If you have been reading our Lockdown Special Stories on Saints history then you will hopefully be on course to win Mastermind with your specialist subject, the first part of today's looks at a couple of promotion races.

When I first started watching Saints the two seasons when we blew promotion to the top flight where only just over 20 years earlier, so there were plenty of Saints supporters around who would tell you about them, hence the supporters of our age where brought up on tales of "Up The Middle For Charlie" referring of course to Charlie Wayman.

Back then access to Saints past was limited, the only real outlet was either the club programme or the Echo, so we all heard the stories but few knew the real facts or even what Charlie Wayman looked like.

Earlier in the series we covered the famous game at White Hart Lane where Charlie Wayman stayed on the field injured and scored the only goal of the game, real Roy Of The Rovers stuff, but the upshot was he had not been able to play since and Saints seemingly unassailable lead at the top had been dwindling.

In the four games since Spurs we had scored just one goal, that in a 1-0 win at Grimsby, so hopes were still high we could hold on to our lead when the same side came to the Dell on 15th April 1949.

The good news was Wayman was back but it was clear that he was not fit, he had one good chance which produced a brilliant save and Ted Bates missed a sitter from close range, Saints were still top with two games to go and the next was at home to promotion rivals West Brom.

Fast forward a year and we were battling with both Sheffield clubs for that final second promotion place, today was the turn of Sheffield Wednesday to visit the Dell, with this the first of the final five games we had left nothing but a win would suffice, we achieved that through a Charlie Wayman header shortly after the break, but there was bad news from Sheffield, United had beaten run away leaders Tottenham, this would cost us dearly.

1967/68 saw us travel to Arsenal on Easter Monday, we had beaten the Gunners at the Dell five days earlier and we were in fine form after a draw with Manchester United since that game.

After a shaky start for the team in front of only 23,165 at Highbury, debutant Mickey Judd calmed the nerves when he gave us the lead on 33 minutes and on the stroke of half time a hopeful lob/cross from Joe Kirkup over near the corner flag gave us a 2-0 half time lead.

When Terry Paine added a third on 80 minutes the Gunners knew it was not their day, this win made it 5 points out of 6 from the Easter period and had dragged us clear of the relegation zone, something that didn't look likely back in January.

The final day of the season in 1969/70 was on 15th April, brought forward because of the upcoming World Cup Finals in Mexico starting on 31st May, preparations were thorough by the standards back then and Sir Alf Ramsey wanted to take his team to South America early to get used to the heat etc.

Derby County were the visitors on this final day for us, a Wednesday evening and were having a good season after promotion and would finish 4th under their young manager Brian Clough.

We were all but safe from relegation with far superior goal average, Sheffield Wednesday were already down and the battle for the last place was between Sunderland & Crystal Palace, the Glaziers as Palace were then know, Eagles was till another 5 years away, had finished their League campaign a few days earlier and now had a final day sweat to see if Sunderland could beat Liverpool at home and leap frog them, the answer was no they lost 1-0.

Back at the Dell, it looked like being a 4th game without scoring for Saints and heading for defeat when Tony Bryne hit a bad back pass in the 88th minute for John McGovern to give Derby the lead and surely the points, but a minute later and Byrne atoned for his error by slotting home an equaliser, all the action in the last two minutes.

Photo: Action Images

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