A look at a great victory over the Fox's 25 years ago.

It was not a great season for Leicester City back in 1986/87 and it would ultimately end in relegation from the top flight and Saints helped send them down winning both at home and away, back in October a 3-2 win at Filbert Street .

But it was far from clear cut on March 7th 1987 that Saints themselves wouldnt get dragged into the relegation zone, with four possibly going down in this season (the fourth from bottom would go into a play off with the 3rd club in div 2 with only twogoing up automaticall)  as the League looked to reduce the top flight to 21 clubs the following season and then down to 38 the year after, Saints stood only one point and one place above Leicester who were occupying the fourth and final spot in the drop zone, this was in all effects a six pointer which would dictate whether Saints would stuggle or pull away.

It was a cold snowy day and the game was in some doubt, the pitch was heavy, muddy and had some surface water, but go ahead it did. Saints slide downwards was in the main due to a poor run that had seen them win only once in 11 games since the start of December, losing another 8 and drawing only 2, a run made even the more stranger when you look at the players Saints had at their disposal, Saints lined up against Leicester

Shilton

Forrest, Bond, Wright, Armstrong

D Wallace, Le Tissier, Cockerill, Townsend

Hobson Lawrence

Other players used regularly that season included Glen Cockerill, Jimmy Case, Mark Dennis, Colin Clarke to name but a few.

The problem though was that Chris Nicholl was fighting a dressing room battle as many of the old guard wanted out and the youngsters werent quite ready yet, indeed Mark Dennis had already played his last game for the club a month earlier after falling out with Nicholl., but this squad really should have been doing a lot better.

Saints fans were obviously concerned though when they saw the team was without so many key players including leading scorer Colin Clarke who would hit 20 goals from only 33 games that year.

But it would be one of the new breed who would lead the way as Matt Le Tissier would hit his first hat trick for the club, the first came after 29 minutes when Le Tiss swept home the loose ball from a free kick, on 58 mins it was two, with Gordon Hobson putting in the rebound after a Danny Wallace shot hit the underside of the bar, four minutes later the game was all but over as le Tissier netted his second sidefooting the ball past future Saints keeper Ian Andrews.

With just under ten minutes to play Le Tissier scored perhaps the first of the type of goal that would become his trademark, he swayed past two tackles, bludgeoned past three more only to see his shot saved by Andrews, however he reached the rebound first and squeezed it home from a tight angle.

Saints had won the six pointer a win that took them two points clear of the bottom four and with games in hand on the clubs directly above them in mid table safety, in fact they would only lose twice in the remaining 13 games although due to only winning five of them it cost them the chance of a top ten finish, their final position being 12th on 52 points ten ahead of Leicester who finished 3rd from bottom on 42 and charlton who went into the play off games for survival finishing on 44.

Photo: Action Images

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