Southampton v Man United FA Cup preview

Southampton V Manchester United Sunday 16:00

A few years ago this was a regular Premiership fixture for both sides but my how Southampton have fallen since. The two teams have met on no less then 71 times during the many years football has existed and Manchester United have always had the upper hand. United have won the previous four meetings between the two sides including a 4-0 win at Southampton in the FA Cup back in 2005. We wouldn’t put anyone off backing a similar scoreline this Sunday at St Mary’s.

Jan Poortvliet has one of the hardest jobs in football right now and that is attempting to get his struggling Saints out of the rut they are in and away from the foot of the Championship. They only just managed to scrape survival last season when they secured Championship status on the very last day of the 2007-2008 season. They are close to odds on to go down this season and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if they were to do just that.
They have made a dreadful start to their Championship campaign and are already occupying one of the three relegation positions. The Saints also find themselves on a run of 8 matches without a win. Funnily enough their very last win in the league came against a very good Reading side. Since then they have managed just four goals in 8 matches and have shipped 12 in return. Hardly the sort of material you need to know if you’re a Southampton faithful.
The truth does tend to hurt though and it doesn’t get more painful then this for the saints. Their performances of late have been nothing short of abysmal and the home advantage on Sunday won’t mean anything when they sail out of the FA Cup at the first time of asking.

Sir Alex won’t mind too much who he draws in the FA Cup but he couldn’t of got much easier then an out of sorts Southampton side for their first FA Cup fixture. If they were not to win on Sunday it would be a major disappointment as Saints have showed very little of late to indicate that they could make a match of this.
Manchester United don’t exactly go into this game with a lot of momentum as their displays recently have been average to say the least. They have narrowly seen off Middlesborough at Old Trafford in their last ever fixture in 2008 winning 1-0 but they were hardly impressive. They have a knack of creating a lot of chances but have a big problem with converting them. They had a dozen or so clear cut chances against Middlesborough and missed all but one. J Park’s miss from 2 yards summed up their poor finishing.
Despite their poor performances they are still grinding out the right results and are currently third in the table and well in touch with those above providing they win their games in hand. Scoring away from home has been a concern this season with United scoring just nine on the road all season. That’s an average of 0.90 a game. Hardly Premiership winning material. They will be facing a far inferior side on Sunday though so they should enjoy themselves in front of goal. It could be a guessing game as to who will start up front with Carlos Tevez the more likely choice with Wayne Rooney probably settling for a place on the bench after he took a knock in the match with Middlesborough.

Match odds -
Southampton 10/1 Bet365
Draw 9/2 ToteSport
Manchester United 3/10 Coral

Prediction – Manchester United