Liverpool arrived at St Mary's in January 2005 with Saints looking for their first League win under Harry Redknapp.
This was Redknapp's eigfth Premier game in charge and he had yet to register a single win, he had managed three draws and a win at Northampton in the FA Cup but no league win and Saints now sat second from bottom in what was now a four horse battle against relegation, Saints had 15 points, Palace fourth from bottom had 18 with the next club up from them on 25, things indeed looked grim, they would have looked grimmer still if we had known then what Redknapp was really thinking.
The side did have a slightly different look about it, in had come Callum Davenport on loan as well as Jamie Redknapp, but Saints fans came more in hope than expectation. Looking back at the line ups, you wont be surprised to learn that no player is still playing for us from that day, however amazingly Liverpool are likely to field Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard on this coming Saturday and both played in this game, little did they know that their finest hour would be at one of Saints lowest, we of course being relegated in May whilst Carragher and Gerrard headed to Instanbul and a Champions League Winners medal.
But the first shock of this crisp January afternoon would be to Liverpool, after only five minutes David Prutton opened the scoring, he exchanged passes with Peter Crouch and beat Dudek in the Liverpool goal to rapture from most of the 32,017 crowd.
In the 22nd minute the lead was doubled, it was the same two players again, Prutton deleivered a pin point cross and there was Crouch to head home and give Saints a lead that would prove unassailable for the Merseyside team, Saints could have made the defeat for liverpool even wider, but in the main they concentrated on digging in and making sure that they didnt allow the visitors back into the game.
A great win for Saints, however the three other teams that mattered all picked up points, bottom club West Brom beat Man City, Norwich drew at home 4-4 with Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace beat Spurs 2-0, the league table had changed little.
Both teams left the pitch unaware of what fate would have in store for them, all they knew at that stage is that both were chasing a fourth place, for Liverpool that was fourth from top and a Champions League place, for Saints it was fourth from bottom and another season in the Premier league, for both however those goals would end in failure although Liverpool unlike Saints would get a lifeline in that their win in that Champions League Final would eventually after much arguing get them a spot in the following seasons competition, for Saints they were only three letters short of emulating liverpool, for them it was the Champions hip.