Surprisingly few games played on this date, but enough spread over the years to jar a few memories.

We start today's look back in 1973, a season that saw Saints firmly in mid table but the fans complaining about the entertainment value, Newcastle United were the visitors and the 14,785 in attendance would reflect that this was not a glamour game, the previous game had been Manchester United and the last two would be Arsenal & Leeds and all three would have around 10,000 more in attendance, although in fairness all three would bring larger followings, but it does emphasise how wildly crowd could fluctuate back then.

Those there saw a debut for Wayne Talkes who would make a total of 7 starts plus 3 as sub for the club, it was also the first name after the departure of Ron Davies who was now at Portsmouth.

The Echo claimed that the 10th home draw of the season was not as drab as some of it's predecessors, Newcastle nook the lead on 67 minutes Paul Gilchrist equalised from a Ron Davies type header 10 minutes later.

Back then Gilchrist had been signed as Ron Davies eventual replacement, he would show some promise, but it wasn't until he was converted to a midfielder he truly found his niche at the Dell.

On to 1989/90 and Saints were being hailed as one of the brightest young teams in the country and when they hosted Charlton on this day were looking for the points that would perhaps give us a top three finish.

We were 3-0 up in 36 minutes with two Neil Ruddock headers and then Jimmy Case put us in the driving seat.

The foot was off the gas in the second half and by the our mark the visitors had pulled two goals back, but we got a grip and saw out the game for the three points that put us up to 7th only 6 points behind Everton in 3rd.

Fast foward two years to 1992 and things had changed Ian Branfoot was in charge and despite the fact that we had a core of those exciting young players still at the club the type of football had changed.

On this day we went up to West Ham for a night game, a run of 6 wins in our last 7 games had taken us from rock bottom up to 18th an unlikely looking scenario only 2 months earlier, the Hammers though were now in 22nd position and heading for relegation.

Things got worse for them when Micky Adams fired home an 88th minute winner for the only goal of the game.

We were again comfortably mid table when Leicester City hosted us in 1998, we should have been more comfortable after leading the Foxes 3-1 shortly after the break with two goals from Egil Ostenstad and a third by David Hirst.

But Leicester got back into the game through Elliott and then equalised in the 90th minute from the spot after a Le Tissier hand ball.

Photo: Action Images

darthvader added 22:40 - Apr 14 Ahh Talksie ... I worked on his house a few times over the years and good to hear the some of the tales of old . Including sneaking a tot of brandy at half time for a couple of the senior lads on a cold evening game .
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