Saints chances for next season

Last updated : 13 June 2002 By Christian Kelly
Saints start the 2002/03 campaign at home to Middlesbrough on August 17th. Its a good opportunity to start off with three points for a change and we should do better than the draw we got last season. The rest of August looks a bit tougher with games away to Liverpool, at home to Chelsea and our grudge match away at White Hart Lane. Although we lost to both Chelsea and Spurs at the start of last season last season, both games were under the charge of Stuart Gray. I can't see us being as bad this time round.

September looks a bit better for us. If we have managed to lose points in the first half home ties against Charlton and Everton should be winnable and we should get something from trips to West Brom and Bolton. Our win at the Reebok last year turned out to be or first points of the season so let's hope that doesn't happen again.

October sees newcomers Man City and Fulham come to St. Mary's. Again Saints should be favourites for both games and although we lost twice to Villa last season, our trip to Villa Park may prove profitable. After all Stuart Gray is there now. I just hope Allback doesn't get any goals.

Saints come up against some of the title contenders in November; away to both Newcastle and Man Utd and at home to Arsenal. Last time out we managed exactly zero points form those fixtures, but a home game against Blackburn on the 9th and a trip to Upton Park at the end of the month will hopefully give us something to cheer about.

Although we play Leeds and Chelsea away, either side of Christmas, we have three home games against Birmingham, Newcastle and Sunderland in December. We did get a great away win against Chelsea last season but I wouldn't get my hopes up of it happening twice. Chelsea are looking to strengthen considerably this summer. Of course they always do, so you never know. By this time, we'll have seen if Birmingham have anything to offer the Premiership. Hopefully not and Saints could stroll to a nice three points. Saints ended last season with a great win over Newcastle, and hopefully Sunderland will continue next season where they left off last; struggling.

The new year's day fixture sees us pitted against Spurs at St. Mary's, which will be a must for SKY I imagine. There's no love lost between the two and It's always nice to see Hoddle get beaten. Our foray into the FA Cup begins just three days later. I wonder which lower division outfit will beat us next season ? The month is rounded off with fixtures in which we did rather well last time. Liverpool at home (2-0), Middlesbrough at home (1-1 although we should have won) and Sunderland away (1-1).

To contrast with January, Saints didn't get a point in February's corresponding games last year. We got beaten by Man Utd at home 1-3, Blackburn away 0-2 and Everton away, again 0-2. So don't expect a great deal here.

Our first game of March should cheer us up as we take on West Brom at home. There's a two week break (unless we're miraculously still in the cup) before we face Fulham away (an annoying 1-2 defeat last season), and then take on Aston Villa at St. Mary's.

April is a mixed bag. We start with West Ham at home where we got a good 2-0 win last season, but it's followed by a trip to Highbury where I think we'll be lucky to get another draw. We travel to Birmingham next where hopefully we'll find them somewhere near the bottom of the table, and then finish the month with a tricky trip to face Charlton.

The season finishes off in May, with Southampton facing a couple of potential relegation candidates. Firstly we entertain (hopefully) Bolton at St. Mary's which was a goalless draw in 01/02. The finale of the season comes on May 11th 2003 when we travel to Maine Road to see how ex-Saint Kevin Keegan's attacking philosophies have taken him. A lot will depend on how badly our opponents need the points to avoid the drop as well as how much we can be bothered assuming that we have reached safety ourselves.

I hate to get optimistic as regular visitors are sure to know. However, looking at the list there really aren't too many clubs I dread coming up against. The fixtures are evenly spread in difficulty throughout the season. Although we did really well during our run of nightmare fixtures over Christmas last season, I doubt we'd do it twice. This time round we should never have to go too long without realistically expecting to get some points on the board.

Last season I said we'd finish eighth. That great prediction was promptly followed by three straight 2-0 defeats. Strachan came in to turn things round to make that prediction a real possibility with several games left. Of course the team executed their usual end of season slump and we had to jump a few places on the last day of the season to finish eleventh. The placing looks a lot more respectable than Saints performances did.

The squad we have shown that they are capable of finishing around twelfth. Strachan's influence should improve this somewhat but at our best I'd say that eighth is again a worthwhile target. I think Lowe's pipedreams of a UEFA Cup berth will remain just dreams without a bit of investment in the team.

Now normally I'd call the FA's attempts to charge for the publication of the fixture lists, insulting, draconian and puerile. However this season, spare a though for the money they have to earn from getting Wembley up and running. The FA needs every penny it can get, in order to meet the rapidly spiraling costs of this huge white elephant of a stadium.

How are they doing ? Re-read the insulting, draconian and puerile comment above, although it's probably a lot worse.

I'd give you a link from the FA site giving you the fixtures there, but I couldn't seem to find them past the bland, plastic marketing. Instead, go to the www.savethefixtures.org.uk site and sign the petition to get football back in the hands of the fans. I mean, the fixture list ?! It's pathetic.