MARK Hughes is praying former St Mary’s chief Claude Puel has quenched his thirst for revenge ahead of Saints’ trip to Leicester tonight in a huge Premier League showdown.

Puel was sacked, perhaps harshly, by Saints last June after one season in charge and, having been appointed as Craig Shakespeare’s replacement at the Foxes in October, led his new side to a crushing 4-1 win on his return to St Mary’s in December.

Now, Hughes takes struggling Saints to the King Power Stadium for another reunion with the club’s former manager and the Welshman is hoping Puel is no longer hungry for vengeance.

“Perhaps he’s already done that because he’s come here and won on his first time back," said Hughes, when asked if this game will have added motivation for Puel.

"He's won 4-1 so maybe he’s got it out of his system and he’s moved on, I would hope.”

The Frenchman led Saints to an eighth-place finish and the League Cup final in his only season at St Mary’s, before he was axed after reservations over the team’s style of play.

Now Saints find themselves five points adrift of safety in the Premier League with five crucial games to play, while the Foxes are sitting comfortably in eighth place.

Then in the hotseat at Stoke, Hughes watched from afar as Saints binned off Puel last summer.

He said: “I wasn’t really paying close attention to what was going on here at that time.

“Clearly, because my focus then was at my previous club but he finished the season in a high position, I think that was why I suggested I thought it was a little bit of a surprise.

“But I wasn’t privy to why the decision was made and I haven’t asked the question since I’ve been here so I still don’t know.

“Clearly he’s an accomplished manager, he had a good season here in terms of league position and a number of people probably felt he was a little bit unlucky to lose his position here but that’s without knowing the full story.

“He went to Leicester had an immediate impact and has done very well so clearly he’s a talented manager.”

Hughes also believes that Saints are not damaged goods after their tough 3-2 defeat to Chelsea last time out.

A second-half eight-minute blitz by the Blues consigned Saints to a fourth straight league defeat, despite being 2-0 up on the hour mark.

“At the time when it’s happening you think it could damage us, but I’ve seen the reaction of the players since and, I have to say, in my view – and I’m hoping this will be borne out of performance against Leicester with a positive result – I don’t suspect its damaged as much as people might imagine,” he said.

“We accepted that in an eight-minute period we found it difficult to clear our heads and do the right things under pressure. Maybe that’s a consequence of where we are in the league that we didn’t do the right things in that moment just to manage that period through.

“For the most part we were comfortable against a top side in Chelsea and the knowledge of that, encouragement of that has superseded any issues or damage we’ve had from actually losing a game we should have taken something out of.

“That’s what I feel and hope will be the case but they’ve got to cross over the white line again and demonstrate that.”