 Tuesday, 24th Apr 2012 09:34 If your looking for a few good omens ahead of Saturday'sgame against Coventry City then this fixture in 1984 has more than a few as Saints stuffed the Sky Blues beyond sight. When Coventry arrived at the Dell on 28th April 1984, the season was far from over, in fact including this game there were still six games left for Saints, although in fairness the actual official last game of the season was only a fortnight away, so congested was Saints season at this stage. Saints lay fifth in the league and at this stage a third placed finish looked well on the cards, but nothing higher than that with leaders Liverpool having played one game more and ten points ahead and Man Utd in second two points behind them on the same number of games, this being the case and the fact that Coventry didnt bring that many away fans, meant that only 16,746 turned out on a sunny day despite European qualification being chased. Many would remember the Saints of this season as a free flowing attacking side, but the real truth is they werent, they were a well drilled functional side who had a system and played to it, out of the top six sides we were the lowest scorers this season with 66 goals and almost a quarter of them would be scored in this home game and the following one against Spurs, however we didnt concede that many and attacked with pace so we were good to watch. Coventry sat in 16th four points and five places above the drop zone with only four games to play, in truth they probably thought they were virtually safe. City's side included a young Stuart Pearce. The strangest thing though was that for almost half an hour the game remained goaless giving no indication of the goal fest that was to come, little did anyone in the crowd know that there would be a goal along at an average of every six minutes at this point. The opened came from Dave Armstrong with a powerful header from a Danny Wallace cross, then on 36 minutes Wallace himself doubled the advantage with a header of his own and this was the score at half time. On 57 minutes Steve Moran scored with as you have probably guessed a header and the game was in the bag for Saints and only a question of how many, on 64 minutes the crowd saw the 4th and were relieved that it wasnt a header but a shot as Wallace gor his second after turning the aforementioned Pearce, two minutes later and the visitors pulled one back, but their joy lasted only three minutes as Frank Worthington, playing his last game for the club scored his fourth goal with as you guessed a header. On 76 minutes it was 6-1 when Moran again stabbed the ball home, with the crowd wondering whether Moran himself of Wallace might get a hat trick, six minutes later they had an answer as Moran completed his hat trick, but it wasnt all over yet as on 85 mins, Danny Wallace completed his hat trick and the Saints scoring with yet another header to make it 8-1, sadly the final word would be had by Coventry as Mickey Gynn scored the final goal of the game. Perhaps the strangest thing was that of the eight Saints goals, five were headers, neither Moran or Wallace were particularly tall yet got three of them between them, and they became the first Saints players to get a hat trick apiece in a game since Martin Chivers & George O'Brien had done so against Rotherham almost 20 years before. This scoreline would be and still is the clubs record top flight score, the only thing that was now in doubt was who would take home the match ball, Moran who had scored a hat trick for Saints before graciously allowed Wallace to take it as this was his first trio of goals. Saints still had five games to play in a little over two weeks, Saints fans licked their lips and hoped that perhaps this would be a grandstand finish to the season after all and a European campaign might be the end result, little did they know that not only were they about to see their team click into top gear in these games, but not only would they qualify for the UEFA Cup but they would get the clubs highest ever League finish in it's history, second too Liverpool, with the feeling that if they had just nicked a point or two earlier in the season that history might look a whole lot different in the future Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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