Twenty four years ago Saints came back from 3-1 down at the Dell to launch what became known as the Great Escape Season, after a storming finish to this game, could history be about to repeat itself.

Saints fans entering the Dell on 17th April 1999 were hopeful that they would beat fellow relegation strugglers Blackburn Rovers, the general consensus was that the winner of this game would stay up and the loser would go down.

With just 5 games to go, defeat for Saints in this one would not leave them with a lot of leeway in the final four.

Rover who had won the Premier League title just 4 years earlier still had some quality players, they also had two ex Saints, Tim Flowers was on the bench for them as was Kevin Davies who had left the Dell for Ewood Park at the start of this season.

This is the first of several coincidences between this game and the draw with Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, of course Spurs had two former Saints in their squad in Fraser Forster & Pierre Emille Hojbjerg.

Another coincidence was the starting Saints line up, there was a French left back playing in 1999 in Patrick Colleter and we of course had Romain Perraud yesterday, likewise in the selections, back in 1999 recent signing Marian Pahars was on the bench, this time out Paul Onauchu was on ours, the fans were also critical of the line up in 1999, David Hughes had not had a successful season and there were many who thought he didn't deserve to start, likewise James Beattie who was on the Saints bench many thought he should be in the starting line up that had only one out and out forward in the side in Egil Ostenstad, Mark Hughes being more of a midfielder in the twilight of his career.

You think that Nathan Jones had a scattergun approach you should have seen Dave Jones selections back then.

Saints started badly, they went a goal down after only 14 minutes, although they equalised on 22 minutes through Chris Marsden, only three minutes later they were behind again and this was how it stayed at half time.

Dave Jones made two of his three potential changes at half time, on came James Beattie for Ostenstad and on came David Hughes for Colleter, but the changes had little effect, initially at least, within 2 minutes Blackburn had increased their lead to 3-1.

There was a sullen mood in the crowd, the Dell was silent, Blackburn's players were strutting around and were smirking at the crowd and making snide comments when getting the ball for throw ins etc.

This appeared to raise the crowd, back then there was no mass walkout as we get these days, everyone had stayed and suddenly they were behind the team again, on 61 minutes the ground erupted when Mark Hughes stabbed the ball home to reduce the deficit.

Now Blackburn were on the rack and with 12 minutes to go on came Marian Pahars for what was his home debut, by now Blackburn were hanging on and were no longer the cocky strutting peacocks they had been only 20 minutes earlier.

The roof was listed in the 85th minute when Pahars marked his home debut with a goal, now it was desperation for Rovers and they held on by the skin of their teeth for a 3-3 draw.

This game changed the season suddenly the fans started to believe we could stay up, something that they rarely had done throughout what had been a miserable season, a draw at derby County the following week was followed by three straight wins that saw us beat Everton on the final day to complete what was The Great Escape.

That game had many comparisons with our draw against Spurs yesterday, of course the situation was different, Spurs were 4th in the League and chasing a Champions League spot, but the scoring went in the same order as the Blackburn game and the way the crowd responded was almost identical.

Yesterday when we went 3-1 down with 16 minutes, although there were quite a few people who walked out, the majority stayed in their seats, it was almost as if they could sense that this game was far from over.

The fact that we got a quick second goal served to fuel that belief and suddenly the Saints supporters were right behind their team and suddenly Spurs were not the Cocky Cockerels that they had been.

Again it looked like they might hang on to the lead, but like Blackburn in 1999, they failed to do so and conceded a late equaliser.

Hopefully this side can show that they have the same fight in them that their 1999 counterparts had back in the last century, that this result changes the season for us, we are not dead and buried and our rivals for relegation will now be looking over our shoulders,

As I have said many times this season, back in the 1990's we found out on several occasions that the fight is never over until the last kick of the season, as Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness in the film the Untouchables said to Al Capone after finally getting him jailed.

"Never Stop- Never stop fighting till the fight is done.

Saints sent a message to their fellow relegation strugglers yesterday, they also sent them to their fans and those of us who were in the Dell back in 1999 know exactly what that means, even if in the modern game were "Fire Drills" are common when a team goes a couple of goals down we have forgotten that.

Photo: Action Images

darthvader added 10:54 - Mar 19 It only takes a second to score a goal . So I hope the people who left at 1-3 enjoyed their extra seconds walking away from the ground
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NewburySaint added 15:13 - Mar 21 Bizarrely enough my mind also took me back to this same game and situation in 99 after Saturday - here's hoping for the same ending to this season as that!
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