There have been few players in football who have had to wait 15 years for their next goal for a club, but Theo Walcott is one such player here we take a look at his last league goal for Saints way back in December 2005 against Luton Town.

In a career starting back in the summer of 2005 when he joined the club at a 16 year old trainee, it was clear from the start that Theo Walcott was destined for greater things, but the Saints supporters who made up the bulk of the 19,086 crowd who assembled to see Luton Town visit on 11th December of that year didn't know at the time they were about to see Theo's last League goal for the club for almost 15 years.

Indeed after they had seen it and also his goal in the FA Cup against MK Dons which was technically his last goal for the club before his move to Arsenal.

The goal against Luton was scored in his 16th Championship appearance for the club and for his second manager, Harry Redknapp had left the club a week earlier and Dave Bassett assisted by Denis Wise were in temporary charge, by Christmas Theo would be under his 3rd manager of his six month career at the club.

That meant when he made his second debut for the club against Chelsea in what would be his 14th Start for the club and his 22nd appearance overall, it would be for his 4th manager, hopefully Ralph Hasenhuttl will be around a lot longer than the previous 3.

So lets take a look back at that cold December day when Luton Town came to St Mary's.

Saints were very much a club in turmoil, despite the fact that they still had a squad containing many of those who had played in the Premier League prior to the previous seasons relegation including the likes of Anti Niemi, Clus Lundekvam, Brett Ormerod etc, Redknapp had crushed our spirit on & off the pitch and we had dropped to 13th in the table on 28 points, still only 6 points off the play off positions, the last place which was held by visitors Luton Town. the hope was that win this and with a game in hand, when a new manager arrived he and indeed Theo Walcott would lead us to a late run up the table.

The game was played on a Sunday lunchtime, God knows why I can't remember whether it was televised, perhaps it was maybe just a pre Christmas thing.

The Saints side that day was

Niemi, Delap, Kenton, Powell, Higginbotham, McCann, Prutton, Oakley, Kosowski (Baird 72), Walcott (Best 85), Jones (Cranie 90).
Subs Not Used: Smith, Ormerod.

An experienced side even without Claus Lundekvam & Nigel Quashie who were both missing.

The only goal of the game came on 23 minutes when Walcott showed searing pace as he latched on to a hopeful punt and calmly lobbed the ball over keeper Dean Brill from wide on the left touchline.

Luton never coped with Walcott's ability and he twice missed excellent one-on-one chances after the break.

The Hatters' best opportunity saw Rory Delap, who was sent off in the final minute for a second booking, clear Chris Coyne's acrobatic effort off the line.

The 3 points only moved us up one place to 12th, but we were now only 3 points off the play off places, Cardiff and Luton were in 5th & 6th place on 34 points but had played a game more than us, there was hope that the second half of the season would be better than the first.

Sadly it was not to be, January saw a raft of players leave as George Burley revamped the squad, along with Theo out went Antti Niemi, Nigel Quashie, Brett Ormerod & Rory Delap.

Photo: Action Images

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