Saints travel up to Elland Road looking to replicate their victory of 2012 after the debacle of last season, cant they get back on track after three straight Premier league defeats, here we look at the chances.

Thirteen months ago Saints travelled up to an empty Elland Road in the middle of a slump, they had taken just one point from the previous six Premier League games, they could just about put out an experienced starting XI, but the bench was warmed by a few experienced players plus youth team regulars.

But there was enough in the team to get a result, in the first half we dominated the game and should have lead with a free kick that was taken after the referee blew his whistle, but then was oddly disallowed as referee Andre Marriner suddenly decided that Leeds were not ready and disallowed the goal.

This was typical of the luck Saints were having and that continued in the second half when Leeds scored early in the second half, held off Saints pressure and then scored two late goal for a 3-0 scoreline that on the balance of play flattered them.

There was also the state of the pitch, to be blunt the game should nit have been played, the pitch was dangerous and was akin to playing on a tablecloth, there was no roots to the grass and the pitch broke up on impact, that proved to be the case when as Oriol Romeu went to kick a ball it gave was fracturing his ankle with no player around him.

But that was last year and this is this, we need to put the last month behind us and get back to winning way.

On hitting 35 points and virtual Premier League safety we have taken the foot off the gas and we now need to get back on track, a few weeks ago we looked ready to push on for a top 9 finish, three straight losses for us and two wins for Leeds mean that if they beat us they will have gone from three points off the relegation zone to the same distance from our total.

That means that although we are still highly unlikely to be relegated, that although we could finish as high as 9th, we could also drop down to 16th by May if we are not careful.

So this game is vital to us to keep up the momentum we had back in February.

Leeds were not in form two games ago when injury time winner at home to Norwich gave them hope and they continued that in their next fixture with another injury time goal that gave them all three points at Wolves after being two down.

They now have momentum and they have players coming back from injury so they will fancy their chances in this one, even more so knowing that a win will all but secure their Premier League survival for this season.

But Saints should go into this game with confidence, Leeds have momentum, but two injury time winners does not make them a decent side over night, we should still start out as if not favourites for the win, but at least a point and in truth a point would be welcome in that it would end our losing streak and keep Leeds 6 points behind us in the table and with 7 games left and our goal difference being 24 better than theirs, this would make it hard for them to get above us in the final table.

So this is a big game in that avoiding defeat would be a big step in ensuring that Leeds can't catch us.

Hopefully the international break has given Ralph Hasenhuttl time to get his squad back on track, those on International break will perhaps come back with a spring in their step, especially Kyle Walker Peters after winning his first full caps for England and Fraser Forster with his recall to the squad.

But there were those in the squad that needed a rest and hopefully they will have got that and come back renewed with energy.

I would not see Ralph deviating much from his preferred line up of the last few months, all we need is to get back to a confident performance, cutting out the errors of recent weeks and start taking our chances again.

Armando Broja has had a bit of a lean spell and had looked jaded, we need him back to form as we do several others who have not quite reached the heights they achieved a month or so ago,

So time to not only put the last month behind us, but also lay the ghost of last season at Elland Road.

Photo: Action Images

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