Match Preview – Southampton v Brighton

Southampton – the club
While Gus Poyet kept banging on about the Albion hitting glass ceilings, it is in fact Southampton, the club that he laughably tried to portray as our arch rivals, who have done so. Bar Leicester’s freak title winning season, the Saints have consistently been the best of the rest outside of the top six without ever managing to break down the door. As a result, their best players frequently depart to Liverpool and their fans, clearly bored of finishing seventh or eighth every season, decided to liven things up by hounding Claude Puel (top 10 finish, Wembley Cup final, doing great work at Leicester now) out of the club. That stunning piece of judgement from the St Mary’s faithful has left them as one of only four teams below the Albion coming into this game, making it a huge fixture for both sides.

Southampton – the place
Southampton was where the unsinkable Titanic set sail from on its maiden voyage and it was the port where rats infested with the black plague first arrived in Britain on board merchant vessels. Apart from those two little indiscretions which cost the lives of millions of people, Southampton is the closest city to the New Forest and has not one, but two rivers – the Test and the Itchen which provide excellent fly fishing if you like that sort of thing.

Southampton – the people
The city has produced some of Britain’s finest musical acts including Craig David, David Craig, the drummer from Coldplay, Foxes (who I’ve never heard of but actually looks quite fit from her Wikipedia page) and Matt Cardle won won X Factor 10 years ago. Famous Southampton fans include glamour model Lucy Pinder, David Frost and Fiona Phillips.

A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton away
We’ve only won three times in 19 trips along the coast, the most recent of those coming in 2009 in Poyet’s first game in charge. Glenn Murray scored twice along with Andrew Crofts as the Albion shocked Southampton 3-1 in front of the Sky Cameras to move out of the League One relegation zone.

A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton away
Mauricio Taricco always managed to set a good example as player-assistant manager. He can’t have started more than 10 games for the club and yet managed to get sent off twice for dissent, the second of those red cards coming on our last visit to St Mary’s. Nigel Adkins’ promotion chasers won 3-0 and to top off a miserable day, we left the ground after an hour in favour of going to the pub. The extra 30 minutes drinking time proved disastrous for one member of the WeAreBrighton.com team who ended up being sick on the dance floor of West Street nightclub Pasha on our return home (the 15 other pints over the course of the day may not have helped).

Played for both
Dean Hammond and Dan Harding were two former Albion players who went onto become pantomime villains after moving to the Saints later in their careers. It’s easy to forget that Inigo Calderón almost joined them. Long before he became the most desirable man in Sussex, the Spanish right back turned down Brighton’s offer of a new contract at the end of the 2009-10 season in favour of moving on a free to Southampton. A week or so later he had a change of heart and the rest, as they say, is history.

Dangermen
If he fulfils his potential, then Nathan Redmond should be the next Southampton player to step up to the Saints parent club, Liverpool. Charlie Austin also has a ridiculously good scoring record against the Albion from his time at Swindon Town, Burnley and Queens Park Rangers.

Betting
He hadn’t been added to any anytime goalscorer books yet, but Leonardo Ulloa to mark his return with a goal would be a fairy tale. Luckily, the Argentinian specialises in those sorts of moments and can emulate his first debut for the club when he notched against Arsenal in the FA Cup five years ago.

Prediction
The game at the Amex finished 1-1 and in truth, both managers could’ve shaken hands on the draw as soon as Glenn Murray equalised early in the second half. Both will be desperate not to lose again and that makes another score draw the most likely option.