Saints legend & 25-game dud: The surprise starting XI when Southampton were last in the Championship play-offs

Southampton are preparing for the play-offs, with their semi-final first-leg against West Brom fast approaching.

Russell Martin must first take his side to The Hawthorns for a 2:15pm kick-off on Sunday, before welcoming The Baggies back to St Mary’s the following Friday.

The winner of the tie will then set up a Wembley final with whoever is triumphant in the other tie between Leeds United and Norwich City.

Southampton should take confidence from their record against their play-off rivals this season and the win against Leeds on the final day could have big implications mentally.

However, the Saints will be hoping to avoid what happened the last time they were in the play-offs at the end of the 2006/07 season.

The side then managed by George Burley suffering semi-final heartbreak as they lost on penalties to Derby County after a thrilling contest.

Having lost the first leg 2-1 at St Mary’s, Southampton travelled to Derby knowing they had their work cut out.

They took the game to their opponents and won 3-2 on the night to set up extra-time with a dramatic 89th minute Grzegorz Rasiak goal.

Neither side could find the net in the additional 30 minutes, so the game went to penalties and it was here that Inigo Idiakez missed the decisive spot-kick to prevent a trip to Wembley in agonising fashion.

Derby did go up, winning the final 1-0 against West Brom before going on to record the lowest ever Premier League points tally the following season with just 11.

Southampton starting XI last time they were in the play-offs

Southampton were painfully close to facing their play-off opponents this season at Wembley in 2007.

Here is the starting XI for that heartbreaking second-leg against Derby 17 years ago and the positions they played that day, with statistics from Transfermarkt.

Kelvin Davis

Chris Makin

Chris Baird

Martin Cranie

Rudi Skacel

Danny Guthrie

Jhon Viafara

Pele

Andrew Surman

Leon Best

Marek Saganowski