Into The Valley Of The Draws
Saints go to London aiming to make sure Charlton dont put the skids on their promotion charge.
Saints head to Charlton looking for the points that will take them into second spot, however the Valley has not been a happy hunting ground for Saints in recent years,
A draw has been the usual result for this fixture and never many goals, in the nine fixtures Saints have played at the Valley since Charlton came into the Premiership in 1998, six have been either 0-0 or 1-1, whilst three have resulted in home wins, 5-0 in that 98/99 fixture when Paul Jones was sent off and David Howells went in goal and a 2-1 defeat late in 2002/03 and a last day 2-1 in the following year.
Before that Saints record wasnt so bad, in their tenure at Selhurst Park in the late 80's we beat them 4-2 on New Years Day 1990 as they headed to relegation, preceded by three straight draws.
But if you are looking for good omens on our last trip to the old Valley before they left, we beat them 3-1 over the Xmas period as we headed towards promotion, although in our three other games there in the 70's we conceded a massive 12 goals, a 4-1 defeat in 75/76 being followed by a -1 league defeat and a 6-1 League Cup drubbing a couple of weeks later in 76/77.
So it could be said this is the Valley Of The Draws for Saints, we dont often get beat there but its been 33 years since our last win, its about time that changed and what better time to do that.
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