MARK Hughes does not need reminding of AFC Bournemouth’s most famous victory.

He was a 21 year-old on the fringes of the Manchester United first team when they were beaten 2-0 by Harry Redknapp’s Cherries at the old Dean Court in the 1983/84 FA Cup third round.

Hughes recalls his roommate at the time, Graeme Hogg, making his debut in what remains one of the great FA Cup upsets.

Now, 35 years on, Hughes is planning for the trip to Bournemouth with the roles very much reversed.

“They’re not little old Bournemouth anymore,” he said.

Accepting that Saints go to the Vitality Stadium as underdogs, Hughes continued: “On current form, most people would expect Bournemouth to get a positive result.

“But there’s a healthy respect between both clubs. We still feel we can cause them a lot of problems and vice versa.”

Bournemouth have won their last three matches, while Saints have not scored in their last three Premier League outings.

But Hughes, whose Saints record from his first 16 Premier League games is worse than any Southampton manager bar Nigel Adkins, insists it is too early to judge him.

“It’s a long season, people shape their idea of how well teams are going to do early on instead of remembering the end game is where you are after 38 games.

“Clearly if you get a good start that will help you.

“We expected a better return from our first eight games. We don’t have the points we feel we should have got but we know there will be periods where we bang the results out and others will be struggling. That’s how it is. That’s how it always is.”

Hughes continued: “The reality is we stayed in the Premier League last year by one position so going from 17th to a top-six position in eight games is probably not realistic, I would suggest.

“We’ve got to be patient because we’re better than last year in terms of what we’re doing and want to achieve.

“We want maximum points as soon as we can but we don’t feel unduly concerned because we think we’re very close to turning things around very quickly.

“We feel there’s enough quality in this group. We’re not a million miles away, we’ve been frustrated in games where we haven’t capitalised and got what we deserved.

“But once we overcome some of the anxiety we have in our play at key moments I’m confident we’ll start getting points on the board very quickly.

“We’re all confident in what we’re trying to do, the work on the training ground is very good.

“There are always going to be scars from moments in previous games and the sense things are starting to repeat.

“But [the players] shouldn’t have any apprehension. They see how good their teammates are in training and in games on a daily basis.

“They know what they have to do to win games.

“We just have to execute on match day and I feel we’re very close.”

Saints are unbeaten in four games against Bournemouth, including their crucial 2-1 win against the Cherries at St Mary’s last April.

And Hughes knows what is needed to get a result at Dean Court, having never lost there as a manager. His Stoke City side took four points from his two previous visits to the Vitality; a 3-1 win and a 2-2 draw.

“We’ve got to be positive, we have the understanding and nous to cause them problems,” he added.

“As they commit people forward there will be opportunities going the other way.”