THE fact that we are facing Liverpool on Sunday reminded me of something that would be just incredible to replicate, from over 35 years ago.

I was about 19 or 20 years old at the time when we took on the unbeaten league-leading Reds in front of a packed Dell and won 4-1.

It was a special match against a team full of top players who, come the end of the season, comfortably went on to finish top of the division.

I think we'd only lost two games up to that match against Liverpool and the previous week we'd thumped Queen's Park Rangers away 4-1 as well.

As the game flowed, it felt like we would score every time we attacked. Paul Rideout scored one but hit the bar and the post another couple of times.

Our strike force had strength, skill and speed and our team had quite a few youngsters like Tim Flowers, Neil Ruddock, Alan Shearer, Rod Wallace and Matt Le Tiss.

They mixed in well with the older heads like Russell Osman, Jimmy Case and Glenn Cockerill who were holding us all together with their experience.

We played with real freedom and fearlessness and we might have conceded quite a few goals, but we had more than enough to outgun teams.

A lot of the lads had come through the youth together to beat the likes of Liverpool, with John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Bruce Grobbelaar. Magical memories.

The Liverpool match specifically was one example of how The Dell could be a difference to us and there was no doubt it was that day.

The stadium was rocking and we started well, playing on the front foot. We knew if we took the game to the opposition the crowd would get behind us.

Wouldn't it be incredible if we could replicate that tomorrow? We'll take a result however it comes but if we could do anything like we did on that day... 

Our run of games now looks like a really tough period with only top-half opposition for the rest of the year, or at least until Boxing Day.

But having said that, and I've mentioned it to a couple of people this week, we could do a very Saints thing despite having struggled so far and pick up some results.

Clearly, it is not a good place to be at the moment where we are but maybe there is more pressure in those games against your direct rivals.

It is a different kind of pressure, anyway. The onus is more on us in games against the likes of Leicester, Ipswich and Wolves as opposed to the bigger sides.

They will hopefully come to us almost with a bit of a freer kind of mindset to play a more open game, which we have to hope suits us.

We could have done without the blow of losing Aaron Ramsdale and Jan Bednarek but, as Russell Martin has said himself, it is an opportunity for others now.

That Liverpool game in 1989 was a bit of a turning point for me in my career as I'd made my debut the previous season as a midfielder.

I came on two games before against Wimbledon as a sub for Gerry Forrest, who was a right-back but had been playing left-back for us and picked up an injury.

Literally, that was my first time. Then it was the 4-1 wins against QPR and Liverpool, so it is crazy how a twist of fate like that can change an individual's pathway.

That was the kick-start of my career as a left-back and I could have been forgiven, along with a few of the young lads, for thinking this whole football thing is easy.

I think it is probably so much harder now to pull off the sort of result we did. There was always a gulf in certain ways but it's gone to a new level.

Especially throughout a whole season, and that is why the cup competitions are still magic for me - in one-off games, you can beat anyone.

I'd love to see us - without going gung-ho - having a real go at Liverpool. Fortune favours the brave quite often, doesn't it? Take a positive mindset.

Go at it with total belief and put them on the back foot because that's what's always lifted the supporters. I hope we're able to do it in that kind of manner.

No team is unbeatable, as the record books show even in this day and age. And we don't need to win as big as we did 35 years ago to make it a special day.

Up the Saints,

Franny Benali.