Now, Marco Silva’s Fulham are an established top-half Premier League side, while Tonda Eckert’s Saints are scrapping for promotion back to the top flight from the Championship.
But rewind to October 2002, and it was Southampton who used a thrilling clash with the Cottagers to propel themselves into the top half of the top flight.
The match at St Mary’s started off as a horror show for Gordon Strachan’s men, watched by a 26,188 crowd in a swirling gale.
Michael Svensson takes the ball into the Fulham area. (Image: Echo)
In an exceptionally flat opening 20 minutes, Saints were 2-0 down.
First Lee Clark struck for Fulham after 15 minutes, his shot cruelly deflected off Michael Svensson, giving goalkeeper Antti Niemi no chance.
Then, just 9 minutes later, Steve Marlet found Steve Finnan who pulled the ball back for Steed Malbranque to easily sidefoot home.
However, what followed was a magnificent, Beattie-inspired comeback that emphatically drew a line under the striker’s troubled start to the season.
James Beattie began the fightback with a thunderous penalty into the top corner awarded when Brett Ormerod flicked the ball onto the arm of Fulham’s Zat Knight.
Three minutes before the interval, Matthew Oakley set up Fabrice Fernandes to put in a peach of a cross to the far post where Beattie rose to head powerfully past Edwin Van Der Sar.
The turnaround was completed eight minutes into the second half, when Anders Svensson’s incoming free-kick was glanced into the net by Beattie’s header, and the Fulham keeper could only get a hand to it on its way in.
Beattie had scored his first top-flight hat-trick, the first-ever Premier League hat-trick scored at St Mary’s, and the first league hat-trick scored by a Saints player since Matt Le Tissier netted three against Nottingham Forest in 1995.
Beattie scores the penalty. (Image: Echo)
Saints then put gloss on the scoreline with a fourth goal in the 72nd minute, with Brett Ormerod finishing coolly to make it 4–2.
Victory was secured by a strong midfield performance and solid defensive recovery.
Strachan’s starting XI consisted of Antti Niemi in goal, behind a back-four of Jason Dodd, Michael Svensson, Claus Lundekvam and Wayne Bridge, who played on bravely despite receiving a heavy knock to the ankle in marking his 100th consecutive appearance for the club.
Fabrice Fernandes, Anders Svensson, Matthew Oakley and Chris Marsden made up a midfield quartet that bossed the game with clever skill and passing.
Brett Ormerod partnered James Beattie in attack, with cult hero Agustin Delgado being the only substitute used after coming on late for Ormerod.
The rest of the bench, Paul Jones, Paul Telfer, Jo Tessem and Paul Williams all went unused.
It was the perfect illustration of the, oft-described, insanity of English football.
If Saints fans are heading to Craven Cottage this Sunday full of trepidation, they’ll have everything crossed that the current crop can display half as much fight as Strachan’s men of yesteryear.
The stakes and divisions may be different, but the magic of a cup giant-killing or historic comeback remains as strong as ever.