There was a sense of heading in to the unknown for the Rovers players as the 1994/95 title race came down to a final-day finish, but the experience of boss Kenny Dalglish was key.

The Scot was a serial winner as both a player and a manager, and his knowhow more than made up for the lack of experience at challenging for top-flight titles in the squad.

Rovers ended the season with three defeats in their last six matches, with one-goal wins over Crystal Palace and Newcastle United vital in seeing them over the line.

Midfielder Mark Atkins felt the 3-2 home defeat to Manchester City, in terrible conditions at Ewood, added pressure to the group, and admitted: “The run-in was always going to be difficult because nobody had ever been there before.”

Kevin Gallacher returned from injury to make a vital contribution three days later, scoring in a 2-1 win over Palace at Ewood, to help ease some of the tension that was emerging.

“One or two of the lads were tiring a little bit because it was a tight-knit squad and a tight team that were generally playing,” Gallacher said.

“When we got everybody on song other ones seemed to drop out at the wrong time. We hadn’t been there before and nervous energy was getting used up in games.”

While Rovers were stuttering, Manchester United were chalking up the wins, with manager Alex Ferguson cranking up the mind games, referencing the 1956 Grand National when Devon Loch fell just yards from the finish line.

Rovers weren’t short of characters, or big personalities however, as well as the experience of Dalglish.

“It was round about that time as well Fergie had thrown the ‘Devon Loch’ quote out about us, putting pressure on us sort of thing,” Colin Hendry said.

“But to counteract that we had Kenny Dalglish as a manager who had been through all of that before, and didn’t say a lot but said enough to the players to the group to reassure each other that ‘listen, don’t concern yourselves with that just go and play your football’.”

The title went down to the final day, but Rovers maintained a two-point lead after Alan Shearer’s goal gave them a 1-0 win over Newcastle United.

But Tim Flowers was hero of the hour, producing a string of fine saves as Rovers held on.

And Atkins pinpointed that, as well as Gallacher’s goal against Palace, as vital in even getting Rovers to a position where they could win the title on the final day.

He added:  “Without Kev’s goal in the Palace game, without him (Flowers) pulling them saves off, I don’t think we’d have even got to Anfield.”