Saints V Notts County games have been a rareity in the past couple of decades.

Saints travel to Meadow Lane for their first league clash since 1991 although an embarrasing Carling Cup defeat in Nottingham in 2006 will still be quite fresh in the minds of Saints fans.

Our last league meeting came when County surprisingly won promotio to the top flight for the 91/92 season, the last before the formation of the premier league, it was not a succesful trip North for SFC as they lost 1-0 in the away game in front of 9,613 to make it two defeats in a row for new manager Ian Branfoot  The home game was scheduled for the Saturday before Xmas, but was switched to the Friday night to allow Saints supporters to be dragged along to Xmas shopping the next day. It was the 20th game of the season and in that time we had won only three times in the league and were vying for relegation with County amongst others, only 11, 054 turned out to witness a debacle, anyone who had any doubts that Branfoot was a long ball manager had those dispelled as that was now our primary target, Iain Dowie put us ahead on the half hour but when County equalised in the 81st minute the mood turned hostile on and off the pitch, Neil Ruddock being dismissed for a headbutt in the final minute.

A look at the team that day showed that we really didnt need to play that sort of game and whilst  Branfoot would say he was working with limited resources in his defence, he wasnt, Flowers, Dodd, Adams, Hurlock, Wood, Ruddock, Le Tissier, Cockerill,Shearer, Dowie, Gray was not a bad side, if you add those not on duty that day that he could also call upon, Horne, Hall, Kenna, Maddison &Benali to name but a few and you not only had a decent squad, but players who would go on to honours elsewhere.

Saints would put in a late run and escape relegation, County would not be so lucky and went down never to return to the top flight since. 

Older Saints fans will remember when County enjoyed three seasons in the top flight from 81-84, in their final season they played a big role in Saints destiny, In November they came to the Dell and won 2-0, Justin Fashanu putting them ahead and Steve Moran missing a penalty, the game was sealed with a minute to go with Saints guilty of missing a plethora of chances, the game at Meadow Lane would be more profitable though.

Saints went up there for the final game of the season, in essence it was a nothing game, County were already relegated and Saints could not catch Liverpool, but after the final Saturday of the season Saints had two re arranged away games, get four points they finished second, lose them both and it was sixth, the first hurdle at West Brom on the Monday was overcome with a win and so to Meadow Lane. 

Ironically it would be the smallest gate Saints played in front of all season, 500 or so Saints supporters roaring the team on in a paltry crowd of 6,035, in fairness to our travelling support it was our third trip away in five days, indeed including this game we would have played away four times in 12 days. another irony was that the team that would finish second if Saints failed to win was County's rivals Forest,

It was a whirlwind start,Steve Moran put Saints ahead in the 2nd minute after a suicidal backpass and although County equalised 7 mins later the visitors where in command, when Moran made it 2-1 on 56 minutes the runners up spot was in site, and with 23 mins to go David Armstrong made it 3-1 and County werent coming back from that, the season ended 250 metres from where it started eight months earlier and Saints had their highest league position of all time.

Some supporters will be surprised at how many times we have played County, those under 30 may not have seen us play them, not many under 40 either for that matter given the low attendance in 91, however w ehave met 42 times in the league of which Saints have won 24, 10 have been drawn and Notts have won only 8.

In the FA Cup we have met on 3 occasions, on two of those it neccessitated replays, in 1903 it went to a second replay, so that the tally is 2 Saints wins, 2 draws and 1 County win.

In the League Cup County have fared much better winning 2 of the 3 meetings with a solitary Saints win.            

Photo: Action Images

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