At the start of the 2000/01 Division One season, Blackburn Rovers were one of the favourites for the title – and rightly so considering their squad boasted a host of experienced top flight players, in addition to several exciting young talents, notably Matt Jansen, David Dunn and Damien Duff.
Though they started the campaign solidly, being unbeaten in five matches – as Rovers were – pales in comparison to your promotion rival’s 11-game winning streak. Blackburn were in Fulham’s shadow and finding it difficult to get out. Under new Manager Jean Tigana, the Whites were winning plaudits left, right and centre as our slick football catapulted us to the top of the table.
By the time the first meeting between the two sides came around, the Whites had slipped to second, while Rovers languished in 15th – although each side had played fewer matches than those around them. Fulham came from behind to defeat Graeme Souness’ men at the Cottage, with Fabrice Fernandes cancelling out Jansen’s opener, and Louis Saha grabbing the winner from the penalty spot.

When the reverse fixture arrived, Fulham were within touching distance of securing promotion to the Premiership, as it was named 20 years ago. Two wins would do it, starting with a trip to Ewood Park. Our hosts could still mathematically win the title, and Souness made the bold decision before the game to insist that Blackburn were the division’s best outfit, despite the 13-point deficit that separated them from Fulham.
“I admire Fulham because I think they are a good footballing team – but so are we,” he is quoted as saying in The Lancashire Evening Telegraph. “Up until now they have proved they are the best because they're above us in the championship. But I feel that we've been the best team, certainly in the second half of the season. Now we have to go out and show that on Wednesday.”

Following such an intrepid announcement, Souness now needed his players to substantiate his words. They started well. Jansen opened the scoring on six minutes, and the home side looked like they would gain an even firmer foothold in the game when Rufus Brevett was sent off shortly before half-time.
To plug the gap at the back, a furious Barry Hayles was sacrificed for Alan Neilson. A double whammy for Hayles; substituted, and victim of a Dunn elbow to the face earlier in the contest which had gone unpunished.
Crucially, Saha found an equaliser in stoppage time – capitalising on a rare Brad Friedel mistake – and the two sides went into the break level at 1-1. The tie was on a knife-edge, and several Fulham players have since spoken of how Souness’ pre-match claim motivated them to prove him wrong. Passion was peaking in the away changing room that evening.

“There were a lot of heated people in the dressing room at half-time,” recalled Sean Davis. “Clarky [Lee Clark] was kicking off saying, ‘we can’t lose this game, we’re top of the league.’ It was all heated and I just knew that we weren’t going to lose that game, not in a million years.”
Blackburn had their chances in the second half. Jansen should have had another, while their spikey captain Garry Flitcroft also fluffed his lines.
Despite the man disadvantage, Fulham remained a threat on the counter, and going into the second minute of stoppage time, an errant Marcus Bent pass was picked up by Clark on the edge of our box. He fed it wide to Bjarne Goldbaek before galloping forward and peeling out to the left for the return pass.
The Fulham number eight then tried to place a shot from just outside the area. Big deflection. Davis had gambled with a forward run and was rewarded as the spin on the ball saw it drop plum onto his foot. Calmly, he caressed a half volley beyond Friedel, right in front of the travelling Fulham fans, all of whom could now add a brilliant ‘I was there’ moment to their repertoire.
The Davis dance that followed has gone down in Fulham folklore, but so too should Tigana’s reaction. Usually the epitome of cool on the sideline, the Frenchman could not contain himself. After jumping for joy, he then trotted down the side of the pitch to congratulate his players, carefully removing his toothpick before setting off. It was his very own David Pleat moment, and boy was it lovely to see.

The remarkable turnaround had all but guaranteed promotion. It was a momentous win that meant the world to the players, with Clark emphasising its significance after the game, with his tongue lodged firmly in his cheek.
“I thought we did brilliantly in the second half when you consider we were down to 10 men and up against the best team in the league,” he said. “It's fair to say we showed Blackburn a bit more respect than they showed us. There was always going to be a bit of hype but we just tried to do our talking where it mattered, out in the middle.”
Souness, meanwhile, was defiantly sticking by his previous statement: “The fact that they have done the double on us and the number of points they lead by may suggest otherwise, but I still believe we are the better side.
“Fulham are having a fantastic season and when that’s happening you sometimes get points and wins when you don't really deserve them. We have been punched on the nose in the cruellest possible way.
“Only the most extremely biased observer could say that Fulham deserved all the points.”
Graeme Souness
Blackburn Rovers Manager
Fulham secured their return to the top flight with another late away win at Huddersfield Town three days later, while Blackburn also sealed a deserved promotion – just without finishing in the top spot that Souness believed was warranted.
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