It will be 40 years to the weekend when Saints visit Leeds on Saturday to when we were thumped 7-0 in a game that sadly was captured by the Match Of the Day cameras to rub it in even more.
Saints travel to Elland Road this week on Saturday 3rd March and it was on Saturday 4th March 1972, almost exactly 40 years to the day, that Saints visited Elland Road and left after being thumped 7-0, one of the worst defeats in our history.
The defeat wasnt a surprise in itself, after all Leeds were going full on for the League title whereas we were sinking into a relegation battle, we arrived in Yorkshire having lost five and won one of the last six games, it didnt take a betting genius to predict the outcome, but not many foresaw that the score would be so brutal.
What isnt remembered about this game is that for almost half of it it was goaless, Leeds didnt score their first till the 39th minute qnd then conceded another to go in at half time 2-0 down, even after the break the score would be the same right up to the hour mark and then with 30 mins left the floodgates opened, in a 17 minute spell the home side hit five goals and left Saints hanging on for the final 13 minutes.
Perhaps the best known of the goals and the one sometimes shown on TV involved a 32 pass masterclass in keeping the ball with Saints chasing shadows, it was a crisp passing movement from Leeds but in truth it had to be, if they didnt move the ball on quickly it would have given the likes of Jim Steele and Brian O'Neil the chance to wreak a painful revenge for taking the proverbial.
For their part Leeds have always claimed that they werent intending to humiliate Saints by playing keep ball, not only for the goal but also in the latter part of the game, but had instructions to pass the ball and avoid injury with the game well won.
At the end of the season Saints survived comfortably whilst Leeds were pipped to the title by Derby County and Brian Clough
So on the very weekend that the 40th anniversary of this drubbing we have the chance to return to the scene and lay this particular ghost to rest, although some would say that we actually did that in 1982 ten years after, when we won 3-1 on the ground and condemned Leeds to relegation to division 2