According to reports Saints are likely to play their fringe players at Sunderland in the Capital One Cup, the only fringe we should be thinking about is that we are on the fringe of a Wembley final.
The advantage of the Sunderland cup tie being postponed is that we now know where our route lies ahead of us, beat the mackems and its a home tie against Chelsea, beat them and we are in the semi finals and o the fringe of a Wembley final.
I say this every league cup round, but that doesn't mean its not true, when are Saints and indeed every other club outside of the top four going to take this competition seriously.
At the moment much of the Premier League is playing for money not glory, they are more worried about the threat of relegation than they are of actually winning something and having to play more games in Europe and this is what is inherently wrong with today's game.
Chase money and you will never catch it, especially in the Premier League as you can bet your bottom dollar, for every increase the likes of Saints get in revenue, the bigger clubs will get more.
Chase success though and money will come, win the Carling Cup and you make a big statement of intent across Europe, not only is there the extra income derived from your own supporters snapping up merchandise and also attending games, but if we want to sign players of a higher calibre then offering them even Europa League football is a bigger incentive than not, players want glory as well as cash, ask a player if he wants the chance of winning a cup or would he rather sit in mid table then there will only be one answer.
So come on Saints the only "Fringe" we should be talking about after the game at the Stadium of Light is how we are on the fringes of our first major cup final in 35 years.