I love this competition, I grew up on it. My first real joy came from it (1997) as did my first real footballing heartbreak (2002). I really do rate Southampton as an excellent footballing side with good technical players that haven't got the points their football has deserved. Losing to Man U and drawing to Norwich and Arsenal was totally unjust and they battered Spurs for a good 45 minutes as well. We are holders and this is a competition we can ill afford to crash out early in. FA Cup is what the true fans live for, any fan would love to take 6,000 to a ground they never usually get to visit or to a local rival. More importantly I also want progression to try and ensure West Ham, Spurs and Arsenal don't get to taste success of any kind. I'm quite sure that had we gone out to Birmingham (as we nearly did) Spurs would have gone on to win that competition, same in 08/09 with Arsenal. Although perennial freezers on the big stage both would have most likely beaten the Merseyside clubs in the respective finals. After Wednesday, I expect a response and more importantly a full strength team. The only positive is that there is an option of a replay, so if we are under par hopefully we can nick a draw and take them back to the Bridge and do the business but last thing we need is more fixtures. I'm convinced they're waiting on ours and Southampton's result to decide when the league fixture between us will be played and in all honesty I can't be bothered to play Southampton 3 times in a month. Should be a great game, COYB
What kind of team are Southampton going to put out, wouldnt expect a full strength one although I hope Jack Cork plays,has been great fro them in the Prem this year We also have Swansea on Wednesday but they have to play Arsenal on Sunday Would go with this team Ivanovic - Cahill - Ake - Cole Lampard (c) - Ramires Marin - Mata - Hazard Ba Hopefully Ba can be sealed and we can give Torres a rest, Marin deserves another chance and I would like to see Ake given a run out. Rest for Luiz for the Swansea game. Are Mikel and Moses available, if so maybe put Mikel in for Lampard
Fantastic. Blue army of 6,000. Would love Arsenal away in the next round if we win so we could take 9k to the Emirates
Thanks guys for all the kind words, we'll be seeing a lot of you guys this half of the season I guess with a minimum of 3 games against you guys. Everyone on our board wants the reserves and youngsters to play and hope for an early knockout as we've got different priorities this season however the word from our manager seems to be that we'll be putting a pretty strong side out which is worrying. I presume with this being one of the only things Rafa could win he'll be playing the first team so you will probably destroy us but as you said we're not as bad as people think and play some good stuff now and then. Should be a good game and I'm looking forward to it .
I expect a good game, maybe a 2-1 either way. Putting my positive hat on, I think the QPR result was the worst thing that could have happened to Southampton - there will have to be a reaction.
I know this is the cup... but I really want to win! I love the FA Cup simply because the away days are always awesome as we get a bigger allocation. 4500 tickets for this game sold in 10 minutes each time! Hopefully the Saints play a second string side and we play a decent team to secure that 4th round spot. I think Rafa will really want to win this what with everything else going on. If we win convincingly then our confidence will be right back up. Im going to the game tomorrow and look forward to it. Get to Southampton Central at 12.40 so plenty of time to ink some pints before kick off Should be a cracking day out with 4500 of us going. Loads of Chelsea fans still want tickets and have gone in the Saints end. You were able to buy tickets for the home end online but they stopped this due to 'high demand'...
