For those of us of a certain age, one game at the Dell sticks out more than any, the day that Liverpool came to town and were despatched in style in front of a live TV audience.
Was it really exactly 29 years ago that we beat Liverpool so convincingly, the answer is yes, a quick look at the record books show that it indeed was 16th March 1984, which just goes to show that for some of us our lives havent moved on very much, because here we are doing exactly the same thing as we were three decades ago, watching Saints take on Liverpool.
But back in 1984 it was a Friday evening that we entertained them, live league football was back in its infancy back then and a live game was shown on a Friday evening. Liverpool were of course the team of the moment, League champions for the previous two seasons, League cup winners in both 83 & 84 and come the end of this season they would also win the European Cup as it was back then for the fourth time, but for the moment they were concentrating on securing that third league title in a row.
As the game started Liverpool sat top, but they were there only by two points, Man United sitting in 2nd and again going for yet another thwarted bid for league success, the chasing pack behind them were a few points behind and Saints were in fifth with 52 points some 11 behind the leaders.
But there was a feeling amongst aints fans that perhaps this team was a little special, they had not only won three league games in a row and were building up a head of steam,with an FA Cup replay coming up and a semi against Everton for the winners of that, Saiints had a winnable run to Wembley , not many Saints fans thought that Saints would catch Liverpool and win the league, but many believed this was our year in the cup.
Thus 19,698 packed the Dell and hoped for a cracker, they were not to be disapointed.
Saints line up has to be seen to perhaps emphasise to younger fans how good it actually was.
Peter Shilton (England's keeper accknowledged best in the world)
Mick Mills( Former England Captain)
Mark Wright (First England cap end of the season)
Mark Dennis (Best left back in english football at that time, only remained uncapped due to bad boy image)
Steve Williams ( Had won first England cap previous summer and several more in this season and next)
Reuben Agboola (Unsung hero of the team but a vital cog)
Nick Holmes ( Deserved Saints legend sadly never won a full cap )
Steve Moran (Would be picked for Englands South American tour in summer of 84, had to turn it down as getting married, sadly he would not get another chance)
Frank Worthington (Legendary player who had played for mamy clubs at the top level)
Dave Armstrong ( Stalwart Saints player in early 80's wion first England cap in 1982 and his second at the end of this season)
Danny Wallace ( Would win England cap a season or two later)
Four Saints players in an England squad, even five ? that was a distinct possibility at the end of the season.
The game was everything its billing claimed, the best team in Europe versus the young pretenders in England at least, thats why this was chosen by BBC (I think it was the beeb doing the live games back then in pre attelite days, rather than ITV) as its weekend game and indeed the first ever live televised TV game from the Dell.
Saints attacked a packed Archers Road Terrace during the first half, Liverpool fans squeezed into the west corner, the first half was tense then on the stroke of half time Danny Wallace struck a spectacular overhead kick, the move was classic Saints at the time, Mark Wright started the move from the back, fed Mark Dennis who overlapped right to the bye line, at the second attempt he got in a cross, it was Wright who met the ball and headed it towards the penalty spot where Wallace who was perhaps a little too quick for his own good had to swivel and with a spectacular scissors kick smashed it past future Saints keeper Bruce Grobbelaar to send Saints into the break in the lead and the watching nation stunned.
Liverpool went for it in the second half, but the Saints midfield worked hard and when Liverpool did get a ball through to Rush & Dalglish, Wright and Agboola were strong and to be blunt Shilton had little to do such was the ferocity in front of him.
But whilst there was only one goal in it there was always a chance of Liverpool getting back into it, they were the masters of the late goal, however it would be the home side who scored it, David Puckett who had come on as sub in the 80th minute latched on to a through ball with five minutes to go and found Mark Dennis, another great cross from the left back looked to be covered by Alan Hansen all the way, especially as it was 5ft 5 Danny Wallace who was contesting the ball with him, Wallace used his brain though and darted just in front of Hansen to leave him heading air and the header flew past Grobbelaar and Saints had won the game to show not only their fan but the watching millions who was now the best team in the country, sick buckets were being dug out in PO post codes that night.
History shows us that perhaps on this night Saints were the team in the country, certainly in the final run up to the season they would statistically prove that to be true, in the final 11 games of the season starting with this one, Liverpool would add 17 points and win the title, Saints would earn 25 points and miss out by three points on winning the league, it would be that close, but Saints fans had the pride in knowing that in the second half of the season they were the best team in England.