On this day in 2010 we were hosting Oldham Athletic at St Mary's in a League One fixture at St Mary's how times have changed.

On the morning of 23rd October 2010 Saints fans had no reason to believe that the good times would come as quickly as they would, after an appalling start to the season Saints had rallied in recent weeks, but the previous Saturday had lost 2-0 against fellow promotion hopefuls Huddersfield Town up in Yorkshire, this defeat had left us sitting 15th in League One with 12 games played.

Our 15 points left us 7 points off an automatic promotion place and 4 off that final play off spot, not a big gap you might think, but you also have to consider we were only 3 points off of a relegation place as well, the truth was Saints had already lost too many games already and needed to get a good run going and fast, visitors Oldham were ahead of us in the table, already 3 points clear of our good selves, a defeat to them and our task to achieve automatic promotion would be starting to become a mountain to climb.

Back then opinion on Nigel Adkins was still divided, back to back home wins ahead of the Huddersfield fixture had relieved the pressure, but confidence in him and the team was not high, indeed the attendance for the visit of Oldham would only be 20,968, amazing in League One terms, but not what we were hoping for, perhaps reflecting the turmoil the club had been in in previous weeks.

So a win was needed and needed badly, it would be nice to say it was achieved in fine style, but it was Oldham who took the lead on 22 minutes and it would be right on the stroke of half time before Saints equalised through Jose Fonte.

The winner would not arrive until the 73rd minute when Alex Oxlade Chamberlain scored only minutes after coming off the bench as a substitute for Jason Puncheon, a move that when repeated the following week at Notts County would have an end result of a disgruntled Pucheon going out on loan rather than stay and fight for his place.

Amazingly five players who started this game against Oldham appeared against Manchester United at the weekend, Jose Fonte, Morgan Schneiderlin, Adam Lallana, Guly & Rickie Lambert and a sixth goalkeeper Kelvin Davis was on the bench at Old Trafford.

But perhaps the enormity of our task ahead was to be realised when the league tables came up on Saturday evening, that win had only lifted Saints one place up to 14th, the good news was that they were now only 4 points off Bournemouth in second, but the log jam in between was packed with decent teams all of whom were more than capable of giving Saints a good run for their money.

Success for Saints has come quick in recent years, perhaps too quick for some fans who have only arrived on the scene since we got back to the Premier, but for those that stuck with the team through the dark years and on this day only 36 months ago there was still not yet any signs that the revival was going to happen, to see Saints were they are is sweeter, in any achievement in life its only by realising where you have come from and how easy it is to end up back there, that you can keep up the motivation to ensure that doesn't happen.

Photo: Action Images

thedelldays added 10:57 - Oct 23 was a good game OxO came to the team, played brilliantly and nearly scored a great 2nd if I remember right, Kelvin produced a great save right at the end to preserve the 3 points
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schatfield added 13:20 - Oct 23 Such a shame the ox left us the season after.....and now, he is never used at Arsenal. On another note, always wondered why Barnard never got given a chance once we were promoted to the champo. He was brilliant in league 1, better the SRL.
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richardmdcooper added 16:27 - Oct 24 Terrific effort by cortese, Adkins and poch (as well as the players) for the progress over the lat three years- incredible really
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