Saints havent crossed swords with Oldham much in the past three decades.

Indeed its been sixteen years since we last shared a division, this was the second season of a three year stay in the top flight for the Lancashire club.

In the first of those years 1991/92, the fianl year before the Premiership Alan Shearer scored in a 1-1 draw awayin the October, and again in a 1-0 win in the final home match of the season.

The following year saw both clubs struggling against relegation, with Richard Hall scoring the only goal of the game at the Dell early in the campaign and it all looked set up for a showdown on the final day of the season at Boundary Park, however a late surge by Saints saw them safe with several games to spare and they arrived in Oldham knowing that for them at least the result didnt matter.

It was a tense day for Oldham fans although they looked safe with 25 minutes to go and 4-1 up, then it got worrying as Le Tiss brought it back to 4-2 on 67 minutes and then with 5 minutes to go completed his hat trick, an equaliser for Saints would send the Latics down, however they held on to stay up ongoal difference, Saints were only a point ahead on 50.

The following season was more of the same with Saints fans facing a last day nail biter at West Ham, Oldham were relegated, however they beat Saints 2-1 at home in the February and then 3-1 at the Dell in March, a game that if Saints had won would have pushed them into mid table, instead of the downward spiral of three straight defeats that lead to the nerve wracking ending.

However Saints had also met Oldham in the league cup of 1989/90 and looked set to go through to the semi finals leading 2-1 through two Le Tiss goals at the Dell, three minutes of injury time appeared from nowhere though and so did Andy Ritchie in thelast of them to force a replay.

At Boundary Park on the infamous plastic pitch, Saints never looked comfortable and went down 2-0.

Prior to this game Saints met the Latics in the four years they spend in the old second division in the mid 70's. Perhaps the most notable games being a 4-0 win in January 1977 or the 3-2 home win in January 1976 which ssaw Saints go 11 games unbeaten and was also the day they handed out FA Cup vouchers that would become so valuable three months later.            

Photo: Action Images

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