Last season’s visit to Cardiff City in the Championship did not turn out well, after going ahead early in the game, Saints then collapsed in the second half and lost the game, perhaps the moment when most Southampton supporters realised the game was up for automatic promotion.
Now just 4 months later we get the chance the chance for revenge for that defeat, we travel back to Wales to play the Bluebirds in the Carabou Cup.
In many respects one of the toughest draws that we could have got, a League 2 side at home being easiest on the scale of 1-10, 10/10 is a Premier League side away from home 8/10 is a very good Championship away from home, so this tie is probably about a 7.
However we seem to do well down in South Wales in cup competitions, 3 seasons ago we travelled to Cardiff’s near neighbours and beat them 8-0, although only a short time ago, only 3 players from the 18 on duty that day are still at the club and therefore likely to play in two weeks time, Jan Bednarek, Jack Stephen’s and Kyle Walker Peters and the latter could well be gone by the time we play the Bluebirds.
We also met Swansea City in the FA Cup a little later in that season, beating them 3-1 down in South Wales, the manager for the that day you might know quite well.
So although perhaps one of the toughest ties we could have got, it is a winnable one, we have a big squad and although it is perhaps still a bit short of what we need in the Premier League, it is good enough to win at Cardiff, although to be honest they didn’t show that last season.