Only four years earlier Blackburn Rovers used to arrive at the Dell chasing the title whilst Saints were battling at the other end of the table, now in 1999, both met on an equal footing.

From winning the Premier League in 1995 Blackburn's drop down the table had been swift, 8th and then only two seasons after their title triumph 13th and escaping relegation by only two points, in 1998 they had done a little better but by 1999 they were in relegation trouble as they arrived at the Dell on April 17th.

Saints were in the bottom 3, 19th to be exact on 31 points from 33 games, Blackburn and Charlton had the same number but had played a game less, Everton had 34 and then Coventry on 37, at this stage with Forest now dead and buried on 21 points it looked like five teams for the last two places and we were certainly not anyone's favourite to stay up.

So this was a last chance saloon for Saints, if Rovers came and won we could be cast adrift, our problem all season had been goals, David Hirst had made only two appearances as sub all season and James Beattie and Matt Le Tissier had barely scored, Dave Jones two marque signing Stuart Ripley and Mark Hughes hadn't scored all season, to be blunt it looked bleak, an unknown Latvian had been signed, but Marian Pahars had played 27 minutes as a sub on his debut and had missed the next game through injury, he was on the bench for this one, but no one was holding out much hope.

But this was one of those games at the Dell when the crowd turned up to get behind their team, it started badly though, 1-0 down after 14 minutes before a thundering Chris Marsden header his first goal for the club put us level 10 minutes later.

But we couldn't hold a lead and within 2 minutes we were behind again and 2-1 down at the break.

But if we thought a comeback was on the cards in the second half then we were mistaken within minutes we were 3-1 down and for a few minutes there was stunned silence and shock in the crowd.

But then something changed, I put it down to the attitude in the Blackburn players, they thought they had the game done and dusted, they were stroking it around like they were Brazil and laughing not only with themselves but with the crowd.

Where I was sat in the East stand I can remember their players taking the p*ss when they were taking throw ins and the crowd did not like it.

Rumblings started and instead of turning on our team or certain players, we got behind them and we roared them on, this in turn spurred our side, they seemed to find enthusiasm that was lacking they were chasing down Blackburn and harrying them and you could see it unnerved the prima dona's of Blackburn, who were nothing like the quality of the side of 4 years earlier.

It could have gone either way, on another day we could have pushed up on them and they could easily have caught us on the break, but just after the hour came the goal that would change the game, James Beattie got to the dead ball line, pulled the ball back and there was Mark Hughes to stab the ball home, the second Saint on the day to score his first goal for the club.

The crowd got louder, Saints were on top and Blackburn were now certainly not laughing, on 78 minutes came the last throw of the dice, defender Scott Hiley went off and on came Marian Pahars for his first game at the Dell.

He was buzzing about and Blackburn were being stretched but it was starting to look like they may hold on, then with 5 minutes to go came yet another first goal for the club and it was Pahars himself who scored it darting in to head home and send the Dell wild.

This was now one of the greatest atmosphere's I have ever seen at the Dell, certainly in it's last 10 years or so, Blackburn were on the ropes and hanging on desperately for their lives as wave after wave of Saints attack poured forward, they scrambled balls off the mine and dug in, we didn't have enough time for a 4th, but I swear another couple of minutes and we would have.

THis was the day the great escape began, it wasn't a win but it felt like it and you felt there was now a spirit in the Saints camp, not put there by manager Dave Jones, but by the crowd and ultimately the players themselves, indeed I always felt that was why we got out of relegation so often, because our players had spirit back then and despite poor management and a squad lacking in the quality of others we had the spirit to win at the death when it counted, we couldn't do it over a season but we could do it under pressure when it mattered.

You felt at this moment that Blackburn didn't have that spirit and as our GReat Escape started their great collapse began, we would get 10 points from our remaining 4 games they would get just 4 from 5.

A new hero was born that day. !

Photo: Action Images

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