Southampton Look To End 21 Year Old Hoodoo Against Manchester United

Bizarrely Saints have not beaten Manchester United at St Mary's since August 2003, although they have won a couple of times at Old Trafford in that period. Can they end that winless streak on Saturday.

In their final season at the Dell in 2000/01 season, Saints signed off their time in the old stadium by beating Manchester United in the penultimate Premier League home game of that season, Saints took a 2-0 lead in the first half with a Wes Brown own goal and Marian Pahars adding the second, before Ryan Giggs pulled on back, but we hung on for a 2-1 win.

Little did we know however, that this would be the start of a home record against the Red Devils which would see only 1 home win in the next 23 years, a run at St Mary's of 15 Premier League games plus 3 in the FA Cup.

In that time the only win was achieved on August 31st 2003, when a last minute James Beattie goal gave us a 1-0 win.

Since then it has been pretty barren with only 5 draws in those 15 League meetings and all the other games both League & cup ending in defeat.

During that time we have come close to breaking the hoodoo, on our return to the Premier League in 2012, in the 87th minute we were leading 2-1 with goals from Rickie Lambert & Morgan Schneiderlin, but Robin Van Persie added to his earlier goal with efforts in the 87th minute to equalise and then an injury time winner to seal a 3-2 victory.

In December 2018 we came close again, taking a 2-0 win in the first 20 minutes through Stuart Armstrong and Cedric Soares, but United were level by half time.

November 2020 was a game played behind closed doors due to Covid restrictions, again the Southampton supporters watching on tv saw their team take a 2-0 lead in the first half, Jan Bednarek & James Ward-Prowse notching the goals.

Up to the hour mark we were solid, but we then collapsed with 3 United goals in the last half hour with another injury time winner breaking our hearts.

So can Russell Martin and his team do something that only one Southampton manager, Gordon Strachan, has managed in 23 years & 18 attempts & sent them back home very much Manchester Unexcited.

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