The woeful passes continue - Sofiane Boufal with a perfect opportunity to thread the ball through to Dusan Tadic on the edge of the Hull area, only to hit a Hull defender.

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A woeful pass apiece from both teams.

1. Dusan Tadic prodding the ball forward to no-one when Manolo Gabbiadini looked to get in behind on the counter attack.

2. Alfred N'Diaye sweeping the ball straight out for a throw-in in midfield, nowhere near a team-mate.

Saints get in behind this time as Dusan Tadic peels off his man to pick up the ball by the byline but Hull recover to concede a corner, that they are also able to clear easily.

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Ranocchia and Gabbiandi have their first all-Italian clash down the left - should be an intriguing battle between two impressive signings for their respective clubs this year.

Another ball in from the right from Saints but this one easily gathered by Eldin Jakupovic.

Now Hull come forward and a ball over the top finds Oumar Niasse completely free in the box - but the striker can't quite work his feet out and Southampton recover to smuggle it out for a corner.

Nothing doing from Kamil Grosicki's delivery though as Saints clear.

Oriol 'nearly as good as N'Golo Kante' Romeu (if you're Claude Puel) looking to get things started from deep as the ball finds Nathan 'nearly as good as Thierry Henry' Redmond (again if you're Claude Puel) but Hull's defence steps up to snuff out the danger.

Lovely feet from Sofiane Boufal on the right to lose his man, but his cross is well over the head of every Saints player in the Hull area.

Ooooooshk. A superb curling effort from Kamil Grosicki clips the outside of the post with Fraser Forster completely stranded. Excellent stuff from the Pole to get it up and over the wall in time, so unlucky not to score. 

An early warning from Hull.

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Shaky start from Fraser Forster - a poor clearance followed by a sloppy touch that nearly saw Oumar Niasse nip in to score. Forster hacks it clear, but straight to Lazar Markovic, who wins a free-kick in a decent position...

Hull have been vulnerable to the counter attack recently but show they aren't half bad at them either as the Tigers sweep forward, only for Kamil Grosicki's effort to slide harmlessly into the side netting with Fraser Forster untroubled.

Interesting to see how Boufal gets on here. A record transfer for Saints but has had an injury-affected and slightly underwhelming season. Can the Moroccan have a strong end to the year?

Early attack from Saints sees Cedric free down the right, the full-back's ball across just evading the reach of Sofiane Boufal.

And we're off!

Huddles done. Mike Dean poised. Ready?

Right. The teams are emerging from the tunnel at St Mary's. We're five minutes or so from kick-off.

Prediction: 2-0

Lawro's full predictions v Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar

• Think you can do better than Lawro? Predict the score for this match and the rest of this round's Premier League fixtures in our Predictor game

So just under 10 minutes until kick-off at St Mary's and here's a quick team news reminder...

Saints make one change, with Nathan Redmond in for James Ward-Prowse, who drops to the bench.

Hull are unchanged from the side who beat Watford last time out.

Southampton

Southampton manager Claude Puel: "It's important to take points because we want to finish in the first half of the table.

"Hull City will be a difficult game, we know, it's important to have this good concentration in this game.

"I think it will be just as difficult as the last games against Chelsea and Manchester City. Perhaps it will be more difficult."

Hull City

Hull head coach Marco Silva on away form: "We need to change, of course we need to change.

"We analysed the last game like normal, and I think it's clear to me and I hope it's clear for our players what we need to do differently.

"We need to keep focus always and play with the same confidence we do at home. We need to keep focus, we conceded goals away on the counter-attack."

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Mark Lawrenson
BBC football expert

As good as Hull have been at home since Marco Silva took charge in January, they still cannot win away.

The Tigers have drawn one and lost eight out of nine matches on the road in all competitions in that time, and I don't see them improving on that record here.