Saints face one of the most popular players ever to have played for the club when they travel to the Hawthorns on Saturday.
It cannot be denied by anyone that Rickie Lambert was one of the most popular players to have played for Southampton Football Club, he was loved by young and old alike as he became a talisman in the club's rise from its lowest position in the league in over half century back to the Premier League.
Rickie was a virtual God to many hitting 106 league goals across three divisions in 197 games plus 10 as sub, add another 5 goals in 11(2) games in the FA Cup, 3 goals in the League cup in 4(4) and of course 3 goals in 7 games in the Johnstone Paint Trophy where he became one of a select band who have scored for the club in a Wembley final and you have a player who scored 117 goals in 135 games, just 1 goal off a goal every two games average.
In many respects though Rickie's departure came just at the right time, his style no longer suited the way that Saints were now playing and a bigger proportion of his goals were from penalties and free kicks.
Leaving when he did meant he left with his reputation intact in the supporters memories and it meant that he lived his own dream by joining his boyhood idols Liverpool and not to mention Saints raked in £4 million a tidy profit for five years service on the £1 million we paid Bristol Rovers.
But even the biggest fan of Rickie found it hard to cheer him on wearing the red of Liverpool after the way that Brendon Rodgers had behaved in signing Adam Lallana & Dejan Lovren, however it was not a pleasure to watch as Rickie struggled to hold down a place in the Liverpool team with his scoring touch deserting him, in the Premier League although he started only 7 Premier games he did come on 18 times but scored only twice, he fared little better in the four cup competitions (dont forget two in Europe) Liverpool were in, starting only 5 games with another 6 as sub scoring only once.
Now though he is at West Bromwich Albion and Saints fans can once again feel pleased if he scores, although not this Saturday.
But he has not had the greatest start at the Hawthorn's having started the first two Premier League games he has been on the bench for the last two and given that fellow striker Sadio Berahino has not been available that must be a worrying fact for Rickie who has yet to score a goal, even 120 minutes against Port Vale in the Capital One Cup could not change that.
So it could be that Rickie is on the bench against Saints on Saturday with Tony Pulis using him as an impact sub, lets hope that his goalless run continues although Im sure everyone in the ground on Saturday will hope that it ends a week later at Villa Park.
So Saints fans let's give Rickie Lambert a big welcome on Saturday, in truth this is our first reunion, for many it stuck in the throat to applaud him in a Liverpool shirt.