Little did the 11,784 present at Highfield Road know at the time, but this game would feature not just on Match Of The Day but the Crown Court.

Saints had not made a great start to the season, when on 24th September 1994 they headed to Coventry City's old stadium Highfield Road, a fixture that was usually regarded as a relegation six pointer.

Of the previous six games Saints had only won once, that being a 2-1 win at Spurs courtesy of a last minute Le Tissier goal, in fairness they had managed 3 draws as well and with the only two defeats coming against high flyers Newcastle and Liverpool, there was a feeling that Saints might now be able to kick start their season.

The previous game a 1-1 home draw with Forest had seen the deut as sub of an unknown signed on loan from Barcelona, Ronnie Eklund and few knew just what his short career with Saints would hold as he was named for his starting debut.

But the first chance of the game saw Bruce Grobbelaar caught horribly out of position and off his line by Dion Dublin after only two minutes and before the 700 or so Saints fans had settled in their seats, they saw their team a goal down after only 2 minutes, little did they know that this goal would be debated long after the game had finished.

But from then on in Saints would not only dominate but they would dazzle, on 18 minutes they were level, Le Tissier who was starting to interract with new boy Eklund as if they had played together for years, played in Iain Dowie with a little dink and the sores were level and they remained that way at half time.

After the break came some of the most scintilating football seen for a long while, with Le Tiss and Eklund pulling the strings, ten minues after the break and Dowie headed in a pin point cross from the Dane and a great display was capped when the game was put beyong City's reach as Eklund twice played little wall passes with Jim Magilton and then drilled home a low shot to make it 3-1.

The points were Saints and those Saints fans present knew they were witnessing something special as Alan Ball had put together a little footballing side, far removed from the long ball game of Ian Branfoot that was being played at the start of 1994 before his sacking.

Sadly this little golden peeriod would last only 15 games before Eklund succumbed to a back injury that would effectively finish his career at the club bar one more sub appearance in the New year, but it was magnificent whilst is lasted.

Coventry's goal was the subject of the court case that saw Bruce Grobbelaar being accused of match fixing after a sting where the Sun newspaper filmed him in the De Vere Hotel alledgedly recieving a bribe to let in soft goals and throw games.

Whether the ex Liverpool keeper was truly guilty of that we perhaps will never know, ccertainly the strongest evidence in his favour was this game, where it was pointed out that even if a keeper did let in a soft goal, he had no control overthe rest of the team doing just what Saints did on this day and going out and destroying the opposition.         

Photo: Action Images via Reuters