Game week 27 and the first game away from home in 2026 that will see the City faithful hoof it, 260 miles, all the way down to the South Coast as we take on the red and white stripes of Southampton at the regulation kick of time of 3pm.

Both sides square up against each other with a 3rd round FA Cup win in their back pockets with City despatching Blackburn Rovers by the narrowest of margins thanks to a David Akintola winning penalty and the final kick of the game at the MKM on Sunday and Southampton also picked up a narrow win at Doncaster, managed by City’s Ex Boss, Grant McCann.

The Saints had the game put to bed at half time and went in for a break 3-0 to the good but a determined fightback by Rovers clawed back 2 goals which was too little too late and Tonda Eckert, the Red and White’s boss breathed a sigh of relief as the 4th round draw was secured with a 3-2 scoreline.

Tonda who has been in post since November 25 having overseen 14 EFL games boasts an impressive win ratio of 50% is struggling in the league of late seeing his side drop to 15th in the championship on 33 points with 3 losses and 3 draws in the last 6 games, the last loss being 10 days ago at The Riverside, which was a happy hunting ground for The Tigers but not so for The Saints who were soundly thrashed by The Smoggies 4-0.

City of course, fairing slightly better sat in 7th place with a game in hand but our surge into 2026 hit the rocks with a 1-0 home defeat to Stoke on New Year’s Day then of course we had “Icegate” that saw our game with Watford unceremoniously called off with just 18 minutes to kick off and as such, the side has not had a proper league run out in 2 weeks barring a lacklustre trot about in the FA Cup 3rd round.

Injuries galore for City, which was 9 players in total at the last count and the headache for Sergej grows as he navigates his way through juggling line ups with team shapes, best suited to the players who are still fit. Two bonuses for me are the return of Jacob from Reading who can nicely slot into the LB position if Giles is still out and I really like the look of McCarthy who seems to get better every time he puts his boots on.

A worrying miss could be Drameh who I saw limping about most of the second half against Blackburn but played through it until the limp turned into a hobble and then a painful exit as a 111th minute substitute which I expected sooner rather than later. Same goes for Crooks who came off during the warm up and Gyabi who was subbed after a clash just 11 minutes into the first half.

For this game I would be looking back to how we went to Boro. Set up 3-5-2 and out powered the midfield with Coyle and Giles pushing up on the wings in front of the back three and Crooks Slater & Gyabi flooding the central area, we choked Boro out of possession. But this time we’ll have Oli back as well so no need to waste Ndala up top.

Avoid the Stoke set up. 4-2-3-1 just left a big hole in the middle of the Park which Rigo took command of as Slater & Crooks were muscled out as we saw 5 reduced to 2 from one game to the next.

Saints like to play 3-4-2-1 so In my opinion the most dominant and populated midfield will take the points.

Score prediction. Saints 1 – Tigers 2.

Line up. (If fit)

Pandur

Hughes – Egan – Famewo
Coyle – Slater – Palmer – Crooks – Millar.
McBurnie – Jospeph.

Last 5 results V Southampton. WWLDW.

Player Share. Shane Long. Best bit of business City has ever done. Bought from WBA for £6M Jan 2014. Sold in August the same year to Southampton for £12M. Just 191 days and we made £6M

17 games, 4 goals. UTT.