IT is 35 years since Saints last won at Fratton Park, but Steve Moran will never forget the day he silenced the Portsmouth crowd in 1984.

“It’s been posted so many times on my facebook site I can’t avoid it,” laughs the 57 year-old, who recalls his injury-time winner in the third-round FA Cup tie vividly thanks partly to replaying it numerous times on Youtube.

“It’s had about 50,000 views and half of them must have been by me!”

Moran has been inundated with reminders of his finest hour in a Saints shirt in the build up to tomorrow night’s game.

Saints fans of a certain age will not need reminding of the goal.

After a long throw by Mark Dennis, Frank Worthington played in David Armstrong with a side-footed volley pass.

Ghosting in at the far post, Steve Moran volleyed in Armstrong’s cross from the right with the inside of his left foot. Cue delirium in the away end.

“It was a strange one because we all kicked the ball with our weaker foot,” recalls Moran, now a mobile crane operator who lives with his family in the east Yorkshire town of Market Weighton.

“Frank hooked it on to the inside-right channel with his right foot and goodness knows what David Armstrong was doing down the right when he got the cross in because he was a left-sided midfield player.

“The way the ball came to him he had to take the cross on with his right foot, which was by far his weaker foot.

“But it was a brilliant cross, clipped across the face of goal rather than being driven or chipped.

“Danny Wallace was ahead of me but it was past him and then I made contact from eight yards.

“Ideally I’d have taken it with my right foot or my head but the way it was coming meant I had to open my body up and take it with my left.

“Going into injury-time, we would have settled for a replay, we hadn’t had any real good chances and Alan Biley had just missed their big chance at the other end, blasting it over the bar.

“Then this happened. I just had to keep it down and hit the target. I wasn’t one for smashing the ball but there was enough pace on it for me to just guide it into the net.

“All the hours with [Saints coach] Lew Chatterley practising my finishing with my left foot paid off!

“To be fair to Alan Knight he got a hand to the ball but the pace on the ball meant he couldn’t keep it out.

“With the net bulging, the Saints fans behind the goal went ballistic. I just remember running to them, clenching my fists.

“I’ve seen it serval times over the last few days and each time it gets me, the hairs on my neck go on end. It’s just a pity there aren’t more camera angles but there have been some lovely comments.

“Some fans have even said it’s the most memorable Saints goal after Bobby Stokes’ FA Cup winner and others have said it’s the best day of their life and the reason they started supporting Saints.

“Bobby can’t be topped but it’s nice when people say that.”

While Moran’s finish is etched in the memories of many Saints fans, it is not clearly remembered by all those present.

“Years later, I was in London at a sports-related event with John Motson, who commentated on the game for Match of the Day,” he smiles.

“He referred to my ‘far-post header’ at Fratton Park and would not be swayed when I said it was far- post volley! He insisted it was a header and that he remembered it distinctly. I said ‘do you think I’d forget something like that?!’ But he wouldn’t have it. I think he must have watched it with his sheepskin coat pulled over his head!”

So iconic is Moran’s Fratton finish that he was asked to recreate it for the Meridian television cameras in the build-up to the last FA Cup meeting between the sides in January 1996 (a 3-0 Saints win at The Dell).

“It was a cold, wet miserable afternoon,” he recalls. “Frank Worthington wasn’t there but David Armstrong turned up and so did Alan Knight who was still affiliated with Portsmouth at the time. So we tried to re-enact the goal in the drizzle. It needed 50 takes before we got it anything like the real thing. I’ve still got the VHS tape somewhere.”

Saints have drawn two and lost two of their four subsequent visits to Fratton Park.

In August 1987 they drew 2-2 after a Colin Clarke brace in the first top-flight meeting between the sides. It was 17 years before Saints next travelled to Fratton, a 1-0 defeat to a 68th-minute Yakubu goal during Pompey’s first season in the Premier League.

Pompey helped send Saints down when they beat Harry Redknapp’s side 4-1 in April 2005, when all five goals were scored in the opening 27 minutes.

Rickie Lambert’s 63rd-minute header was cancelled out in a 1-1 draw when the teams last met there as Championship sides in 2011.

But this will be the first Fratton Park cup match against Saints since Moran’s finest hour. “I’ve had more messages about this game than any other since 1984,” he continues. “My phone’s been red hot, but I wasn’t even aware they were drawn against each other till someone messaged me about it on facebook.

“I don’ think the atmosphere will be quite the same this time as Saints fans only have a 2,000 allocation. In ’84 they seemed to fill a third of the ground and there was terracing of course.

“I’m not sure the game means as much to the players as it did then. To many of them it will be just another game but this is as hostile a derby as any.

“After my goal I stood near the touchline so I could get off the pitch as soon as possible!”