Saints open their home Premier League campaign against West Bromwich Albion at St Mary's knowing that a win is needed to continue the work done in rebuilding the fns faith.

Saints didn't just have to rebuilt the team during the summer, they also needed to rebuild the supporters faith in the people in the boardroom taking the club forward after a number of players left citing lack of ambition, this prompted many knee jerk reactions on social media sites about meltdowns etc, the game at Liverpool showed that Saints have rebuilt well, that didn't yield any points though and Ronald Koeman's team could do with a resounding win to show the supporters that we are well and truly back on track.

For Saints supporters it is an opportunity for the bulk of them to see the new signings in competitive action for the first time and most are looking forward to seeing Dusan Tadic prove that he is more than able to step into Adam Lallana' boots.

Likewise Graziano Pelle, he started at Liverpool slowly and seemed to find it hard to get into the pace of the game, but as the game progressed he picked up the pace and made a good contribution, he needs a goal in his first home game though to show the fans he is able to make up for some of the goal scoring power we have lost in the summer.

So all in all for Saints its a question of getting out there and showing that they can deliver.

For West Brom its also a question of all change although in their case little money has changed hands in all but one of 5 players out and 7 coming in, including the arrival of ex Saint Chris Baird who has joined them on a free transfer from Burnley during the summer, likewise Samaras on a similar deal from Celtic today and he may be in line for a start.

Speaking to a West Brom supporter he likened their position to Saints saying that the Baggies could have done with the season being delayed for a few weeks to enable them to bed in their new signings.

The only significant spending was on Ideye Brown from Dynamo Kiev for £10 million and they will be looking to pair the 5ft 9 forawrd with the towering presence of Samaras, although in the case of the latter it will be a case of how fit he is at the moment having missed pre season training.

This is a game that Saints need to win for the aforementioned reasons, although it will not be easy, people forget what a good outfit the Baggies were two seasons ago when they like us finished 8th and it should be noted that after finishing 17th last season that the gap between 8th and struggling against relegation is small, in many respects it is as much about luck with injuries and playing sides at the right time than the quality of the squad or otherwise.

With respect to the Baggies we should turn them over, but our biggest problem is going to be the weight of the crowd, Saints fans need to be behind the team even if things don't go too well either during the game or at the end of it, being a supporter of a team means being behind it during the bad times as well as good, the supporters stayed behind the team two years ago when we had a horrendous start and we survived, with vital points picked up along the way, contrast that with QPR whose supporters got on top of them and they went down.

Formation wise I would expect Ronald Koeman to go with an attacking line up very similar to the one he employed at Liverpool, however i would expect him to start with Shane Long against his old club and therefore someone has to give way, this being the case I think it will be either JWP or Steven Davis, not that they had bad games at Liverpool, in fact the complete opposite, but Ronald Koeman uses his squad so there will be games when players come in and go out tactically unlike last season.when changes were rarely made unless someone was injured.

The future can still be very bright for Saints, the West Brom game heralds a new era at St Mary's lets make it fortress St Mary's and send the Baggies home with a beating

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 14:39 - Aug 22 Apparently Samaras can't play.
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A1079 added 14:52 - Aug 22 I think the Liverpool game showed we could still compete but at the end of the day we lost. Perhaps not a surprise with any of us, but I don't think one game necessarily shows that things are all ok and we have not backwards any more than it shows we have progressed. West Brom is a game people will be expecting more, though no game can be a given. People pay a lot of money over a season. If they do not see progress and if they see that the boards' decisions have had a negative impact on the club then they will show their displeasure. Our pockets are not a bottomless pit. I agree though good, bad or indifferent, West Brom whatever the result will be too early to make any real assessment just as the Liverpool game was.

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montecristo added 15:19 - Aug 22 Im a little nervous about this game Saints are expected to deliver and the new players will feel extra pressure to do so,largely due to the fact that the Board sold half the first team. Fingers crossed that the boys can win even if its only a 1-'0
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abingdonsaint added 17:47 - Aug 22 Afraid I can't let your stock line about 'little difference between 8th and 17th' go Nick! This is a massive generalisation. Anyone watching us last season could see there was a HUGE gap in performance, which is exactly why the 'top' clubs have spent close to £100 million on half our first team. I don't recall West Brom being offered significant money for any of their players the previous season. In their case, they had a game plan which basically involved sitting back and defending, then using their pace, primarily Lukaku, to catch opponents on the break. Nothing wrong with that, but always going to go pear shaped once Lukaku went (who was never actually their player in the first place!) They did not outclass teams as we often did. With the same personnel as last season, 8th would be the lowest we would finish this season. Now, who knows? I am hopeful we will end up a lot higher than 17th, but if we don't it certainly will not be because the gap was small, it will be because we sold half our team!!

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