Claude Puel's class of 2017 aiming to join an exclusive Saints club

Only nine players have found the target for Saints at the national stadium since it was opened in north west London 94 years ago.

Here, the Daily Echo looks back at what happened to those Wembley goalscorers.

Bobby Stokes

The man who scored Saints' most famous goal.

Even if the club end up beating Manchester United again - this time in the League Cup final - that is an honour that will still belong to Stokes.

It will possibly be an honour that will ALWAYS belong to the Portsmouth-born striker who sent the fans of his hometown club's fiercest rivals into dreamland on May 1 1976.

All these years on, no Saints fan - whether they were at the national stadium 41 years ago or not - will ever forget Stokes' 83rd minute decider.

It was just one of his 55 goals for the club in 264 league and cup appearances - but by far and away the most important.

Stokes had announced his potential in April 1969, scoring twice in the first half on his debut in a 5-1 Dell trouncing of Burnley.

He would go on and score a lot of good goals for the club.

Fans will only ever remember one, though.

Within a year of inking his name into south coast footballing folklore, Stokes had played his last game for Saints.

Bobby Stokes would never ever go on to enjoy a similar moment to May 1 1976 again.

That is no real shock, for he had done something which every football-mad kid dreams about - and how many grow up to score the winner in an FA Cup final?

And he had done it for Southampton, a club which had never previously won a major trophy.

All these years on, it remains the club's only major trophy.

Claude Puel's class of 2017 can change that.

Stokes, sadly, is no longer around - he passed away in 1995 aged just 44 after contracting bronchial pneumonia.

But his legend lives on, as it always will.

David Peach

The left back who helped Saints win the 1976 FA Cup put the club in front when they returned to Wembley three years later to contest the League Cup final against Nottingham Forest.

He was no stranger to hitting the target - as his record of 44 Saints goals in 282 appearances indicates. Most of those, however, were penalties - and Peach's Wembley strike came from open play and a one-two with skipper Alan Ball.

Having made his Saints debut in February 1974 - when Saints crashed 7-0 at Ipswich - the player spent six years at The Dell before leaving to join Swindon in February 1980 for £150,000 - a lot of money for a club who were then in the third division.

Nick Holmes

Along with Peach, he is the only man to have played in two Wembley finals for Saints.

And, like Peach, he scored in his second - the 1979 League Cup final against Nottingham Forest.

It was a great goal, too - a fierce drive from just inside the penalty area which arrowed past future Dell colleague Peter Shilton and into the corner of the net.

That goal gave Saints, now only 3-2 down, late hope - but to no avail.

Southampton-born Holmes, a loyal one-club man, played 543 games for the club, making his debut in March 1974 and his last appearance in February 1987.

In 1999 he emigrated to Florida to set up a property management company, which he sold in 2004.

In July 2002, he returned to the local football scene when he was offered the manager's job at Salisbury City. Under Holmes’ management, the Wiltshire club won the Southern League Premier Division title in 2004/05 and the Conference South play-off final in 2006/07.

That took Salisbury into the top tier of non league football for the first time ever.

He became Salisbury's general manager in July 2009, with Tommy Widdrington taking control of the first team. Holmes left Salisbury the following summer by mutual consent.

Matt Le Tissier

No introduction is needed for the man still revered by generations of Saints supporters as 'Le God'.

The one club man netted 209 goals in 540 competitive appearances for the club, making his debut in 1986 and playing his last game for the club in 2001.

One of those goals was at Wembley, bringing Saints back into the 1992 ZDS Cup final against Nottingham Forest.

Since retiring from competitive football in 2002, Le Tissier has carved out a high profile career as a Sky Sports TV pundit.

Kevin Moore

The centre half had already played 400 games for hometown club Grimsby Town when Saints signed him in the summer of 1987 for £150,000.

Then Saints boss Chris Nicholl had played alongside Moore, then 29, at Grimsby and signed his former colleague after Mark Wright had left for Derby County.

Moore played 35 league games in 1987/88 - the most he would ever manage in a league season for Saints.

His moment of glory at Wembley came when he headed in a Matt Le Tissier corner to equalise at 2-2 in the ZDS Systems Cup final against Nottingham Forest.

Moore would stay at The Dell two more years, playing his 185th and final game in April 1994 before joining a Fulham side managed by his former Saints boss Ian Branfoot.

Sadly, Moore was diagnosed in January 2010 as suffering from Pick's Disease, a rare form of dementia. His former Dell colleagues rallied round to help fund raise for the 24-hour care he required, but he passed away on his 55th birthday in April 2013.

Rickie Lambert

It was no surprise to see Lambert add his name to the list of Saints who had scored at Wembley.

Going into the 2010 Johnstone's Paint Trophy final, he had belted 30 goals in 48 league and cup appearances for the club after a £1m move from Bristol Rovers.

Goal number 31 quickly followed, Lambert opening the scoring from the penalty spot.

We all know what happened next - Lambert the undoubted talisman for Saints' rise from League 1 to the Premier League.

The goals, though, have dried up since he left Saints to make a dream £4m move to Anfield in the summer of 2014.

He only managed two league goals for Liverpool in 2014/15, where he struggled for starts even though Luis Suarez had been sold and Daniel Sturridge was injured.

Moving onto West Bromwich Albion for £m, Lambert only scored once in 20 league appearances in 2015/16 (and that was a penalty).

Dropping down into the Championship last summer to sign for Cardiff, Lambert has four goals in 16 league games for the Welsh club, though he has not scored since the end of November.

Adam Lallana

Lallana, then 21, was enjoying his most prolific ever season with Saints when he scored the second goal in the 2010 JPT final success.

His header at Wembley was the midfielder's 16th strike of 2009/10 - and he was to go on and add four more that term.

Like Lambert, Lallana would turn out to be a key member of the Saints side that went from the depths of the third tier to finishing in the top eight of the Premier League in 2013/14.

Like Lambert, Lallana was then tempted to turn his back on Saints and move to Liverpool in the summer of 2014.

Like Lambert, he was by then a senior England international.

Unlike Lambert, though, some of the Saints fans turned on Lallana for his lack of loyalty.

And unlike Lambert, Lallana has emerged as a key figure at Anfield. making over 100 league and cup appearances and scoring 20 goals. H He has also become a regular in the England set-up and earlier this season scored in three successive internationals - against Slovakia, Scotland and Spain.

Papa Waigo

The Senegalese international was brought in on loan by Pardew - though executive chairman Nicola Cortese's Italian contacts had no doubt come in useful as well - shortly after the start of the 2009/10 season.

Then 26, the winger's career was in need of a pick-me-up.

After making his Serie B debut for Verona in 2003, he signed for divisional rivals Cesena two years later.

After a successful time - where he was the highest-scoring non-Italian in 2006–07 - Waigo signed for Genoa for around £3m in the summer of 2007.

The following January, he was on the move again - this time to Fiorentina. There he made an instant impact with two goals in his first three games, including one in the 3-2 success at eventual champions Juventus.

For whatever reason, Waigo only made a handful of further appearances for the club and was loaned out in 2008/09 to Serie B club Lecce.

From there, he arrived at Saints on a season long loan, where he was mainly used as an impact sub by Pardew.

He was restricted to just 11 third tier starts, but made a further 24 sub appearances - scoring five goals.

He netted another five goals in the cups, including the brace against Torquay that ensured Saints avoided a first round JPT exit.

The lower division Gulls were leading 2-0 at St Mary's and heading for a shock win when Waigo forced extra time with a second half double.

Saints eventually won 5-3 on penalties, taking the first step on a journey which would led them to Wembley.

Waigo was also on target two rounds later in another shoot-out victory at St Mary's - this time against Norwich (who included Fraser Forster in goal) after a 2-2 draw.

At Wembley, Waigo pounced to head Saints into a 3-0 lead against Carlisle.

It was the 10th, and as it turned out last, goal of what would be his only ever taste of English football.

Returning to Fiorentino, Waigo was loaned out in 2010/11 to Grosseto and in the summer of 2011 was sold to Serie B club Ascoli.

After 15 goals in 40 appearances in 2011/12 he was on the move again, this time joining United Arab Emirates club Al-Wahda. Now 33, he is still playing in the middle east for Al Urooba, who he joined last year.

Michail Antonio

Then 19, the winger arrived on loan at St Mary's in October 2009 - signed by Pardew from his former club Reading.

Antonio was never a regular starter in League 1 - making as many sub appearances (14) as starts.

But he did start five of Saints' six JPT ties, coming off the bench in the other.

Antonio 's third goal for the club gave them a JPT Southern Area final first leg success at MK Dons in January 2010.

And his fourth goal, on his 31st appearance, arrived in the Wembley final - his low shot from just outside the penalty area putting Saints into an unassailable 4-0 lead.

The goal came on his 20th birthday.

Antonio scored the winner in a league game against Charlton soon after and then struck twice in another victory over Carlisle - this time a 3-2 League 1 triumph.

After helping Sheffield Wednesday to promotion from League 1 in 2011/12, Antonio's loan move was made permanent.

He later won a £1.5m move to Championship rivals Nottingham Forest ahead of the 2014/15 season. Fourteen league goals in his first season at the club was followed by four in his first five league and cup games in 2015/16.

Such form alerted West Ham, who splashed out £7.5m to take Antonio into the Premier League.

To start with, it wasn't a happy move.

He was restricted to inconspicuous appearances in his first few months at Upton Park, during which time a supporter tweeted a picture of Antonio to co-chairman David Gold, adding, “trying to raise awareness for my mate who went missing in Manchester a few weeks ago”.

Gold swiftly retweeted the picture, prompting widespread derision, before explaining his error by claiming he had not realised it was an image of Antonio.

But while the winger was not offended, the label stuck.

Antonio netted his first goal for the Hammers on his fourth start on December 28 2015 - ironically against Saints.

He also set up Andy Carroll’s winner in the same game, when his shot came back off the underside of the crossbar.

Antonio said afterwards: "If I am honest, for the first three months I was a missing person. I was sat on the bench, not playing."

Antonio has since gone from strength to strength.

Last August he was named in Sam Allardyce's first (and only) senior England squad for the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia.

After ending his first season at West Ham with nine goals, he has eight to his name already this term.