Super Saints making their mark

admin

I was seven years old the last time Saints won at Old Trafford. 1988 was the year, Colin Clarke scoring both our goals.

Since then we’ve had a pretty awful record against United – both home and away. The well drilled Sir Alex Ferguson teams throughout the years, packed with individual qualities and playing at ‘fortress Old Trafford’ where away teams always seemed to start at least a goal down psychologically, seemed far too hot for Saints to handle.

But we’ve now only lost to them once in our last 4 league games – the 2-1 reverse at St Mary’s a month ago when, arguably, the better team lost. Whilst they are clearly a team in transition under Van Gaal it should still be seen as a decent record against one of the biggest names in world football.

The main thing for me is that, after a tough run of fixture when lots of people wrote us off beforehand, we’ve now drawn against Chelsea (which in itself felt like a victory) and beaten Arsenal and United.

These are games I think most Saints fans would generally write off at the start of the season with a “if we get anything from those it’ll be a bonus”. However the mindset now seems to be changing – especially within the Saints team and management.

When you see how Saints played against Arsenal (winning 2-0 but arguably it could have been even more) and United yesterday, showing the commitment and team spirit that they did to win at Old Trafford, you start to think that the players are now believing they can finish in a European spot (top six) this season, so maybe the fans should as well?

The question marks around Saints have always been about the size of our squad, its depth of quality if/when tested by injuries/suspensions, and I guess that will remain until the end of the season.

There is however no doubting that when we have our best XI on the pitch we are definitely a top Premier League side.

Due to the results we’ve picked up over the last few weeks you get the feeling that the fixture list now looks very favourable towards Saints. We still have to play Chelsea and Manchester City away but other than that there are no games that you would write off straight away (even Spurs and Liverpool will fear coming to St Mary’s I imagine).

So why can’t we push on for that European spot?

There’s a famous quote that says “the only thing stopping you from success is yourself”. If Ronald Koeman and his team, who deserve so much credit for where this team has got to, can maintain the squad through this transfer window and keep it believing in itself, then anything really is possible.

I’ve always been very proud to be a Southampton fan – ever since my first game watching them in 1985 – but when you get these results against the ‘big boys’ you can’t help but walk a little bit taller and a little bit prouder!

By Ben Stanfield, Fanzone’s Southampton Blogger. Follow him on Twitter @benstanners, and don’t forget to follow FanZone too.

Super Saints making their mark

admin

I was seven years old the last time Saints won at Old Trafford. 1988 was the year, Colin Clarke scoring both our goals.

Since then we’ve had a pretty awful record against United – both home and away. The well drilled Sir Alex Ferguson teams throughout the years, packed with individual qualities and playing at ‘fortress Old Trafford’ where away teams always seemed to start at least a goal down psychologically, seemed far too hot for Saints to handle.

But we’ve now only lost to them once in our last 4 league games – the 2-1 reverse at St Mary’s a month ago when, arguably, the better team lost. Whilst they are clearly a team in transition under Van Gaal it should still be seen as a decent record against one of the biggest names in world football.

The main thing for me is that, after a tough run of fixture when lots of people wrote us off beforehand, we’ve now drawn against Chelsea (which in itself felt like a victory) and beaten Arsenal and United.

These are games I think most Saints fans would generally write off at the start of the season with a “if we get anything from those it’ll be a bonus”. However the mindset now seems to be changing – especially within the Saints team and management.

When you see how Saints played against Arsenal (winning 2-0 but arguably it could have been even more) and United yesterday, showing the commitment and team spirit that they did to win at Old Trafford, you start to think that the players are now believing they can finish in a European spot (top six) this season, so maybe the fans should as well?

The question marks around Saints have always been about the size of our squad, its depth of quality if/when tested by injuries/suspensions, and I guess that will remain until the end of the season.

There is however no doubting that when we have our best XI on the pitch we are definitely a top Premier League side.

Due to the results we’ve picked up over the last few weeks you get the feeling that the fixture list now looks very favourable towards Saints. We still have to play Chelsea and Manchester City away but other than that there are no games that you would write off straight away (even Spurs and Liverpool will fear coming to St Mary’s I imagine).

So why can’t we push on for that European spot?

There’s a famous quote that says “the only thing stopping you from success is yourself”. If Ronald Koeman and his team, who deserve so much credit for where this team has got to, can maintain the squad through this transfer window and keep it believing in itself, then anything really is possible.

I’ve always been very proud to be a Southampton fan – ever since my first game watching them in 1985 – but when you get these results against the ‘big boys’ you can’t help but walk a little bit taller and a little bit prouder!

By Ben Stanfield, Fanzone’s Southampton Blogger. Follow him on Twitter @benstanners, and don’t forget to follow FanZone too.