfortably.

Fast foward 11 years and we were in the bottom 3 with 6 games to play, behind West Brom by a single point, it now seemed to be a four horse race at the bottom although i we could beat today's opponents Aston Vlla and then beat Pompey at Fratton Park the following week we could drag them into the battle at the bottom.

Initially it looked good Kevin Phillips opened the scoring after only 4 minutes and then Peter Crouch making it 2-0 after only 13 minutes on the clock, St Mary's was rocking and Saints were looking good.

But fate took a hand Andres Jakobsson was injured and had to come off at half time, in the dressing room confusion reigned, Danny Higginbottom was perhaps the best option over Callum Davenport who had been far from impressive during his loan spell.

Legend has it that Redknapp had decided to go for Higginbottom but Jim Smith had already got Davenport stripped off and so Redknapp changed his mind.

Harry Redknapp was not at the club for the right reasons and was not interested, the decisions he made in the final weeks of the season and the leadership or lack of it from it were the sole reason that we collapsed in the final weeks of the season.

Whoever's decision it was, Davenport was awful, when Villa scored in the 55th minute we fell to pieces, withing 17 minutes we were 3-2 down, ironically future Saints legend Steve Davis scoring the winner.

Redknapp was like a rabbit in front of the headlights in the final part of this season, he seemed unable to function as a manager and his lack of direction and the insistence on playing his son who clearly was not fit and a shadow of the player he had once been cost us dearly.

In the second of our games again the tide had turned and this time it was not in our favour.

Photo: Action Images

PatfromPoole added 12:47 - Apr 16 The Blackburn game was one of my favourite ever games at The Dell. Fantastic win. The Villa game was one of my worst ever football memories. I knew we were down that day.
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TimSaint added 17:20 - Apr 16 Was that Blackburn game the 'Sherwood Spitting at Magilton' game ? Think it was Sherwood who hand balled it for our penalty if memory serves me. Horrible cvnt. Great that he was manager of Villa when we thrashed them 6-1. :-)
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