It all seems a lifetime ago due to so much being packed into the last 7 years of Southampton Football Club, but this weekend Saints do not want to aid Nigel Pearson in another great escape.

It seems so long ago but it was actually only 7 years ago that Nigel Pearson came into St Mary's for the last 14 games of season 2007/08 and steered the club to safety in what was an unthinkable relegation struggle.

It all culminated on Sunday 4th May 2008 when Saints took on Sheffield United at St Mary's and in one of the most nerve wracking games ever seen at the stadium before or since we scraped over the line in a 3-2 victory made even harder by Stern John being sent off with 10 minutes to go.

By then the score was 3-2 after goals from Marek Saganowski and two from John himself had put us in that position with 20 minutes to go, it was a tense final quarter of the game and our victory owed much to the safe hands of on loan keeper Richard Wright who was superb in the run in after coming in for the final 7 games.

To many supporters Pearson was seen as a saviour although a look back at his record in those 14 games is not great reading in that he only won 3 games including that final day victory, but he drew another 7 and lost only 4 and that was enough to scrape Saints over the line with 54 points. Given that the season's average points per game was 1.17 and Pearson's was 1.14, it was not so much a case of him leading a roaring fightback in the final games of the season, but more making sure we did not deterioate any further.

Some would say that is harsh on the now Leicester boss, but the fact is his reputation ran as fine a line as any manager before or since and a 3rd Sheffield united goal in those final minutes would have sent Saints down and in doing so Pearson's place in Saints history books would not have been as saviour but as the man who took down into the 3rd tier of English football for the first time since the 1950's.

Ironically the team who went down and who would have stayed up if the Blades had equalised would have been Pearson's current employers Leicester City, if we had drawn they would have stayed up on goal difference in one of the tightest relegation battles ever seen in the Championship.

But there would be an ironic twist to the tale, many Saints fans were keen for Pearson to take over at St Mary's on a permanent basis, but the truth was Pearson could see the writing on the wall at the club, it was riddled with debt from the Michael Wilde years and although Stern John had been the saviour the reality was that he and the likes of Jason Euell were bringing the club down with wages approaching £20k a week, Pearson knew he was in for a thankless task and distanced himself.

He then joined Leicester City and the irony was that as he lead them to immediate promotion back to the Championship, Saints had only prolonged their fate a year and bypassed them as the Foxes came back up.

On Saturday Nigel Pearson attempts to perform another great escape by beating Saints, whilst im not against Leicester staying up and truly hope they do, I am for obvious reasons keen that we put a little dent in their hopes by beating them on Saturday.

A lot of water has passed under the bridges of both club since that day a little over 7 years ago, I suspect that the fans of both would not say its been an easy ride.

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 08:45 - May 6 Marek Saganowski - now theres a blast from the past! Loved him, then he signed perm and became poo overnight!
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perazi added 09:41 - May 6 Nick, did Nigel distance himself from the Club after seeing the writing on the wall; or did he get shafted by Rupert in favour of an untested and ill fated Dutch duo?
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ronrulesok added 10:35 - May 6 Agree with Perazi I thought Rupert wanted the Dutch duo. Pity he got the wrong dutchman then!
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saintjeff52 added 11:10 - May 6 I hope that Leicester don't beat us on Saturday, though 4 Points out of 15 is quite ominous for us, given how Leicester are really going for it at the moment. Anyway, they can get their 6 Points for Safety against Sunderland the following week, and QPR in the Final Game.
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SaintNick added 11:40 - May 6 Perazi, the reality of the situation was that Saints were going broke fast and could not afford Pearson's wages and he was loathe to tarnish his reputation by having to work with a squad that would be mainly kids as there was no money for anything else, I dontblame him. The popular view is that lowe came back as he had this idea about paying little money for the dutch duo and playing kids, Lowe should be blamed for some things, but the reality of the situation was he didnt need to come back and despite all the cost cutting we survived little more than six months before we wnet into administration, if we had paid an experienced manager like pearson the going rate plus a squad of experienced pros we would not have lasted till xmas. As I said Lowe can be blamed for many things, but not employing Pearson was not one of them, two years of overspending had already pushed us to the brink before he came back

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SaintBrock added 17:28 - May 6 Pearson is an embarrassment. He is little more than a bully boy and probably gets results by fear alone. His post match interviews with his ill-educated attempts at searching - usually in vain - for words he thinks will mark him out as clever have me reaching instantaneously for he Mute button. Personally I'm glad he didn't stay, would any of you want such a person to be our spokesman? Poch was better than that in Spanish an dog course Nigel and Ron are from the bright side of our planet. There got that off my chest.

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davepid added 20:16 - May 6 Hi am I right in thinking this will be Kelvins 300 th appearance for us in all games ,if he plays on Saurday. No room for sentiment but I hope he does get to this impressive milestone.
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