Saints put out a virtual second string side and for the most part of the game coasted past Blackpool, but the Lancashire side staged a late rally to make the pulses race a little bit in St Mary's.

The game was a repeat of the same round back in 1976 when Saints beat Blackpool 3-1 and went on to win the cup and there were many similarities in the game that some will pick on as omens.

The scores were almost the same, the crowd in 2023 was only slightly less than in 1976, a Saints player got 2 goals and perhaps the main coincidence we went through to the 5th round.

But that is where the coincidences will perhaps stop, our opponents back in that 5th round were West Bromwich Albion up at the Hawthorns and sadly the Baggies or the Throstles as they were known back then can't keep their part of the bargain after losing at Bristol City yesterday.

Nathan Jones made sweeping changes for this game with even James Ward Prowse sitting out this one, it was good to see Armando Bella-Kotchap back, but the talking point pre game was why Romeo Lavia was starting this one and didn't start against Manchester City, although it seems he needs to build up his game time, playing him for 87 minutes in this one with a tough League Cup semi final on Tuesday coming up seemed strange.

The fringe players stepped up to the plate, for nearly 75 minutes or so we dominated the game, two superb goals from Romain Perraud gave us a comfortable lead just after the hour mark, but we had a lapse of concentration on 67 minutes to allow a glimpse of hope for the visitors and although initially it didn't look to change the game much, they fired up in the final 10 minutes and made it a nervous ending for Saints fans with a tense 6 minutes of injury time.

But at the final whistle only one thing mattered and that was the score and the fact that we were in the 5th round of the cup.

The two goals were both a pleasure to watch, when we were awarded a free kick just outside the Blackpool box this was JWP territory, but he wasn't on the pitch, up stepped Romain Perraud to smash it into the bottom corner in an effort that James Ward Prowse would have been proud of.

The second saw Perraud excel again, he played a lovely little one two and then finished with aplomb.

It is hard to put this game in any kind of context other than the result, this was a much changed Saints team and although all of the players that took part in the game aside from goalkeeper Will Caballero have been first choice players at some point, only Romeo Lavia can truly claim to be a first choice at the moment.

Saints had Caballero to thank on a couple of occasions with some smart saves and some key punches when under pressure.

Perhaps this shows the gulf between the Premier League and the Championship, we are at the bottom of our League yet our second string can still win comfortably against opposition from the League below, with all respect to Blackpool.

So from perhaps all aspects this game was a success for Saints, firstly we won the game, we rested some key players for Tuesday night, we didn't pick up any injuries, our fringe players showed that they can step up to the plate, it is very hard to find any negative points from this game.

It was also good to see a decent crowd, after empty seats for the Manchester City Carabao Cup tie, I thought this one would be far less, but in the end was only a couple of thousand short, given that City had over 3,000 fans down and Blackpool only had around 1,000, there were perhaps more Saints fans who were in St Mary's to see Blackpool than there were for Manchester City, that one is a little strange, but it was great to see so many kids in the ground and hopefully they will want to come back again.

So now all eyes will be on the draw for the 5th round, this will take place on Monday 30 January from 7pm and will take place during the One Show on BBC One, and ahead of the clash between Derby and West Ham.

Photo: Action Images

grumpy added 10:07 - Jan 29 A decent Crowd! Empty seats everywhere,this was a 4th round FA Cup tie.
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davidargyll added 10:24 - Jan 29 Not much to say about the game except that it was a fairly typical Cup match, with lots of hurly burly and rushing around with the only important difference between the two teams being the brilliance of one free kick, fortunately came by a Saints player. I see that there have been a number of comments elsewhere about our inability to control a two-nil lead; but I think that is a bit unfair as Blackpool had nothing to lose when they were behind so really went for it. That said, the way we were defending far too far up the field which led to their goal - OK we were going for a third but surely a bit of consolidation after our second was called for? - was prep school stuff. After which of course there was general panic, with lots of nervousness spreading from the crowd, and guess what, we went the opposite, ie defending far too deep, letting them come on to us and only just getting away with it. But … we survived and are into R5, so no complaints, even if, on the strength of that performance, virtually any other team must be relishing being drawn against us, especially a PL one. So what can we draw from the performance? Well for staters, I do disagree with your comment that it showed the gulf between the PL and the Championship. Forgetting it was the FA Cup, If you’d just landed from outer space and watched that game, you’d probably have thought you were seeing two reasonably well matched teams, one of which was slightly more skilled than the other. But I honestly believe that, if you were told that this was representative of the SECOND tier of English football, you’d be hard-pressed to disagree. Is that too negative? Possibly. But, like it or not, that sort of game is conceivably what we’ve got to look forward to next season…

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SaintNick added 10:24 - Jan 29 Why was this not a decent crowd ? If you look back on FA Cup ties against lower league opposition over the last 20 years and factor in the number of away fans then around 20,000 Saints fans at the game is fairly average. Go back to 2003 when we played Spurs at St Mary's in the first game of our cup run, there were 25,589 at that game including 5,200 allocation to Spurs, Against Millwall in the next round 23,809 including around 3-4,000 Millwall, it was only in the 5th round against Norwich that we got a full house suddenly the missing 8,000 were back. Over the years sometimes we have had better crowds and at others worse, given the current level of optimism, this was better than I had thought.

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Colburn added 10:29 - Jan 29 Job done, players rested for what was in reality the least important game of three in a week. Particularly good as JWP could have a complete rest, same with Alcaraz. Well done the lads, here's hoping for a repeat of three wins in a week again, FA Cup, League Cup then League like the other week! Then things will look very different. Only gripe is the board's inability to add the potency we require and especially at the start of the month. The results against Newcastle and Villa may have been a little better now with a place at Wembley beckoning and out of the bottom 3. If we go down this year, this will be the reason, not Jones failure to turn the tide quickly enough. We need to be prepared to spend £25-30M on a goalscorer if in contract if we want to compete with the other 19 clubs, after all, we've already made £40M profit on the balance sheet with Lavia..

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SaintNick added 10:30 - Jan 29 davidargyll, I take your points about two evenly matched sides, but as you pointed out it was only in the last 15 minutes when Blackpool had to go for it that they were in the game, up to their goal there looked only one side in the game. But even if they were evenly matched sides, my point was this was very much a Saints second string out there, as i pointed out only Romeo Lavia would be a definite starter in most Saints fans line ups, whereas Blackpool's side was pretty much their first team with a couple of tweaks.

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Block8 added 11:06 - Jan 29 Decent result in a pretty average game but it was nice to see the best LB in the club get a run out. Personally I can't for the life of me see why NJ doesn't rate him and would rather play a lumbering CB against a nippy & tricky player like Almiron? My only other gripe and it seems to be an issue, is our passing, we have guys on thousands of pounds a week who can run forever but can't put a ball in some ones stride or just in front of them. Our passing is frequently either far too long or too short, putting us into trouble or giving possession away and is something we should definitely spend some time correcting! Anyway lets have a win at Newcastle plus a striker please? COYR

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JoeEgg added 11:13 - Jan 29 What else did we get out of the game? Most of our young forward players are too lightweight and will never score against Premier League opposition. Orsic, and as often is the case, Elyanoussi struggled and were disappointing. The most significant point is, however, that we need to buy two goal scorers ( at this level) and by Tuesday! These are probably the two most crucial days of the season if we want to keep our place in the Premier League.

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Number_58 added 12:34 - Jan 29 The 5th round draw to be made during Monday night's One Show. Ah, the magic of the FA Cup.
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halftimeorange added 15:26 - Jan 29 I know it's obvious but, our protracted passing is beginning to get to me. Apart from Perraud's well-taken goals this was a really dull performance and don't tell me it was our second string. These players train and work out together day in, day out so, how is it they can't see that going forward is more crowd pleasing than going sideways or backwards and that, should a ball be passed to a player ahead, then running past him will give him the opportunity to pass the ball forwards (hallelujah!). Yesterday, only Perraud, Lavia and Lyanco showed any urgency. Oh, and Willy showed what a proper goalkeeper plays like, mostly that is.

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ItchenNorth added 16:35 - Jan 29 A pretty poor performance, but we are in the hat for the next round. There were a number of players selected, that should be wanting to make their mark and push for Premier League selection, but they all disappointed. Aribo, Orsic, Maitland-Niles, all were poor with the later two completing more passes to Blackpool players than to team mates. They only players who played well imo was Parraud and Lyanco. And Mara, he has something about him (he set up the 2nd goal), but he was feeding off scraps all game. We created very little for him. But, it's the cup, so on we go. COYS.

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Boris1977 added 20:54 - Jan 29 We certainly didn't coast past a unambitious Blackpool side and as others have said we relied on one of our best players to get us the win. He'll probably be rested for the next game as he risks the embarrassment of maybe contributing to an old school great escape. The board wasted so much money last summer on mediocrity, particularly that pratt from arsenal who doesn't give a toss about playing football but loves the money. Second team or otherwise, professional footballers who are unable to pass the ball to their colleagues is unacceptable. It's embarrassing being a saints fan right now particularly with the potential within the club. Just a suggestion but are sports Republic a fit and sound organisation or a money laundering organisation? The best moment other than parraud's goal was lyancos dig deep no nonsense approach and him handing his shirt to a young supporter in the northam. It says a lot in this age of over paid ponces that our most appreciated player is in the Benali mould but that reflects how our low realistic expectations have not been met for a long time and are unlikely to be met any time soon.

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AmericanSaint added 00:28 - Jan 30 Agree with a bunch said already. We were basic at best and the final 10 minutes just shows we have no ability to manage games. Some of the fringe players that could have used this game as an opportunity to shine, didn't. Perraud should be our LB period. Why NJ doesn't play him is beyond me. Not sure Mara is cut out for English football and AMN seems to be her just for a paycheck. Oh well, we barely escaped and got into the 5th round. Let's see where the ball bounces and who we get next.

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underweststand added 19:49 - Jan 30 Despite the superior possession (66%) we looked like a side who hadn't played together very often and some of them in odd positions as well, but nevertheless soldiered on. At least our " regular " starters got a breather before Tuesdays match, and we saw the "others" getting a chance to show up. GJ admits he chooses "horses for courses" and changes formation for EACH game. Can't help admiring Perraud's contribution, and he nearly got his hat-trick too. Difficult to praise / criticise most of the others but we got there in the end.

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