Southampton send a side down to Fratton Park this evening in a cup tie, but unlike the game 3 years ago in the League Cup, this won't be between the two clubs first teams, at least not for Saints, but the result still matters.
The Hampshire Senior Cup is taken seriously by a lot of teams, but understandably the two main participants, Southampton & Portsmouth don't take it as seriously as the rest of the participants, therefore it is unlikely from a Saints perspective at least that there will be many with a lot of first team experience playing.
Southampton B team boss David Horseman has made that quite clear in the pre match build up, but Pompey seem to be taking it a little more seriously with Portsmouth manager Danny Cowley stating that although it will be a young side he will be putting out, it will have some first team experience in it.
There is a barometer to judge what a likely result might be, Pompey played Aston Villa U21's in the Papa John's trophy last week and 2, 805 packed into Fratton park to see their side demolish Villa 5-0
A few days later virtually the same Villa squad travelled to the Snows Stadium at Totton to take on Southampton B in the Premier League 2, despite having a man sent off after just 27 minutes, Saints gained an impressive 2-0 victory.
The Pompey side that beat Villa, was mainly first team players, although some were rested and came off the bench, but most who played against Villa were in the squad that took on Fleetwood Town and drew 1-1 a few days later.
That is perhaps an indication of the gulf between League One & the Premier League these days.
But the Saints side is likely to have some players in the squad with first team experience, the side that beat Villa had Thierry Small Lewis Payne & Dominic Ballard in it, the latter two featuring at Cambridge United in the league cup this season.
Pompey manager Danny Cowley seems to be setting out his excuses before the game starts, speaking to the News in Portsmouth he had this to say.
‘It’s a development game for us so our young players will play in it.
‘That’s linked to the rules of the competition, so we will have a young team and some senior players who will support the young players. That’s our plan.
There will be (local players involved) and it’s a good challenge for us, because it’s our under-18s and Southampton have a few more tiers above us up to under-23 level.
‘So it’s going to be a challenge for our academy, but we have some young players in the first team as well and some of them need game time and we’re looking forward to it.’
‘It’s going to be their under-23s, whereas ours is predominantly an under-18 team."
The game kicks off at Fratton Park this evening at 7pm.
The last real meeting between the sides was of course just over 3 years ago when Saints travelled to Fratton Park and emphatically won 4-0 with two goals from Danny Ings plus Cedric Soares & Nathan Redmond.
It is perhaps an indication of how Saints have moved on in those 3 years that of the 18 on duty that night, only 4 are in the Saints squad for this season, Alex McCarthy, James Ward Prowse, Che Adams & Stuart Armstrong, although a fifth in Jan Bednarek is on out on loan.