The month of March in 1984 was probably the best time ever to be a Saints fan and today is the 28th anniversary of the first ever live game at the Dell shown on TV
Saints were getting up a head of steam as Liverpool arrived at the Dell for the first live TV game from that famous old stadium, of course Saints had featured before on live TV, not least at Wembley in 1976, but also in the FA cup run of this 83/84 season, in fact this was the second time in the face of five days that the nation had gathered round its TV sets to watch Saints, the previous Sunday saw us travel to Sheffield Wednesday and gain a 0-0 draw, so wiith the replay looming and four out of the last five matches won, Saints suddenly had dreams of doing the double, something that wasnt done very often back then in the days when football didnt rely on foreign owners pumping in millions and was actually competitive.
But Saints had still a lot of catching up to do, they started the day in fifth place, eleven points behind leaders and visitors Liverpool, who back then were the team to beat, but with two games in hand, a win would jump them up a place to fourth but it would leave them with a chance of catching the Merseyside club.
Saints that day lined up
Shilton
Mills Agboola Wright Dennis
Wallace Holmes Williams Armstrong
Moran Worthington
Sub Puckett
The game kicked off with 19,698 packed into the ground, although this was a couple of thousand short of the official capacity it seemed to be tightly packed and it certainly felt like a sell out, it was a tense game but the majority of the crowd erupted on the stroke of half time when Danny Wallace sent an overhead scissors kick flying past future Saints keeper Bruce Grobbelaar to sent the home side in ahead at the break.
In the second half Saints took full control and played a sublime game that attacked Liverpool when Saints had the ball using the wide play of Armstrong and the overlapping Mark Dennis on the left and the pace of Danny Wallace on the right, but when Liverpool had the ball they found that Saints quickly got men behind it and closed down their options, the second goal merely sealed Saints emphatic win and made sure that there would be no comeback for Liverpool who were the masters of the late comeback, it was Wallace again who for his small stature, somehow beat Alan Hansen to a Mark Dennis cross to head home, it merely confirmed that Saints were so much better on the night.
That night was probably the one time I have ever known as a Saints fan when you knew that at that moment in time we were the best team in the country, we were playing the best football I have ever seena Saints team play and we had a great combination of youth and experience packed with current, past and future England Internationals, in the pub afterwards everyone was buzzing, we knew how good this side was and what it could do, whilst we didnt expect to overhaul Liverpool, we had shown the watching nation what we were capable of and we thought that maybe the league might be a step too far, but the FA Cup was well within our grasp.
As we now know it turned out to be Saints best ever League season eventually we finished second and sadly lost out in the FA Cup semi finals to Everton, but it was more than just that, it was the season with everything, from great players, to great games to great victories.