Match Preview: Brighton v Southampton

It’s hard to think of a more mind numbingly boring Carabao Cup draw for Brighton and Hove Albion than Southampton at home.

Both Chris Hughton and Mark Hughes will send out reserve sides. Even then, neither team will care if they lose the game. We’re playing the Saints in three weeks time in the Premier League anyway and to top it all off, you can’t even take a flask of coffee in to the Amex anymore.

The only thing going for it is that there are 15 loyalty points up for grabs, so if you’re one of those people who bleats on about it not being fair that you can’t get away tickets for Manchester United or Chelsea, then this is your chance to catch up.

If you can sit through 90 minutes of it, you’ll be well on your way to earning the right to visit Old Trafford.

Who are Southampton?
Southampton are, if you listen to the press, our South Coast rivals. Except of course we are 60 miles apart and the only person who was ever seen any sort of rivalry with them is Gus Poyet and his Jupiter-sized ego. Formed in 1885, their greatest moments have come when lifting the FA Cup in 1976 and when finishing second in the top flight in 1984. They’ve spent 33 of the last 40 seasons in the top flight, a remarkable record for a club who’ve never been particularly big in terms of size or expenditure.

What are they like now?
The Saints were regular top 10 finishers despite the fact they’d continually sell their best players every summer to either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur. This gave some of their supporters ideas above their stations and as a result, they hounded out Claude Puel last summer for “only” finishing eighth and reaching the League Cup final. That backfired spectacularly as they spent virtually all of last season in a relegation battle under Puel’s successor Mauricio Pellegrino and then his replacement Mark Hughes, who kept the Saints up on the final day of the season.

Which players should we be worried about?
There’s absolutely no point in pretending that we know anything about Southampton’s stiffs. A quick glance through their players who are yet to feature much in their three Premier League games so far suggest that highly rated goalkeeper Angus Gunn could make his Saints debut after signing for £10m from Manchester City in the summer. Charlie Austin was also on the bench in their weekend defeat to Leicester City and he’s normally good for a goal against the Albion.

What’s the Albion’s record against Southampton like?
There have been 93 previous meetings between the two sides with Brighton winning 30, 21 draws and Southampton winning 42. Only once have the Seagulls and the Saints ever clashed in the League Cup and that was also in the second round, although the abiding memory of that day isn’t the Saints 3-0 win at Withdean but that the Twin Towers had collapsed a few hours before kick off. Fingers crossed this one is remembered for something better than a terrorist attack.

What’s the best WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton at home?
The Saints visit to the Amex in January 2012 was pretty good. Brighton had just lost 2-0 at bottom of the Championship Coventry City without mustering a single shot on target while Southampton were well on course for back-to-back promotions. It looked like Nigel Adkins’ side would serve up a hammering but Poyet completely changed his side, starting Sexy Pete Brezovan, Matt Sparrow and Jake Forster-Caskey and the latter two were both on target, Sparrow twice, as Brighton won 3-0.

What’s the worst WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton at home?
Dean Hammond scoring at Withdean for the Saints and running the length of the South Stand celebrating was pretty bad. What made it even worse is that Lee Barnard added a last minute equaliser and we ended up spending a Thursday night in Oceana which is the last thing that anyone wanted at that stage of proceedings.

Whose played for both sides?
Hammond obviously managed to go from Brighton to Southampton and back to Brighton. Dan Harding was another former Albion youth player to end up at St Mary’s and his returns were always enjoyable as he just seemed to completely fall to pieces anytime he faced the Albion. It’s a little remembered fact that Inigo Calderón was also labelled a Judas for a few brief weeks at the end of the 2009-10 season when he agreed to walk out on the Albion to move to Southampton on a free. He soon had a change of heart however and the rest is history.

Other than football, what else is Southampton famous for?
It’s the gateway to both the New Forest and the ocean. Some fantastic maritime disasters have occurred out of the city with the Titanic setting sail for New York from its docks while the Mary Rose sank in the Solent. Among Southampton’s famous fans are Craig David or David Craig and Lucy Pinder, who rather unfortunately seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth since Lads Mags became a thing of the past.

Where’s the betting value for Brighton v Southampton?
Christ knows. History suggests that League Cup ties are always tight as neither side is bothered about winning, with the Albion’s two games in the completion ending in a 1-0 defeat and a 1-0 win over Plucky Little Bournemouth and Barnet respectively. Under 2.5 goals looks value while it has been confirmed by Chris Hughton that the Albion’s record signing Alireza Jahanbakhsh will be starting. He’s available at 3/1 to score anytime.

Prediction
Either a 1-0 Brighton win or a 1-0 Southampton. Either way, is anybody really that bothered?