With Michael Owen playing his last ever league game at St Mary's we look back at what was one of the best games in the final season at the Dell.

It seem like a lifetime ago, but in our final season at the Dell Michael Owen played his part in a game that had perhaps one of the greatest ever comebacks in Saints history.

August 28th 2000 was the date and at the time Liverpool were still a force in the Premier league, they had finished fourth the previous season and would finish third in this one, Saints themselves had high hopes, Glenn Hoddle was manager and was putting together a decent side that would hopefully see us move on to the next level in a little under 12 months when we would depart the cramped confines of the Dell ( a full house of 15,202 would see this game) and go to the modern St Mary's Stadium.

Saints hadnt started the season well though, they had thrown away a 2-0 opening day lead at Derby County and then lost the first home game to Coventry City, perennial relegation fighters who would eventually go down at the end of this season.

But there were changes in defence for this game, Dean Richards returned from suspension and Neil Moss was preferred to Paul Jones who was dropped, but if Saints hoped that there would be defensive stability that they could build on they were mistaken, after 23 minutes Michael Owen opened the scoring for Liverpool outpacing Claus Lundekvam to slot home, however the rest of the first half was goaless although Saints had their chances.

But in the second half the roof caved in on Saints, on 54 minutes Sami Hypia headed home and then 10 minutes later Owen once again did what he did well back then, raced on to a through ball, outpaced his marker, this time Richards and slotted home, barely an hour gone and 3-0 down at home, it hadnt been a comprehensive Liverpool performance up to that point, the difference was the clinical finishing of Owen.

Saints had brought on a sub just before the third a certain Matt Le Tissier, but his first touch was at the restart and he signalled his arrival by an audacious attempt to chip Sander Westerveld in the Liverpool goal from the half way line from the kick off.

On 73 minutes Saints pulled one back, Jo Tessem had been pushed wide to accomodate Le Tiss and it was his cross that enabled Marian Pahars to head home at the far post, although there were few in the ground who thought it would be anything else than a consolation. Ironically Pahars was hailed on his arrival at Saints as the Latvian Michael Owen.

But as the game entered the final ten minutes things changed, Beattie came on for Uwe Rosler and Saints had a bit more urgency up front, on 85 minutes Beattie headed on a ball and Tahar El Khalej got there before Westerveld to pull the arrears back to a single goal.

Could Saints get a third and an unlikely point, the crowd certainly thought so and the decibel level went up more than a few notches.

As the fourth official raised the board to signal three minutes of injury time, perhaps the nearest Saints player was Le Tissier with the ball, he launched a ball into the Liverpool area and as Traore under pressure from Richards couldnt make his clearance and could only head it into the path of Pahars who Owenesque, slotted home much to the delight of the fans in the Archers Road End behind the goal.

Liverpool were now rocking, the young Stevie Gerrard and Jamie Carragher must have wondered what had hit them, they held out for the final two minutes of injury time, but there was the feeling that if there had been five more minutes left they wouldnt have.

The actual Michael Owen had come against the Latvian Michael Owen and the honours had been even, as had the honours in the game itself, it was truly one of the great Saints comebacks of all time, and something that Liverpool didnt allow to happen to them that often, as mentioned earlier they finished third in this season and only conceded 39 goals, only Champions Man Utd &  runners up Arsenal conceded less, ultimately this result cost the Scousers second place in the league, they were only a point behind Arsenal.

So farewell to Michael Owen, his career has really been like football itself a game of two halves and whilst we are at it a fond farewell as well to another combatant from this great game almost 13 years ago, 240 miles north Jamie Carragher will bade adieu to the Liverpool fans, back then you would have thought that Owen would have achieved a lot more than Carragher in the next decade or so, sadly he didnt and its perhaps fitting that it shows that its not always the golden boys who triumph, sometimes its the loyal clubmen.             

Photo: Action Images

SanMarco added 14:10 - May 19 "its perhaps fitting that it shows that its not always the golden boys who triumph, sometimes its the loyal clubmen." Yes - that is an excellent point.
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fingersmalone added 14:59 - May 19 Always enjoy these look back in time articles nick, nicely done.
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