Saints take on the Foxes looking to gain some revenge for an FA Cup Semi Final defeat, this fixture at St Mary's always seem to be surrounded by a drama of one sort or another, here we look back at a few of those games.
This fixture never seems to be played without incident, back in December 1997 the 15,121 who were present in a sold out Dell crowd saw one of those magic moments as Francis Benali headed his only goal for the club in the 54th minute for what turned out to be the winning goal.
But the drama goes back further than that, in October 1967, Leicester arrived at the Dell and won 5-1, that after Ron Davies had given Saints the lead on the half hour mark, the Foxes ravaged us in the second half and truly rubbed it in in the final minute when their goalkeeper Peter Shilton who would join Saints 15 years later scored when he punted the ball down the field and in heavy wind and rain the ball took one bounce and sailed over Campbell Forsythe in the Saints goal to complete the scoring.
The weather seems to be a dominant factor in this fixture, in March 1987 the pitch still had snow on it although it was melting and the goalmouth had puddles on it, we would win the game 4-0, Matt Le Tissier with a hat trick and Gordon Hobson obliging, but it could have been more, on at least one occasion the ball stopped dead in a puddle on the line and was cleared.
In the final game of the season in 94/95 Saints finished 10th, but it could have been 9th, Leicester arrived on the final day having been relegated weeks earlier, we took a 2-0 lead through that man Le God again and were cruising, then Leicester pulled one back and scored in the last minute to salvage an unlikely draw and mean we finished two points behind Wimbledon but we had a far better goal difference.
But 7 years later we gained our revenge in March 2002, Leicester in their first ever visit to St Mary's took a 2-0 lead by the 25th minute, but this was the Marian Pahars show, he pulled one back fairly quickly and then scored from the spot in the dying minutes, as in 1995 , Leicester would be relegated at the end of the season.
2006/07 saw a game that was almost called off due to torrential rain, it was played and we won 2-0 and with the opening goal scored by none other than Pele, sadly not the Brazilian legend but the central defender of the same name scoring what would be his only goal for the club, were you there when Pele scored for Saints, that is a good quiz question.
Another game in which a two goal lead was blown was in October 2015, Leicest were of course going for the Premier League title, but that looked an impossible dream as Saints burst their bubble taking a half time lead through Jose Fonte and Virgil Van Dijk, Jamie Vardy pulled one back in the 66th minute but Saints looked to have hung on with the game deep into injury time, but a poor clearance from Kelvin Davies in what would be his last ever appearance for the club saw Vardy score an unlikely equaliser.
Perhaps the most controversial meeting though was in January 2017, in the 55th minute with Saints cruising and the ball running harmlessly for a goal kick , Virgil Van Dijk was ushering it out when that horrible little scroat Jamie Vardy with nothing to gain decided to run his studs down the back of his leg and forced the Dutch defender off with an injury that ended his season and ultimately scuppered Saints chances of a trophy, I think had Van Dijk played in that League Cup final against Manchester United we would have won it.
That was our last win over the Foxes at home, in the last three seasons we have fared better away than at St Mary's, whatever the scoreline this evening, there will be something to talk about, there usually is.