It took Bristol City 10 visits in the Football League before they recorded their first and only win at Southampton's old Dell ground.

Will the Bristol City faithful have to wait that long for maximum points at the St Mary's Stadium?

It was October 1923 that the travelling City fans among the 13,000 crowd witnessed the first ever meeting between the sides in the Football League. The Saints were 1-0 victors in Division II.

At this point, The Dell was about to undergo some major developments, beginning with the club buying the ground for £26,000 in 1926 and then, the following year, employing the design skills of Archibald Leitch to come up with a new configuration for their West Stand. Along with tinkering with the format of the East paddock, this raised the ground's capacity to 33,000.

City were still looking for a win when they encountered an unbeaten Saints at The Dell on August 29, 1953, in Division III South, and the visiting fans would have had their first sight of the club's three concrete "chocolate box" platforms above the Milton Road terrace.

On the pitch, it was another sweet performance from the Saints as they won 4-2.

On January 22, 1955, a 2-1 loss was just the kick-start City needed for their promotion push as they went on to record an unbeaten run of 18 League games, including a sequence of eight consecutive victories.

The south coast jinx was finally ended on March 28, 1975, when a Donnie Gillies header five minutes before the break was enough against a Saints side fresh from top-flight relegation. It moved City into third spot in Division II. The win also enabled the Robins to achieve a rare double over the Saints as goals from Geoff Merrick and Gerry Sweeney secured the points in the 2-0 win at Ashton Gate on September 21.

Both clubs eventually faced each other for the first time at The Dell in the First Division on February 2, 1979. It was back to normal for the Robins, though, going down through a goal apiece from Nicky Holmes and Austin Hayes.

The next and final visit to The Dell in the Football League on April 29, 1980, came during the Robins' slide down the divisions.

The 5-2 thumping was the club's penultimate away fixture of the 1979/80 relegation campaign and their final goals scored in the top-flight – courtesy of a brace from Kevin Mabbutt.

● Besides the solitary League win in 1975, City can look back 99 years to their first ever win at The Dell when Bob Hardy and Willis Rippon won the FA Cup first-round replay 2-0 on 20 January 1909.