Saints will be aiming to ensure Alan Pardew’s miserable St Mary’s run continues.

The former Saints manager has had three return visits since he was axed in 2010 - losing 2-0, 4-0 and 4-0!

Pardew was controversially axed by chairman Nicola Cortese after three games of the 2010/11 season – less than 15 months after being appointed and overseeing a rebuild of the team that proved crucial in ultimately helping the club back to the Premier League.

Pardew signed the likes of Rickie Lambert and Jose Fonte during his time at St Mary’s and also guided the club to JPT final success at Wembley in front of 50,000 Saints fans in March 2010.

Since his departure, Pardew went back to St Mary’s three times during his tenure as Newcastle boss, and suffered three poor defeats without managing a goal.

In November 2012, goals from Adam Lallana and Gaston Ramirez gave Saints a 2-0 victory.

That would have appeared to have been a disappointing enough away day for the Magpies, but the next two visits trumped that as Newcastle were hammered 4-0 on both occasions.

Last March a brace from Jay Rodriguez and strikes from Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert inflicted the damage.

In September of this season, Newcastle produced a totally inept display to lose by the same scoreline.

Graziano Pelle struck a double and Jack Cork and Morgan Schneiderlin the others in a win which could have been even more convincing.

Pardew left Newcastle to take over at Crystal Palace at the start of January and has guided the Eagles to three consecutive wins – a 4-0 win at Dover in the FA Cup and successive league victories over Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham and Burnley.

He will be looking to end his St Mary’s losing streak when he brings Palace down to the south coast for a sell-out FA Cup fourth round tie on Saturday.

Their upturn in form has been remarkable given they hadn’t scored a goal away from home since November before his appointment – yet stormed back from 2-0 down to beat Burnley 3-2 at Turf Moor last time out.

“I’d be foolish if I hadn’t learned over the four years to become a better manager,” he said.

“I had to respond to some difficult times at Newcastle. I don’t mean things that happened off the pitch.

“When you are a big team and are expected to beat a lot of opposition and are behind, you need to find a way so I am armed a little bit better for this kind of battle.”