Its finally here ! The Big Kick Off, so what are Saints chances against Crystal Palace.

Its the best hour of the year, you know the one leading up to kick off on the first day of the season, football fans the World over have an optimism, that for most of us will be shattered within 45 minutes of the kick off itself.

This season Saints fans have less confidence is a squad for many a year , but in truth they would be wrong to feel this way, in fact in some respects we have good reason to be more optimistic than we were thise time last year, back then we were heading into the season with a 17 year old left back who had barely played 3 games and as for Chris Baird, well a player that had barely featured in the previous three seasons wasnt in too many people's starting line ups.

Up front it wasnt that much better witin days of the start of the season George Burley had sold Ricardo Fuller, meaning that apart from Rasiak we didnt have another proven forward on the books.

So why the cause for optimism this season any more than last, well true at the back we are just as fragile, we havent even got two centre backs available for the visit of Palace, unless of course we make a last minute signing today, but if we make that signing then we will start to look stronger.

In midfield we are much better than the start of last season, we have ten players in contention and several of them have the potential to make this a great year for themselves, but its not just players with potential we have the experience of Safri and Viafara.

But its up front we can really feel confident, the proven Rasiak was joined by fellow countryman Marek Saganowski, Kenwynne Jones proved his worth and even Bradley Wright Phillips found a niche coming off the bench.

So Saints should be confident that they can this year beat a Crystal Palace side that doesnt seem to have added much to a squad that struggled last term, their visit to St Mary's last Boxing Day saw a scoreless draw, but that doesnt tell the full story, Saints had Jones sent off in the first half and then struggled to break down a resolute defence.

The problem was that even with a man short Saints dominated the game but George Burley refused to throw caution to the wind and try and win the game, preferring just to keep it tight.

Saturday should see Saints have enough midfield guile and firepower to blast Palace away, but the weakness will be at the back and it could mean Saints having to outscore the Eagles, something that they should be capable of doing.

 Burley has a few selection decisions to make, in goal he has to opt for either a keeper who talks but refuses to leave his line, or for one who isnt experienced enough to marshall his defence but otherwise is good enough.

In defence just about the only thing that can be said with confidence at the moment is that barring injury Vignal will play at left back, on the other side although Alexader Ostlund is a natural right back its likely that the manager will shoehorn in his favourite Jermaine Wright, at centre back we dont have a lot of options with ex Palace man Powell suspended and Claus Lundekvam injured, with Pele gone to West Brom unless a last minute aquisition is made all we can do is give on loan Alan Bennett his first ever start in English football after a career in Eire with Cork City and play Chris Makin alongside him.

If Palace come out to attack its going to be a high scoring game.         

Photo: Action Images

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