Saints are usually able to pull out all the stops when there is something on the game on their trips to Humberside.
Saints last visit to Hull City came in March 2012 when as they pushed for promotion and 9 games left they visited a Hull side who had play off aspirations of their own, an OG in the first half put us in the driving seat and then Jos Hooiveld doubled the score in the second to give us all three points and leave us 7 points ahead of West Ham in 3rd although the Hammers had a game in hand on us.
In December 2006 Saints thought they were in a new era with Michael Wilde taking over the club and they travelled to Hull looking to do just that after a bit of a dodgy spell, initially it looked good as first Gregorz Rasiak and then Gareth Bale put us two up inside 25 minutes, but 2 Hull goals a minute before the break made it all square as the teams turned round, in the second half though Saints came good as Rasiak and Bradley Wright Phillips made it 4-2 to take us within 3 points of the play off spots.
2005/06 saw us meet the Tigers for the first time in two decades and the 1-1 draw in both games were not classic encounters, the previous time we met them before that was though, this time it was in the league Cup then called the Milk Cup in 1984/85, back then the 2nd round was played over 2 legs and we beat Hull 3-2 at the Dell to leave the tie on a knife edge for the 2nd leg a fortnight later, Saints looked good when Danny Wallace scored early on to increase the aggregate score and when Steve Moran scored on 50 minutes to restore the two goal cushion after a Hull equaliser Saints looked through, nobody told the Tigers though who missed a penalty on 64 minutes and were kept at bay for long periods by Peter Shilton, a goal with 4 minutes to go made it an uncomfortable ending for Saints and they went through on agregate..
The previous league meeting had also been an important game, another midweek clash as most of our trips to Humberside seem to be, Saints were pushing for promotion to the top flight in 1977/78 when they went to Boothferry Park with 5 games left, Ted McDougall, Phil Boyer and Alan Ball secured a comfortable 3-0 win to keep us clear of the chasing pack into 2nd place and 5 points clear of 4th placed Brighton.
Hull also were the last game of the season in the second division for Saints on 24th April 1976 and for those who were looking for omens for the following week, yes it was Bobby Stokes who scored the goal in a 1-0 win.
In 1949/50 Saints were pushing for promotion for the first ever time to division 1, they travelled to Hull at the end of March and scored in the last minute to earn a 2-1 win, ultimately though in this season it would not be enough and Saints would lose out to Sheffield Wednesday on goal average both being on 52 points, spare a thought for Sheffield United though, they too were on 52 points with a goal average of 1.39, Wednesday pipped them though with 1.40.
Can Saints win tonight, they certainly usually pull out the stops when they need to up on Humberside, but do they really need to tonight ?