A trip to Southampton has not been the happiest hunting ground for the Toon Army in the past four decades or so, Saints now look to make sure that continues.

When Newcastle United won 2-1 at the Dell in February 1972, little did they know that it would be over 32 years before they won another League game in Southampton and that 2-1 win for the visitors in September 2004 remains the only League reverse that Saints have suffered at home against the Geordies in 46 years although they did knock us out of the FA Cup in January 2004 to warm up for the following season.

That Premier defeat in 2004/05 would ultimately be very costly, we would of course be relegated on 32 points, but had we beaten the Toon we would have stayed up and West Bromwich Albion gone down in our place.

Now we aim to repay Newcastle by inflicting on them a third straight defeat in the Premier League and in doing so perhaps putting a nail in their coffin that will be too deeply embedded to pull out, not that I have anything against Newcastle but it just sounds good.

Newcastle will arrive in Southampton six points behind Norwich who are 4th from bottom, should they lose then even if the Canaries lose at Crystal Palace, a result that would virtually reduce it to a four horse race for relegation, it would be a tough ask for the Toon to make up a six point gap in only half a dozen remaining games, although if they did it would surely have done us a favour given that two of them are against Liverpool and Tottenham.

As mentioned since that defeat in 2004 Saints have only met the Geordies at home three times, in November 2012 our first season back in the Premier it was us second from bottom in the Premier league, a 2-0 win with goals from Adam Lallana and Gaston Ramirez took us out of the bottom three for the first time that season.

A season later in March 2014 and a lot of things had changed in the boardroom at St Mary's but we were going well in the League and were 9th with 45 points from 31 games, almost identical to our current 47 from 32 games, Newcastle were a point ahead of us in 8th and this was a big game in terms of our ambition to finish in the top 10.

It was statistically an easy game for Saints with Newcastle playing without passion and managing only 2 shots on target and 1 off the whole game compared to Saints 11 on and 10 off.

A Jay Rodriguez goal on the stroke of half time gave us the advantage, Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana increased the total and then J Rod scored again in the final minute to complete what was a rout.

To give an example of the changes Saints have been through since, of the 18 on duty that day for Saints, in the starting line up only three will be likely to start on Saturday, Jose Fonte, Steven Davis & James Ward Prowse, a fourth Jay Rodriguez will probably be on the bench and although from the subs bench Paolo Gazzaniga is still at the club as is Sam Gallagher and Harrison Reed, it is likely that none of them will be involved on Saturday.

Last season the Toon arrived early doors in September 2014 and the score was the same as six months earlier but the game was far tougher, Graziano Pelle gave us an early two goal advantage in the first 20 minutes, Jack Cork made the game safe 10 minutes after the break and then Morgan Schneiderln like the previous season completed the scoring in the last minute.

So Saints aim to inflict a fourth straight St Mary's defeat on Newcastle, for us there can be no other result if we are to maintain not only our quest for a third straight top ten finish in the top flight and equal the club record, but if we are to harbour any hopes of another Europa League campaign next season, the future is very much in our own hands, but Newcastle under new manager Rafa Benitez will surely be coming out fighting for this one so it won't be easy.

Photo: Action Images

halftimeorange added 11:58 - Apr 6 The key to this game is Saints getting an early goal. With the announcement that Newcastle have increased their profits their fans will be seething given their league position. A poor start from them in this game will be the catalyst to vent their anger towards Mike Ashley rather than supporting their team. Benitez is, however, a useful manager and Newcastle were certainly trying for him at Norwich. We don't want another performance from Saints like the one against Sunderland so I hope Ronald has all of our players fired up for this one.

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SaintBrock added 12:36 - Apr 7 Nick. Try and get The True Geordie to give you his take on this game. He's a Grade 1 Toon fan na will tell it as it is. Please do it!
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