In a quiet International week we once again go back into our picture archives to take a look at some of the action from previous clashes with Boro both home and away.

We start with Marian Pahars celebrating his goal in a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough at the Dell on March 3rd 2000, the Latvian Michael Owen scored on the brink of half time, but within 60 seconds of the restart Boro were awarded a penalty from which they scored the final goal of the game

We fast forward now to Sunday 11th December 2016 when Saints fans were still smarting from the exit from the Europa League after a 1-1 home draw with Beer Sheva a few days earlier, this would be a dire game settled in the 53rd minute with a wonder goal from Sofiane Boufal on 53 minutes.

The return up in the North East came on Saturday 13th May 2017 and bizarrely enough Saints fans were asking similar questions of then manager Claude Puel, the issue was that after both Jose Fonte & Virgil Van Dijk were now unavailable, Fonte through leaving and Van Dijk through injury, Puel seemed to have a strange desire to play a 23 year old who had only made his League debut for the club in the January, Puel had signed Martin Caceres an experienced player both at club and International level, but he sat on the bench for 3 months and only made 1 appearance in his time at the club, in this game.

Why he never played before or for that matter in the final two games of the season was one of the questions that will perhaps never be answered, only one man knows the answer Claude Puel and his failure to try him earlier in the season perhaps was a big factor in costing him his job.

Anyway we won 2-1, Jay Rodrigues scoring just before the break and Nathan Redmond putting us 2-0 up on 57 minutes before Patrick Bamford gave the home side hope on 72 minutes.

Now we go to a little earlier in the season when we made it 4 defeats in a row, despite leading 1-0 up to the 44th minute, I'm sure you all remember, but here's a pictorial reminder.

Photo: Action Images

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