SAINTS fans will be hoping Mauricio Pochettino suffers the same sort of St Mary’s return today that three other former managers endured.

Pochettino this afternoon makes his first appearance in the opposition dug-out at the club he controversially quit last May.

He will be desperately hoping to do better than Alan Pardew, Glenn Hoddle and Dave Jones managed in recent years.

Pardew and Hoddle have made seven returns for league games and have not managed a single win – or, for that matter, goal – between them.

Pardew has been back to St Mary’s four times in the league since being sacked in Augus 2010.

He has lost all four of those games, and hasn’t seen his side score.

He suffered 2-0, 4-0 and 4-0 defeats with Newcastle, and a 1-0 loss with Crystal Palace at the beginning of last month.

Hoddle, to the delight of the Saints supporters, fared little better when he returned to St Mary’s with Tottenham.

He saw Spurs beaten 1-0 in December 2001, James Beattie on target.

Spurs then lost 1-0 again on New Year’s Day 2003, Beattie again the marksman.

A few days later, Spurs were back at St Mary’s again – and this time they were thrashed 4-0 by a rampant Saints side taking the first step on a journey that would lead them to the FA Cup final.

Beattie was again a thorn in Hoddle’s side, with further goals coming from Michael Svensson, Anders Svensson and Jo Tessem.

After his sacking by Spurs – a day after Saints won 3-1 at White Hart Lane in September 2003 – Hoddle later returned to St Mary’s as Wolves boss on the first day of 2005/06.

He avoided defeat, but still couldn’t celebrate a goal – Saints’ first game back in the second tier after relegation ending 0-0.

Dave Jones was another former Saints boss who endured a succession of miserable returns to the club.

First off, his Wolves side lost an FA Cup quarter final tie 2-0 in March 2003.

The following season, Saints won by the same score at the same ground in a Premier League game.

Jones went on to pick up one point from four games at St Mary’s during his time as Cardiff manager.

That point came in a 2-2 draw in March 2007, when Cardiff came from 0-2 down to draw 2-2.