In the third part of our Great Escapes series, Club historians Dave Juson & Gary Chalk chart the course of Saints many sucessful attempts at escapology...
'The Great Escape' has become a well-worn cliché among the faithful of late. Surely, there must be other films with evocative musical scores that will serve as metaphors for near relegation experiences?!
Until somebody thinks of one, bear in mind that Saints' current predicament is unusual - omitting Saints three actual relegations they have, in 114 years of league football, flirted with demotion just six times (not including two of the three relegations) on the last day of the season.
 Egil Ostenstad slots the ball past Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel in a memorable 6-3 win over the Red Devils at the Dell |
1996-97 Season
Another season, another manager: Dave Merrington was dismissed after the too narrow brush with relegation in '95-96 and Graeme Souness became the fourth Saints' manager since Lawrie McMenemy returned to The Dell as 'Director of Football', in practice if not by title, in December 1993.
Despite a £1.5-million loss during '95-96, the bank's coffers were raided regularly for transfers throughout the season. Some modest - Richard Drydon, Graham Potter; some astute - Claus Lundekvam and Egil Ostanstad; and one indescribably bizarre - Ali Dia - although, in fairness, his 53 minutes of fame was earned whilst on trial.
The penultimate game of the season, a 2-0 victory at The Dell over Blackburn Rovers, saw Saints on 41 points - three more than Merrington's team had harvested the previous term, but Saints were still not safe. At 4 p.m. Sunday 11 May, as the final games of the Premiership season kicked-off, the bottom of the table looked like this:
| Pos |
|
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
| 16 |
SAINTS |
37 |
10 |
11 |
16 |
50 |
55 |
41 |
| 17 |
Sunderland |
37 |
10 |
10 |
17 |
35 |
52 |
40 |
| 18 |
Middlesbrough |
37 |
10 |
11 |
16 |
50 |
59 |
38 |
| 19 |
Coventry |
37 |
8 |
14 |
15 |
36 |
53 |
38 |
| 20 |
Forest |
37 |
6 |
16 |
15 |
31 |
54 |
34 |
In the previous evening's Pink Graham Hiley fiendishly plotted many of the more plausible and implausible relegation variations (including the possibility of Saints and Middlesbrough playing-off) but, basically, provided Saints avoided a drubbing at Villa Park they should be safe. Middlesbrough - who had been deducted three points for failing to honour a fixture - needed a handsome win at Leeds to overhaul them as well as Sunderland, while Coventry's survival necessitated the failure of both Sunderland and Middlesbrough. Forest's fate was immutable.
Souness took no chances, deploying his two cleverest players, Matthew Le Tissier and Eyal Berkovic, on the subs' bench - a tactic that paid off, until the 12th minute when Dryden stabbed the ball past Maik Taylor into his own goal!
Thereafter, Souness decided to hang on for a narrow defeat as, only slightly daunted, the 3,000 travelling faithful kicked up an encouraging racket throughout. Elsewhere the scores went Saints' way - Sunderland lost at Wimbledon, to a Jason Euell goal, Middlesbrough drew at Leeds and, amazingly, both north-eastern clubs were relegated as Gordon Strachan's Coventry snatched an unlikely one-nil win at Spurs.
True, Saints lost, but as Graham Hiley told Echo readers: '… the yellow and blue party was in full swing. 'Saints had done it again!'
