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Saints V Yeovil The Preview
Friday, 24th Jan 2014 10:31

Saints head into the 4th round of the FA Cup looking to continue their great record at St Mary's against the Glovers.

Whisper it, but their is a new found enthusiasm amongst Saints supporters for the FA Cup that wasn't there in the 3rd round, perhaps its the fact that now the delusions of grandeur have gone, that made some say that concentrating on a Champions League place was a priority over the Cups, but there is a feeling that this could be our year.

Certainly Saints are perhaps the only Premier League team left in the competition that truly can say that they can concentrate on the cup rather than the League, literally all of the other club's left in from the top flight have something on in the league, be it a European Place or avoiding getting dragged into relegation.

This being the case Mauricio Pochettino has no excuse for not putting out a half decent side against Yeovil.

With respect to the West Country side, we should have the strength in depth to rest a couple of players and still be strong enough to go through, Yeovil will be no push overs having dragged themselves off the bottom of the Championship with a win at Birmingham but the fact still remains that they are not one of the best sides in that division and that victory was their first in 8 league games .

So if Saints can stay focused after the events of this week and the fans remember that players likely to come in, including Hooiveld, Guly, Fox etc are all proven and competent players at Championship level as was proved in their contribution's to our promotion year, we do have the players to put ourselves into the 5th round and a good home draw there would see us with a good cup run on the cards.

Four years ago we were happy enough to enjoy a run in the JPT and a day out at Wembley, personally being a supporter of Saints I want us to win games and win trophies, if Wigan can win the competition then so can we.

Hopefully Saints fans will turn out in force to make sure that Yeovil's travelling fans dont out sing us, a Saints win will get this cup run going.

Team wise its hard to be accurate with injuries stretching the squad not to mention Osvaldo's suspension, I expect Kelvin Davis to be in goal with Boruc on the verge of coming off last week due to a niggle I would think he would be rested for Tuesday, in defence I would like to see Callum Chambers at right back to continue his developement and i think it will be Yoshida & Hooiveld in the middle, at left back with a game against Arsenal three days after there must be a temptation to rest Shaw, Danny Fox will be good enough to fill in at this level.

In midfield a good mixture of experience and youth is the order of the day whilst on the bench I would like to see like in the 3rd round some fire power held in reserve in case of emergency.

This is the first home game of a new era at Saints lets start this era positively both on and off the field.

Photo: Action Images



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saintwizzler added 12:44 - Jan 24
This has got banana skin written all over it.
Prepare for a reserve team with Arsenal just around the corner.
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ItchenNorth added 13:10 - Jan 24
Yeovil Town are struggling in the Championship but in many respects they are punching above their weight in the football world. I expect a flight but our quality will come good in the end. Can't see any other result apart from a Saints win.
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 13:23 - Jan 24
saintwizzler is right, this is a potential banana skin.

Jose Perez is in charge of the team tomorrow, so it will be a mix of youth players and reserve players. It definitely seems like Saints are focusing on the Arsenal game. That doesn't build much confidence. We'll have Yoshida and Hooiveld at the back so Yeovil are bound to score, especially if Fox is at left back and Kelvin's in goal.
I expect Guly will start, along with JWP, Chambers, Gallagher and Reed. Even with that team we should beat Yeovil but we've slipped up against weaker opposition in the cup in recent years, and its been down to rotating the team too severely.
Yeovil have been really poor this season but they won 2-0 at Birmingham last week so its a dangerous tie for Saints if they underestimate thier opponents. And if we go out then it'll be a massive shame because if Saints took this competition seriously then we could have another day out at Wembley.

We should be beat Yeovil comfortably but tomorrow might turn out a lot trickier than most people expect. Its a big ask for the yougsters and reserves to come in and hit the ground running.
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