A lot of matches played on this date in the last 50 years, probably because it often falls around the Easter weekend and in the past we played as many as three games at that period, here are a few of them, how many did you go to ?

1973/74 was a relegation season where we went down by a single point, 12th April was Good Friday and the first of three games in four days, it was not a good period we travelled to fellow strugglers West Ham United, initially it went well when Mick Channon scored from the spot on 25 minutes, but the Hammers were on level terms only two minutes later and we were buried by two more goals in the first 8 mins of the second half with a late goal only confirming the win for the home side.

Two years later and Cup final fever had hit the city with seemingly every house having something Saints in their windows for some reason this was a Monday evening kick off as we had to squeeze 6 games in between 10th April and the end of the League season on the 24th. Two goals from Mike Channon and one from Jim McCalliog gave us a 3-2 win in a pulsating game.

Stoke City has often been a happy hunting ground for us both at the old Victoria Ground and also at their new stadium, we were 1-0 down at the break but goals from Ivan Golac and Phil Boyer in the second half gave us the win.

The least said the better about the visit of Leicester City in 85/86 a 0-0 draw, but their was good news from the youth team, they had beaten Brighton 10-0 with good performances from Mark Blake, Francis Benali and Alan Shearer, but it was a 17 year old from Guernsey who took the headlines scoring 6 of the goals, I wonder what happened to him !!!!!

A good end to 88/89 season saw us lose only once in our last 9 games, this was the defeat 3-0 drubbing away at Nottingham Forest notable only for the fact that it was one of the games where all three Wallace Brothers, Danny, Rod & Ray played in the same side.

The Daily Echo said we dominated the game with 21 shots to only 8 for the home side, sound familiar !!

We seemed to be already on the beach by April 1993, a 5-2 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday confirmed that . the goals by Jason Dodd and Iain Dowie never brought us back into the game at any time.

The win at Chelsea in 1994/95 will always be in my memory as it was the day before the birth of my daughter so I was taking a risk going to this game, it was a late call so I didn't have a ticket for the away section so had to buy one in the upper tier of what is now their oldest stand, Neil Shipperley gave us the lead after only 10 minutes and then Le Tissier doubled that just after the half hour which is probably why Damon Albarn of Blur, then one of the two biggest bands in England along with Oasis looked so miserable in the bar at half time.

1996/97 was another of those seasons in the 1990's when we would leave staying up late, a packed Dell saw Micky Evans throw himself at a cross to the far post to head home , but in doing so smashing into the goal post, if you were there then you will remember this goal it was bravery beyond the call of duty, Eyal Berkovic made it two to give us a lead that we defended resolutely, we moved up from bottom of the table to 16th.

In 2003/04 we travelled to Middlesbrough we were 3-0 down by 49 minutes, a James Beattie goal on 70 minutes being a mere consolation.

It was another relegation battle in 2007/08, but this time we were heading towards the 3rd tier, things started well up at the Valley with an own goal giving us a half time lead, but the home side equalised on 69 minutes so we had to be content with a draw, 26,000 watched the game with a packed away end with around 4,000 Saints fans present.

Nine years ago was a re arranged fixture, this time a long midweek haul to Rochdale in League One, we were now in the driving seat for the second automatic place for promotion, although we were never going to catch Brighton we were level with Huddersfield on 74 points but we had two games in hand this being one of them.

A decent following made the trip to take on a Rochdale side that was harbouring play off hopes themselves, two goals from the home side in the first half gave them a 2-0 win for what would be our only defeat in the last 10 games as we stormed to 2nd place, Rochdale finished 9th. It was a long drive home.

Our last fixture on this day takes us back to 2013/14 as we sought to get a top 10 finish in the Premier League, Cardiff City fighting what would be a forlorn battle against relegation arrived on a sunny day to St Mary's, we had beaten them 3-0 in Cardiff on Boxing Day so this would surely be a formality.

We had 68% possession, we had 7 shots on target and 8 off, compared to the visitors 4 & 2 respectively, but the only stat that really counted was the one that Cala scored in the 65th minute to send 3,000 Cardiff fans home happy.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters