The Saints Are Coming !

Like a lot of Blues, I was expecting to be having a football free weekend, as after all, it's the 4th round of the FA Cup, but amazingly our name is still in the hat; in fact, we're only four games away from the Cup Final !

City take on Southampton at Eastlands on Sunday with a 3pm kick off and it will NOT be televised live, so if you want to see it, you'll need to get yourself along to the ground.

The 3rd round against Sheffield Wednesday had a disappointing turnout of just 25,621, but I guess that's not a big surprise as it was televised and the Christmas / New Year fixtures have taken their toll on fans' finances and self-punishment thresholds.

As it's a Sunday kick-off, travelling away support will be a lot less than had it been a Saturday with a maximum of 3000 Saints expected to take the long haul up from the South Coast.

Bradley Wright-Phillips faces his former club for the first time, and he'll be trying his hardest to do an "Anelka" and prove a point by scoring against us. I would think BWP getting on the score sheet is an odds-on certainty like most City old boys. Similarly, City goalie coach, Tim Flowers , will I'm sure be looking forward to the visit of his former club and I would hope be wanting a City victory.

Apart from wanting to get to the next round anyway, City should be motivated by the fact it was Southampton who beat City at the last ever game at Maine Road, and I also seem to remember a dreadful game against them at Eastlands in the KK era, when we were just shockingly awful and Kevin Phillips and James Beattie combined to (deservedly) hammer us 3 -1.

Saints' teenage wonderkid and Rags target, Gareth Bale should be playing, so it'll be a chance to see how good he really is, although with our current blunted and toothless attack, he may have a quiet afternoon.

Make no mistake, it's going to be a tight game against an in-form team with an excellent manager, but the Cup is important for City and after last weekend's season low-point against Blackburn, I'm expecting the players to redeem themselves and give the blue half of the city something to cheer about.