Vital Statistics
Founded: 1885
Chairman: Nicola Cortese
Last Season: League One - 2nd
Nicknames: Saints (or Scummers or Stains if you'd prefer...)
Rivals: Portsmouth
Major Honours
FA Cup: 1976
Scheduled Matches
Portsmouth vs Southampton: Sunday, December 18th (1pm - BBC)
Southampton vs Portsmouth: Sunday, April 7th (1pm)
Transfers In
Jack Cork (Chelsea - Undisclosed)
Steve de Ridder (De Graafschap - Undisclosed)
Transfers Out
Oscar Gobern (Huddersfield - Undisclosed)
Callum McNish (Released)
Anthony Pulis (Released)
Probable Starting XI
GK: Kelvin DAVIS
RB: Danny BUTTERFIELD
CB: Radhi JAIDI
CB: Jose FONTE
LB: Dan HARDING
RM: GULY Do Prado
CM: Dean HAMMOND
CM: Jack CORK
LM: Adam LALLANA
CF: David CONNOLLY
CF: Rickie LAMBERT
The Manager: Nigel Adkins
Having held the position of club physio, Adkins was appointed caretaker manager of Scunthorpe United back in November 2006 after Brian Laws left the club. Good results saw him get the job permanently and take the Iron up to the Championship as winners of League One.
Scunthorpe were immediately relegated but Adkins got them promoted again before the best achievement of his career by keeping them up in the second tier. Adkins then made the decision to drop a division and join Southampton with whom he was promoted as League One runners-up despite having by far the most resources in that division.
Given the nature of Southampton's chairman and some of their fans who believe that they should be in the Premier League, Adkins may well be under pressure to deliver early on.
The Fans
Ah yes, our friends down the road can be an unsavoury bunch, much like some of our own fans. After all, the south coast derby is one of the biggest and fiercest rivalries in English football and tensions always flare when derby day arrives. I expect Hampshire Police will be busy come festive season and Easter.
However, putting all our differences and the petty point-scoring aside, the Scummers are a good natured bunch that are capable of banter with Pompey fans without taking it to the extreme.
That's what the rivalry is all about in my opinion and whilst we'll gloat should we beat them (once again), generally wish them bad luck throughout the season and laugh at their embarassing defeats (and they'd do the same to us), I wouldn't want them to go bust.
The most famous Stains are R & B singer Craig David, TV presenter Fiona Phillips, busty supermodel Lucy Pinder and Sir David Frost.
Southampton fan Jamie on the upcoming season:
A play off push would be nice, I can see it happening if we get in a decent centre back to partner Fonte and maybe another striker, someone with a bit more Championship experience than our current lot.
My expectation levels for the new season are not that high compared to our other seasons in The Championship (where I expected a promotion challenge every season!).
I can see a mid-table season for Saints where we're a strong side at St. Mary's but a little weak away from home. If we were to achieve this and manage to get the better of Pompey over the two games then I would consider it a good return to The Championship.
The Ground: St. Mary's Stadium (Capacity: 32,689)
St.Mary's (or St.Fairies if you prefer) is another one of those grounds that has impressive facilities but lacks any real character. The home fans did make an effort for the visit of Pompey in the FA Cup last year as they produced this mosaic around the ground before kick-off.
Apart from that, the stadium is tidy but bland. This is a photo of the Chapel Stand taken from the Northam Stand after the Scummers had left following their team being thrashed 4-1 for the second time.
This is a photo of the rather plain Itchen Stand, taken when the last few Saints supporters were filtering outside the stadium. Pompey fans were kept back a good twenty minutes after the game before the unsavoury incidents toom place outside the ground.
This is the Kingsland Stand, complete with massive sponsor etched into the seating.
And of course, there is a statue of Saints legend Ted Bates outside the ground. I couldn't get a photo of the current statue but there's always the old one to look at!
