For some reason the phrase "Quarter of a century" sounds a lot m,ore dramatic than "25 years" but the fact is this is Saints best position at this time of year since the 1989/90 season.

Saints league position of 4th with 33 points is our best league position for many a year, last year was good but the half way mark saw us sat in 9th with 27 points and still 6 adrift of Newcastle in 9th, those who look for omens will find solace in the fact that the top 9 was the same as finished in those positions come the end of the season.

Previous to that our best start in the Premier league was the 4th position we occupied going into the Xmas period with 26 points from 17 games, however two games later and we went into the New Year in 8th position still with 26 points.

The season before we went into 2003 confident, we sat in 7th position with 32 points, however that was from 21 games, however at 19 games we had 28 points and were 8th only 5 behind Everton in 4th.

You have to go back to 1989/90 for the last time we went into the New Year in 4th place, this was the era of Matt le Tissier, Rod Wallace, Alan Shearer and an exciting attacking team, the half way point was after Boxing Day when a 1-0 win over Arsenal at the Dell saw us in 6th place, but after a draw with Sheffield Wednesday away from home on the 30th we went up to 4th and well positioned for the New Year.

New Years day saw a 4-2 win over Charlton Athletic at their then temporary home of Selhurst Park and set us up nicely, however we faltered and won only twice in the next 11 games picking up only 9 points.

A late rally saw us eventually end up 7th on 55 points after losing both of our final two matches 2-1 away to Arsenal and Spurs respectively.

How close the table was though is reflected in the fact that if we had won both of those games then we would have finished 3rd

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls