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Southampton V Blackpool The Preview

Saints once again host Blackpool in the 4th round of the FA Cup as they did in 1976, will they go on to emulate the victory that day and indeed end up at Wembley winning the thing and yes we thought we had no hope of that 47 years ago too.

The chances of Saints reaching an FA cup final in 1976 were far greater than they are in 2023 and the fans had also been unhappy with their manager, who wasn't taking us to the runaway promotion push that was demanded, but all that was about to change.

Fast forward to 2023 and the situation is slightly different, but the aim is still the same hopefully we can go on a decent FA Cup run that will also see it motivate us in the Premier League.

I would expect a much changed side for this one due to several reasons, suspension, opponents in a lower league and the small matter of a do or die Carabao Cup semi final 2nd leg on Tuesday at Newcastle United being the main ones.

Blackpool are on as bad a run as Saints in their Championship campaign, although they beat Nottingham Forest in the 3rd round of the FA Cup 4-1, they have not won a game in the League since the 1st November, losing 6 and drawing 4 in a 10 game run without a win.

That Forest victory shows that they should be taken seriously so Nathan Jones has to pick his side carefully.

But I suspect that it will be a side that differs greatly from the one that played Newcastle on Tuesday, although at the back it will be a case of lacking options with neither the returning Jan Bednarek or new signing James Bree being able to play due to having represented Villa and luton respectively in the 3rd round of the competition so therefore being cup tied.

I would not be surprised to see Willy Caballero a rare game in goal, but along the back line it is anyone's guess, I presume that we might have to go to a back four, if only for the fact we only have two centre halves available, unless Nathan Joes throws in a youngster.

James Ward Prowse will obviously be a given, but in front of the defence it is anyone's guess who will fill those roles.

What we want from this game though is a victory and we will be confident of getting it even with our fringe players in the side, the truth should be that they will be too strong for Blackpool, the likes of Sekou Mara, Ainsley Maitland- Niles, Joe Aribo could all be in contention with perhaps a few of our highly rated youngsters given an opportunity.

This game is not firing the fans up, they have eyes on Tuesday and indeed the bigger picture in the FA Cup, but it is still a competition that we want to do well in, however the fans werent exactly salivating over this one in 1976 and their modern day counterparts are following suit, their will undoubtably be a lower crowd at St Mary's than there was at the Dell 47 years ago.

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