IT was almost a year to the day when Saints suffered the ignominy of holding a 3-0 lead against Leeds with 20 minutes left, only for the Yorkshire side to steal a famous 4-3 victory.

This time there was to be no repeat, as George Burley's Saints finally brought an end to their away famine as Grzegorz Rasiak and Rudi Skacel both broke long scoring droughts.

Neither player had netted since Saints last won a Coca-Cola Championship match on their travels back in September but two headers from Rasiak - taking him to ten goals this season - and a simple finish from Skacel sealed the points.

Leeds were not wanting for effort and had enough chances to make a fight of it but were let down by poor defending and continue to look like relegation candidates.

Former Saint Dennis Wise, who played in the first half of that 4-3 thriller a year ago, and now in charge at Elland Road, made only one change in his quest to secure Leeds' first back-to-back league wins this season, David Healy replacing the injured Richard Cresswell.

Opposite number Burley recalled Andrew Surman and Bradley Wright-Phillips for Mario Licka and Nathan Dyer.

Today's opening skirmishes gave notice of another thriller, Geoff Horsfield missing the first chance for Leeds when he screwed wide inside four minutes.

On-loan defender Matt Heath - making just his second appearance for the club - then wasted a glorious chance when he failed to connect properly from three yards.

Saints responded and Wright-Phillips' 18-yard drive forced a smart parry from Graham Stack, soon bettered at the other end by a terrific save by Kelvin Davis from Healy's rising snapshot.

After a 15-minute lull, the game burst into life just before the half-hour mark, Gareth Bale translating his dead-ball accuracy into open play and whipping in a cross which Surman flicked on for Rasiak to loop over Stack.

It was a good omen for Southampton, who had not won on their travels since Rasiak last found the net almost two months earlier.

It was an equally bad one for Leeds, who had lost every game this season in which they conceded the first goal.

Eddie Lewis' free-kick might have levelled shortly before the break but Chris Baird was on hand to head it off the line, with Davis also well placed to claim.

Leeds could easily have made it 1-1 straight after the restart if Healy's low cross had been in front of Horsfield instead of behind the big centre-forward.

But Saints were not short of confidence and Wright-Phillips should have finished off a neat move down the right by at least hitting the target.

Wastefulness was proving to be the visitors' major failing, Skacel blazing over when he should have crossed to better-placed team-mates.

At the other end, Robbie Blake's left-wing free-kick needed a good punch from Davis, while the withdrawal of the somewhat static Horsfield for Ian Moore seemed to lift the home crowd.

Rasiak robbed United captain Shaun Derry to set up a two on two but a terrible pass to Wright-Phillips undid all his good harrying.

But, as in the first half, Leeds were the better side and only Saints skipper Claus Lundekvam's last-gasp interception stopped Moore converting Healy's low cross.

Burley responded by withdrawing Wright-Phillips for Jhon Viafara, a move that reaped almost instant rewards as the Colombian's cross completely deceived the Leeds defence and gave Skacel an age in which to lash his finish past Stack.

Five minutes later and Leeds were left needing the kind of comeback they staged 12 months earlier when Rasiak was allowed to head home from a corner almost completely unchallenged.

But history was not to repeat itself, giving Southampton the perfect platform to reignite their play-off challenge.

For Wise, the January sales cannot come quickly enough.